Digimon Adventure 05
by YukiraKing
Summary: The final instalment of the Digimon Adventure trilogy. New foes have come to light, and the digidestined must once again work to save the Digital World, but this time they won't be working alone. Twists and characters unlike anything we've done before, you'll be holding on for the ride as we work towards peace for digimon and mankind alike.
1. New Beginnings

**Y/N:** This is it: Digimon Adventure 05. We're in for another long, winding story, and we hope you're up for the ride. I've had a lot of fun writing arc one of this story, and we're about half-way through arc two right now. So we'll be working like crazy to get this story done, so we won't be too far behind on updating, like last time.

Just a quick reminder, I am Taichi, Koushiro, Mimi, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken. I am also going to be Rei, Jun, Momoe, Natsuni, Yoshie, and Kae. And, I'm also two new characters, but I won't give away their names just yet. It's part of the mystery. This chapter has cute moments, and sad moments and happy moments. It's a mini-rollercoaster of its own. Please enjoy, and review to let us know what you think of our opening act!

**U/N:** Kay, so I rewatched season 1 and 2 of digimon now, and I have to say... my views on a lot of the characters have changed. I figure I'll just run it down so you know why I've done certain things if i do them... Izzy, and Tai are the bane of the Digital Universe. Sora is super boring... Matt and Jou are wonderful, Tk, Kari and Mimi are all amazing but annoying... Yolei, Cody, and Davis and even Ken all have no real... place in my rankings. They change so often.

But I finally think I might be on the road to shipping Sorato. I ship Miyako with Daisuke, and Jyoumi which you should all already know. So in my chapters there will be those three shipped together as friends, but not necessarily romantic, so just don't get ideas off the bat if they have cute moments... :P

-Koumi is nothing. There are no Koumi scenes ever, and in 02 he even says "Hey, doesn't Mimi live in America?" He doesn't even know where she is! Just... I can't handle them, so if I ignore their relationship (which I haven't so far) they're not going through drama, I'm just not in the mood.

Anyway, 05 is rather dramatic and exciting, but more importantly it's so packed with story lines for all the Digidestined and even their digimon ! :D Except Veemon... well, he will, we just haven't thought of one yet...

Once more...

I'm Yamato, Sora, Jou, Takeru, Hikari, Willis, Michael, Kurayami, Yuuko, Natuko, Satoe, Isao, Hiroaki, Tatum, Kurayami's dad and Willis' friend who you don't know yet.

I hope this lives up the the expectations and waiting... so enjoy, and review :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 1: New Beginnings**

_**Ken:**_

As a group, we weren't seeing each other as much as we'd have liked. Life kept getting in the way. Our various schools had us being pulled in so many different directions, putting us in different cities. It wasn't as convenient to meet as it was when we were younger.

And this was _not_ the way I'd expected our next group meeting to go.

Everyone was dressed in black, trying to convey our support and strength for Iori as he struggled passed this unfortunate development.

We were standing in the snow, but we wouldn't let the cold, bitter wind affect us. We couldn't complain about the trivialness of it all. We were here for a more important reason. I could see my breath as I stood at attention, my wife at my side. Everyone was silent, except for the occasional sobbing, and the words of the minister.

I hated funerals.

I also had a hard time crying at them. I'd been to quite a few, and the only one I'd ever shed a tear at was my first, my brother's. Personally, I thought I'd blocked the memories of that day from my mind, holding onto the guilt for so long, that I just wasn't able to cry at them, I made myself numb instead. It didn't make me feel any less awful that I couldn't show that emotion. I didn't want Iori to think I didn't care. Because I did. I cared a lot. I'd spent a lot of time around that man while I was growing up. He taught me a lot without having to say anything to me. Mr Hida was a brilliant man, and I could only feel as though I'd not done enough for him, not spent enough time learning from him to make myself a better man.

I couldn't do that anymore. I'd run out of time. He wouldn't be passing on any more of that wisdom to me. I could only imagine how hard Iori was taking this.

His grandfather was his source of wisdom, the reason he was such an outstandingly moral being. He didn't lie, he didn't cheat, he _never_ broke a promise… I was sure it was because of Mr Hida. You could just _feel_ when he was disappointed by you, simply from the feel of his glance. He never even glared—I wasn't sure where Iori picked up that nasty habit from—just looked at you, and you felt like you'd just kicked a puppy or something equally unforgiveable.

I'd done that once…kicked a puppy. So I knew what it felt like.

Iori was standing tall though. I could see he was straining himself, _forcing_ himself to do so. He didn't want to look weak, for his mother's sake. She was falling to pieces beside him. But he didn't reach out to her, didn't comfort her. He couldn't. His hands were in fists by his side, shaking with the emotion he was desperately trying to repress. His little brother—who had reverted back to his rookie form some time after hearing the news—Meiyomon was on his other side, sitting on the ground openly sobbing as his grandfather's casket was lowered into the ground. Kotemon, Mr Hida's own digimon partner was silent. He had one hand crossed over his chest, a sign of respect for his fallen partner. I felt horrible for the poor digimon, who'd spent most of his existence waiting for Mr Hida to come along, only to have him taken from him after such a short time. Armadillomon was next to him, looking to Iori, desperate to help him, but didn't know how. A pair of Numemon was also present. It seemed as if they cared a great deal for the old man, despite only meeting him once.

We—as Iori's friends—were standing behind them. Miyako, my beautiful wife, was at my side, sniffling as she tried to be strong for Iori. Mimi and Koushiro were to my other side, and beyond Miyako stood Hikari, Kurayami—who'd gone above and beyond to help Iori during his grandfather's stay in the hospital—Daisuke and Takeru. Both boys opted to remove their headwear for the occasion. Jou wasn't far either, but he was standing alone, as Momoe had to take Emiko away. She'd been too confused, kept asking questions in her own gibberish way, and they didn't want her to disrupt the ceremony. She was too young to understand.

My in-laws were there as well, as Mr Hida had been such a dedicated customer for so many years. Iori's friend, Natsuni, was opposite to Iori. Her cheeks were stained with tears as well, but she held her head high, not looking away from Iori, determined to hold strong for him.

And then it was over.

Mr Hida was gone, his casket was in the ground, and the first of the dirt was thrown down on top of it. The guests threw roses in as they departed, sending their last wishes with Mr Hida, and holding on to their memories of him.

I reached down to take my wife's hand, but she pulled away quickly. She pulled on her sleeves, and held her own rose tightly to her chest. I sighed. She'd been doing that a lot lately. I didn't dwell on it then, however. I had to pay my respects to Mr Hida. Instead, I put my arm around her shoulders, letting her lean into me as she cried.

"We should go after Iori," Miyako whispered as she threw her rose into the grave.

"He's over there," I motioned, pointing to Iori, who seemed to be deflecting any and all of the guests who went over to greet him.

"Come on then," Miyako said firmly, stalking away from me. I sighed but followed after her.

"I have to go home now, Iori," Natsuni was telling him. "I want to stay, really I do. But Mother is being insistent. I can't miss my lessons even for something as important as this."

"I understand, I'll be fine," Iori murmured. "Just…"

"I'll call you later," she promised, knowing what he was trying to say. "Good-bye Iori."

She nodded to us as she passed by. Miyako reached out to Iori's shoulder. He jumped and turned around immediately. She snatched her arm away again, cradling it to her chest.

"Iori," Miyako started.

"Hello," he said stiffly. He didn't meet our eyes. He was still trying to hide his emotions. I could understand that. I nodded my greeting to him.

"I wanted to know if there was anything we could do," Miyako asked hesitantly.

"Not really," he said dully. "There's nothing to be done. Everything's been taken care of."

"Not you," she insisted.

"I'm fine," he said, but shook his head. He couldn't lie and he knew it. "I _will be_ fine. I just have to get there."

He looked around and found something that caught his eye.

"I can't believe her," he groaned. I turned to see his mother being comforted by her friends…while Meiyomon—her adopted digi-son—still sat on the ground in tears. "I have to go help Meiyomon. He's taking harder than me even. He doesn't understand why he's not coming back. He's a digimon, it's confusing him."

"Do you want us to try and talk to him?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I have to do it."

"Okay," Miyako said. "Call us if you think of anything. I don't want you to feel alone. I'll be right over day or night."

He finally met her eye. "Thanks."

"I promise," Miyako whispered.

I heard him mutter to Meiyomon. "Do you…want to go to the, uh, dojo Meiyomon?"

"Grandpa called me Meiyo," he whimpered.

"Do you, err, want me to call you that too?" Iori asked awkwardly.

"Uh-huh," Meiyomon said crying. "I miss him."

"I miss him too," Iori told him. "I always will. But he's with Dad now. He's still watching over us. He will always watch over us, so we're never alone. He's with his son. He's missed his son for a very long time. It will be good for him to see him again. Someday, I'll be able to meet him again too. But that won't be for a very long time."

"But I won't," Meiyomon cried.

"But you will keep his memory alive forever," Iori told him softly. "Through your actions for the Digital World. Be the best digimon you can be, because he's watching you, and I know you'll make him proud."

"How do you know?" Meiyomon asked.

"Because Grandpa told me the same thing about my dad when he died," Iori said, his voice wavering a little bit. "And then he took me to the dojo. So that's what I'm going to do. Go find Kotemon, he's wandered off somewhere. We're going to bring him with us, and do something that Grandpa loved to do, okay?"

"Okay," Meiyomon said, his tears lessening. "I'll get Armadillomon and Huh and Yuck too."

"He's going to be okay, right?" Miyako questioned at my side, clearly having seen the same scene I did.

"He will be," a woman said from behind us. She wore a black skirt and blazer, but the light green blouse revealed her identity to me. She was the Queen, the _Fairy_ Queen that Iori had saved. "He simply needs time to land on his feet again. I had hoped I would not see him in the same position again so soon. But he has grown so much. He knows not to fear death, but to see it as a natural transition. He is not angered by this death as he was his father's. He is wounded, yes, but he's forgiven his Grandfather for leaving him. He's grown into a fine man."

"He has, hasn't he," I agreed, looking at Iori as he pulled Meiyomon into his arms and carried him out of the cemetery, with Kotemon following behind him. He cast one distained look in his mother's direction, before going.

I looked to the Queen again, but found that she'd vanished. I sighed. "What do you want to do now?"

"Can we go home?" Miyako asked in a small, defeated voice.

"Of course we can," I told her, leading her to our car, preparing for the long ride back to our little apartment.

_**Takeru:**_

I was standing in the cold, on the verge of shivering as the moon and stars shone above me. I slowly raised my hand to knock on the wooden door in front of me, but I stopped myself. Was I really ready to go see him? I looked up slowly to the name plate on the door.

'Michel Takaishi'

I hadn't seen him in years... and I was fairly certain he didn't overly like me anyway. I mean, just after I was born he'd moved here. To France. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried again to knock, but found myself unable to. I spun around and fell into a sitting position in the snow that had piled up on his doorstep. I threw my hands over my head and bit my lip. I couldn't just walk in there... he didn't even know I was coming—what if he wasn't home? Well he was. His light was on. I could see it. Perhaps Mom called him—she'd been pretty excited to hear the news that I wanted to visit him...

Maybe she just wanted me out of the house... Which I knew wasn't true at all. She wouldn't want me gone because then she'd probably assume I'd left her—just like Yamato had. But he hadn't just picked up and left—she just saw it that way... I think. I mean he was avoiding her all the time, and never coming home from school on holidays, and now that he'd gotten his Master's in whatever it is, he'd been spending all his time becoming a certified jet pilot. I figured the reason he wasn't coming home even now was because he wanted to stop focussing so much on Sora, and instead pay attention to the rest of his life, which I understood, I wanted to pick up and leave too—just to get away from Hikari for a bit... I'd been so sure I was over her, but I was wrong—anyway, I'd tell Mom that Yamato was just busy, and that he sends his love—even though he'd never actually said anything... I wondered why that was for sure, but I figured I'd just stick with my Sora theory.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and turned to look back at the sign on the door. I'd have to do it eventually. It wasn't such a big deal—I'd lived with the man for two years for goodness sakes! And as Patamon had told me just before my flight left, _"He's your Grandfather Takeru. He loves you."_ All I had to do... was knock on the door...

"Takeru?"

I turned around quickly, losing my footing on the ice built up on the step. I caught my balance on the metal railing and felt my face turn red at the sight of the giggling girl at the bottom of the stairs. Her long blonde hair fell in spiralling curls, draping over her shoulders. She wore a green dress covered by a red woollen coat. In her hands, clamped under her heavy mittens was a leash which lead to a small furry dog.

"C-Catherine?" I stuttered as she smiled up at me with her big blue eyes. She nodded and waved lightly. "What are you doing here?" I asked her with a smile on my face, steadying myself, using the railing and hurrying down the steps to greet her. As I stepped onto the pavement I lost my footing once more and found myself falling into a pile of snow. Catherine began to laugh again as the wet snow soaked through my pants. I smiled with her as she reached to help me up.

"Well what are _you_ doing down _zere_?" She asked me with her thick French accent. I laughed with her for a moment. "I'm just walking my dog, Pétales." She said with a wink toward her dog who sat very still panting excitedly about the walk. "What are you doing 'ere?" She asked me.

"I came to visit my Grandfather." I told her with a smile.

"Oh zat is very sweet of you," She said. She smiled brightly at me revealing her perfectly in line shining white teeth which had previously been covered by her full red lips. Her skin was perfect too... so pale, and smooth. "Takeru?" I jumped at the sound of my name and smiled sheepishly. She smiled with me again, "Would you like to come on our walk with us? It will be fun!"

"Sure—yeah." I nodded foolishly, literally stunned by how pretty she was. She nodded and quickly set off down the sidewalk as she had started walking already.

"So what makes you want to visit your Grandfather?" She asked simply as she walked with a little skip in her step.

"Well..." I trailed off for a moment before coming back to reality. "You see... My friend's Grandfather died recently—last week actually and... And the only words I managed to get him to tell me were pretty... sad to say the least. _'I will never see him again. Honestly... I regret not spending more time with him.'_ Which I thought was pretty strange due to the fact that he spent almost all of his free time with him... But it made me want to see my own Grandpa."

Catherine nodded slowly. "I am very sorry to 'ear about your friend's Grandfather. Please send 'im my regards."

"And his funeral was on Christmas Eve, of all days..."

"Zat is 'orrible!" Catherine said quickly, her face falling into a beautiful pout, as her eyebrows raised and her eyes filled with sadness, "I'm so sorry to 'ear zat." I nodded and then the two of us walked in silence for a bit. I thought about Iori, and how I had gone to talk to him, noticing him sitting by himself a few days after the funeral. He'd practically screamed at me... he could be pretty scary if he wanted to... and apparently he did want that... "So where is Patamon?" Catherine asked, her sudden smile pushing away all bad thoughts.

"That's a long story." I told her slowly. And it was, but I figured she wouldn't want to listen to me rant about every detail to the battle against Fanglongmon... "When the Digital World and the Human world combined a few years back—"

"Zat was you who did zat?" She squeaked with excitement, "You got me my Floramon back! Thank you Takeru!" She was suddenly hugging me tightly, as Petals... or however she pronounced it, grew slightly more impatient.

"Well it wasn't exactly me..." I told her, "It was kind of an accident... but you're welcome all the same." She smiled anyway and we started walking again, "Anyway, when we forced the worlds to split up again one of the requirements was that we'd have to keep a perfect balance. And that means that Patamon can't come out of the Digital World for long periods of time—or the balance will be shifted again. We'd had a close call a year ago with Daisuke and Veemon and it's really funny—but you probably don't want to hear about that." I let my mood fall quickly but Catherine was still smiling.

"No, please!" She said, egging me on, waiting for the story. My mood practically inflated and I found myself actually smiling—something I hadn't done in a long time as I told her the whole story about how Daisuke and Veemon were playing hide and seek together, but Veemon had fallen asleep and the sun was nearly setting. And when Daisuke finally found him he practically had to throw him back into the digital world... it was funny that we'd almost upset the balance of all the worlds with hide and seek... Catherine laughed and seemed genuinely interested the whole conversation, and I couldn't help but feel... happy.

Soon Catherine and I had found a quiet place, and sat down on a bench as she let Petals run free in the park.

"It sounds like you and your friends 'ave lot's of fun with your digimon." Catherine said with a smile, "I wish for other Chosen Children to live around 'ere."

"You should come visit us sometimes!" I said suddenly, plucking the idea from somewhere I hadn't located yet, "Through the digital world of course, it saves a lot of money on travelling." I laughed a little and she nodded.

"I could do zat?" She asked, "You would all like that?"

"I think we would all like that very much." I told her. "Though you'd have to be careful. And not just of the imminent danger that seems to be waiting around every turn for the group of us, but carful of my brother. He's searching the world for a new girlfriend—you might be his next victim." Catherine laughed and again I finally felt as if someone was actually caring about what I said. I guess that's what I got for hanging out with a bunch of couples. Everyone was happily paired up lately... Yamato had been with a new girl every week getting over Sora, Koushiro and Mimi had been dating for three years now—I was pretty sure Jou and Momoe were talking about marriage—Ken and Miyako _were_ married, Daisuke and Kurayami were in a relationship, and even Iori had managed to get a girlfriend before me. Of course there was Hikari and Willis too—but I didn't hang out with them much, or like to think about that couple. I mean I always hung out with Hikari—I couldn't let a chance escape me, she was my best friend after all. But for eighteen months and twelve days they'd been on and off, having broken up six times, and gotten back together, unfortunately, the same amount of times.

"So what do you do now that you're not in school—or are you in school?" She asked, quickly taking her statement back, afraid I'd failed or something.

I shook my head, "I'm taking some creative writing courses at a college near my parents house, and I'm thinking about switching over to some sort of teaching classes because I already know how to write—I don't need classes for it. I've actually written a book. The problem is that I don't know how to publish it."

"You've written a book?" Catherine asked excitedly, "May I read it?"

"I don't actually... have it on me." I told her with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, right..." She blushed slightly but then turned to me, "My father's friend works at a novel publishing company. Perhaps I could show 'im your book and hope for him to publish it?"

"That would be _amazing_!" I smiled at her, "I could just... send it to you through email?"

"Or I could come visit like you say." She said, "And you could give me the writings zere?"

"Oui!" I felt my face turn red as I nodded, "I'd like that a lot." She smiled at me before turning to find her dog.

"Oh non..." She said, jumping to her feet "Merde..." The way she said it made me _sure_ that it wasn't a very nice word. I stood up quickly and looked around for Petals, but he was completely out of sight. "Zis is why I always bring Floramon on walks with Petals—'e is such a 'appy puppy and she is so good at catching 'im."

"Where is Floramon?" I asked her.

"Baking cookies." She said as if it were a rather amusing statement. I chuckled a little as I thought of Patamon baking, realizing where the humour was.

"I'll find Petals." I told her with a smile.

"Pétales," She corrected with a wink, "Would you do that?"

"Absolutely!" I told her with a grin. And so I set off quickly in search of her puppy. The concept wasn't hard—it was nearing upon the end of December and the ground was covered in snow so the dog left footprints. The problem was that I was following them in circles which Catherine found to be very funny. Eventually though, I found that the footprints led under the playground set, so I fell to my hands and knees and found that he was right there, his butt held high in the air, his tail wagging excitedly. I reached forward slowly, "Here Petals..." I said in a whisper, my hand over top of the dog ready to retrieve it. Petals barked playfully and then set off at run under the playground. I groaned and started crawling after him as fast as I could as he ran in circles around me. I ducked quickly, almost hitting my head on a support beam. Finally though I had chased him out of the playground and was able to run on two feet, but the puppy was faster than me, even though it had to jump with each step because of the snow was so deep.

"Petals!" I shouted with slight frustration, trying to corner him. Petals ran straight through my legs and toward Catherine, leaping into her arms. I rolled my eyes and hurried over to her. She laughed at me, and helped wipe the snow off of me.

"Thank you very much," Catherine said as she locked eyes with me. We stared for a moment before she turned, motioning for me to follow her, "Shall we go 'ome then?" I nodded as she set Petals on the ground, and clipping his leash back onto his collar. We walked in silence for most of the way, both of us smiling as I took glances over toward her, catching her doing the same at least three times. Eventually though she spoke up. "Are you enjoying your stay at your Grandfather's?"

"I actually haven't... gone into his house yet." I admitted. "I'm a little nervous. I don't know... if he wants me there."

"Vous ne saves jamais si vous essayez." She said quickly. She looked at me with a grin, clear that she knew I had no clue what she had said, "It is what my Grandmother always says. You never know unless you try." She translated.

I nodded. "You're right..." I said slowly as we slowed to a stop in front of my Grandfather's house. I looked nervously to the door.

"'Ow long are you staying?" She questioned, looking away, pretending she didn't care too much about the answer.

"As long as I'd like." I said, "Well, until school starts up again anyway." She turned to me with a small smile and nodded. "Perhaps we could see each other again?"

"Oui!" She said with a clap of her hands. "I would like that!"

I turned from her giving her one last smile and hurried up the stairs, using the railing to be sure I wasn't falling.

"Adieu Takeru," She said to me, "Bonne Chance!"

"B-bye..." I told her over my shoulder before turning back to the door and knocking quickly. Soon the door was pulled open by a very tired looking elderly man whose face lit up at the sight of me, relief washing over me. He reached forward and pulled me toward him to hug me. "Grandpa!" I gasped as he hugged me surprisingly tight.

"Takeru! What are you doing here?" He asked me.

"I'm here to visit you," I told him as he released me from his grip.

"Where are your things?" He asked me, looking around me in confusion.

"Oh Patamon's watching them in the digital world because I didn't want to drag them through France." I told him. "I'll go get them soon."

"Wonderful!" He said while smiling, his face wrinkling, "Come in boy, come in!" He quickly ushered me inside making me feel completely foolish for having thought that he wouldn't want to see me. I'd have to make a habit of coming here more often. If not for my Grandfather... then for Catherine.

_**Jou:**_

"So we're just waiting on Michael," Taichi said, standing on a chair and counting heads, "Typical. He's always so much later than everyone else."

"He lives in a different country Taichi." Sora pointed out. "And stop treating this like one of your meetings. Because it isn't one."

Taichi had declared that once a week we would all gather in whatever place would hold us all and we'd talk about not only our lives, but the fate of the worlds. It was getting fairly repetitive as of late due to the fact that nothing crucial was happening anywhere. But this wasn't one of those meetings, this was a party. We were standing in a building that I'd been in a lot lately—one that I'd been helping Mimi fix up to prepare for opening. Her new restaurant that she'd be opening at the start of the new year. So, tomorrow. The floor was tiled with white and black tiles, there were six red seated stools by the wooden counter and the walls were all made of wood. There were many tables scattered across the floor, and the one where I knew we would all be sitting a lot was a large corner seated bench. It looked fairly legitimate to me, and I was really proud of Mimi for getting it started. If only she had a menu...

Taichi hopped off the chair and patted Sora on the head, "I like my meetings."

"I like them too," Sora nodded, though it was clear that she was lying. The two of them moved to sit next to Koushiro and Mimi who were adorably whispering to one another. Rei was there too, in her wheelchair. Taichi had invited her, and I thought that was nice, though I didn't really know her well. She wheeled closer to Taichi and stopped at the table.

Willis was sitting with Miyako, the two of them were talking quietly as well, though it was not nearly as adorable as Koushiro and Mimi, likely because they weren't together and weren't trying to make it adorable. Ken was sitting nearby, but not making any effort to join the conversation.

Iori was also there, but sitting away from everyone else with Natsuni and Goblimon, none of them were talking, but instead just sitting, and I knew Iori was thinking of his Grandfather. Momoe was standing next to me, her hand wrapped around mine as she leaned against me slightly, and our baby... Emiko—she was the life of the party. She was standing on a nearby table, dancing a little as she showed her new friends how she could do the itsy-bitsy spider routine. Bearmon was right there watching her, he could never get away—he was her teddy bear. Momoe read that kids her age needed a blanket or a teddy bear to give them comfort to get used to new situations. So apparently that was normal.

Daisuke, Hikari, Takeru, Kurayami were all sitting around her and clapping and laughing with her as she showed them her tricks. She was so cute. I was pretty sure no one else had ever been as cute as her. Ever. Her thin brown hair was tied into two pigtails using blue ribbons, and she was wearing a bright pink dress that Mimi had been so kind to purchase for her.

"You didn't do that right." Daisuke said flatly. Everyone stopped clapping and talking and turned to him as he pointed to Emiko, "I mean, I think. It's hard to tell I can't really understand you..."

Emiko's face screwed up as she began to smack Daisuke's head repetitively. At first I found myself forcing back laughter but I ran forward quickly and scooped her off of the table and into my arms.

"Emiko, do you think that was nice?" I asked her. She shook her head, "What do you think you could have done instead?"

"Not hit him." She said, a little upset.

"That's right." I told her, "Now apologize okay?"

"Why?"

I groaned, not this again, "Because it's the polite thing to do."

"What?"

"Polite means that you do the right thing." I explained.

"Why?"

"Because that's what it means." I said.

"How?"

I gritted my teeth slightly and exhaled deeply. "Emiko sweetheart, when we do something that's mean we apologize. That's how we make sure we're doing what's right, and becoming a good person."

"Okay." She said with a smile, looking up at me with her big brown eyes. "Sorry Daddy."

"To Daisuke." I told her with a wink. She giggled and turned to Daisuke and bowed her head slightly as she apologized.

"It's okay," Daisuke said smiling.

"See?" I prodded, "He's happy! That must mean you're doing something right."

I set her down swiftly where she hurried over to her table. Momoe placed her hand on my shoulder and smiled at me as the door flung open dramatically.

"We're here!" Michael said, his arms flinging out in a pose as Tatum hurried in behind him, smiling foolishly. "Bet you all missed us right?"

"Obviously," Tatum answered, "They love us! I'm smart. And you..."

"I keep it real. And I'm hilarious." Michael laughed as he leapt into the room, flipping his scarf over his shoulder.

"Now that we're all here let's start my meeting." Taichi said loudly.

"Taichi," Mimi groaned exuding the same emotion I was sure that everyone felt.

"Way to kill the mood." Michael said.

"It's important." Taichi begged, "Please! I'll just take like... seven minutes. Then we can go back to celebrating the New Year."

Everyone looked to one another as Koushiro and I shrugged to one another. "Fine." A group of us said as one.

Momoe sighed next to me, "Tell me when it's overy, okay?" She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek before heading off to get Emiko. Tatum followed her quickly as the three girls sat near Natsuni who patted Iori on the shoulder gently, prompting him to stand up and walk toward us all, sliding his feet across the ground the whole way. He fell into a seat near me, so I sat next to him, smiling at him.

"So what's so important, oh brilliant Taichi?" Yamato joked receiving a glare from Taichi himself.

"Well if you don't want to hear it, then fine." Taichi pouted, crossing his arms.

"Great!" Daisuke grinned, "Then let's party!"

"No!" Taichi shot quickly, "I wasn't actually giving you an option—just listen." There was a moment of silence as Taichi built up the suspense, walking out in front of us all. "I need your help. Usually when something goes... what's that word you use all the time Koushiro?"

"Prodigious?" Mimi asked.

"Awry." Koushiro filled in quickly, causing Mimi's face to flush quickly.

"When something goes awry," Taichi said pointing to Koushiro, thanking him for the help, "Me and my elite team of awesome go in and save the day." Taichi really wasted no time informing us all that he was the Ambassador of the Digital World. He not only stood as a representative for the Digital World, but apparently he stood as the leader of some team of... Digi-Police kind of. "But I've promised them that until I know any more about the 'terrorists' as we've taken to calling them, that I won't do anything rash."

"So you want... _us_ to do the rash thinking?" Hikari asked raising her eyebrows in disbelief.

"That sounds like Taichi." Takeru said laughing at Taichi who twisted his face slightly.

"Not exactly." Taichi said, "That would be dangerous—I want you all to do something much less dangerous. I just want you to find out more information about the Terrorists so that _I_ can once again do the rash actions."

"Of course," Hikari said sarcastically, "How could I not have seen that?" Everyone laughed with her.

"Laugh all you want." Taichi groaned, "But I'm serious, although I don't really have any leads. I just want you to keep your eyes open."

"If you don't have any leads, then what are we keeping our eyes open for?" Ken asked. "How do you even know there are terrorists?"

"Digimon have been acting out of the ordinary all over the Digital World." Koushiro explained, drawing everyone's attention away from Taichi.

"How do you know that?" I asked him.

"That's a long story." Koushiro said, hiding his face as Taichi laughed, but neither explained. It sort of bothered me because the reason we were having these meetings at all was because Willis had complained about not knowing anything because no one shared anything—and now, in the meeting for sharing knowledge they were keeping things from us.

"Out of the ordinary?" Willis asked, still sitting next to Miyako, "How so?"

"Kind digimon are destroying things." Koushiro said.

"It's similar to the black gears from Devimon."

"Or the Dark Spirals from—" Hikari started before freezing and staring toward Ken.

"Me." He said slowly, creating a moment of silence.

"So, you're going to go beat some digimon butt?" Rei asked.

"No!" Taichi said very seriously. "Leave the digimon to me. One of my coworkers have made an antidote of sorts that can put the evil to sleep, so they can return to normal life. I just want you all to help me find some evidence. Who is doing this? Why are they doing this?"

"Okay, we promise." Sora said. Taichi flashed her a smile which caused her face to turn red and forced Yamato to move uncomfortably in his seat.

"Good." Taichi said, sitting back down between Sora and Rei. "So does anyone have anything interesting coming up?"

No one spoke up for a bit, but Momoe looked to me from across the room and I knew she was eavesdropping as Natsuni and Tatum talked in whispers. I knew she what she was hoping for, what she wanted me to say... but I wasn't ready. Marriage was a big step, and even though we had a daughter, I could honestly say that I wasn't ready to get married. Not to say that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with Momoe...

"Sora's got something big coming up." Yamato spoke up suddenly.

"W-what?" Sora stuttered.

"Your one year anniversary!" Mimi prodded, poking Sora's shoulder with a grin.

"With Neo Saiba?" Koushiro laughed as if Sora had forgotten. Sora's face turned red as Taichi, Rei and Yamato all rolled their eyes in discomfort. Neo Saiba was a man that Sora had been dating for nearly a year, obviously. He was pretty nice the only time I'd ever met him, and was Taichi's friend Rei's brother, and I honestly didn't see a problem with her dating him other than Taichi and Yamato both being incredulously upset by this. But neither could really be upset—both of them walked away from her.

"It's been a year already?" Hikari asked excitedly.

"And he's not even evil yet." Taichi joked. Sora glared at him as he laughed at his long running joke of Sora turning all of her boyfriends evil. Starting with Taichi treating Hikari poorly, and then Yamato who joined the dark-side and then Kiyoshi, turning from a very nice boy to someone who would cheat on her.

"I'm going to go get food from the kitchen!" Mimi said suddenly preventing an argument from occurring, and rushing off, dragging Sora with her to help her carry the food.

I turned to Iori who was fidgeting next to me. I patted him on the shoulder and he looked up to me in surprise. I smiled as comfortingly toward him as I could, but he just stared for a moment before letting his head fall again.

"Did Meiyomon not want to come?" I asked him, trying to get his mind off of his Grandfather.

But I failed. "Meiyomon can't stop crying." Iori said flatly before standing and walking off.

"Iori!" I called after him, but he didn't stop. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Momoe.

"There's nothing you can do Jou," She said to me quietly, "Natsuni says he just needs time, and I think she's right. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"Are you telling him not to try?" Miyako shot, suddenly standing at our table, "Iori needs people to be there for him. He always has—ever since he was a little boy. And I'm going to be there for him. He's like a brother to me. Or a nephew."

"Why can't you be there for Emiko then too?" Momoe asked as nicely as possible. "Just babysit her?"

"No." Miyako said flatly. I knew she was still upset with Momoe, and I wasn't one hundred percent sure about the reasoning behind it all, but I knew that Miyako wasn't referring to this argument with the simplicity of her answer. She was scared.

"Why not?" Momoe asked, clearly not seeing the same emotions in her sister as I had.

"I just can't!" Miyako said loudly, slamming her fist down onto the table revealing her to be wearing a black glove.

"Miyako?" Momoe asked slowly causing Miyako to turn and run after Iori. "Miyako..." Momoe said under her breathe.

_**Hikari:**_

"So how was France?" I asked Takeru as the others began to talk and stir again after Taichi's meeting.

"It was _great_." Takeru said quickly, spinning toward me with a giant grin on his face, "I had a really great time!"

"You didn't stay for too long," I pointed out, seeing clearly that he wasn't telling me all there was to know.

"I'm going back after tonight until school starts up again." He said quickly, his excitement rising even more.

"What's so great about France?" I asked.

"Catherine." Takeru said without hesitation. "She's a Chosen Child and she's really nice. I brought Patamon out for a bit the other day and he and Floramon really got along, I really think Patamon likes France even more than Japan."

"That's great!" I smiled at him, though for some reason I was fairly certain I didn't believe myself.

"So what's your New Year's resolution?" Takeru said.

"I don't know yet," I told him honestly. "I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I just can't seem to pick anything specific. My life is pretty good as of right now."

"Glad to hear it."

I turned to see Willis sitting down next to me with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him. "What about you two?" I asked.

"I've decided that I'm going to find happiness this year." Takeru replied simply, "Why? Because I'm sick of putting up with being sad all the time."

"You're sad all the time?" I asked quickly, "I hadn't... noticed—Takeru I'm so sorry... I should've... I should have known."

"Hikari... It's fine." Takeru said, "I haven't told anyone."

I still wasn't happy with his response, but I could tell he didn't want to talk about it yet, so I didn't push. But I would. I would bring it up casually until he was ready to tell me...

"I think I want to stop living life for granted." Willis said, "I mean... I just want to do more to help out... I don't know. It's confusing... but it makes sense in my head." I laughed with him as Mimi slid to a stop in front of us with a bowl of chips.

"My resolution is to stop eating anything fried." Mimi winked, setting the bowl on the table.

"But that ruins French Fry-day!" Sora said as she followed Mimi, a pout on her face.

"Uh-huh, yup." Mimi laughed as her and Sora hurried off.

"You should stop eating fried foods too." Willis said.

I spun quickly and shot a glare at him. I felt my nostrils flare for a moment. "Are you saying that I'm fat?"

"N-no!" Willis said quickly, waving his hands in surrender, "I just meant that it's not healthy and that you're quite susceptible to being sick."

"Nice save." Takeru said, patting Willis on the shoulder before jumping to his feet and finding Sora who was now dancing to some music that Michael and Tatum had begun playing. Sora's face lit up at the sight of Takeru and she began dancing with him quickly.

Willis stood suddenly and walked toward them. He paused turned to me and held his hand out to see if I wanted to come but I shook my head and grabbed a couple chips from the bowl in front of me.

"I'm good with my fried food." I winked to him. He smiled at me before running toward the group of dancers. I noticed Emiko was dancing with them again—she was such a cute little girl, but she seemed to be getting tired. And no wonder! As I looked at the clock I saw that it was nearing eleven o'clock.

As I started eating the chips, three people sat around me in unison and stared at me for a moment. One was Kurayami, who had let her hair grow out a little in the past two and a half years, and it was now in two spiky pigtails on the side of her head. She'd also stopped dressing _too_ perfect, and was currently wearing a blue skirt with a purple shirt covered in a black sweater, but as always, she wore something white. In this case, it was her necklace. Apparently, "the appearance of a princess" didn't match her sarcastic persona, but she still wanted to tone down the thick black cloak look. Next to her sat Daisuke, who was proudly wearing the goggles atop his messy head of hair, and next to me was Taichi.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked them.

"We just came to ask you if you're happy." Kurayami said quickly as both Taichi and Daisuke reached for the bowl of chips.

"Do I seem... un-happy?" I asked. "I mean, I am sad for Iori, and I'm sad that he won't let anyone near him, or to help him, but—"

"With Willis." Taichi said quickly, "Are you happy, with Willis?"

"You two argue a lot." Daisuke said, "And your relationship has been on the rocks practically since it started, so we were just wondering."

"Of _course_ I'm happy with Willis." I said in finality. And they all knew it, this was not an open discussion. I was happy with Willis, and anyone who thought otherwise was just... probably concerned for me and my well being. I wanted to apologize for acting so harshly, but Daisuke had already spoken.

"If you say so."

"We just wanted to be sure." Taichi explained, "I always want you to be happy."

"That's so cute." Kurayami said quickly.

I smiled at her as I turned to Taichi, "And what about you? Are you happy with your current relationship status?"

"And what status might that be?" He asked me.

"In love with someone who clearly has feelings for you but is in love with someone else and is dating him." I said.

"You just... And just—but I..." Taichi trailed off, embarrassed, "You just described Takeru!" He said, standing up and storming off. He still wouldn't admit that he had any feelings for Sora, but I knew the truth. I knew he did... as did everyone else I was sure. Except perhaps Sora...

"Someone she shouldn't be dating." Daisuke said.

"You can say that again."

Again, I turned to find someone else. This time it was Yamato who was standing behind me.

"Neo sucks." Yamato grunted. "He's mean to everyone except Sora, which I suppose is at least good that he's not mean to her, but he just... sucks. And I wish she'd see it."

"Neo isn't that bad guys." I said, quickly defending Sora's boyfriend, "He's actually a really nice guy."

"Of course you'd say that." Yamato said, rolling his eyes.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I argued.

"Yeah what does that mean?" Daisuke asked.

"It means that Hikari, and everyone, is on Sora's side!" Yamato said, upset, "Why can't anyone be on my side?"

"I didn't pick a side." I said quickly.

"Really? Because you've had lunch with Sora and Neo multiple times, and I'm about ninety percent sure this is our second conversation ever. And I'm your brother's best friend—and you're _my_ brother's best friend!"

"Okay, true, we don't talk, but it's because you kind of scare me." I told him honestly standing up and turning to him, "You're a rock star punk who used to be all emo-esque and always in my house. It was scary."

Daisuke snorted as I realized how mean that statement must have sounded. I tried to cover it up, but it was too late, "So you're not scared of Kurayami, but you're scared of _me_?" Yamato asked sharply.

"I can relate to Kura," I said.

"But not me."

"Well if you ask me I'm sure I'd be happy to eat lunch with you too. We can find a way to relate there." I told him.

"Okay, Hikari," Yamato said loudly over the music, "Will you come eat lunch with me this Friday?"

Everything was quiet for a moment, as the music had just ended. Everyone was staring toward the two of us, practically nose to nose arguing.

"Did you just ask out my girlfriend?" Willis asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Wait, what?" Sora asked, looking like she'd just walked into an invisible wall.

"You did _what_?" Takeru asked sharply, his eyebrows furrowing and his nostrils flaring.

"Someone needs to explain, right now." Taichi said.

"It's just lunch!" Both Yamato and I said together before laughing, "Not a date." He clarified.

Almost everyone seemed content, but Sora, Takeru and Willis all still seemed fairly concerned, but there was literally no need for it. Yamato looked to me and nodded before stepping back and then spinning on his heels, retreating toward Taichi.

"Hikari..." I turned to the sound of Sora's whispers as she pulled me away from Daisuke and Kura who were talking to each other now. "What was that about?"

"Oh, Yamato is mad because you're dating Neo, I said Neo isn't so bad and he got mad that I was on your side, so I'm going to eat lunch with him to prove that I didn't pick a side." I told her quickly.

"Wait, you're not on my side?" Sora gasped.

"Sora, I'm not on anyone's side." I told her, "Though I _am_ on your side about Neo, just not about the breakup. I'm not getting into that."

Sora nodded, "Okay, just as long as—" We both turned to the sound of the door opening.

In the doorway stood a tall boy wearing white pants and white shoes with red designs on them. His shirt was black and he wore a long grey scarf. His eyes were daring, and blue, and his hair was meticulously placed and white. It was Neo Saiba.

He spotted Sora and I and flashed a smile toward us.

He hurried toward us and wrapped his arms around Sora in a hug before turning to me and smiling at me before hugging me too.

"What is _he_ doing here?" Yamato shot quickly.

"Ishida, if you have a problem with me then it's with me. You want to fight?" Neo said quickly, his voice elegant as he barked at Yamato.

"Yamato... grow up." Sora sighed.

"Neo," Rei said, wheeling toward her brother, "Don't cause an argument—try not to fight."

"If he's staying here, then we're fighting." Yamato said flatly.

"Then we're not staying." Sora said, wrapping her hands with Neo's and dragging him toward the door. "I'm sure we can find a more romantic setting anyway."

"I'll come with you!" I said quickly, rushing after her and grabbing my coat and hat by the door. As I stepped toward the door Willis stepped in front of me and held it open.

"Can I come?" He asked.

"I'd love if you did." I smiled at him. He let me out before running back and grabbing his coat and then following us out the door, leaving the others behind.

_**Daisuke:**_

Well, New Years wasn't turning out to be the amazing party I'd hoped it would. My head was spinning as I tried to make heads or tails of all of the different romantic interests of my friends, and I _still_ wasn't convinced that Hikari was actually happy with Willis. Maybe she just thought she should be, and therefore declared she was. What if she was actually the least happy person in the world, and I just took her word that she was happy when she was really trying to convince me in a subtle way to save her from her unhappy relationship. I didn't really understand girls all that much, and I kind of understood relationships a little less than that—you know, despite _being_ _in_ a relationship with a girl and all—but could I really have missed Hikari's plea for help?

I was fairly certain missing such a plea made me both a moron, and a terrible brother. I'd probably have to talk to Taichi about this all later.

And Taichi! I understood less about his current _interests_ than I did about girls and relationships combined. I was only about twenty-eight percent sure that Hikari was even talking about Sora earlier, and totally made my comment about 'a guy she shouldn't be dating' to be supportive of Taichi, you know, because she shouldn't be dating any guy other than him and all, but Yamato apparently is convinced that Taichi also likes Sora. I of course got confused after that point, because that meant they were both after the same girl, and they were still friendly about it, but in the past, wasn't Yamato the reason Taichi stopped dating her?

And what about Rei? I thought the only reason she was around so much was because Taichi liked her too. Or maybe she liked him… Where was Kurayami when you needed her? She was better at this stuff than I was. She wasn't amazing at it, but she understood a good deal more than I did. She was a girl, of course, so that had to give her an advantage right there.

Yamato needed to get over Sora. And fast. It'd been too long already, and Sora had moved on like right away. Neo was her second boyfriend since Yamato. She wasn't about to regress in this. She wasn't interested in him anymore. Well…_maybe_… Sora was the single most confusing female I'd ever met. I figured she didn't even know what she wanted half of the time—though that conclusion may have been made for the sole purpose of making me feel better about not getting it—but Neo was probably her current answer. She loved him. And he loved her. And it had been a year and he totally hadn't turned into a major jerk-wad, so her curse wasn't even working on him. It seemed like a good fit to me.

Takeru was totally still into my "little sister". He was so obvious about it. But I didn't really talk to him too much, because I was always busy with my noodle-cart, and he wouldn't come over if Willis was going to be there. And then you take Hikari's school into account—she went to a school over in America because she felt bad about always making Willis come to Japan—and I just don't see much of Takeru. But even Takeru, who has been in love with Hikari for maybe as long as I've known him, is not as bad as Yamato.

Seriously Yamato, get a life.

Iori was still standing in the corner. He hadn't moved since his little dispute with Jou. Natusni—bless her heart—had run over to him, but she wasn't talking. She just stood beside him, not even touching him. He seemed to have relaxed a little bit now that she was there anyway. If Iori ever got over his failure of a date with Noriko, he totally had the perfect girl waiting for him. He couldn't see it of course, and I sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to tell him—that kid is terrifying sometimes—but he had it made right there.

"Playing matchmaker in your head again?" Kurayami asked in a murmur as she slipped into the booth beside me.

"Maybe…" I admitted with a grin. I didn't lie to her. I took that from Iori's book. It worked well over the last three years. I'm sure a little white-lie ever now and then would be acceptable, but I didn't do those either. And as a compromise, Kurayami never asked me if a pair of jeans made her look fat, just so I couldn't put my foot in my mouth and screw it up. She's thoughtful like that.

"Then why focus on the hardest of the lot?" she asked. "Jou and Momoe are destined to get married. You can tell by looking at them. They need a push though."

"I don't want to get involved with Mom and Dad," I joked.

"Well, Miyako and Ken—" she started.

"Are already married," I interjected.

"I was going to say that," she said with a sly smile. "And Michael and Tatum are completely made for each other. No one else can stomach so much Michael at one time." I had to snort there. It was true! "And Koushiro and Mimi live together now, so it can't be them either."

"With Sora," I said. "Which I still don't understand. Why move in with your girlfriend…and your best friend?"

"Because they can afford the mortgage better that way," Kurayami told me.

"When did we get so grown up?" I asked. "Mortgage, marriage, children, where did soccer-camp and birthday parties and sleepovers go?"

"As human beings, it is our job to grow and pave the way for our future generations," Kurayami said all philosophically. "If we didn't take on responsibilities and leave childish games behind, our children would never get a chance to take their turn."

"Our children eh?" I said waggling my eyebrows.

"You know what I meant," she said playfully shoving my shoulder.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "But I can't help but wish it didn't have to happen."

"You wouldn't want to have children with me?" she asked sounding affronted.

"I meant growing up," I said quickly.

"I know," she said with a smile. "I just enjoy making you squirm."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"You know," she said after a moment of silence. "You could always make Taichi your matchmaking project."

"What makes you say that?" I asked. She pointed towards Taichi, who was dancing in his seat, next to Rei who was doing the same. She was laughing and smiling and looked really happy. And Taichi…he looked relaxed, like he wasn't trying to balance friend time with the fate of the Digital World.

"It doesn't have to be Rei either," Kurayami said. "But Hikari and I both think it's time for him to move on. He can't get over Sora if he doesn't try."

"He's scared," I said.

"Yamato should be too," Takeru said, sitting across from us in the booth. "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about, but it was a good spot to jump in. You can continue if you want."

"We're good," I said. "Mad at Yamato I take it?"

"He chased them away! Of course I'm mad at him," Takeru declared. "I know he's not over Sora and all, but seriously, shut up Yamato. I don't want him to chase Sora away all the time. She's still a sister to me, even if they aren't going to get married any time soon—probably ever—to make it official. And Hikari… What did she do that made Yamato want to chase her away?"

"Nothing," Kurayami said. "She's just caught in a trap right now. Sora and Yamato both want her to pick a side of their breakup. She hasn't done that yet. And since she's the _only_ one that hasn't, Yamato is going to try and get her to pick him. No one else really had. Even you. His brother."

"If he wasn't such a moron, and didn't ruin it all by himself," Takeru said. "I might've chose his side. But Sora is _right_."

"Yamato is lonely," I decided. "And I think this is about a little more than the breakup. This is just about Hikari leaving isn't it?"

"What?" Takeru asked in fake surprise. "No. I don't know what you're talking about."

"So you haven't been pinning after Hikari for years, I did not know that," Kurayami said wryly.

"I met a girl," Takeru said. "Well, re-met a girl. Her name is Catherine, and she's fantastic. I'm just mad that my best friend and big sister can't be here to celebrate New Years with us. I mean, who am I suppose to hug or whatever when midnight strikes?"

"Traditionally, one is supposed to share a kiss with their significant other," Kurayami said. "Perhaps you should text Catherine at that time?"

"Yeah," Takeru said with a smile. "I can do that. Then Catherine will totally know I'm interested. Thanks." He slid out of the booth much happier than when he came in. It was as if he didn't know he completely shattered my perspective of his dating life. So he wasn't into Hikari anymore? Did that mean I had to stop giving him the stink-eye and ease up on the 'I'm her big brother and you better have only the best intentions for her' persona?

Damn. I really enjoyed getting to play that part.

Willis just didn't make it any fun. He was kind of too cool with it, and spent most of his time on the other side of the world.

"You just played matchmaker," I commented.

"Did I?" she asked sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed."

"Maybe I should try to focus on Yamato," I said. "He really needs it."

"What about your sister?"

"She's living with her boyfriend," I reminded her. "And they've only been dating steadily for like ten years or so. I'm surprised he hasn't popped the question."

"He's waiting for the right time," Kurayami assured me. "What I'd like to know, is what's gotten into you lately. You never wanted to be a matchmaker before."

"I've never been so happy before," I said planting a kiss on her cheek. "I'd like to be able to spread the happiness."

"So long as the only kiss you get at midnight is mine," she said. "Then you can have at it."

"Do I have to wait until midnight?" I asked with a pout.

"I used to be inherently evil," she said dryly. "The pout won't work on me."

I knew that of course, but I couldn't help but _try_. Someday, it will work, and then I will be the master of the wounded-puppy look.

Not that great of an achievement once said aloud, but it would so be worth the teasing to win the title. Seriously, it would.

"And yes," she added. "You only have like, a minute or two to wait now."

"It's that late already?" I asked confused. I looked around for a clock, but realized Mimi's restaurant did not have one. She might want to look into that.

"Yes," she said with a laugh. "Come on. Let's dance in the new year."

"I was hoping for a little more kissing and a little less dancing," I complained.

"There is a two and a half year old present," she chastised.

Emiko. How had I forgotten the precious little girl that tried to beat my head in? I looked around for her but couldn't spot her through the dancing couples. Ken and Miyako were dancing, and she was actually smiling, but she was still wearing her gloves and sweater. There was no way she was _that_ cold. Mimi was swinging Koushiro around, insistent that they dance and let loose. Taichi was still dancing with Rei, but she'd dragged him out to the floor instead of dancing in a chair. Momoe and Jou weren't dancing. They were looking around frantically. Jou was actually crawling on the floor.

They couldn't find Emiko either.

"TEN!" Takeru shouted, calling everyone's attention to the radio that was now counting down the seconds to the New Year.

"Nine!" Taichi yelled with Rei.

"Eight!" Mimi called joyously while Koushiro rolled his eyes—the smile took away from his so-called annoyance.

"Seven!" Ken and Miyako declared.

"Six!" Tatum and Michael cheered.

"Where is Emiko?" Jou asked Momoe loudly while Yamato called out "Five!"

That's when I noticed her. She was standing at Iori's feet, pulling on his pant-leg insistently.

"Four!" I shouted with Kurayami.

"Three!" Natsuni hollered from Iori's side.

"Jou," I shouted as she did so, and pointed out his daughter. He visibly relaxed.

"Two!" he cried out.

"ONE!" everyone screamed. "Happy New Year!"

I wasted no time in kissing my beautiful—if not slightly intimidating—girlfriend.

"Happy New Year baby," I whispered in her ear over the cheering.

"Happy New Year," she repeated with a laugh.

And as I watched Iori sigh and reach down for Emiko, picking her up off the ground, I knew that this year was going to be better than the last month or so. Because he let her lick his cheek—my guess was that it was supposed to be a kiss—and actually let himself laugh about it.

Yes, the last year ended with a horrible tragedy, but this year was going to be better, even with Taichi's new Digital World development. Iori was already healing, I had a mission to help my friends find further happiness, and I had the perfect girlfriend. Things were definitely looking up.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Taichi struggles somewhat with his new position as ambassador and council leader, and he his hands are tied. How can he figure out the problem if he's not allowed to look?


	2. The Council

**Y/N:** I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter. It was a new dynamic, and with the characters that are introduced here, and certain interactions Taichi has with everyone involved, it was something that just flew onto the page. I hope you enjoy it, and review if you see fit.

**U/N:** This chapter is both exciting and hilarious and I really like it! As part of arc 1 it's mostly just about the one character and his/her new surroundings, and a catch up of the past two and a half years, but as a not very Taichi fan... I don't know-i still like it.

There will be 50 chapters in this story, just like season 3... we thought about doing more, but mehhh... it's enough. We've fit everything in there. it's a little snug, but I have faith it will work out.

And my reasons for disliking Taichi and Koushiro: Taichi is bossy, mean, aggressive and just plain arrogant to the point where he passes "rude". He "learns" lessons supposedly but never really does. The whole skullgreymon thing was the only time he actually learned something, every other time it's either sudden without any development or he just goes back and does the same thing. I mean, he tackles Matt to the ground for wanting to find his brother and see if he was okay. I just can't look past his obnoxious personality. But with Daisuke it's different because although he is a lot like Taichi, he's never mean. he forgives Ken instantly, seeing the kindness and goodness. With Taichi he just... UGH. Matt wanted some alone time and Taichi hated him suddenly-I just don't like him. I like him more in Season 2, but only because he seems mature and punches people less... but he's still annoying...

As for Koushiro... I don't know how much of this is really a reason... but he's just annoying. He's smart. But he knows it, and he lets it get to his head, and then he thinks he's better than everyone else. He's mean, emotionless, and annoying... I really like him when he gives up his curiosity-or when he's acting out that joke for his parents... just when he kind of relaxes a bit. But then "Hey guys, i found a way to teleport throughout the digital world that i'll never use again." ... bothersome... I mean, i do think those things, but i think the main reason i don't like him is because of the Koumi fanbase. I know i'm seeming all shipping crazy here-but I don't like the two of them together, and i take my frustration out about the not-really-existing-couple's fanbase, out on him. Not so much Mimi because I love her. but she can't be with Michael because if either of them had feelings for one another he wouldn't have asked out Miyako in front of her. Yamato marries Sora (in the show), but he and Mimi would work well together... The jock and the princess would work as a cliche, so Mimi and Taichi work, but as you can probably tell, i'm all aboard the Jyoumi ship.

Sorry this is so long, just thought I'd answer a few questions... I hope you like this chapter and review :)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 2: The Council**

_**Taichi:**_

My day could have been going better. In a number of ways actually. I could have got a call that banned neck ties—I hate those things—from work, I could have actually woke up in time to have breakfast, I could have _not_ been sitting beside my least favourite person in all the known worlds too. That would have made a vast improvement.

I hated that guy. So much. I'm pretty sure he hated me too, so it was at least mutual. He didn't like that I was a human. Well, it might've been more that he didn't like that a human held so much sway in the Digital World, _and_ that that human was me. But it didn't matter. I was chosen out of all the people on Earth to be the ambassador of the Digital World, so I spent a lot of time there anyway. It wasn't my choice to be chosen to be the head of the council too. The Temple workers—Gennai's troop—chose me. They said that as the leader of the chosen children, digidestined if you will, it was my duty to take over Gennai's position, as I knew so much more about the other humans than they did.

So yeah, I kind of had two jobs.

I had to go to so many meetings it wasn't funny. One a week I met with some bigwigs on Earth, and every Thursday I had to meet with the Digital Council of Strategy and Peace. I tried to get them to call it the DCSP, but it didn't catch on. They literally went around spouting off that long name all the time. I guess since their digital, they don't care about saving time or getting annoyed or whatever, but I stilled called it the DCSP.

We didn't really do anything either.

Not for lack of trying on my part. There was a group of terrorists wreaking havoc in the Digital World, and I couldn't do anything about it. I might be the official leader of the DCSP, but they took a page out of Earth's book and ran a democracy of sorts. I had to have the majority of the votes before I could do anything. My hands were tied.

Kind of…

They didn't know I enlisted my friends to dig a little deeper while I played along with these guys' games. Did they not understand that their home was the one in danger? As a human, I found it strange that I was the only one showing such concern for their population. Something was triggering unnatural behaviour within the digimon, but it wasn't obvious, like it was with the Black Gears and the Dark Spirals. I couldn't see the source of the virus causing this discrepancy. The fact that none of Gennai's old colleagues were bothered by the surplus in evil activity was off putting to say the least.

"And that, is why I feel that Digitamamon's restaurant needs to be shut down," the man beside me, known only as Marrow, concluded.

"Denied," I said with a smirk. There was no way I was letting him do something like that. Digitamamon earned his right to his restaurant. He'd been taken control of by a Dark Spiral, and he continued to provide useful information when called upon. He was needed. He was my eyes on the inside. He could hear so much just by being in his restaurant. You'd be surprised how many evil digimon would go to eat and brag about their latest scheme. He helped me catch so many digimon since I started this job.

"This is a democracy," he insisted.

"No," I told him. "I'm from Earth, we invented democracy. This is a watered down version of it. And it needs to be a formal motion in order to get the vote. I take care of any other issues."

"If you'd just think about my proposal," he said viciously. Seriously, how the guy could look so much like Gennai and be so…_awful_, I'd never know. I didn't like Gennai all that much at the end there, but I much preferred him and his stubbornness to the guy that couldn't bear to let me win something.

"No," I said firmly. "Your proposal is formed out of petty spite. Digitamamon has done nothing wrong, and frankly, I think you're just grasping at straws to keep us from dealing with the real problem your world is facing."

"Exactly," he sneered. "_Our_ world, not yours. Go back to your family while we deal with our problems."

"Or," I said with a smirk. "I could stay here, be your boss, and take care of them for you, since you seem so inclined to ignore them. On a side note, Agumon, how goes the training with the Elite Team of Awesome?"

"The _Temple Knights_," he corrected. "Are working diligently. Dorumon is showing promise. I think he's nearing champion level. Soon he will be strong enough to support champion in the way Gatomon does. And we have two interested parties, so we might be expanding our ranks. It's exciting really."

"It will be nice," Gabumon added, reminding me of his presence. I smiled sheepishly at him. He and Agumon were _both_ the heads of this team, as Omnimon was a powerhouse that leant a lot of credibility to our goal. "To have more than three members. I also found two members that I feel I should approach to join us. Veemon and Wormmon, actually, as it was their idea in the first place. I think it would be only right to invite them."

"Good point, you can go ahead with that," I told him.

"Your Knights are wasting their time," Marrow said with a laugh. "They are training for a fight that will never take place."

"They are training to ensure the safety of_ your_ world. The safety of which none of you seem overly concerned about," I shouted out. The two, ever silent, council members started at my yell. Centaurumon—coincidentally Sora's father's partner—and Andromon—Koushiro's father's—were two of the wisest members of the team. They were also the most passive. Unless a war broke out, I was sure they would be content leaving things as they were.

The council was made up of quite a few parts. Mostly at Koushiro's insistence. He was actually a part of it, he just never said anything. He spent most of his efforts into recording everything that was said, and sending me dirty looks whenever he felt I was pushing it. It started with Marrow, Benjamin and me. I insisted on bringing Agumon and Gabumon into it, as they were a part of Gennai's War Council, and it only seemed right. Marrow was furious, and brought his own little side-kick in. Erif was annoying beyond belief, and voted for any and everything that Marrow suggested, and against anything I did. Benjamin was the one that suggested we bring in Centaurumon, as a digimon that had been about since the beginning of time, and Leomon, who had proven his worth time and time again.

Then I brought in Koushiro. I needed him. He understood a lot more about the Digital World than I did. More than most of the council really. He'd been getting lessons from Centaurumon as well.

Marrow didn't like this either. He said that I was trying to stack the council in my favour, having three guaranteed votes in Agumon, Gabumon and Koushiro, and apparently, I had too much sway with Leomon and Centaurumon as well.

That was when Koushiro suggested we fulfill the roles properly. According to him, we had a few of the categories covered already, and just needed to round out the balance. So we brought in Divermon to represent the Aquatic digimon, MetalifeKuwagamon for the Insect digimon, Andromon as the Machine digimon representative, Tinkermon to be our Flying digimon and Babamon for our Plant digimon. Babamon was Centaurumon's suggestion, because she too had been around since the beginning of the Digital World. She used to be a beautiful Rosemon once upon a time…now she was kind of a little, shrivelled up old lady.

Not that I'd say that to her face. I didn't have a death wish.

"We totally care," Tinkermon insisted, fluttering around. She refused to sit on her chair, because she was too small to see over the table ledge, so she just flew, showering everything with her equivalent of pixie dust. "We just don't see what you do. I mean there have always been evil digimon. There will always _be_ evil digimon. It doesn't have to be an act of terrorism or a plague or something affecting them. They could just be evil."

"She makes a valid argument," Marrow told me.

She was an airhead, not that I'd say that either.

"I think, we should seriously be putting more energy into creating locations where digimon can pamper themselves," she continued. "It's a much more pressing matter. We can't have a world filled with ugly digimon."

She sent a very pointed look Babamon's way.

"I've been around forever," Babamon shouted in her wavering, crackly voice. "I earned every one of these wrinkles!"

"I've been around forever too," Tinkermon said with a smirk. "And you don't see me letting go of my figure."

"You live in Neverland," Babamon growled. "You never age there. It's none of your work."

"I'm not complaining," Tinkermon laughed. "I'm going to be young forever, you old hag."

"Enough," Andromon interrupted. "We need not fight each other. I understand Taichi's reasoning behind his suspicion. If he wishes to look into it, I feel he should do so."

"It's a waste of valuable time and energy," Marrow snapped.

"Yeah!" Erif said nodding his head exaggeratedly.

"So is training those blasted Knights," Marrow added.

"Perhaps he is right…" Divermon said. "Do we really need the Knights?"

"Yes," I growled. "When the next threat comes along, and it will, you have a horrible track record, you'll be depending on these Knights to help save you."

"Could the Digidestined not just vanquish the problem?" MetalifeKuwagamon asked.

"I _am_ a Digidestined," I said, rolling my eyes. "My digimon partner, Agumon, is one of the Knights. Gabumon, Veemon and Wormmon are more partners. They are being trained to be able to help us when the time comes. And hopefully, be able to continue the mission when we've gone."

"Is that any time soon?" Marrow asked sounding suspiciously hopeful.

"No," Koushiro said. "Typically, a human can live up to a hundred years. Taichi is only twenty-four. Unless Gennai's theory does prove to be correct—though extensive research between Jou and myself has yet to find any proof of such a hypothesis—Taichi will be around for many years to come. Well, unless he's met with a tragic accident or disease."

"Thanks," I said dryly.

"Just stating the facts," Koushiro said awkwardly.

"How…_fortunate_," Marrow said disappointed.

"Is there anything else that needs to be brought up today?" I asked exhausted.

"I never got an answer about my beauty salons," Tinkermon said.

"No," I told her. "If a digimon wants to start one up, they'll go through the same steps as every other digimon entrepreneur. We're not doing the work for them."

"The Digitamamon case—" Marrow started.

"Has been dealt with," I snapped. "Unless you have actual reasons for such a thing to happen, this case is closed."

"Fine," he said angrily.

"No other concerns? All of your respective digimon are content?" I asked. They all nodded, and I sagged with relief. That meant we were done.

"We are still missing two members of the council," Koushiro brought up. I groaned. He did that on purpose. He always waited until the very end just to dash my hopes of going home.

"Whoever could you mean?" Marrow asked him. Koushiro flinched at his gaze. Marrow's eyes were probably the creepiest part about him. They were hollow looking. No matter how much he looked like Gennai, the eyes always gave the heebie-jeebies.

"We need a representative for both the Dark digimon and the Holy digimon," he informed us.

"Yes," I said dryly. "Because Devimon proved to be so useful in the council."

When we first tried filling the Dark role, Marrow brought Devimon to our attention. Needless to say…he was pure evil and not useful in the slightest.

"_Any last suggestions?" I asked, as was standard procedure for me._

"_Yes," Devimon said darkly. "I feel as though we should eliminate this part of the Digital World. It is unnecessary, and overpopulated. A simple eradication would be most pleasant, no?"_

_He was pointing to a small section on the map on the wall._

"_That's Primary Village," I said dryly._

"_Yes, exactly," Devimon said with a vicious smile. "It's quite overpopulated these days. I feel as though the Digital World does not need it anymore."_

"_All those in favour of decimating Primary Village," I said rolling my eyes._

_Devimon's long arm was in the air in an instant, and Erif's hand followed. Marrow looked at him and pulled his hand down._

"_We…will…need Primary Village in the future," Marrow informed his side-kick. "It's most important that it stays where it is."_

"_I agree," I said, though I wished I didn't have to say it. I hated agreeing with Marrow. "Motion denied."_

"_All if favour of eradicating Devimon from the council?" Marrow said off-handedly._

_Everyone's hand raised at once._

"_Right," I said. "You have been voted off the council…you are the weakest link…go away."_

Devimon could have been more graceful about it. Of course I'm sure he's pleased that we kept Primary Village around now that he's an egg there…

"Gennai told us we needed to keep the balance," Koushiro insisted. "I feel it is necessary to keep balance in all parts of the Digital World, not just in instance of the crests, but in the council that is keeping the world running."

"I'm sure I could round up another Dark digimon willing to give it a shot," Marrow said with his creepy smile on his face. I didn't want to know why he knew so many Dark digimon. He was just too creepy for me to care.

"Perhaps I could talk to Ogremon," Leomon suggested. "He is a Dark digimon."

"And he's not inherently evil," I said with a grin. "Bonus!"

"And the Holy digimon?" Koushiro asked.

"They aren't really necessary," Marrow said quickly. "Besides, we would only need one to keep the balance if we had a Dark digimon. Until we know for certain if Ogremon fits the requirements, we ought not jump the gun."

Benjamin, Divermon, MetalifeKuwagamon, Tinkermon and Babamon seemed to be in agreement. Erif as well, but he always was. Centaurumon and Andromon never voted unless they deemed it to be of the utmost importance. That left me with too few to do anything about it. Like always. Marrow never let me pass anything these days. He was convincing enough for all of the others to agree with him. Leomon, Agumon, Gabumon and Koushiro wouldn't win me a vote.

"Fine," I said shortly. "Dismissed."

"You'll be back tomorrow, right Taichi?" Agumon asked.

"You bet buddy," I told him. "I've got to see how the training is going."

"It's been two weeks," Koushiro said. "Two weeks and they've yet to do anything about this 'terrorist' issue. It's a wonder the Digital World has been able to function without the Digidestined in the past."

"They haven't," I reminded him. "There were kids before us."

"I meant before them," he said rolling his eyes. "Come on, Sora's waiting."

"Why?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time. She always sat outside the council meetings, and waited for us to finish. She claimed it was because she had the key to Earth, and was a much more stable ride home than trying to work with the gate, but I thought she just liked the time away from everything. She got a few hours alone every week just to sit there and think. Also knit. She did that a lot. She made me a sweater last year though, so I wasn't complaining.

"She wants to help me work on my Valentine's gift to Mimi," he said, rattling off her excuse of the day. "It's a month from now, you know."

"Got anything in mind?" I asked with a grin. He got all awkward talking about this stuff. It was hilarious.

"If I did, I wouldn't need Sora's help," he said, his face turning bright red instantly. It got me every time. I pushed open the council chamber doors, and Sora hopped out of her seat, putting down what appeared to be a Biyomon inspired knit hat.

"How did it go today boys?" she asked nervously. She was really interested in the terrorist front. It was refreshing, since none of the others seemed to care. She was looking natural that day too. Not that she piled on makeup or anything, but I noticed how pretty and makeup-less she looked that day is all. Her hair was light and curled out at the ends, and she was wearing a sweater and jeans. She wasn't all dolled up like normal. I liked it.

"Nothing's being done," Koushiro said with a sigh.

"You know," she said. "We always deal with problems faster than this. That's probably why you guys are so anxious about it. But maybe this is how things are dealt with in the early stages. It's not common knowledge yet, like the Black Gears or the Dark Spirals. This is all speculation. You guys need to relax, and breathe a little. When something happens, we'll be the first to hear about it. Our digimon guard sections of the Digital World, and everyone's taking turns poking around under the pretenses of picnics and hikes and bonding time with their partners. It's going to be okay."

"You're right," I said nudging her shoulder. "You're always right."

"I knew you'd understand that someday," she joked. "Ready to go boys?"

"Yeah," I said. "I've got dinner with my parents tonight. And I wanted to call Rei, see how she's doing with school so far. I feel like I abandoned her there."

"That's because you did," Sora teased. "But she's okay last I heard. Neo calls her daily. He's very protective of her."

"I know," I said. "It drives her crazy."

Sora opened the door to Earth using her key as she laughed. We stepped through it and she locked it up tight again.

"Good luck with your gift shopping," I told them.

"Thanks," Sora said rolling her eyes. "We just have to find the perfect gift for _Mimi_. We're going to need more than a little luck."

I laughed and started walking down the street. Not before I heard Koushiro asking Sora somewhat frantically, "What do I get Mimi that says, yes, I love you, but no I _don't_ want to go to New York and spend a week with your parents?"

I found it hilarious. Everything involving Koushiro and Mimi was funny to me. They clashed in so many ways, but they loved each other, so it always worked out in the end. And Mimi's mother _hated_ him. He'd rant for hours every time Mimi brought up a potential visit.

Speaking of potential visits…I pulled out my phone. It had been awhile since I'd seen Rei. Okay, it had been two weeks since New Years, but I was used to seeing her almost every day. I dialled the familiar number without thinking.

"Taichi?" she answered sounding surprised. "What's up?"

"Can't a guy just call without a reason?" I asked.

"They can, yeah," she said airily. I heard her clear her throat. "But you don't usually do so."

"I miss you," I told her. "Why'd you have to go back to school?"

"I'm reveling in the freedom it gives me. I don't have all that many options, career-wise, in Odaiba, Taichi," she said. "And my mother wouldn't even let me dream of getting a job anyway. How's your case going?"

"You make me sound like a private eye," I said with a laugh. "But it's not going anywhere. Marrow won't let me win. I'm trying to help them. Why don't they see that?"

"They're digimon," she said. "They have their own way of doing things. At least, that's what Neo says about foreigners. And he gives good advice. I talk to him about everything. You just have to try and ease them into your way of thinking, and don't step on their toes. Rome wasn't built in a day Taichi. Two and a half years isn't all that long in the grand picture. You're making progress, but you need to do this their way too. You have to compromise."

"I don't know why you need advice from Neo," I told her. "You're pretty good at this yourself."

"I try," she said. I could hear her smile in her voice.

"Okay," I said. "How's school going anyway?"

"Good," she commented. "It's a little dull around here without you of course. But I'm learning loads, and I have some other friends."

That was a lie. Everyone was her friend. At school, seriously, I couldn't walk down the hallway without _someone_ stopping to chat with her.

"Any plans yet for Valentine's day?" I asked.

"That's like a month away Taichi," she said sounding flustered. So there was a guy…

"Koushiro's buying his gift already, Mimi's really into gifts, not just chocolate like most people," I said. "She picked that up in America. So is that a no?"

"I'm kind of trying to keep my options open," she said. Then quieter, almost casually she asked, "What about you? You got your eye on someone?"

"Maybe," I said evasively. "It doesn't matter anyway. She's not an option for Valentine's day."

"I don't know," she said. "She might be waiting for you."

"Yeah, m'kay," I said. "I don't know who you're talking about, but this girl has a boyfriend…."

"Oh," she said awkwardly. "Right. Is that all Taichi?"

"I guess, yeah," I said surprised she wanted to hang up already. We usually talk for hours. "I'll call you later then."

"You do that," she said softly. She was quiet then, so quiet I almost thought she hung up. "And for the record," she whispered. "I missed you too."

Then she hung up.

I couldn't help but feel I did something wrong…

But I didn't have time to think about that now. I was late for dinner as it was. Mom was going to be upset. Daisuke would probably have eaten half of my food, and Dad would give me a stern talking to about punctuality. The only good thing about it was that Hikari was in America at school, so I wouldn't have to put up with her disappointment.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Iori struggles with his mother, his new co-worker and tries to keep a hold of a secret that's ready to burst loose…too bad he can't share it without consequences.


	3. Overbearing

**Y/N:** I answer a couple questions some reviewers had on Iori in this chapter, I hope I didn't make you wait too long for your answers. Also, I just thought I'd mention that on my profile page, we now have a list of characters in this story, for those who might be a bit overwhelmed with the roster we've got going on. I hope you enjoy it, and review.

**U/N:** So this chapter answers a couple questions about Iori, which is... good. I like it-especially since Noriko.. i like her... Anyway, i hope you like it too, and i hope you review :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 3: Overbearing**

_**Iori:**_

Sometimes I questioned my ambition. It was draining enough to put myself through law school, with all of the assignments and legal jargon, but I forced myself to get a job too. It made perfect sense in theory. Get a job that helps me keep up to date with student loans and overall debt, which would make it easier to get caught up after the fact. I did not, however, factor in just how much _time_ I would need to spend on all of the essays and reports and actually attending the lectures. Nor did I take sleeping hours into account, or Kendo practice, recreational activities, dates with my best friend…

I understood Jou a little better these days. How he managed to keep a girlfriend and attend both day and night classes I didn't know. I was about ready to keel over, and it had only been three weeks since my last holiday. Reading week could not come fast enough.

The fact that I wasn't allowed to bunk over at the university made it even harder on my time. I had to try and work on my homework while on the train home. My mother refused to allow me to move out. She played on my guilt too. She didn't want to be left alone with my little brother. She didn't want him to go so long without me. And then Grandpa died… and now it was even worse. I couldn't do anything without telling her. She didn't want me leaving her too. She made me feel so guilty, and I couldn't help disliking her for it.

Her speech about why I should wait at least a few years yet to get a girlfriend was worse though. Mostly because I was going to tell her that Natsuni and I were at a point in our relationship where it was starting to get serious, where we were going to start telling people about it. She ruined that happiness and spent the next forty minutes trying to get me to promise to wait until after college—which she mistakenly thought I was going through for general business, because it's less stressful—before I let a girl come in and take me away from my family. Knowing that the simple fact that Natsuni and I were in love would not be enough to convince my mother, I put off telling her for awhile. Well, more than awhile. We were two and a half years into our relationship, and I still hadn't told her about it.

We hadn't told anyone about it really.

No one that really mattered anyway. My friends at school knew, but they didn't know my mother, or Natsuni's mother—who was worse than mine by far—or Meiyomon. I couldn't risk Meiyomon finding out. He had the mind of a child most of the time. He wouldn't understand why I was keeping it from Mom. He would think it was dishonourable. In a sense, I supposed it was, but I couldn't help it. Mom hated Natsuni, and she didn't want me to grow up. How was I supposed to deal with that? If there was a legitimate reason as to_ why_ she hated Natsuni, then maybe I could see her point. But she only didn't like her because I spent so much time with her, time I could spend at home with Mom.

And with Granpa's death, I _should_ be feeling more appreciative of the time I had left with Mom, but I couldn't. She was horrible with her grief, just like she was when I was a kid and watching my father's funeral. She ignored me, more concerned with her own self. And it happened again, this time when I was old enough to understand more clearly. I watched as she let Meiyomon cry helplessly on the snow covered ground, while she sniffled and dabbed her eyes in her friends' arms. _I_ had to deal with my brother's grief, just like Grandpa had to take care of mine.

Mom was selfish. And I didn't know what to do about it without breaking her heart. But there was only so much I could take, and soon I was going to break away from her completely. Patience was not my forte.

"Good. You're here, Iori, I was starting to think you wouldn't show," a familiar voice said breaking through my conflicting thoughts.

"Noriko?" I asked, trying to mask my horror. Sure enough, Noriko was sitting at the cash register at the checkout counter of the convenience store I worked at. It was Inoue Convenience. I got the job at Miyako's insistence a year and a half ago, when she married Ken and moved into their apartment on the other side of town and could no longer work for her parents.

And there she was. The bane of my existence only two years ago. She didn't take my dismissal that well after our failure of a date. She continued to follow after me, for awhile anyway, before her mother pulled her out of school at the insistence of our principal. Apparently, he could _finally_ see how unhealthy and creepy she was being and for my "safety" asked her mother to take care of the issue. I heard her mother was furious at the allegations towards her daughter, and threatened to sue the school. But nothing ever came of it.

"Hello Iori," she said softly. She looked better than she did the last time I saw her. She was still pretty, of course, but there was something different about her eyes. The deranged hunger was gone, cleared away to make room for the guarded happiness. Her hair was longer too, reaching down to her shoulders, and rubbing against the ugly orange vest that the Inoue's force their employees to wear.

"Damn," I muttered, noting that she was now an employee.

"Nice to see you too," she said sarcastically.

"I'm not sure you're legally allowed anywhere near me," I said. I realized how rude it was at once, but I couldn't take it back. And I wasn't sure I wanted to.

"There was never a restraining order signed," she said rolling her eyes. "But I'm better now. I promise. I don't even want to date you or anything."

"That's…good?" I tried, but I still felt awkward about working with her.

"It is actually," she said haughtily. "I've been going to a therapist, and I'm on like three different medications. I'm not crazy though. I never really was. Just possessive and obsessive, with a superiority complex and a couple other things that I just won't get into because it just shows how far I fell…"

"So is the medication strong?" I asked carefully.

"Strong enough for me to realize you weren't ever really all that much of a catch in the first place," she said with a smirk.

"Good," I said with a sigh. "I can handle that. So, is this your first day?"

"No," she said with a laugh. Not a creepy one either, which I was thankful for. It didn't make my skin crawl at all. "I've been here for a month now, but the bosses didn't want to rush me, since they heard a lot about me… I had to give them proof I wasn't crazy. It was rather embarrassing."

So Mr and Mrs Inoue, who were mad at three of their children—although they were getting over Miyako's wedding, and adored both of their grandchildren—cared enough about their neighbour's kid to protect him from his stalker? I was surprised they even knew about her, let alone remembered.

I guessed Miyako was really worried about me and asked for advice. Or maybe Jou talked to Momoe about it and she asked for advice. Either way, I was surprisingly pleased by the warm feeling in my chest.

"I passed or whatever," she continued. "So I'm allowed to work with you now. Which you know is okay and all. It means that I don't have to work with either of the bosses looking over my shoulder at everything I do. That's going to be fantastic. And I don't have to try so hard to impress them, since they're not here. So, just get to work or something okay?"

"I'm fairly certain I'm a higher ranking employee, so I'd get to tell you what to do," I told her. "But since I happen to agree that we should work more, talk less, I'll do what you said."

"Good," she said.

There was a part of me that was sure she was trying too hard to prove that she never liked me, and it was making the situation strained. She was also not putting much interest into this job at all. She wanted to get paid for doing nothing, I could just tell. Well, that was not going to happen.

"So," she said after she put a grand total of two items on the shelves we were stocking. "Did you and Natsuni ever…you know, get together or whatever?"

"I thought you didn't care for me," I said defensively.

"God, Iori. I'm just trying to make conversation. We're going to be working together for the foreseeable future. I'm not starting school until the second semester of next year. Until then, my mom told me I have work, so I can integrate myself back into the world and interact with people again. It's all stupid, since I was never crazy in the first place, but whatever."

"I think it's a smart plan," I pointed out. "You get a chance to save money up for your schooling too. It's win-win."

"You _would_ side with my mom," she groaned.

"I'm merely pointing out that it's more beneficial," I protested.

"Yeah," she said rolling her eyes. "Are you going to answer the question or not?"

"Which question was that?" I asked, even though I knew what she was talking about.

"Never mind," she said, causing me to relax. I should have known she wasn't going to ignore it though. "You totally are. I can tell. It's cute that you're trying to spare my feelings. But you don't have to. You two deserve each other. Who else would be perfectly content to just go to movies and never hold hands in public? I've noticed things. Neither of you admit to it."

"That sounds suspiciously like stalker-ish behaviour," I pointed out.

"I saw you walking around town like twice," she said defensively. "Anyone who didn't know you would think you were brother and sister or something, the way you act around each other."

"We don't act like siblings," I assured her, thinking back to our numerous…_meetings_. Brothers did not kiss their sisters like that.

"Are you ashamed of her?" she asked, changing tactics. I was convinced she was trying to irritate me to death.

"No," I said firmly. "I love her."

"Then why doesn't anybody know?" she asked. "It just seems suspicious to me."

"We have our reasons," I told her. It was our mothers. Hers was worse than mine by far. Mine was dealing with that separation disorder, but hers was crazy. She wanted Natsuni to be the perfect housewife, and immediately shot down any career idea Natsuni had ever had. Mrs Ando set rules, and Natsuni had to follow them, rules about her clothing, rules about her manners, even rules about her speech. And there were the lessons. Natsuni had been subjected to hours and hours of lessons each week, training her in the 'way of the traditional housewife' in order to uphold her family honour. It would've been hilarious, if it weren't so annoying. Natsuni could cook nearly every traditional Japanese dish I'd ever heard of, but wasn't allowed to try foreign recipes. And she had tea parties with other girls whose mothers were putting them through the same thing.

The only reason Natsuni stayed was because she didn't know if she could handle the world without her family.

The biggest problem Natsuni had with her mother was that I was not on the approved list of men. I was too young and too immature, according to Mrs Ando, for her daughter, a man that already possessed a stable and well thought of career would be a better choice.

Natsuni chose me anyway, and for that I was grateful. But since neither of us could bring ourselves to tell our mothers, it was more difficult to spend time together outside of movies.

"They better be good ones," Noriko said, ruining my train of thought for the second time that day. "Because a girl is only interested in a secret romance for so long… Keep that in mind, 'kay?"

"That was almost _nice_ of you," I noted.

"I can be nice if I want to be," she said sounding offended. "I just don't want you to screw up. You're not that great of a date you know."

"Right," I said hiding a smile. That sounded more like Noriko. If her therapy had worked, maybe we'd finally get to be friends again. Not as close as we once were. We'd never get that back. But a friendship of sorts. I could handle that.

We exchanged banter for the rest of the night, whenever there weren't any customers. I'd convinced her to take the register too—my least favourite part of the job, because customers tended to be rude at night, and I was _not_ a cheerful person to begin with—which was fantastic. Soon, ten o'clock had arrived, and my shift was over. I was surprised that the time didn't drag with her there.

"See you tomorrow, Iori," she said with a smirk. "We're shift buddies now."

"Great," I drawled sarcastically, but I didn't mean it. I was kind of enjoying her journey back to normalcy. "I've got to get going."

"Got a hot date tonight?" she teased.

"Movie date," I said sheepishly. "Tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow," she agreed.

I ran to the theatre. I'd spent a little longer locking up then I usually did, since I had someone to talk to, and I didn't want to be late to meet Natsuni.

She was waiting outside the theatre, two tickets in her hand.

"Cutting close, aren't you?" she said with a bright smile. I couldn't help but smile back. She had her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail—a signal that she'd come from a dinner party her mother held, and had angrily messed with her mother's hairstyling—and she'd cleared her face of all makeup. She was beautiful.

"Sorry," I said. "New co-worker."

"Any good?" she asked.

"Surprisingly yes," I decided. At her questioning look I decided to throw caution to the wind and tell her who it was. "Noriko Kawada actually."

"She's back!" was Natsuni's expectedly astonished reply.

"She's better," I corrected, guiding her into the theatre, towards the snacks counter. "Or working on it anyway."

She pondered over my words as I bought popcorn and drinks. She must have decided it was fine, because she didn't protest.

"She's happy for us," I added quietly. Her eyes widened, but softened immediately. A smile played at her lips.

"Well," she said. "We _are_ pretty cute."

"Oh, the cutest," I said rolling my eyes. But I was rewarded with her laughter. Then we went into the screening room, intent on catching the newest comedy.

It was a few hours later that I walked down the hallway leading to my apartment. It was after midnight, so I was trying to be quiet when I snuck through the front door. But the moment I did, the light turned on and my mother was running towards me.

"Iori, oh Iori! You're alright," she gasped, throwing her arms around me.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked hesitantly.

Kotemon and Meiyomon were struggling to stay awake from their seats on the couch. Clearly she'd kept them up with her pointless worrying.

"You're late," she accused. "You were supposed to be home hours ago. I looked into it, and your classes let out at three o'clock today."

"I also worked from three-thirty to ten tonight," I told her rolling my eyes at her dramatics. "And then I caught a movie with Natsuni."

"You promised you'd come home after classes if I let you go to school," she whimpered.

"And it's after classes now," I pointed out. "I'm nineteen Mother, I'm an adult. And you _knew_ I had a job."

"No," she protested. "You told me you were thinking about it, and I thought it was a bad idea."

"I took that into account," I told her. "And got one anyway. I'm working for the Inoue family. You know them, you trust them. Not that it matters, but I got a job that would ease your mind."

"And the movie? It's far too late for that sweetheart," she said. "I thought you had died."

"Because I wasn't home yet?" I asked. "It's Thursday. I _always_ go to the movies on Thursdays. It's been a thing for five years now."

"You should have asked me," she insisted.

"Go to bed Mother," I told her with a glare, before storming into my room. "I've got to meet Jou in five hours."

I forced myself to ignore any anger or guilt she was making me feel, and threw myself onto my bed. I needed sleep… Now that the happy mood Natsuni had put me in was gone, I _shouldn't_ have much trouble clearing my head.

"Did you sleep at all?" Jou asked over coffee the next morning. It was our usual Friday morning meeting, at seven in the morning, before he had work, and before I had school.

"No," I groaned greedily drinking my coffee. I was thankful for the caffeine. "My mother is becoming a menace. I don't know what to do."

"I'd say to just talk to her," Jou said. "Just sit her down and tell her what you feel, and why you feel that way. But I don't know how good that advice is. It's never worked with my dad."

"It would've worked with Grandpa," I said softly. It was moments like that that made me miss him more than usual. He was the adult I went to for advice, the only adult I trusted with my personal problems. _Him_. Not my mother.

"How was the movie last night?" he asked. I was pleased he didn't say he was sorry. Everyone did these days whenever I brought Grandpa up. But Jou understood. He'd lost his mother, and no matter how long ago it happened, it wasn't something you forget. And he knew me too. I didn't want pity. I didn't want my friends to feel like they needed to walk on eggshells around me. So Jou didn't do that.

"Great," I said, unable to keep a smile off my face. Natsuni and I hadn't particularly felt drawn in by the movie, and spent a lot of making out in the back corner.

I hesitated for a moment.

I could tell Jou about Natsuni and I. He'd never tell my mother. He would be a safe option. And I told him almost everything else.

"I didn't think it had gotten any good reviews," Jou commented.

I opened my mouth to tell him that it hadn't been the movie I'd meant, but it stuck in my throat. It would be weird to tell him now. It had been so long. He'd be disappointed that I hadn't told him sooner. _I_ was disappointed that I hadn't thought to tell him sooner.

So instead, I shook my head. "Natsuni's comments made it funnier."

He nodded and picked up his coffee cup. I stared down at my own, wondering when I'd become such a coward.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Yamato deals with his musical success, ponders over past losses and meets an overly enthusiastic fan.


	4. An Interview

**Y/N:** Yay! It's Yamato's turn, so my brother wrote it, and I found parts really funny, and I absolutely adore one of the characters introduced this time around. Please review if you have any questions or anything, thanks!

**U/N:** So in this chapter we learn what's going on with Yamato, and a new-ish character who i rather enjoy. Two of them actually :P I don't really have much to say except review... since hardly anyone is -_-

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 4: An Interview**

_**Yamato:**_

"Dude, they want us to do an encore!" Akira called out to me loudly as if I couldn't hear him over the screaming of the fans.

"They can't have an encore." I said flatly.

"WHAT?" Akira asked loudly.

I groaned. "I have to go!" I yelled. "I can't do an encore every time!" Akira gave me a look of pure disappointment with a threatening hint of 'I'll go out and sing without you... again.' But I shook my head. He rolled his eyes and turned to follow Akira and Takashi off toward the dressing rooms. I took one last glance back toward the curtain that shielded me from the view of the screaming fans, and sighed. It wasn't that I didn't want to do an encore, because I did. But the last time I'd made Taichi wait for me he'd been pretty upset, and at the moment he was the only friend I really had, so I didn't want to push it with him. Of course I still had plenty of time before he'd actually show up, waiting, but I also had a couple things I was required to do. Meet the fans.

I loved meeting the fans usually, but I'd been so tired lately—I'd had a concert twice a week, every week since the New Year when my band and I released our new album. I wasn't complaining—I was pleased that everyone seemed to like it—it hadn't made number one on the charts or anything... but number three wasn't so bad—especially since it had become our big break. Everyone in Japan knew our names now! And from the chat groups online I'd been reading through they liked us too!

There were a few whose comments I wish I could un-see—but that's life. Not everyone could love us... but that didn't stop me from wanting to try.

I shook my head and hurried after the rest of the band, following the light at the end of the hallway.

There were always four backstage passes to every concert, but Taichi had made sure to purchase as many as he could to hurry the process along, which I didn't mind—it wasn't that I didn't enjoy meeting the fans, I just didn't enjoy not sleeping.

"Bro," A sharp voice from next to me said, I was surprised but too exhausted to actually startle. I looked over and saw Takashi. His face was drowning with sweat, and he smelled completely awful, but he was grinning from ear to ear like always. "That was awesome."

"What was awesome?" I asked him quickly, as we walked briskly back to the changing rooms.

"Your random additions to the power ballad." Takashi patted me roughly on the back, "Didn't think you could hit that note."

"I've been practicing," I said to him, finally cracking a smile. It was true... I practically never stopped practicing my singing lately. I had nothing better to do other than my Astronaut training, which I was tempted to quit. I didn't want to go to space—this was all Taichi's doings and he quit school to become a famous ambassador, so the bet would just be called off, but I really liked winning, and I hadn't won anything in a while... So I couldn't quit just yet... I had to hold it out until I won whatever this bet would win me.

"Clearly," Takashi laughed, running off ahead.

I took a deep breath and followed, quickening my pace. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold this out for, but I honestly didn't care if I fell apart. Singing was fun, and travelling around Japan to sing concerts all over was literally a dream come true.

Finally, I came to the dressing room where I slowly stepped inside and was greeted by a tight hug from Akira who then pulled away and messed up my hair while smiling. He winked at me and turned to face two people who had backstage passes hanging around their necks. One of them was a familiar looking girl with light brown hair tied back in a short, messy ponytail and square framed glasses, about my age, and the other was a boy with dark hair hanging over his face as he stared at me with excitement piling up in his grey eyes.

"This one wants me." Akira winked at the girl who rolled her eyes.

"Shut it, Tubbers." She said a fiery look in her eyes and her nostrils flared. Yutaka and Takashi roared with laughter as Akira placed his hands on his stomach, a worried look filling his eyes about his weight.

There was silence other than laughter so I figured I'd make some sort of move to initiate a conversation.

"Hey," I said as calmly as I could, trying not to groan from the sight of an obvious "crazy" as Akira had taken to calling our most devoted fans.

"Hi!" The boy shot quickly, a smile forming on his face. "I'm Genki. I'm your biggest fan!" He pulled a poster and a black marker out from behind his back. "Can I have your autograph?"

"Y-yeah, sure thing," I said, stepping forward and taking the poster and marker. As I held it against the lime green painted walls to sign my name on it Genki began exploring the dressing room. On the opposite wall he stared at himself in the mirror and began flicking through the stage makeup and whatnot. As I finished my name and passed the poster on to Akira I saw Genki turn around and grin at the large green sofa sitting in front of a giant television.

"Is this where you watch T.V?" Genki asked excitedly.

"No, we just like to sit and stare at the blackness of the screen. Very relaxing." Takashi said sarcastically.

"So awesome." Genki grinned, "You guys are so awesome."

Akira and Takashi began laughing to each other as they passed the poster on to Yutaka who was rolling his eyes as he took the cap off of the marker.

I turned, smiling to the girl who was waiting patiently, a notepad and a pen in her hand.

"You want an autograph too?"I asked her.

She shook her head, "Not at all," She said, "I actually was wondering if you could answer a few questions." She pushed her glasses up her nose and looked to me with wide eyes.

"Sure," I told her, as I led her toward the makeup counter, the only place to sit that was away from the Crazy on the couch who was talking excitedly to Akira and Takashi about how he loved the music.

"Alright," The girl said, "I'm required to fill you in first," She cleared her throat, "I'm writing for a magazine, the 'Teen-Dream' actually, and this could be my big break. I really want to move on to something more legitimate. No offense, but I don't understand why all these teenage girls obsess over rock stars and pop singers when they've never met them. They could be total jerks, but they'd never know."

"Uh—" I tried, but she cut me off.

"Sorry, I tend to get off topic." She cleared her throat again and looked down to the notepad. "Okay, so first, we took a poll about which questions to ask, and fans want to know where you came up with your inspiration for your songs." I didn't respond at first, and the moment I had thought of a perfect answer she'd begun speaking again, "I notice a lot of them are about heartbreak... did someone break your heart?"

"Yeah Yamato," Akira asked loudly from the other side of the room, "What _are_ the songs about? Could it be... Sor—" I reacted quickly by grabbing a handful of makeup brushes and throwing them across the room toward him.

"So that's a yes?" The girl asked.

I nodded slowly and looked away from her.

"It's alright," She said, "It happens to the best of us. Now, next I'd like to know how you're taking all the hate from the people of Japan."

"H...hate?" I stuttered.

"You didn't know there was a hate campaign against you?" She asked. I shook my head. "Oh, well there is. I suppose I'll just whip something up about you staying strong in the face of adversity and how you overcome the hate by focusing on your music. That alright?"

"That sounds perfect." I said. "Though isn't it cheating?"

"I'm not sure the fans want to read a story about how you didn't know there were people who hated you. There's a reason you're not number one on the charts, y'know." She said, looking to her notepad and scribbling things down.

"Oh?" Yutaka asked, stepping over to us, "And what's that? If you're so high and mighty, why don't you tell us how to improve. I'm sure you have a bestselling album?"

"I don't." She said, looking up to Yutaka with a fiery look in her caramel coloured eyes as her lips curled wickedly at the ends. She clearly did not fancy Yutaka, "But I also don't spend all my time writing heart-break songs that will ultimately annoy my fans to the point where they are praying to end up with you all, not because they love you, but because they're sick of you singing about how awful your life is without the 'angel from the sky'."

"Hey that's my favourite one of our songs!" Yutaka said defensively.

I put my hand on his arm and shook my head. "She's right." I told him. "This is getting ridiculous..." I looked up to her and nodded, she really was familiar... I definitely knew her from somewhere. "I need to get out there and stop focusing all my time on Sora."

"That's the understatement of the year."

Without looking toward the sound of the voice I could tell who it was by the accented voice. What was Neo doing here? I turned my head slowly and saw him standing by the door with the backstage pass between two of his fingers.

"What do you want Neo?" I growled.

"Easy Tiger." He said, raising his hands cautiously, "I just want to talk to you about my girlfriend. And I'm going to make it real quick and easy for you to understand. Sora is my girlfriend, and I want you to respect that. I don't know what she's going to do in the future, but if she was dating you, would you want me to continue to pursue her?"

"No." I said flatly.

"Exactly." Neo said, "So can you, maybe... lay off a little."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Sora said that you called her yesterday." Neo said, moving toward me and sitting down in the chair next to me.

"So?" I said, "She's my friend."

"She also told me that you had a lovely conversation until you attempted to convince her to break up with me." Neo said, his eyebrows raised. "I just want you to respect that she's not yours anymore. Maybe in the future Yamato, but as for right now, I love her. And she loves me..."

"Okay." I said, unwilling to say anything more. I didn't want to start an argument with a writer right next to me. She'd end up documenting it and putting it in the magazine for every one of my fans to see.

"Well," Neo said, standing up, "Not that this hasn't been a blast and all, but I've really got to get going. My sister is waiting." He patted me on the shoulder, "See you later Yamato," And then he turned to leave. As he walked toward the door he gave Genki a look that said 'I'm so glad I'm not famous' as the Crazy held tightly onto Takashi who just laughed nervously.

"Happy Birthday," I said quickly, my stomach seizing up. Why did I say anything? "By... the way."

"Me?" Neo asked, turning and pointing to his chest with his thumb. I nodded and he grinned, "My Birthday was—"

"Almost a month ago." I said, "I know."

"Oh..." Neo looked shocked but then smiled, "Thanks," he turned and left without another word, letting the door slam shut behind him.

"Does that mean I have to go too?" The girl asked.

"Eventually." I told her simply.

"Well, how about I go now," She said standing up, "I'm sure I can make up some stuff and make you all seem lovable, and how you're all open to a relationship with the fans, even though you're not. That way they'll think they have a chance."

"That sounds _awesome_." Akira grinned, "We'll be like... a team of heartbreakers."

"It'll be nice to be the breaker instead of the breaky, eh Yamato?" Yutaka joked, elbowing me lightly.

"And maybe you'll write some great songs about it?" The girl said, her eyebrows raised and her lips pursed.

"Or..." I said, "We could get a coffee sometime and you can finish this interview?"

"I really don't..." She trailed off for a minute, "I suppose that would be more legitimate... and I might actually get the promotion I want... but you don't remember me do you?"

I shook my head.

"I went to your friend's wedding?" She prodded. I started running through faces—it was right there I just couldn't place it... "With Taichi?"

"Katsue!" I said suddenly. "Yeah! I remember! You pretended to be dating me to help me over my breakup with Sora."

"And she wanted us to think she was heartless." Akira joked, "She's really a softy after all."

"Watch it, Pillsbury-Dough-Turd." Katsue said, her eyes darting toward Akira who threw his hands into the air in defense. She turned to me, her expression lightening quickly, "Won't that be awkward?"

I shook my head, "Why would it?"

She froze for a moment and nodded, "You're right, how about four o'clock tomorrow at that new little restaurant down the road?"

"That sounds perfect." I smiled at her. She nodded professionally and then turned to leave.

"See you then," She said over her shoulder as she adjusted the bag over her shoulder and then headed for the door.

"Can I just stay here?" Genki asked.

"No." Takashi said loudly. He pushed out of Genki's hold. "You have to go now. It was great meeting you though."

"Pleeeeaaaase!" Genki groaned. "I just—can I use your bathroom?"

"Fine." Takashi said with a shrug, "Hurry..."

As Genki ran excitedly toward the bathroom door I jumped to my feet and moved about the room collecting my things. I picked up the satchel that I had gotten from Sora when she'd come back from her trip to Moscow the year after we'd gotten together. It was filled with everything that I needed daily. As I picked up my jacket and turned around Akira, Yutaka and Takashi were standing behind me, all grinning foolishly.

"What?" I asked breathily.

"You're over Sora?" Akira asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked them.

"Well you obviously like this girl." Takashi said, "Even I could tell it. And I was being attacked by the Crazy." He reached forward and poked my shoulder hard, "You're moving on."

"I literally didn't even think about it guys." I said flatly, pushing through Akira and Takashi.

"But you are now. And if not yet... you will." Yutaka said with a smirk, "Because of us. You're welcome. We got you out of your funk. Now you can write another song to reach number one." He was referring to the song I had written the week after Sora and I had gotten together, which had really been the song to bring us a fan base that wasn't just our classmates.

"It lasted two days." I told him.

"Two days more than your breakup songs." Yutaka pointed out.

"Well, we'll see." I told them, turning to leave, following Katsue out the door. "See you guys tomorrow at seven."

"Right after your date with Katsue!" Akira said as Takashi wolf-whistled.

I rolled my eyes and stepped out the door, slamming it behind me and rushing down the metal staircase just out the door. I passed Akako, our personal bodyguard on the way out. I waved quickly to him but he paid no attention as always. There was only one car in the parking lot, and a large trailer where Akira, Takashi and Yutaka slept every night. Even though we were back in our home town they wanted to sleep in the trailer, but I personally enjoyed sleeping in my own apartment. Alone time was golden when bunking with the guys.

I knew that Taichi was in the only car as the back parking lot was reserved and guarded for just us. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Katsue was being led from the premises. She didn't look back, and I couldn't lie, it made me sad. I wanted to see her eyes again. Because they were cool. That's all...

I hurried toward the car and threw the passenger seat door open and jumped into the car where Taichi was leaning back in the driver's seat. He looked up to me with a disproving look and then straightened his chair again.

"You're late again..." He said calmly, but I could tell by his facial expressions that he wasn't happy.

"Sorry... it's hard work being famous." I joked, "I didn't even sing an encore today, just for you."

"Oh I feel so honoured," Taichi said sarcastically as he started the car with a grin.

It didn't take long to get Taichi to move on, and soon he was ranting about his meetings like always, but this time he wasn't angry about them. Apparently they hired Ogremon to work on the council with the others, and his sarcastic remarks put that Marrow fellow back in his place every time, which Taichi thought was hilarious due to the fact that Marrow picked Ogremon because he hoped he'd be on his side.

"But now we need to search for some Holy digimon to keep the balance or Koushiro will have a fit." Taichi finished.

"What about Angemon?" I suggested.

"Nah," Taichi said, "I thought about him or Angewoman, but Marrow would never allow it. He doesn't want anyone biased... I guess I know what I'll be doing all night."

"Or you could just let Koushiro do it." I said.

"Which is probably what will happen." Taichi laughed. He slowed the car for a red light and turned to me, "You got plans tomorrow? I was thinking we could go try Mimi's new restaurant."

"Actually..." I said slowly, "I think I have a date."

Taichi nodded and then looked to me in surprise as if he hadn't registered what I had said at first. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"Let me guess..." Taichi said, putting his finger to his chin as the light turned green. "She's got reddish-brown hair, brown eyes... looks a lot like Sora."

"It's not Sora." I said.

"But someone that looks like her?" Taichi asked.

"No actually..." I said. "She's—well you know her actually." I didn't know if Taichi would be okay with me going on a date with his ex-girlfriend even if they did only go on one date. "It's Katsue."

"From Ken's wedding?" Taichi asked, "First Sora, and now Katsue, dude, you're picking up my sloppy seconds." I felt anger rise inside of me—and found myself coming to Sora's defense—she was not a sloppy second no matter how many people thought that. I knew that she was different. I knew she was wonderful. "Dude, I was kidding. Shouldn't have said that—I'm sure you're capable of finding your own girlfriends too." He flashed a smile at me. I hadn't even thought of it like that. I didn't even take it as an insult to me... was that wrong? That I was still so protective over Sora? We'd been broken up for two and half years and I couldn't figure out how to move on... Maybe going on a date with Katsue was a good idea...

I looked out the window and saw, unfortunately, Sora's favourite fabric shop, and I felt a tight grip around my heart as I turned from the window.

Definitely a good idea.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Mimi gets to tell us about her life, and we get some more interactions with the entire group, as they are all present!


	5. Turning Green

**Y/N:** It's Mimi this time around, and I've got a list of foods here, so you can know what it is that they're eating if you want to. It might not interest you at all, but in case it does:

Omuraisu: fried rice wrapped in a thin egg omelette, usually served with ketchup

Pickles: come in a large variety—such as carrots, cucumbers, maybe even turnip—and are served as an appetizer on a platter

Nikujaga: a dish consisting of sweet stewed meat and potatoes

Oden: a nabe dish (hot pot dishes) prepared with fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konyaku and kombu seasweed, slowly simmered in a soy sauce based soup

Donburi: refers to a bowl of plain cooked rice with some other food on top. In this case, stewed beef

Curry Rice: cooked rice with a Japanese curry sauce

Anyway, review if you'd like to let me know what you thought!

**U/N:** not gonna lie, i don't actually remember this chapter very much but i'm sure it annoyed me just enough :P Mimi isn't exactly headed up in my favourite's list this time around... not her fault. Just the plots we gave her... anyway... please review.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 5: Turning Green**

_**Mimi:**_

"Are we out of milk?" Sora called from the kitchen.

"Is there any in the fridge?" I asked her.

"No," she said. "That's why I'm asking."

"If it's not there, then we don't have any," I said with a sigh. Sometimes I wondered about that girl. She had been living with me for months now, and she _still_ found a way to ask such simple, self-answering questions.

"Would it kill you to put it on the grocery list when it's gone?" she asked exasperatedly. "Koushiro and I went grocery shopping yesterday. We could have picked some up if you'd just put it on the damn list."

Apparently that was a really big pet peeve of hers. Forgetting something on the dreaded list. You know what was a pet peeve of mine? That Sora spent more time with my boyfriend than I did. No. It was more than that. Koushiro and I would cuddle on the couch every evening, and it was really nice, but I wanted to do something sometimes. But he never wanted to go shopping…because he'd already gone with Sora two days ago. He never wanted to go out for dinner, because he and Sora had just got lunch at Daisuke's noodle-cart the day before. It was always an excuse. An excuse involving Sora.

And it was getting on my nerves.

But there were times when I was sure I was just imagining it.

"And he emerges," Sora joked, catching my attention. Koushiro was coming down the hallway, having clearly just awoken.

"It's my day off," he said. "Leave me alone."

"How late were you up this time?" I questioned teasingly.

"And what was the project?" Sora added.

"I was going over data for Taichi, the stuff we found yesterday," he explained with a yawn. Clearly he hadn't got much sleep. I honestly believed he thought Taichi would actually fire him if he didn't work himself so hard. From what I'd gathered, Taichi didn't seem to do all that much on his own anyway. He had Agumon training his knights for him, Koushiro doing his research, and the rest of us trying to track down whoever was trying to take over the Digital World this time around.

Just yesterday, I dragged Koushiro out with me—because he and Sora hadn't done this yet and I'd get to spend a bunch of time with him of course—to scour the Digital World for any signs of a dark digimon trying to raise an army or whatever, but that's not what we found. I wasn't a hundred percent sure what conclusion Koushiro came to, but I knew it was bad…

"_Hurry up," I hissed. "We've got a lot of ground to cover."_

"_We don't have any set amount of searching to do," he told me shaking his head, and slipping his hand into mine, and pulling me down onto the rock beside him. We were trying to get to high ground, so we could see further. "It's not like we're going to stumble upon an incident. We don't have any leads to go on."_

_Then I heard a squawking sound. The sound of a chicken._

"_Kokatorimon," I surmised, sliding off of the rock and ducking behind it for cover. Koushiro followed my lead at my insistence. I peered down into the forest, searching frantically until I caught sight of the giant chicken digimon._

"_What's he doing so far north?" Tentomon asked from Koushiro's side._

"_I don't know," Palmon said, not realizing it was rhetorical. She was adorable like that._

"_Fighting with Kuwagamon?" I guessed, noting the presence of another digimon._

"_There's something wrong with the Kuwagamon," Koushiro noted._

_It was only after he'd mentioned it that I saw it. It was partially hidden behind the trees. There was something…scary about it. Something was definitely wrong, but I could place my finger on what it was. I'd seen digimon like this before though._

"_Rosemon," Palmon added._

"_What?" I asked confused. She pointed down into the trees, and sure enough, a Rosemon walked out of the shadows. She walked purposefully and bravely, not flinching at the sight of the Kuwagamon. She raised her hand and stuck something into the wing of the Kokotorimon. I leaned closer, but we were too far to see what it was exactly. If I had to guess, her actions made me think of getting a vaccination._

_The results were what caught my attention. Even from our distance, I could see the changes happening to bird. Its teeth grew long, becoming fangs, and its talons became sharper. Its wings were crooked, the feathers jutting out at odd angles._

"_What's going on?" I asked horrified._

"_This is what Taichi was talking about," Koushiro told me. "He says digimon are becoming ferocious, vicious. He's compared it to the Black Gears. The irritation made even the kindest of digimon into enemies."_

"_A digimon is doing this?" I clarified._

"_As far as we can figure," he said with a shrug. "I'll have to analyze the data we've collected today. See if I can pinpoint what's making the transformations, or if I can find a digimon that has the power to accomplish such feats. It would be much easier with my old laptop… But Tatum and I might've compiled enough information for my new database."_

_I felt guilty for just like half a second, because I hadn't caught his laptop. I'd tried though. And that was the moment he told me he loved me, so I was kind of happy with the way it turned out. Besides, he had a new laptop—one he got with Sora. He didn't really like it though, which made me feel better about not helping pick it out._

"_Woah," Palmon gasped. I turned to the digimon quickly._

"_Are they doing what I think they're doing?" I asked in surprise._

"_If you think they are fusing into one," Tentomon said. "Then you're correct."_

"_Not fusing," Koushiro correct. "Jogress. Fusing requires crests."_

_And he'd fused with _Sora_, so he'd know._

"_Megadramon," Tentomon informed us._

"_How does a digimon manage to do all of this?" I asked._

"_I'm not sure," Koushiro said, scanning the area one last time, before standing up. "But I'll let you know when I put the pieces together. I think we're ready to leave."_

"_Yeah," I said, clutching his hand and letting him pull me away from the terrifying digimon that was the result of the two infected champions._

"Did you find a conclusion?" Sora asked, snapping me back to the present.

"I did," he said grimly. "I'll tell you later. We've got to head to the restaurant for that meeting today."

"It's not a meeting," Sora said rolling her eyes. "Taichi just likes calling it that. We're just hanging out a restaurant."

"My restaurant," I said with a proud grin. I couldn't stop saying it. My dream was being realized in a bigger way than I'd ever imagined. I got to be a chef, but I got to decide everything. The menu, the décor, the hours. It was exhilarating. And I'd finished some mediocre menus—at Jou's insistence. Apparently, it wasn't very professional to just have the day's specials on a chalkboard on the wall.

My menu wasn't going over very well anyway, so I didn't see the point in it. I may or may not have enlisted Mrs Yagami to help me plan out the menu. Koushiro didn't see anything wrong with any of the food items on the list. Sora wouldn't eat most of it, but she was probably just picky. Jou would eat some if I asked him to. There were some basic items and then some more outlandish dishes that were much more exciting to make. I hadn't tried much else though…

I didn't have the time or money to make anything more elaborate. As it was, I barely scraped enough together to open my restaurant in the first place. I only managed because Koushiro and Sora moved in with me. My parents had paid the down payment for my house—the home I grew up in, and desperately wanted for my future too—but I had to pay the mortgage. I was fine for the first while. But it was really cutting into my restaurant savings.

It was Sora's idea, actually, for me to rent out rooms.

I didn't want strangers though, so I asked my friends, trying to figure out who needed a reasonably priced place. Sora—who I started to suspect suggested it because this was the case—jumped at the opportunity, and told me I ought to ask Koushiro too.

It was a big step for us, to move in together I mean. I was so nervous to actually ask him, but he said yes…and the rest is history. Well, relatively new history anyway.

"Yes," Sora said with a big smile too. "_Your_ restaurant."

"Speaking of my restaurant," I said suddenly. "I need to get over there. Genki is probably waiting for me already. He's helping me in the kitchen today. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Koushiro told me. He was over at the counter, pulling a mug out of the cupboard. Clearly he was looking for a caffeine fix. "We'll be there in an hour anyway."

"I know," I said with a sigh. "I just feel like I'm abandoning you. You just woke up!"

"It's two-thirty in the afternoon Mimi," Sora said with a laugh. "It's his own fault."

Koushiro sighed and rolled his eyes at her. He pulled me close and kissed me quickly. "I'll see you soon."

Sora was squealing at us. She was so proud of him. I'm pretty sure she took pride in every time he kissed me of his own accord. I've heard she took our relationship as proof of her ability to play cupid.

I sent him a smile and gave a quick goodbye to the two of them, before rushing to grab my bag by the door. I was going to set up the kitchen so I'd have a chance to sit with them during our meeting, rather than being behind the scenes like the last few times. It wasn't as much fun. I didn't even get to see if they were enjoying the food I made them.

Genki was amazing. He was everything I was looking for in a server. He was enthusiastic, and he never failed to get at least one person to try one of my crazier dishes. I'd only hired him a week before, but he was already my most valuable employee. And he was always willing to come in and do anything extra should I need him.

I decided to cash in on that offer that day, as I really wanted to have time with my friends.

He _was_ waiting for me by the back entrance—for employees only!—standing in the cold with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"I didn't think you were coming," he joked

"Sorry," I told him earnestly. "I didn't mean to be so late. My boyfriend slept in and I just wanted to say hello before I left."

"It's not a problem," he said happily. "I'm just excited to meet Mimi's infamous friends."

"They're not all so _in_famous," I said with a wink. "And actually, some of them are coming in from America, so they'll be bringing some friends with them. I don't want you to freak out when you see them, okay? Just think of them as little, tiny children in Halloween costumes if it makes it easier. Or robots, that worked at a wedding once."

"I take it these aren't your…_typical_ friends," he said knowingly. I was sure he'd do just fine if he came face to face with a few digimon. I knew Terriermon and Lopmon would be coming. They seemed to go everywhere that Willis did. If I didn't know better, I'd think they _never_ went back to the Digital World. But our digimon were needed there. They held the crest power, after all. That meant that they were necessary for the balance.

"Do you think I need to change the menu?" I asked looking at a tank full of live octopi. I had them for one of my more experimental dishes. It was another reason Genki was hired. He was able to kill an octopus for cooking. I tried, but I ended up taking it home and naming it Oswald. I just couldn't do it.

"What's wrong with the menu?" he asked, putting the herbs he was sorting down and picking up said paper.

"It's not selling," I whined.

"You just need to market differently," he suggested. "If you use a unique dish as the special of the day, people will think that it's a rare dish, but a _good_, rare dish. You know?"

"You're right," I said happily. What to chose, what to chose…

"So," Genki said. "You suggested that some of your friends were famous…?"

"Ah, ah, ah," I said, wagging my finger at him. "You'll just have to wait and see."

"But," he protested half-heartedly.

"Octopus and lentil salad," I announced. "That's today's special. Can you handle it?"

"It's what I was hired to do," he joked.

"Good," I said, still mulling through the ingredients in the kitchen. I double checked the pots and pans, finding them all in their designated place. Everything was looking good.

"Mimi?"

"Yamato," I cheered. "I have to go Genki. My guests are arriving."

But he didn't seem to hear me. His eyes just got really wide. He turned to look at me.

"Yamato? As in, Yamato Ishida of the Teenage Wolves?" he asked completely mystified.

"Uh-huh," I said with a grin. "He's going to need a server too."

"Oh, please let me do it," he pleaded. "_Please._"

"I don't know," I said pretending to think it over. It would be hilarious to see him fawn over Yamato.

"Please," he said desperately.

"Oh, alright," I said with a laugh.

"Yes!" he shouted.

"Mimi," Yamato called. "Do you have someone else in there?"

"I do, yes," I said. I grabbed Genki's arm, and dragged him behind me. "Yamato, I'd like you to meet your server for the night."

"Jenti," Yamato said in surprise.

"Wow, you remember me," Genki said in a daze.

"Not well," I scolded Yamato. "This is _Genki_. He's my newest employee, and my best."

"Would you like to sit down?" Genki asked. "Mimi has set up a buffet style table for her guests this evening."

"I'm sure I can find a seat," Yamato said, gesturing to the table Genki was talking about. It was kind of the _only_ place to sit in the restaurant right now. I even had to push them up against a table in a booth to get enough table room for everyone.

"Okay," Genki said airily. "I'll get you something to drink."

"Alright," he said. "I'll have—"

"Water, you only like water with meals, because it helps keep your face clear of blemishes, and with the lights from the stage you need all the help you can get," Genki said, quoting a magazine I'd just read earlier in the day.

"Right," Yamato said. I could tell he was getting a little freaked out about Genki. But he needed to get used to this. People would be doing this all the time now.

Genki ran off to the kitchen to fetch his water.

"Was this really necessary?" Yamato asked pointedly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I told him with a smirk.

"Here it is," Genki announced. "It has a lemon wedge in it, because lemon water has a lot of health benefits, and I thought it might be tastier than plain water. Especially with the menu we have prepared for tonight."

"You're already taking orders?" Taichi asked, having snuck up behind me. "That's just not fair."

I turned around to see Daisuke and Kurayami were at his side, with Hikari, Michael and Willis waiting behind them.

"Michael!" I exclaimed, running to hug him. "I haven't seen you in forever."

"Love you too Mimi," Willis said wryly.

"You too, Willis," I said nudging him.

"Hello," Genki said. "Welcome to Mimi's. Can I get your drink order?"

"Just get everyone water," I told him. "It's fast and easy."

"I'm on it," he said cheerily, before disappearing into the kitchen again.

"He's a go getter," Hikari commented.

"And cute," I told her with a wink. She blushed and looked away.

"I have a boyfriend," she hissed at me.

"You can appreciate other guys too," I told her. "You just can't act on it. _Then_ it's wrong."

She giggled, and took a seat, allowing Gatomon—who I hadn't noticed before—to jump into her lap. "We brought Gabumon too," she said, nodding to said digimon, who was standing behind me. "We ran into him on our way through the Digital World. He really wanted to see you Yamato. You haven't been to the Digital World lately, and he missed you."

"I missed you too buddy," Yamato called to him, pulling out a chair and motioning for him to sit down. Willis took the chair on Hikari's left, and let his twin digimon take the seat to his. Michael slouched into a chair, and Taichi headed straight for Yamato. Daisuke—the little sweetheart—pulled Kurayami's chair out for her, causing her to blush prettily. They were so adorable! It made me so happy to see them together, especially when she'd had such a trying life before she'd met us, and then had her stint at being evil. It was nice to see her happy—and _good_.

Genki, who knew more people were coming, brought out enough water, so that he was able to provide some for Koushiro, Sora and Iori, who'd arrived in his absence. Ken and Miyako followed soon after, though they didn't act nearly as cute as Daisuke and Kurayami did. She kept flinching, and he would send her a worried glance. She'd shake her head and he'd shrug… it was all very repetitive. And I was curious, I won't lie, but it didn't seem like my business. I didn't want to meddle with their marriage. That would make me a home-wreaker or something…wouldn't it?

"Where is Takeru?" Hikari asked.

"Still in France." Yamato said. Memories of my last trip there flashed through my mind but the look on Hikari's face washed all of that away. "So, what's new with everyone else?" Yamato asked.

"I got a new co-worker," Iori said calmly. "You really must thank your parents, Miyako. She's a real keeper."

His sarcasm was evident.

"Oh?" she said surprised. "Who is it?"

"Noriko," he told her.

Taichi and Yamato started laughing, as the latter was ready to launch into another retelling of their famous date, when Jou came running in with baby Emiko in his arms.

"Sorry I'm late," he said breathing heavily. "Emiko wanted to walk, but she took a wrong turn at a run, and I ended up chasing her all over the place. She's small enough to sneak into some pretty strange places."

"How's my precious goddaughter?" I asked her with a little more enthusiasm than necessary. She giggled at me and held her arms out for me to take her from Jou. I did as she wanted. Who could resist such a face?

"Is everyone ready to order?" Genki asked.

"Yes," I announced. "I'm having Curry Rice."

"I know," he said. "You started the curry a bit ago, when you announced you were going to have that."

"Right," I said with a sheepish smile.

"It sounds really good," Sora said. "I'll have the same."

"I'm thinking Oden," Yamato said. Genki's attention was on him at once. It took Yamato awhile to get him to return to taking the others' orders. Koushiro, Daisuke and Willis decided to order the same as Yamato, while Taichi, Jou and Ken decided to go with the simpler Donburi dish. Sushi was ordered for Gatomon, while Gabumon, Terriermon and Lopmon played it safe with just a pickle platter. The rest of them decided on Nikujaga.

I sighed. This wasn't how I was hoping it would go.

"Come on, isn't anyone going to try something interesting," I asked. "What about the octopus and lentil salad? Deliciously cooked octopus tentacles on a bed of lentils tossed with red onions, garlic and red wine vinegar. Doesn't that sound good, it sounds really good, right?" I asked her. She nodded with a big grin on her face. At least someone liked the idea of it.

"If you feed that to my daughter, so help me…" Jou said trailing off.

"Right, how about Omuraisu, that's kid friendly," I told Genki. He quickly wrote it down.

"So that's three orders of Donburi with Stewed Beef(Tai, Joe, Ken), six orders of Nikujaga (Yolei, Kari, Kura, Cody, TK, Michael), four orders of Oden (Izzy, Davis, Willis, Matt), and one order of Curry Rice (Mimi), with two pickles appetizers, an order of sushi and one order of Omuraisu from the kid menu. Does that sound right?" Genki asked.

"Two of the Curry Rice," Sora corrected.

"Right," he said. "How silly of me to forget."

"It's alright," Sora said smiling brightly at him. He didn't return the smile though, having already turned to Yamato.

"That's all you want, right? I just want to make sure I have your order down correctly," he said quickly.

"Yep, just the one dinner, and the appetizer for my buddy here," Yamato said putting his arm around Gabumon.

"Mimi said it was either a child in a costume or a robot," Genki informed him. "I'll go with child, since it will be eating."

"You do that," Yamato said sending me a weird look of exasperation. I shrugged. What was I supposed to do about it?

"Have you figured out anything about that hate campaign yet?" I asked. I'd served him when he and that girl came in not too long ago.

"No," he said with a sigh. "I don't know who's leading it. I don't even know what they do. I'm too sheltered I guess. I just don't want to go and pick up tabloids about us, since those are all rumours anyway."

"I could tell you all you need to know," Genki announced.

"Really?" Yamato questioned awkwardly.

"Oh yes," Genki said. "As your biggest fan it's my job to fight against those that are part of that campaign. Anyway, it's being run by this guy named Hideto. He thinks your music is crap that he wouldn't even subject torture victims to."

"Harsh," Yamato said with a wince.

"Oh I know," Genki said with a grin. "He's rather ruthless in his quest. Shall I start preparing dinner?"

"Yes," I suggested. Yamato looked like someone kicked a puppy. He was so disappointed that someone hated his music so much.

"By the way," Genki added. "If you just made an upbeat song every once in awhile, he might not hate you so much." His eyes widened. "Not that there's anything to hate. You're a musical genius."

"Thanks kid," Yamato said sadly.

"I'm not a kid, but you're welcome," he said with a bounce in his step.

"Tough luck Yamato," Jou joked. "At least you've got us."

"And Michael," Miyako added. "He's famous too, and he's listed your band as one of his favourites to all sorts of magazine interviewers."

"It's good music," Michael defended. I couldn't help but coo over that. He was so thoughtful, promoting Yamato's band in a foreign country.

"You know, I read the most interesting thing in a magazine this morning. I need you to confirm or deny it. Did your mother really marry Michael's dad?" I said, turning to Willis.

"Yes," Willis said grudgingly.

"And why wasn't I invited to this wedding?" I wanted to know. "I'm only one of your best friends, and Mr Washington's favourite person like ever."

"Yeah, we refused to have any of our friends present," Michael said. "We kinda hated the idea."

"Still do," Willis said. "I feel sorry for your dad, man."

"Bro," I corrected. "You're brothers now."

"And I've got a wicked step-mother too," Michael complained. "She's trying to convince me that digimon are evil and unnecessary creatures and that I should get rid of Betamon, because she's my step-mother and I should do whatever she says."

"What a moron," Willis supplied when Michael was met with silence.

"Where's Momoe?" Miyako asked Jou, taking attention away from Michael's embarrassment.

"With Jun," he said. "Something about a girl's night. I had to take Emiko, so she could paint the town red, or something. I didn't think you'd care that I brought her. It's not like she understands most of what we say anyway."

"And she's adorable," I added.

"Could I use the little mon's room?" Gabumon asked suddenly.

"Go right ahead," I told him. "I'll get Genki to show you where it is. He'll be thrilled, since you're so close to Yamato. Genki!" He came rushing out of the kitchen. "Can you bring Gabumon here to the bathroom?"

He nodded and led him away quickly, chatting enthusiastically about Yamato all the while.

"Speaking of digimon," I said. "Koushiro and I found something interesting yesterday."

"Does it have to do with the rampages and attacks?" Taichi asked hopeful.

"We think so, or well I think so, he'll know by now whether it does or not," I said. "But we saw a fusion."

"A jogress, actually. We have the crests. What they did was just a jogress—a fusion without a crest. All that requires is a digivice."

"What are you getting at?" Jou asked.

"A human is behind this," he said, causing everyone to gasp in horror.

"Another human trying to take over the Digital World?" Ken asked. "Do they not know about us?"

"You've got a pretty good track record for getting rid of human invaders," Kurayami agreed.

"That's not the issue," Koushiro continued. "The real problem lies with identifying the invader. This human could have received a digivice three years ago, when the worlds were combined, or back when we did, and those of the world's chosen children. Or the digivice could have came specifically to them, the way Willis' did him, or Ken's did. It could be anyone."

"Neo," Yamato suggested.

"Yamato," Sora shouted, affronted.

"Well, he's dating you," Taichi joked. "He's bound to turn evil at some point."

"You can't just accuse him like that. He's a really great guy," she insisted. "And he hasn't changed for the worse at all since I started dating him. He's not the bad guy. I'll let you know if he starts turning evil, but for now, he's not. So don't treat him like he is."

"Technically, it _could_ be him," Yamato insisted. "Koushiro said _anyone_."

I felt a shiver pass through me at the thought. How were we supposed to find out who was behind it all? It wasn't one of us. But there were so many others that had a digivice. And more still that we didn't even know about.

I caught a glance at Genki, who was hovering in the doorway. We didn't want him to worry about all of this stuff. He didn't even know what a digimon was—well, before he met some today—so I didn't want to worry him about the attacks.

"You don't have to worry about interrupting us, Genki," I called to him. "Just come in whenever."

"It's alright," he said with a grin—the one he wore every time he caught sight of Yamato—as he pushed in a cart full of food. "I was just talking with Gabumon here."

It struck me as odd, but I shrugged. Gabumon could talk to anyone. Being shy didn't mean he wasn't going to talk to anybody ever. It was a silly thought in the first place.

I watched as Gabumon trudged over to Michael and slide into the booth beside him, instead of returning to his seat next to Yamato.

"Here you are, _Michael_," Genki announced, passing Michael his tray. I ignored the way he stressed the name. He picked up a different tray and headed over to Yamato. "And here's yours, Yamato. I hope you like it. I put extra effort into it. I wanted it to be perfect. Like your music."

"Er…" Yamato said, sounding uncomfortable. "Thanks."

"Wow," Genki said happily, looking to me. "He thanked me. _Me_!"

"He sure did," I said with a giggle. "Good job."

He quickly distributed all the other trays on his cart. He even had a plate of food that was already cut into teeny tiny pieces for Emiko. He really went the extra mile.

"Excuse me," Sora called. "But, well, you seemed to have forgotten me."

"How could I ever forget Sora?" he asked a tad disdainfully. I hid my smile behind my hand.

"We don't have anything else, actually," Genki continued. "Though we do have an excess amount of lentils and octopi. I could whip up a salad if you'd like."

"Here Sora," I said, unable to keep the laughter out of my voice. "We ordered the same thing. I'll just get something later."

"Thanks," she said, taking my offered tray. Genki disappeared back into the kitchen, and Taichi laughed.

"I guess that's what you get for breaking his idol's heart," he joked. And I couldn't help it. I had to laugh too, because that boy was more than obsessed, and it was so cute, just how far he'd go to protect his precious Yamato.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Sora takes over the story, and while not much action happens, we learn a lot more, so watch out for that.


	6. Valentines

**Y/N:** Valentine's day arrives, and Sora, the bearer of love, gets to lead us through it, and I really enjoyed reading this chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy it too! :)

**U/N:** So this is the first Sora chapter-and first, you should know, that this is the most girly chapter ever, but it has a little bit of depth. But since my sister stole the plot for this chapter for Mimi's chapter xD I had nothing to go on... but this is the first step toward making Sora more interesting. I hope you like her, and the chapter... enjoy :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 6: Valentines**

_**Sora:**_

"Sora, you need to cut him some slack." Takeru said through the rustic styled telephone as I twirled the cord with my fingers, leaning against the wall in the kitchen, my eyes closed. "He's getting over you, he really is." We were talking about Yamato of course. I usually spoke to Takeru in these situations because he refused to actually pick a side in the argument and always gave me a reality check if I was too far out of line, and I was told that he did the same for Yamato.

"But I can't have him sabotaging everything I do with Neo," I said, "I mean—you heard him. He thinks Neo is trying to take over the Digital World. It's gone too far... I need to talk to him."

"Are you going to tell him to leave you alone?" Takeru asked me, I could hear the worry in his voice.

"Absolutely not." I said, "Yamato is a very important person to me. He is a very good friend—and I never want that to change. He'd know all of that if he'd just open the letter." I had written him a letter explaining my feelings at Miyako's wedding, and he'd refused to open it.

"Why don't you just tell him?" Takeru asked. "He's never going to open it."

"Because he _will_ open it." I said. "When he's ready to move on, he will read it. I know he will... well, providing you weren't lying when you said that he hasn't lost it."

"He hasn't... its sitting on the desk in his room." Takeru said. "Have you thought about forgiving him?"

"I have actually," I said, "And I've taken the first step in the forgiving process. But it all comes back to this again, if he won't read the letter and communicate with me like an adult I can't forgive him because I won't be ready. And that won't happen until he's ready to move on. So he needs a girlfriend."

"He's had like six girlfriends... seven if you include Hikari." I could hear the resentment in his voice as he spoke about his brother dating the love of his life.

"He didn't go on a date with Hikari," I said with a little laugh, "He just took her to dinner... and bowling I think. And I don't mean having single dates or one night stands—"

"He doesn't do that." Takeru said quickly.

"I mean he needs a girlfriend. He needs a palate cleanser. And he needs to move on." I said.

"Okay... I'll see what I can do," Takeru said, "But I've got to go, I'm supposed to video chat with Catherine in a couple hours, and I don't want to look stupid or have to leave to pee or something—gotta get ready."

"Alright Takeru," I said with a grin, "Talk to you later."

"Oh, and Happy Anniversary Sora," Takeru said before clicking the phone and hanging up. I had been so busy thinking about Yamato, and all my other friends I'd almost forgotten that I was to go on a date with Neo today. But it was Valentine's day, and I wasn't the only one desperate to get ready and look perfect for a date.

I hung up the phone and opened the glass door and stepped from the grey tiled kitchen to the mahogany wood of the living room where Mimi was chatting up the rest of the girls who the two of us had promised to help get ready. The couch in the room was a deep red, and the tapestries Mimi and I had purchased were handmade with golden and red thread. The walls were a topic of discussion and we couldn't decide so they were currently painted pure white, the colour they had been when Mimi had grown up here. We'd invited the girls over to get ready because, between Mimi and I we knew we'd have a dress that would be perfect for everyone, and Mimi certainly had enough makeup and hair products to go around if someone needed something specific.

Hikari was sitting the couch next to Kurayami, whose hair was let loose, hanging down past her shoulders. Rei was sitting next to Hikari on her other side in her wheelchair, watching Mimi as she pointed to the chalkboard behind her with a long metal stick and explained what dresses we'd picked out for them. Miyako was sitting further from Rei, off on her own in a wooden chair that I knew from experience was very uncomfortable. Tatum was sitting on the arm of the couch by Kurayami as Momoe sat on a beanbag chair with Emiko laying across the two of them giggling foolishly as she played with Bearmon and Otamamon. Jun was sitting on the computer chair facing the opposite way.

"And Jun, I think Sora actually made the dress we picked for you," Mimi said, pointing to me as I walked into the room, "it's nice, and it's bright, just like your personality. We thought the frills would look really good, and the length allows us to show off your athletic legs. You're going to look amazing."

"So can we put them on yet?" Momoe asked.

"Not yet, no." I said, stepping up to stand by Mimi, "We have to wait for the judges. We haven't tried the dresses on you yet, and so if they don't work, we're not going to pretend they do and throw you out into the open where your dates will break up with you because of your poor dress style."

"They wouldn't do that." Rei said quickly, catching the fact that my joke was actually frightening some of them.

"Well I think these judges can judge us later... and they have to do the actual judging after we're dressed anyway..." Jun pointed out.

"Well I still say we can wait." I said slowly.

"Well, when will these mysterious judges be here?" Kurayami asked.

"Who is it?" Hikari asked, cutting across the answer to the question, "Is it... Tai? Yamato? Takeru?"

"No," I responded, "Takeru's busy anyway."

"He is?" Hikari asked, her face completely void of emotion. "What's he doing?"

"He's chatting with Catherine via online video chat." I said with a smile, "They're really cute together too—he's been sending me pictures of their trips and they seem really happy."

"That's where he's been?" Hikari asked. "I haven't seen him in a month besides the Weekly meetings... where do they go? What trips?"

"Well they went to Germany, I know." I told her, "And Italy, and I think even Russia and Spain."

"In a month?" Kurayami asked, shocked.

"Well they're just ploughing through, I guess." Mimi laughed, "Either way, he's going to fail his classes if he doesn't get his butt back to school."

"Exactly." Hikari said, "_That_ is what I was worrying about." She nodded and looked to each of us in turn to be sure we all believed her.

"Princess," Otamamon said, wriggling free of Emiko's firm grip and running toward Mimi, "Do you have a watermelon in the kitchen?"

"I think so," Mimi giggled, "Come on, let's go look." She leaned down and scooped Otamamon into her arms before heading off toward the kitchen to find food for him.

"It's almost three o'clock." Jun said, checking her watch, "My date with Shuu starts in an hour and a half... we should start getting ready."

"We just have to wait for—" I stopped talking and stared at the computer behind Jun that had begun to glow. "Jun you should move."

"What?" She asked, confused. But it was too late. She had let out a scream as figures began emerging from the computer and landing around her. Finally the last figure, Koushiro flung himself out of the Digital World only to land on Jun, sending them both crashing toward the ground.

"Gatomon!" Hikari said, clapping her hands together as she ran across the room to greet her partner. We'd sent Koushiro into the Digital World to find our partners. They were the special judges! Hawkmon jumped into the air immediately and flew quickly across the room and into Miyako's arms as she held them out to give him a hug. Biyomon was instantly hugging my legs, leaving Labramon to weave his way through the bodies and legs all over the floor to get to Kurayami. He was a pink and white puppy—and he was _super_ cute, I was not at all hesitant to add him to our team. Monodromon stood and waved simply to Tatum who wasn't having the simple greeting, and had rushed toward him to hug him tightly.

"Where is Mimi?" Palmon asked.

"She's in the kitchen," I told her with a smile as the door flung open and Mimi dove through the air to hug her partner.

"PALMON! I'VE MISSED YOU!"

"Okay everyone, we're going to get ready now," I said clearly, gathering everyone's attention. "Momoe, Tatum, and Jun, you go with Mimi, Hikari, Kurayami and Miyako, come with me!"

"I'd love to." Jun said calmly from underneath Koushiro who rolled off of her and allowed her to get up.

"Koushiro, I love you, you need to leave." Mimi said smiling.

"But I wanted to do something special today... it's Valentine's Day after all." He said quietly.

"Awww!" Mimi cooed, "So cute! We will be." Her face fell suddenly, "I called around three weeks ago to see if you'd reserved a place for us, but it turned out you hadn't so I took the liberty of doing that. You have to be quicker Koushiro. All of your things are at Jou's place, hurry over there and start getting ready. Jou will bring you here when it's time to go."

Koushiro was already being pushed out the door, and as he tried to speak, Mimi shut the door in his face. "Okay!" She grinned, "Let's go!"

Soon we had split off, and I was standing in my bedroom with the closet door open with Miyako, Hawkmon, Kurayami, and Hikari sitting on my bed as Gatomon and Labramon shot glares at the other hoping they wouldn't notice, and every now and then they'd do it at the same time and things would become awkward between them.

"Shouldn't we be more focused on saving the Digital World?" Kurayami asked. "What we talked about the other day... is a human really out there trying to destroy us?"

"I think you're taking what Koushiro said and taking it a bit too far." I said, "There's a human out there, and he or she is fusing digimon together. We don't know why, but we've no reason to suspect that it has anything to do with us." Kurayami nodded, "And besides, we'll worry about that later. I promise. I'll go in and search personally to ease your mind. Just not today."

"And if what you guys say is true, then it'll be easier to search for anything that's going wrong!" Biyomon said cheerfully. "Don't worry guys, we'll get to the bottom of this."

"Although," Hawkmon said, staring at the ground, "I do wish someone had thought to inform me of the new information."

"That's true." Biyomon said, "How do you expect us to find anything if you don't tell us what you know?"

"I feel rather left out, really." Hawkmon said, disappointed.

"Well, I knew." Gatomon said with a smirk. "I was at the meeting. And I didn't find anything anyway, so it wouldn't have helped you guys really."

"I didn't know either." Labramon piped up in his tiny voice.

Kura patted his head, "That's okay," She said to him quickly as I turned to pull out Hikari and Kurayami's dress. Hikari's was, of course, pink, and was a knee length ball gown with white flats and some simple jewlery. Kurayami's outfit consisted of my black knee high boots that she liked so much, and a deep violet party styled dress made of long strips of fabric that made the dress "poof" as Koushiro had put it. He'd helped me make it. The torso of her dress resembled a black corset tied with purple ribbons. Neither dress had a low cut, as I knew how much the two girls hated that. Hawkmon and Labramon shut their eyes as the girls began to change and as I pulled Miyako to her feet.

"I was thinking..." She said slowly, "The dress Mimi was explaining... it's a little... tiny."

"Miyako, you're beautiful, there's nothing to be ashamed of in terms of your body." I told her quickly, rummaging through the rack of clothing to find her dress.

"Can I have one that covers more of me? Like my arms?" Miyako asked nervously, crossing her arms quickly.

"I have a few long sleeve dresses," I said slowly, turning back to the closet and pulling out the first one I could find. It was simple and grey and went down to the floor.

"That's perfect." She said, sighing with relief.

"Miyako, you'll look like you're from the eighteenth century!" I protested, "No, we'll try again." I pulled out a brown one that was shorter, with fancier arms and a collar that didn't fit tightly to the neck like the last.

"I like that too." She said firmly.

"But it doesn't go with your gloves." I said, "We'll try once more." I rummaged around until I found the last long sleeved dress I owned. "This was what I wore two years ago for a Halloween party. It's part of a vampire costume."

"That's okay!" Miyako insisted, "I'll wear it."

"What's wrong Miyako?" I asked her quietly, making sure the others couldn't hear. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, but her face tightened up and her eyes began to sparkle with tears, "Yep. I'm fine."

"Are you _sure_?" I asked her just to receive another nod.

"I just need to wear a long sleeved dress is all." Miyako said, "It's cold out." She was lying and I could tell that it was true, but she didn't want to talk about it and I wasn't going to pressure her.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do." I told her slowly, hanging the vampire costume back up and pulling out a simple white dress that I hadn't worn yet and handed it to her before turning back and pulling out a black cardigan and a pair of black heels. "This will look great. Now let me find you a necklace."

"Thank you, Sora..." Miyako said slowly.

I smiled at her as I opened my jewellery box and rifled through it, bulling out a necklace made of black and white beads.

"I look like a princess." Hikari said, unable to fight the smile as she stared at herself in the large mirror I had in my room. I smiled at her as Kurayami stepped up next to her.

"I look like... well, me." Kurayami joked causing us all to laugh.

"Well Gatomon?" Hikari asked, spinning around, "What do you think?"

"Your hair needs something done." Gatomon said, pretending she knew what she was talking about. "But you look really pretty."

"I agree." Hawkmon said with a quick nod. "Beautiful."

"Why thank you sir," Hikari giggled as Biyomon hopped onto the bed.

"Kurayami, you look intimidating. You should smile."

Kurayami's face flushed as Labramon ran toward her and nuzzled his head against her leg to comfort her.

I led the rest of them out of the room quickly, quickly sending a smile toward Miyako who mouthed the words "thank you" before I closed the door. I wanted to run in there and ask her one last time what was wrong, but I knew that being nosey was only acceptable for so long and in so many situations. This was not one of them. If Miyako was going to tell me, or anyone else what was wrong, I'd have to wait. Hopefully she had someone she could tell though. I found my eyes scanning the room and resting on Hawkmon... perhaps him? I could only hope.

Mimi and the others were already in the living room waiting for us. Jun was wearing the tie-dyed party dress I had made. Momoe was wearing a very frazzled yellow dress Mimi had bought but refused to wear because Koushiro hated it, and Tatum was wearing an emerald green, knee length pencil dress. Mimi was wearing green dress, and was starting on Momoe's hair. I took this opportunity to slip into the bathroom and get ready myself.

I slipped out of the shorts and t-shirt I was wearing and pulled the dress I'd planned on wearing out of the bathroom closet. Mimi hated that I kept clothes everywhere, hidden throughout the house, but I wasn't going to stop until she stopped forgetting to put things on the shopping list.

I slipped into the whimsical dress that I'd purchased at a medieval fantasy shop for a convention Koushiro and I were going to. He got sick though, and so we cancelled so I cut the dress up and made something more practical out of it. It fell to just above my knees and was a deep, blood red. I had shoes that matched it sitting in the bottom of the closet so I pulled them out and put them on before quickly doing my makeup and straightening my hair. I threw on some jewellery, and was ready to go. Though I did take a moment to notice how much more effort I put into everyone else's outfits, rather than my own.

When I left the bathroom I saw that everyone's hair was put up in some elaborate way except for Kurayami who let it stay down. Jun was gone, and I felt bad for missing saying farewell to her. But I knew she'd be back eventually so I could ask her how she went. I knew this because Otamamon was in the middle of the living room floor eating his watermelon with great joy.

"Finally you're here Sora," Mimi said, jumping to her feet, "The sun is going down, we have to say goodbye to the digimon."

"Oh," I said, unable to hide my disappointment as Biyomon flew toward me.

"Sora," She said quietly, "You look beautiful, and I'm sure Neo will be super pleased."

"Thanks Biyomon." I said, snatching her out of the air and hugging her tightly. "I'll come see you really soon, I promise."

"I know you will." Biyomon said, hugging me back. "And I promise to keep a lookout for any mysterious humans."

"What's that?" Tatum asked.

"Oh," Mimi said, turning to her from Palmon, "Apparently there is a human in the digital world doing things to digimon."

"You've got to be kidding!" Tatum gasped.

"Why didn't Jou tell me?" Momoe said nervously as she looked to her daughter who was playing with Bearmon.

"He probably just didn't want to worry you," Mimi said quickly scooping Palmon into her arms, "He's so kind like that." She picked up Gatomon from Hikari's lap and moved toward the computer, setting them down before turning to fetch Labramon. Biyomon and Hawkmon flew toward the computer before Mimi could pick them up too.

"Bye Biyomon..." I said as the others all chimed in with their responses.

"Good bye Sora," Biyomon smiled, "I'll see you soon!" I nodded as Mimi opened the gate, allowing the Digital World to drag them all back through the computer. I felt my heart tug painfully as my partner drowned in the light, I had to keep myself calm though, I couldn't have my makeup smudging.

"We need to find a way to beat the system." Hikari said sadly, "I miss her already. I don't like having to say goodbye so often."

"Well I'm pretty sure if we beat the system we ruin the world." Mimi said, "So it's, say goodbye, or ruin everything."

"But saying goodbye is so hard..." Hikari sighed.

"And so is fixing everything after we ruin it." Mimi pointed out, "Or do you forget what happened last time, and all the work we went into running around town fixing it back up?"

"I remember..." Hikari said sadly.

"Monodromon wants to go back too." Tatum said, pointing to her digimon who was staring at the computer, silently, as always.

"But he doesn't even have to!" Mimi gasped, "Why would he want to?"

"He likes it better in there." Tatum explained as Mimi opened the gate again. Tatum and Monodromon exchanged quick waves as he was dragged into the Digital World, following the others. "I don't know why though. He won't tell me."

"Does he ever tell you anything?" Rei asked reminding me that she was still there.

"Not with words." Tatum said, shaking her head.

"So what did you get Neo for your anniversary?" Momoe asked with wide eyes.

"Nothing." I told her simply. "He didn't want anything." Actually he'd made me promise not to get him anything. Which I thought was silly, but it was his choice. I didn't have any ideas anyway, but I always liked tricky presents—it always gave me something to do when I wanted to keep my mind off of something stressful. Like Yamato, or someone trying to take over the Digital World.

There was total silence amongst us, besides Emiko giggling as Bearmon gave her a piggyback ride around the room.

"Are you sure you don't mind watching her, Rei?" Momoe asked as we all watched the child play.

"Nope," Rei said with a fake smile, "I'm happy to help. I have no better plans anyway." Everyone was silent again for a moment until I heard a knock on the door. I rushed to answer it as quickly as I could, pulling it open to find Neo standing on the other end, his white hair was a mess, like always, but he had chosen to wear a grey suit today instead of his normal everyday clothing which I was thankful for.

He smiled at me and held out a single red rose.

"One red rose means—" He started.

"I love you." I finished for him, smiling down at the rose and setting it in a vase by the door with a few flowers that I had bought the other day, hoping for something bright from Neo to liven the bouquet—and I got what I wanted.

"Hello, Rei," Neo said kindly to his sister with a wave, "Hikari, everybody else."

Hikari smiled at waved at him, but other than a glare from Rei he received no response. I turned back to him awkwardly and smiled. "Ready to go?" He asked me.

"Absolutely, I just need to get my wallet—" I started.

"Oh, that's cute," Neo smiled, grabbing my hand and stopping me, "You think I'd let you pay?"

I turned back to him as he pulled me close and I found myself blushing as he leaned forward and kissed me. I wasn't used to public displays of affection—I couldn't lie.

"Boo!" Rei called out causing us both to look toward her.

"Yuck!" Emiko giggled from Rei's lap. "Kissy kissy!"

"Well," Neo said, his eyes daring Rei to make another comment, "I'll see you later then, girls, you all look wonderful."

"Thank you Neo," Mimi said with a grin. "I do, don't I?"

"Mimi!" Tatum laughed as Neo tugged on my hand lightly and led the way for me. I couldn't help but smile as I waved goodbye to the others, pulling the door shut behind me.

"It's not just the others you know," Neo said, releasing my hand so he could place his arm around my shoulders. "You do too. And none of them can hold a candle to you. Well they could if they wanted to—but they would just burn you, and that wouldn't be nice." I started laughing as he guided me down the stairs on the porch and toward his sleek white car.

"Neo," I said, stopping in my tracks, my eyes closed. I had a feeling I was going to regret this, but I had to ask. I had to make sure I wasn't wrong. Even though Yamato was stupid for thinking anything negative about Neo, the nicest person I'd ever met, I couldn't go back to the others, and I couldn't face Biyomon without having tried.

"What is it Sora?" He asked, looking down at me. "What's wrong?"

"Can you promise me something?" I asked.

"Anything at all."

"Will you always be honest with me?" I asked, "Always?"

"Honesty is my policy, Sora." Neo said with a firm nod, "Just so long as someone remembers to ask the right question." He grinned down at me and kissed my forehead. "Now will you please come with me? I made reservations at the most expensive restaurant around, and I can probably pay for a few sticks of celery." He was joking of course.

"They must be really good celery sticks," I laughed.

"Oh, the best," He winked at me before hurrying down to the car and opening the passenger door for me. I smiled at him and thanked him as I sat down in his car. He closed the door and hurried to his side, and hopped in. "One more thing though." He reached behind his seat and pulled out a heart shaped box. I smiled at him and pulled the ribbon tying it together, and opened the box.

Inside was the crest of love, made of what looked like papier-mâché. It was painted red and had a string tied to it.

"I... don't know what it means," Neo said slowly, "But I know that you draw it a lot, and you were thinking of using it as the symbol for your company whenever you got around to running your own fashion line... and since it's in the shape of a heart—"

"I love it." I said, cutting him off, unable to wait any longer. "A one year anniversary is the paper anniversary... Neo—you're the most thoughtful person ever..." I was biting my lip to avoid crying. I'd never cried in front of Neo—I'd never done a lot of things in front of Neo...

"I love you Sora," Neo said with a smile. "Now what do you say we get some celery sticks?"

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Willis is next, and he uncovers a secret that changes his life.


	7. Photograph

**Y/N:** I got the "Next Time" segment wrong last time…unfortunately, and this time is _Willis_ and not Michael. Either way though, my brother wrote it! Enjoy and review if you can!

**U/N:** Due to complications with the space between America and Japan these few chapters caused a problem that we had to work out :P But I... like them all anyway... the next few chapters are in my three favourite characters to write's perspective, WIllis, Michael and Kurayami, as well as one of my favourite characters Miyako and then... Koushiro xD I hope you like this chapter and see why Willis's one shots in the "Moments" Story were important... anyway... i hope you like it and review :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 7: Photograph**

_**Willis:**_

I stared down at the mess in the attic as Hikari and Tatum pulled out old dresses and clothing from the past. Michael was going through old items, like rings, toys and the likes. I, of course, was saddled with all of the paper work and old photo albums.

We were going through all of my mother's things that she'd collected over the years. The walls of the musty attic were lined with manikins, chests, old dressers, piles of boxes, filing cabinets full of everything and anything, and everything else my mother could possibly fit in here. The room was lit by a single light bulb in the center of the room.

The attic was the final room in the house that still had to be cleared out until my mother was successfully moved out of my home. It took a rather long time—but now that she was able to move in with Michael's father. I was pretty psyched to finally have her gone. I was completely sick of all of her constant bickering and complaining. She thought she'd won and that I'd picked her over Terriermon and Lopmon. But I hadn't. They just had to stay in the Digital World. Well...

But she thought they did anyway. And I had to keep her in the dark because if she knew...

Point being, she was crazy and thought I'd picked her over my best friends, but I had never, and I would never do that. She was an awful human being who could only be considered cruel to the point of complete idiocy. I was almost to the point where she'd never be able to redeem herself. And once I passed that point I was going to be shutting her out of my life forever. I'd made that point very clear to her but she didn't seem to care.

She just moved on to another boyfriend and paid less attention to me. At least this boyfriend had the brain capacity to keep an intellectual conversation with me, so I suppose that was a step up from the past morons. The only problem was that it was my best friend's dad.

Whatever though, they got married anyway...

"_Willis!" Mom had cried out with happiness as she barged into the room wearing her wedding dress that made her look like a very large cloud. "Don't I look wonderful?"_

"_You look like a marshmallow." I told her bluntly._

"_Oh sweetheart, you just don't understand the joy of being married to the most wonderful man alive." She said, "Michael is my soul mate. I love him more than I've ever loved anyone! I feel like I could finally make something right for a change. Something worth living for."_

I had wanted to point out that she had me. And ask her if I was worth living for. But I was scared of the answer. Either answer. I was afraid of the guilt I would feel if she told me she loved me, due to all of the thoughts that crossed my mind at the thought of her—and not in a nice way. And I was afraid that if she didn't love me I'd realize how much I really did love her. If I did. I couldn't be sure really. More importantly Michael's father knew about, and accepted digimon, which was a nice change of pace from my mother.

But I had a much more serious talk with Michael's father the very same day as he rushed into my bedroom in his suit and tie.

"_Willis," He said to me, "Willis I'm so glad you're awake. I realize this wedding is very sudden for you—because it's sudden for me too."_

"_Are you backing out?" I asked him._

"_No." He said, "No, no. I love your mother very much Willis, even if she can be a bit jaded, one sided, argumentative and stubborn. She is a caring woman... but the reason I came to talk to you was because in all the rush of excitement I've forgotten to ask you something very important."_

"_And what's that?" I asked him._

"_As the man of the household," He said seriously, which didn't really have any effect as I was sitting on my bed in boxers and a t-shirt. "Will you give me your blessings to marry your mother?"_

"_Oh, what a relief." I sighed, "I thought you were going to ask me something legitimate. Yeah go ahead. Marry her if you want to."_

"_Willis, you take this wedding even less serious than my own children," He sighed. "Willis, I know it would mean a lot to your mother if you were my best man at the wedding."_

"_Oh no." I said shaking my head quickly. "I'm not really into those kinds of things. What about Michael? He's your son!"_

"_It was actually upon his insistence that I came to you." Mr Washington said kindly. "Willis, I promise you I will do whatever I can to make your life as smooth as possible. But I only ask you one favour. Will you be my best man at the wedding later today?"_

"_But I _just_ got up!" I groaned, but the look in his eyes changed my mind quickly. "Okay, fine." I nodded, "I'll be your best man. Now leave my room so I can get ready."_

_He laughed and jumped to his feet, slipping out of the room. "Thank you Willis," He said quickly, stepping away and revealing Michael who winked at me and then skipped off, pleased to not have to be the best man._

The wedding would have been awful too, just as I'd thought, only... Michael's little sister Jenna was there. And she was literally the most hilarious person on the face of the planet. She basically made fun of everything the whole time while "accidentally" getting drunk. I would have stopped her from doing so, but it was wedding and I was pretty sure that was the point of them.

To get so drunk that you didn't notice how boring it was. Because all weddings were boring. The only people who found weddings interesting were the people who were getting married. So why did they always have to invite people to sit there and watch them be boring together?

Whatever...

The wedding was bearable in any case because of her since Hikari was unable to actually attend the wedding due to her having an exam during that time. The only good thing to come out of that night as far as I could see was that my best human friend and I had become brothers.

But I was happy my mother was moving out now. Finally I'd have my own house—with Hikari of course, and Michael, Jenna and even occasionally Tatum. But no mother around. And I'd finally tell them about Terriermon and Lopmon. Maybe. Probably.

Michael was holding what appeared to be a music box. It was just a small silver box, but as hard as he tried it wouldn't open. "Should I throw it out?" He asked, but I shook my head. There was something about it that was very familiar.

"Willis, a lot of these dresses are really cool." Tatum said with a smile on her face as she held up a Victorian Era dress that had been passed down through generations.

"Burn them."

I looked to the doorway and saw Jenna standing there. Her blonde hair was in two curly pigtails as she stood with her hip out sporting what looked like a red tube top and leather pants with her heels seemingly going on forever. I never really wanted to know what she was doing owning all her strange clothes, but it wasn't up to me...

"We can't burn everything." I told her. "My mom wants to keep some things."

"Your mother is a bully Willis," She said, stepping into the room and sitting down on one of the boxes by the door.

"I know, and burning her things would give me great satisfaction." I said, "But I'm not willing to put up with the consequences."

"Fair enough," She said.

"Where are the snacks you went to get?" Michael asked her.

"You wanted some?" She asked, "Sorry, I ate them all."

"Butt face." Michael said with a roll of his eyes.

Jenna laughed at him.

"Willis..." Tatum whispered, stepping toward my mother's wedding dress from her first wedding. It looked a lot less fancy than the one she wore to her more recent wedding, but I liked it more. It was also a much smaller size, since it was before she found out about me being a gold mine and gorged out on food all day after quitting her job. "This is beautiful." She ran her hand down the sleeve of the gown and grinned, "Really, really pretty."

"Burn it." Jenna joked causing everyone to laugh.

"Is this what she wore when she married your dad?" Tatum asked. I nodded. "She had much better taste back then."

"She was also a real person back then... instead of being a shell of her old self." No one said anything after that, unsure of how to react to me actually caring about my mother, but I shook it off.

"There is a key around the manikin's neck." She said pointing out what, in my opinion was rather obvious. She picked up the silver key and held it up. "Does this go in that box you had earlier Michael?"

Michael's eyes widened with excitement suddenly upon the possibility of finding out what was in that box. I knew Michael enough to know that his curiosity often got the better of him.

He rummaged through some old things until he pulled the silver box out again. Tatum tossed him the key and he excitedly jammed it into the keyhole and twisted it.

The top popped off of the box and it began to play a soft melody. Michael's face fell.

"It's a music box." Michael sighed.

"With upbeat music!" Jenna said happily.

"Is this from your childhood?" Hikari asked.

I shrugged and closed my eyes, listening to the music... it was even more familiar now that the music was playing.

"_Let's open the door to summer_..." I said slowly, "_Because someone is waiting there._"

"Pardon me?" Hikari asked as I began to hum to the music, and then I actually started singing, which I felt embarrassed about for a moment, but it faded quickly as the song and memories rushed back to me of my mother singing this song to me.

"_We're standing here again, and light is shining on the street corner. Where are we going? Anywhere is fine, wherever the wind goes, wherever we feel like. Let's open the door to Summer... because someone is definitely..._" I was suddenly picturing a laughing child, as I finished the verse, "_Waiting there for you._"

"That's a cute song." Hikari said as I opened my eyes allowing the memories to fade away again. "Where did you learn it?"

"My mom..." I said slowly.

"What does it mean?" Hikari asked, but I responded by simply shrugging my shoulders.

Everyone stood silently for a moment before returning to what they'd been doing. Michael continued excitedly flipping through old trinkets my mother had collected. Tatum continued examining my mother's old dresses, as Hikari let out a small scream as the bottom of the box she was holding fell out and clouds of dust erupted amongst old pictures. Hikari dropped the remnants of the box and fled the room in a coughing fit.

"Can we burn that box?" Jenna asked me as I followed Hikari out of the room and down the stairs. She ran all the way to the main floor and out the door to get some air.

"You alright?" I asked her as she breathed in the fresh winter air. She nodded and coughed one more time. "You know you don't have to help. You can take a break whenever."

"No," She said with a small smile, "I want to help you out. You want your mother and all of her things gone, and I'm happy to help."

"Because you want her gone too," I joked.

"No!" Hikari insisted, "I think your mother is a very sweet woman. Sometimes. I am however sick of her checking constantly to see if I've gained any weight."

"What?" I asked, "What was she doing that for?"

"She wanted to see if I was pregnant." She said. "And she kept asking me why we weren't married yet. And she kept asking me why I wore my clothing in such a 'sophisticated manor' since I was so young and still had something to show off."

I laughed nervously, "Yeah, Mom's a strange one... sorry about that. If you'd told me about it earlier I would have talked to her about it."

"No, don't worry." She said. "That's nothing. You know this is the first alone time we've had in over two weeks."

"You're right." I laughed, "Michael never leaves us alone." She stepped toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"That's okay though," She said, "It's worth the wait." She leaned in to kiss me but we were interrupted by a loud cough. We both turned to stare down the stone steps to where a red haired boy stood tall and extremely muscular I couldn't help but notice.

"Marshall." I sighed. I hadn't seen him in a rather long time. He was a bully. Much worse than my mother. He'd picked on me since I had started school... what he was doing at my house though, I didn't know.

"Hey Willis," He said with a rather joyous grin. "Long time no see..."

"Marshall... what do you want?" I asked him, stepping away from Hikari and glaring down at him. "If you've come to apologize—"

"I'd never apologize." Marshall said, "You know that. I actually came here to see if you and Rebecca were still in contact."

"No, actually." I told him as my heart began to sink. "You've seen her more recently than I have. As the story goes, you followed her to Japan only to get rejected in yet another country."

Marshall's grin faded quickly but he shook his head. "Dude, no need to be mean, I was just wondering."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I miss her. And I think she'd miss me." He said. "We're both older and mature now. I'm a lot better looking than I was, and she's probably smart enough to put on a baseball glove and pick me up."

"What?" I asked, totally not sure where he was going with that.

"Because I'm a catch." Marshall explained, "She's going to catch me."

"Ah, yes." I sighed, "Well good luck with that, if you do find her please tell her that I say 'hello'."

"I don't think she wants to hear from you." Marshall said, shaking his head. "You broke her Willis. Into a million pieces."

"Whatever Marshall." I snapped, not in the mood to relive the mood I'd felt the last time I'd seen Rebecca. "Now please escort yourself off of my property or I'll do it myself."

"You and what army?" He joked as he flexed his muscles. I thought about telling him about my guard dog and his partner rabbit who could shift into giant monsters and rip his head off, but he'd seen enough of Lopmon for one life time. His eyes slipped past me though and rested on Hikari who he grinned at. "I don't know you, but you are adorable, Babe. Could I take you out on a date?"

"My name is Hikari," She said calmly speaking in the English tongue she'd picked up on quite easily, "Not, 'Babe'. And no, you may not take me on a date. I'm actually in a relationship with Willis."

"Well he's kind of pathetic don't you think?" Marshall asked her as if I wasn't there. Anger was surging inside of me again, so simply. Everything Marshall had ever done to me was piling up inside me. Every time he'd thrown me into a dumpster, taken my lunch, thrown pie in my face, filled my shoes with raspberry jam, slashed the tires in the parking lot and blaming me for it, tripping me, calling me names... everything... it was all coming back to me as if it were yesterday. "He's a scrawny nerd. I'm a hot jock. He's going to get you an unhappy life filled with work and stress, whereas you could be my hot trophy wife who was meant only to sit there and make me food."

I balled my fists up as Hikari gasped behind me.

"Oh really?" She asked, "How romantic of you." The sarcasm in her voice was evident.

"Why thank you," He grinned, totally missing her tone of voice, "I had initially planned for Rebecca to be my little sandwich maker, but you'll do too."

I wasn't sure how anyone could possibly be so irresponsibly, unequivocally awful in every way imaginable. And before I knew it, the 'scrawny nerd' had swung his fist back, and propelled it with such a force that I couldn't even fathom, hitting Marshall across the face with my fist as hard as I could. He staggered backward for a moment but I knew I'd made a mistake letting my anger get the better of me.

Within seconds I was on the ground with his fist pounding into my face with strength and power that made my punch seem more than pathetic in contrast.

"Stop!" Hikari screamed, running toward Marshall and trying to pull him off of me. I could barely see what was happening, but I could feel pain as his fist came in contact with every part of my body Marshall could get to. "STOP!"

Soon enough I heard the door fly open and felt the pain stop for long enough to see Michael be punched in the face by Marshall, and as he turned back to me, before he could do anything there was a hand around his neck forcing him back.

"Hey, Dick-face." Jenna growled with such anger. "Touch my brothers again and I will end you."

I was suddenly being lifted up from both sides. As I looked over I saw Tatum looking at me, scared, but it was nothing to Hikari on the other side who was crying at the sight of me. Yay... more reasons for Marshall to make fun of me!

"Lil' Willy got his girls to fight his battle for him?" Marshall barked with laughter.

"I'm quite positive I'm a man actually." Michael growled.

"Hardly." Marshall said.

Michael jerked toward him but Marshall was quicker and pushed Michael backwards and into the snow.

Jenna reached forward quickly and grabbed Marshall's pinkie finger in her hand and bent it back sharply. "You leave here right now. I'm giving you five minutes until I call the police."

Marshall pulled his hand from Jenna's grip, looking down at his hand and then he sighed. "Whatever." He spun around and started walking off, down the laneway rolling his shoulder and cracking his neck on the way. I was sure it was just for show.

As he left and the tension and fear left my body I was left with just the raw pain and my legs suddenly buckled underneath me. Tatum and Hikari caught me though and I started laughing.

"This isn't funny!" Hikari insisted. "You could have died!"

"It's my fault." I said, "I shouldn't have started it."

"You were defending me and your friend Rebecca." Hikari said, "You were very brave Willis." She kissed me on the cheek and turned to the house.

"We should get you inside." Tatum said quickly.

And so that's what they did. Hikari passed me off to Michael though and he, along with Tatum got me all the way back to the attic as Hikari headed to the bathroom to find whatever medicine and bandages she could find.

Eventually Jenna entered the room with a sigh, dropping the phone, "Are you sure you don't want me to call the cops?" She asked, and I responded simply by nodding. "If you say so... oh—also, Hikari was looking for bandages, so I told her that there were some in the supply closet. It's okay if she uses those right?"

"No!" I said quickly, but it was too late. Hikari had already let out a loud scream.

"What is it?" Tatum asked, turning toward me.

"Tell her that it's okay!" I said quickly, "and that if she comes here I'll explain it to her!"

Tatum nodded, unsure of exactly what I was saying, but she set off at a run anyway. Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he rubbed his face where Marshall had punched him. "Dude, what's down there?"

His question was answered as Hikari stormed into the room with Tatum right behind, both of them looking very angry. In Hikari's arms were two very apologetic looking digimon to whom she dropped in front of me.

"Explain yourself." Hikari said seriously. "Now."

"It's a long story, but I need you to calm down first." I told her.

"It's after dark Willis!" Hikari groaned, "They're going to offset the balance of the Worlds!"

"No!" I insisted, "They aren't. I promise. Well... they haven't so far."

"So far?" Michael asked, "How often do you keep them out?"

"What are they?" Jenna asked, raising her hand, but she was completely ignored.

"For... well..." I sighed, "Since we defeated Fanglongmon?" I was met with a very angry roar, but I raised my hands to silence them. "Guys! Listen to me!"

"Or us?" Terriermon said, "We're cute."

"Yeah we are!" Lopmon agreed, "But I'm cuter."

"In your dreams Carrot-face!" Terriermon growled.

"Everyone just calm down!" I shouted. I was met with total silence as I winced at my side which hurt quite bad still. I'd have to explain fast so someone would help me with my wounds. "Okay, so my first thought was... I didn't want to have to say goodbye all the time. They were my only friends for a long time you know? And then eventually it came to a point where I couldn't do it anymore, and I just wasn't going to. Why? Because there's no balance needed of destiny and miracles. Those two traits are part of the world itself—they were never balanced—I have no portrayal of Destiny. Everyone has a destiny. Not just me. And miracles happen—that's the miracle of them! I can't just sit here and spurt out miracles... so I knew that my crests were different and that I didn't need to keep them balanced, so I tried it one night. And I prayed. I really did. I crossed my fingers, I hoped I did everything I could to prevent the chaos from ensuing... and it worked. The worlds didn't fall out of line... and so I continued doing it. Every single night."

"Willis..." Hikari said breathily, "Do you realize how careless that was? You could have put us all in a very large amount of danger. You were risking more than just spending time with your friends. You..."

"But Hikari," Lopmon smiled, hugging her legs, "Nothing bad happened! It wasn't Willis' fault! We love him, and we wanted to stay anyway. It was a joint screw up!"

"Yeah!" Terriermon agreed. "So if you punish him, you have to punish all three of us."

"Fine," She said, "You're all grounded." I laughed, but the look Hikari gave me shut me up quickly. "I am very serious Willis. You put us all in danger. I'm not entirely sure how to ground a grown man yet... but whatever the case—you two. You get no cereal for two weeks."

Terriermon and Lopmon burst into tears instantly and began crying out about how sorry they were and how it wasn't really their fault, it was all my fault all along.

"I'll figure out your punishment later." She told me as she stepped toward me and motioned for Tatum to follow with an armful of supplies. As the two of them began to tend to the pain all over my body inflicted by the most awful creature in the world Jenna and Michael began cleaning up the mess Hikari had created with the faulty box.

"What happened to you?" Terriermon asked with a raise of his eyebrows. "Did you fall over?"

"Terriermon," Lopmon sighed, "Falling over wouldn't hurt him this much."

"How about no studying for a month?" Hikari suggested, trying to find a decent punishment.

"I don't study. I'm naturally a genius." I smirked.

"Oh, rub it in why don't you?" Michael laughed.

"No supper?" Hikari tried.

"Already ate."

"Oh I'll think of something." She pouted.

"Hey... Willis." Michael said slowly staring at a picture Jenna was showing him. "You might want to see this." Michael snatched the picture and slid across the floor toward me where he held the picture up in front of me.

The picture was rather old, and not well taken care of. It was of a man with big blue eyes and blonde hair sitting in a chair and holding two babies in his arms, both of them wrapped in quilted blankets. In the corner of the picture there was a mirror where you could see that it was my mother who had taken the picture.

"Okay?" I asked, "So who is this?" Michael looked to me as he flipped the picture over, and in my mother's handwriting were the words '_Keith and my precious twins.'_

Everything seemed to stop suddenly as I took in what I was reading...

"Since everyone knows about us now..." Terriermon started.

"Do we still have to sleep in the closet?" Lopmon finished.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Michael takes over, dealing with his own mission of friendship, and the first meeting with one of the 'terrorists' doesn't go as well as they'd hoped.


	8. Runic History

**Y/N:** Here's Michael's, I hope you enjoy it. I'm really liking the friendship that is started in this chapter, and the mission that Michael has chosen to partake in. Review please, if you can! Thanks.

**U/N:** Sooooo THIS one is Michael's xD It's the first real bit of action, even though it isn't much, we're getting a little look at the "terrorists" sooooooo enjoy :)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 8: Runic History**

_**Michael:**_

"I don't really get why they don't like me." I said to Tatum as the two of us lay in the snow on the top of the hill in the backyard of Mimi's restaurant. I'd just been eating what I was pretty sure had been a hamburger made of some exotic animal, while Tatum ate a very simple salad, being a vegetarian and all, when Iori, Ken, Miyako, Natsuni and Meiyomon came in. I'd said hi to them and they'd all just... moved on and sat down elsewhere.

"I think they like you." Tatum said, "I think that they're intimidated by you. Or maybe they just don't know how to act around you." She was really cute when she tried to comfort me. I took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"I really just think that Iori and Ken are very dark people and they're not going to like me no matter what I do." I told her with a sigh.

"I think you, and anyone else for that matter could easily find a way into their hearts." Tatum said. There was silence as we stared up at the mass of dark clouds above us, watching the snowflakes fall down around us. I didn't even care that the sky and everything around me looked depressing, because I knew there was a little ball of sunshine laying right next to me. "Do you remember that list you made on Christmas?"

"Yep," I told her simply. We'd all hung out on Christmas, in America this time, at Willis' house while his mother was away. It was pretty... interesting to say the least, because no one was having any fun. Iori's grandfather had just passed away, and everyone was busy trying to comfort him, much to his dismay. But it was on that day that I'd made a list of the digidestined. I hoped one day to cross every name on that list off as I became friends with them. So far the only names crossed off were Willis, Hikari, and Mimi. Koushiro's name was also crossed off, but with a question mark next to it because I wasn't sure if my random knowledge had won him over as a friend, or just someone to talk to.

"How is it going?" She asked.

"Well, it's no more completed than it was on Christmas day when I made it." I told her with a sigh.

"Why not?" Tatum asked, "Are you not trying."

"Of course I'm trying." I insisted, "But they're all too busy with their own little games. There are groups if you haven't noticed. Taichi, Yamato and Sora were one group, and Koushiro, Mimi, and Jou were another, but now that Jou is out of that one it left room for Sora, but Mimi isn't happy about that. Takeru, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Ken are a group now, and I can tell that they feel empty without Hikari there, so they've tried to replace her with Natsuni and Kurayami. But not even Iori or Daisuke is convinced that it's working. And now Hikari and Willis are their own group that occasionally allows me to join. I'm a left-behind. I'm like... the last few peas on your plate at dinner that you don't bother eating because it's too exhausting chasing it around the plate."

"People would eat those peas if they flew into their mouths." Tatum said, "You just have to put yourself out there, and get into their groups. Don't take no for an answer. Let's make some friends!" Tatum suddenly jumped to her feet and pulled me up after her. "You always eat the food you don't like first because it tastes better when you're hungry than when you've already eaten."

"What?" I asked.

"So," She said with a smirk as she brushed some of the snow off of my back. "It's simple! Your self confidence will rise back up to its usual perky self if you become friends with the digidestined who is the hardest to win over!"

"Iori." I whispered slowly.

"Exactly!" Tatum smiled at me, taking my hand. We began walking down the hill and toward the backdoor of the restaurant. I was too scared to do this—but I knew that Tatum wasn't going to take no for an answer. She was an awesome person that way. So thoughtful and kind, always doing what was right even when it didn't seem right. "Now, do you remember the first time you met Iori?"

"Yeah, I don't think we really spoke." I said slowly. "Which, now that I think about it—could be part of the problem. He's so honour-bound that he would expect me to be civil and polite and do everything in my power to keep on a mature level with him..." I was just spitting things out now, trying to figure out how I could manage to win over the cranky kid.

"Okay, but when did he start actually disliking you?" Tatum asked, but she didn't give me a chance to answer, "When he visited you in New York. When you wouldn't allow him to meet me. It's more of that honour you were talking about. Just be polite, and things should work out for you."

She was right. Honour, manners, chivalry, other things I knew nothing about... they were the key in befriending Iori. I pulled the door open and allowed Tatum to hop inside, and I followed suit. We were instantly met by a glare from Mimi's favoured waiter who pointed down to our snow covered shoes. I ginned, a little frightened by his pointed gaze, and I stomped all the snow off on the rug before stepping further into the building. "Sorry..." I muttered on my way past him and through the kitchen. I held the door open once more for Tatum and the two of us were in the diner room, and I could see Iori sitting with the others.

"It's go time." Tatum grinned, taking my hand and walking quickly toward the others, weaving her way through the few people who were eating still after the lunch-rush, and finally she stopped in front of our targets whose table was in the center of the back wall.

"Hey guys!" Natsuni greeted us with a kind smile. I smiled back to her and waved as politely as I could. "You should join us!"

"Join us! Join us! Join us!" Meiyomon chanted adorably with a knife and fork in his hand.

"We wouldn't mind that at all!" Tatum said with a wink in my direction. I acted quickly and pulled out her chair for her, allowing her to sit down, before pushing her back in.

I sat down across from her and next to Ken. I could suddenly _feel_ the awkward. Natsuni was perfectly content with having us there but the others just froze.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Tatum asked.

"About the supposed human who is running through the Digital World." Miyako filled in when the others looked reluctant to do so. "Iori thinks that it's one of us."

"I said it _could_ be!" Iori shot, looking up from his plate to glare at Miyako.

"You said that anyone who would be stupid enough to stand up to our team would have to be someone from inside." Meiyomon said before receiving a glare from Iori.

"That could mean anyone who knows us well." Iori said. "Like Tatum." Iori waved his hand toward Tatum carelessly.

"Are you accusing me of trying to destroy the Digital World?" Tatum joked.

"No—I just... I mean—but..." Iori trailed off and shook his head. "I give up." Everyone laughed as he hung his head in embarrassment.

"You remember Tatum?" I asked suddenly, pointing to her. "Iori? The two of you have met right? It's Tatum Alora Jefferson. She's my girlfriend."

"I remember..." Iori said, raising his eyebrows at me as Tatum kicked me roughly from underneath the table. I shot her a questioning look but she just rolled her eyes. Iori's feud with me had started when I had neglected to introduce the two! I thought this would have been a good way to end it. Apparently not.

"I remember her too!" Meiyomon smiled at waved at her.

"I still think it could easily be one of us." Iori said softly.

"Remember three years ago?" Natsuni asked suddenly, "When the worlds had fused into one? You guys all pulled together as a team. You worked together and you defeated the enemies. You defeated the God's of two separate worlds. And you couldn't have done it without every one of you... even if you did have to split up to accomplish it. You're still a team. Don't go pointing blame at one another."

"So everyone who was involved in the fight between Dragomon and Fanglongmon is off the radar?" Iori asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Exactly." Natsuni smiled.

"So..." Iori said, "That leaves, you, Noriko, Tatum... oh—and Michael."

There was another sharp kick from under the table but this one was exchanged between Miyako and Iori. Ken looked over to me shyly expecting me to be upset.

"No, that's alright." I said with a sigh. "He has no reason to trust me. He knows nothing about me. Blame me all you want Iori. But when it comes down to it, you'll find out the truth."

"The truth of how it was you who hit Mimi in the head—not Jundomon?" Iori asked. It took me a moment to catch up to what he was saying. "And it was you who gave Meiyomon and the others the information they needed to unlock the Sovereigns. And it was _you_ who allowed Kurayami's mind to be susceptible to Fanglongmon. It has been you all along... but no one would believe it could be true. You're a good actor."

"Iori," Natsuni said, placing her hand gently on his arm. "You've been watching too many movies."

"Coming from you?" Iori asked as Tatum, Natsuni, Ken and Miyako all stared at me expecting me to explode. But I was completely calm. I thought Iori was being ridiculously childish and kind of mean, but that wasn't my fault, and there was nothing I could do to change his mind until we could find out who was actually in control of the evil operation.

"I think Yamato might be right." Miyako said. "It could be Neo."

"Neo is literally the nicest person ever." Ken protested quickly, finally speaking up.

"And that's exactly why I think it's him." Miyako said. "You're the nicest person I've ever met, and Kurayami comes as a close second. Neo just fits the bill!"

"Hikari is the nicest person ever." Ken corrected, "And Takeru is up there too—yet, neither of them have become evil. I think that just because someone is nice and dating Sora, does not give anyone reason to believe him to be evil."

"WHERE IS MY FOOD?" Meiyomon roared suddenly causing us all to jump. Quickly the waiter Mimi had hired to work during the meeting, while she was on her trip to New York had showed up. His hair was dark and he was smiling as he held out a large tray of sweet potato fries for Mieyomon.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." He said, almost afraid of what Meiyomon would do to him. Meiyomon just smiled and began eating the fries messily. Genki, I think his name was, bowed politely and backed up a little, "I'll be right back with the rest of your food."

"Thank you," Natsuni said kindly.

"It could be him!" Iori said, throwing his hands in the air. "We'll never know."

"Yes we will..." I said slowly. "We have to find this person eventually... so why not go now? Why not spend this time trying to save the world instead of watching gravy drip down your brother's face?"

"You're right." Iori said, a grin slowly forming on his face as he agreed with me, "We need to solve this issue so we can cut the problem before it grows into something bigger. We haven't had any issues in almost three years, right?" Ken and Miyako exchanged knowing looks, but said nothing.

"I have a problem." Meiyomon said suddenly. "No more fries!" Natsuni giggled as Iori stood suddenly, knocking his chair over behind him. "Let's go to the Digital World!"

"I'll pass." Miyako said quietly. "I have to work in a few hours anyway." Everyone stared at her as she tried to hide the fear in her eyes. Iori nodded in understanding and smiled comfortingly to her.

Ken kissed her on the cheek quickly before standing up and following Iori who had already run off toward Mimi's office. Natsuni waved to Miyako and ran after them, excited, as she always was, to step into the Digital World. Tatum started following them but I watched Miyako sip her water slowly, pretending she didn't notice me staring.

"Michael," Tatum said, "Are you coming?"

I looked over my shoulder and nodded, but turned back to Miyako quickly and slid over into Ken's chair. She looked over to me and tried to smile. She tugged on the sleeves of her coat and returned to her water. I put my hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay, Miyako?"

"I'm fine." Miyako nodded, clearly about to cry. "You should go though. You're going to lose them. You too Meiyomon."

"Okay." Meiyomon said, jumping to his feet and running after the others. He froze and turned back to Miyako and shouted, "I love you!" And then turned to go. Miyako cracked a smile which set my mind at rest. There was clearly something going on, but she didn't want to talk about it—especially not with me. Apparently I was taking over the Digital World.

"Well, see you later, I guess." I said, patting her shoulder again, "And whatever it is that's bugging you... you should tell someone." With that I stood up quickly and hurried toward Tatum, taking her hand and running after Meiyomon. As we entered Mimi's office we saw that Meiyomon was head butting her desk top computer yelling loudly, trying to gain access to the Digital World.

"Meiyomon!" Tatum laughed, running toward him and pulling him into her arms.

I held out my digivice and the computer glowed, drowning us in a familiar light.

When the light was gone the others were standing around us, but instead of being in Mimi's office we were standing in the Digital World once more. The grass was greener than it had been in a long time, the trees were all blooming and growing large, the lake to the left was shining in the light from the sun up above which was partly blocked by white fluffy clouds.

"I love this place!" I gasped as I unbuttoned my coat and tossed it onto a rock next to the monitor. I looked around and saw that Natsuni's partner Goblimon, and Iori's partner Armadillomon had joined us.

"Wormmon is training right now..." Ken said when he noticed my questioning look. "Where's Betamon?"

"No clue." I admitted. Betamon had hardly seen me at all in the past year and a half. I saw him once every two weeks if I was lucky. There was something strange about him, but I couldn't quite place it. But all I could do was blame the fact that he had died and been reborn. That would result in some differences... right? Well either way, he wouldn't talk to me anymore, he barely even came near me—and he _never_ looked me in the eyes. But I did know that the only way I could find him was by calling him by using the water.

"Can't even keep track of his digimon..." I heard Iori mutter under his breath. Natsuni elbowed him as I walked toward the water with Meiyomon dancing around me in circles. I reached forward and placed my hand into the water, and instantly shivered. It wasn't cold, but the water always made me feel... sad whenever I touched it.

"What're you doing?" Meiyomon asked me.

"I'm calling Betamon." I told him. "He might come see me... he might not."

"I hope he does." Meiyomon said to me. "Then maybe you will smile."

"Have I not been smiling enough?" I asked him.

"Nope. Not at all." Meiyomon said, shaking his head. "You're a smiler though. Even when I first met you back before I gave up my crest... you seemed so happy—well scared, because I could have ripped your wee little head off. But still happy. And then even when your digimon died—even when the worlds seemed to be ending, I was there with you, remember? You were still happy then. Maybe not super happy—but there was still a bit of happy as you held onto your digimon's egg. But now... I don't feel any happy's from you at all."

"I'm sorry," I told him, trying to place what would be making me so unhappy. I suppose Iori was being a jerk, and I wasn't doing anything to prove him wrong. I didn't fit in anywhere except with Tatum, who was wonderful, so she sort of cancelled out the sadness. I looked to the water as the surface began to ripple slowly, and a red fin shot from the water... and I suddenly knew why I was unhappy.

"Is that him?" Meiyomon asked. I nodded and shot a smile down to him. "That wasn't a really happy." Meiyomon said shaking his head and taking my hand. I watched as my partner climbed onto shore next to me and shook quickly, sending drops of water flying everywhere.

"Greetings friend!" Betamon smiled at me. "It's nice to see you again!"

"Likewise," I said to him with a smile. Meiyomon squeezed my hand excitedly sensing a real "happy", as he would put it.

"What brings you to the Digital World?" Betamon asked.

"We're searching for someone who might be trying to take it over." I explained.

"Well why didn't you say so?" Betamon asked.

"He just did." Meiyomon said, rolling his eyes.

"Are you saying you know where someone is?" Tatum asked quickly, running toward the three of us. "Betamon, who is it? Where are they?"

"I don't know." Betamon admitted, "But I do know that there is a digimon coliseum being built over there where strange looking digimon are being kept. It's not a far walk—and that's where I would start looking."

"Iori," Armadillomon said quietly, "That's not safe. Betamon, Goblimon and I can't keep you safe from an army of infected digimon."

"We won't fight." Iori promised, "We'll just stay hidden."

"That sounds like more work than it's worth." Armadillomon sighed, but Iori shook his head and gestured for us all to follow as Betamon ran ahead to take the lead and show us the way to this coliseum.

"It's been awhile since I've seen Betamon," Tatum said with a smile, taking the hand that Meiyomon had not yet occupied. "He looks different."

"Different, how?" I asked her, hoping she'd be able to figure out what was wrong.

"More confident... braver? I don't know. There's definitely something different though." She said with a smile.

That wasn't it. That's not what the difference was... I could tell... it was something else, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Either way, it didn't matter at that time because we were standing at the base of a large stone dome shaped building.

"This is the coliseum I told you about." Betamon said. "It's kind of scary inside though."

"Well we have to go in though, don't we?" Iori asked. "We won't learn anything new by waiting around for something to happen."

"And whoever built this clearly wasn't expecting to stay hidden for very long." Tatum pointed out.

"Well," Betamon said shyly, "Actually... the coliseum is invisible."

"What are you talking about?" Meiyomon asked. "I'm looking at it right now."

"It's only visible to those who have been told about it." Betamon said. "If you don't know it's there, you won't see it."

"And how exactly did you find out about it, then?" Meiyomon asked sharply.

"Through a friend of a friend." Betamon said, waving his fin in passing, "It's not important. What is important is that you all know about it now, and you need to hide. Because they know you know."

"Betamon!" I hissed, "Why would you tell us then?"

"You wanted to know!" he shot back.

"We need to hide." Ken said suddenly, pointing to the sky where a very strange looking Megadramon.

"Something is wrong with him..." Tatum muttered as Ken moved quick to grab Iori and Natsuni's arms and run off into the trees behind us. I motioned with my head for Betamon to follow us as I ran with Meiyomon and Tatum hanging tightly to my hands. Armadillomon, Betamon and Goblimon ran behind, making sure to keep us safe.

"Did you hear that?" Tatum asked sharply.

"He's attacking." Meiyomon gasped.

Before he could warn the others the ground had cracked and exploded beneath us, creating a large gap in the earth. Tatum's hand was ripped from mine. She screamed as she slipped from my grasp, but Armadillomon steadied her as the ground fell to pieces. There were about six feet of empty space between the two of us.

"Just keep going." She told me. I nodded and obeyed, picking Meiyomon up to make the running easier. I saw Natsuni leap across the gap in the earth to get to Iori, leaving Ken alone. I bit my lip as I watched her jump, and sighed with relief as she landed on solid ground.

My heart lurched as she let out a scream, the ground crumbling beneath her. Iori reacted quickly and grabbed onto her hand, but with the force of her movement both of them began falling. Thankfully, Tatum and Goblimon managed to catch him and pull both of them to safety.

"He's attacking again!" Meiyomon yelled from my arms as I slowed to a stop by Ken.

"This has gone too far already." Iori growled. "Armadillomon?"

"Got it!" He nodded quickly as he began to glow and shift into his champion form of Ankylomon, standing over top of Iori and the others. The attack hit his shell quick and hard, causing his knees to buckle but he kept his ground.

"We need to go!" Ken shouted, "We need to get out of here. _Now._"

"Going so soon?"

We all spun around to see a familiar digimon wearing yellow boots and a jesters outfit walking toward us where there was no ground.

"Piedmon..." Tatum gasped.

"Haven't we already defeated you?" Natsuni asked, trying to be brave.

"Nope, I don't think so," Piedmon said slowly in a drawling voice. "Perhaps a different Piedmon. But you've never faced what I've in stow. For I'm just like your simple digimon." He stopped walking about ten feet from us.

"Oh?" Tatum asked, "And how's that?"

"He's got me." A very electronic voice spoke up causing us all to look around. And then a figure stepped out from behind a tree wearing a silver mask, covering his entire face. His hair was blonde and he was wearing a white robe.

"A partner..." Iori gasped.

"That's who we're looking for?" I asked, "He's just a kid."

"Just a kid, am I?" The boy asked, typing words into a small computer which spit the words out in the electronic voice we'd heard. "Piedmon. Show them what this kid can do."

Piedmon smiled and reached behind him to pull one of his multiple swords.

"NO!" Meiyomon screamed. "BOOM!" The ground around Piedmon exploded suddenly as Meiyomon clapped his hands together.

"Run!" Tatum called out as the area around us filled with flame and smoke. I felt Ken grab my arm tightly as he began to run from Piedmon, and away from Tatum, Betamon and the others.

"BOOM!" Meiyomon said again, "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" Explosions fired off, one after another behind us as we ran from the scene. "Go left! _Now_!" Meiyomon barked to Ken and I who both obeyed his wishes as another attack from the flying beast opened the ground in a crashing earthquake right where we had been standing.

"We need to lose him!" Ken gasped, "We need to find a place to hide!" He was right of course, but we were in a forest, where were we going to find anywhere to hide that the digimon wouldn't find us in? "There!" Apparently there... Ken had spotted a cave that led into the ground, and honestly, it looked like heaven despite the bugs and cobwebs and dirt. If we could hide in there, I'd be thrilled to say that I would be living another day... but Tatum and the others were still in danger.

"We have to go get Tatum!" I insisted, trying to pull from his grip.

"Tatum has Betamon, and Iori with her—she'll be fine. You need to worry about yourself." Ken growled, shoving me into the hole in the ground roughly. I tripped over the first step and rolled and crashed down to the bottom as Ken ran in after me. Luckily the steps were just made of dirt—but still...

"Hey!" I barked at him as I rubbed my dirt stained arm. "Ow!"

"Shh!" He hissed as he backed into the shadows. "He could hear you."

"Oh boo." I groaned. "Maybe he'll pay you back for shoving me into this hole." Ken kicked back and hit me lightly, telling me to be quiet so I did so, holding the quivering Meiyomon in my arms.

I heard a roar, but it sounded distant, and I guess Ken thought the same because he relaxed a little.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked, pulling myself to my feet and feeling around in the darkness.

"It's just a cave." Ken said quickly.

"No it's not." Meiyomon said, shaking his head. "This cave was never here before. That hole up there—the door... it used to be a pond that was known as 'The Looking Glass'."

"Are we in Wonderland?" I asked, unable to keep my excitement from rising.

"What are you talking about?" Meiyomon asked, "No. Just... The Looking Glass is gone. It was used to watch the other worlds." As he was explaining, I was venturing further into the darkness, running my hand along the wall. The dirt covered wall slowly changed into a smooth stone.

"And since this is in its place, you think that it's not just a normal cave?" Ken asked.

"Exactly." Meiyomon said with a nod.

"There's something engraved in the wall." I said suddenly, running my finger along through the creases in the wall.

"What?" Ken asked, "What does it say?"

"I don't know Ken," I said sarcastically, "Do you have night vision?"

"Right..." Ken said quietly.

"I know!" Meiyomon smiled brightly snapping his fingers and creating six floating balls of golden flames, lighting up the room. The floor was made of stone as well and had engravings on it, but they weren't runes, they were easily read. "That's me!" Meiyomon cheered, slipping out of my arms and hugging the ground where the crest of honour was engraved.

"It's the crests." Ken said slowly, using his foot to wipe some dirt off of the crest of light. "But what does the wall say?" I looked to the wall and smirked. I could read that! I knew runes! Wow, learning these was coming into more use than I'd thought.

I cleared my throat and looked it over before reading it out loud. "_Courage, Hope, and Humility, the crests of the leader, Friendship, Light and Desire—_"

"Desire?" Ken asked, "Are you sure you're reading that right?"

"Pretty sure..." I said, unsure. I looked to Ken and Meiyomon who were both watching me with wide, excited eyes. I turned back to the runes. "_Friendship, Light, and Desire... symbols of triumph... over darkness._ I think? I don't know." I sighed, "I'm sorry, I'm not very good at this."

"It's okay," Ken encouraged, "Just read it... we'll see if it makes sense afterwards."

"Okay..." I nodded, turning back to the wall. "_Darkness, Kindness, and... Honey—Honesty. Traits of the path to the light. Knowledge, Faith and Forgiveness properties natural to the mind. Love, Purity and Passion aspects to show the conquest from the heart. Strength, Empathy and Trust, attributes perceived of the holder."_ I took a breath and looked back to them. "Is this making any sense?"

"Yeah?" Ken said slowly, "I think so... though, Desire, Honesty, Passion, Empathy and Trust... those—what are they?"

"I don't know... I'll keep reading. Maybe it'll say..." I cleared my throat and started reading again. "_Destiny, and Miracles features of the world itself. And Honour, the most important of the lot, a trait shared by all, and only when one has lost their honour, do they become susceptible to the darkness."_

"WHOOO!" Meiyomon cheered and clapped his hands. "Yes I am the most important!"

"Well what are these other crests Meiyomon?" I asked him quickly, kneeling down next to him. "You knew there were more crests. Your siblings each bare one of these new crests... who do they belong to?"

"I told you before, I don't know that." Meiyomon admitted. "Maybe the wall will tell you."

I nodded and turned back to the wall and the runes.I read through the runes in my head and scanned it over quickly. There were stories about children, but I couldn't read their names, as I didn't recognize them as words. I read of stories of these children as they triumphed over Lord something. He was a symbol of both light and dark, and soon they were able to keep him and all of his darkness held in the world in which he destroyed. The Digital World, and upon leaving the world for the last time the children left behind the spirits of the digimon in which they had used as vessels, and in those spirits lay the hearts of the children, and the traits they left behind.

"The kids left their hearts in the Digital World." I told them blankly.

"That doesn't sound nearly as mystical as that stuff about the crests." Ken joked.

"I'm paraphrasing." I laughed, "Just basically, there were five kids and the spirit of another that used the spirits of legendary warriors to trap the evil that would one day turn into Apocalymon."

"Well where did this evil come from?" Ken asked.

"Uhm..." I turned back to the wall, and read out, "_Three holy digimon—_Sorry, I can't read names—_ended up in a feud, that was solved by a young child, who took the power he soon gained, and used it for evil deeds until he was too overcome with darkness to ever turn back._"

"That's terrifying." Ken said, fidgeting, "Who are The Holy Digimon?"

"I... don't know." I said slowly.

"Well, we should go find Tatum and the others." Ken said, shaking his head to clear it from the stories, "We can always come back after all."

"You're right." I nodded, turning to leave, but seeing more words on the opposite wall. Ken lifted Meiyomon into his arms and headed up the stairs but I froze and read quickly.

_When all of the crests find their homes the Worlds will find true peace._

"Peace?" I asked with a scoff, "There's never peace around here." I ran after the others, taking the steps two at a time carelessly forgetting about our attacker. I quickly looked around the sky, but it seemed to be clear.

Ken motioned for me to follow him and so I did, the two of us running as he held Meiyomon tightly in his arms to keep him safe.

"So there are five more crests," Ken said loudly as we ran, "And they belong to someone..."

"And apparently the worlds will find peace if we can find who they belong to." I said quickly.

"Well we need to find the crests first." Ken said.

"Meiyomon, do you know where they are?" I asked, moving a little to avoid running into a tree.

"Whyyyy?" Meiyomon asked with big eyes.

"We need to save the world." Ken said with a smile.

"Do you promise to take good care of them?" Meiyomon asked shyly, "My siblings will be very sad if you break them, or lose them."

"I promise." Ken and I said together. Both of us stopped running as Meiyomon clenched his hand into a fist and then opened it up wide allowing five balls of light to appear into his hands. One was light brown, one was a plum colour, floating next to a lilac coloured orb, a pale green orb floated next to a similar pale blue one. Slowly they began popping like popcorn into five crests of the same colour. Each of them fell into Meiyomon's hand. He held them tightly into his hand and then held them out for me to hold. I held my hand out and he dropped them into my hand.

"Be very careful." He warned as I placed them in my pocket.

"I promis—"

"Ken!"

"Michael!"

We both turned to see Iori, Tatum, Natsuni and Goblimon running toward us. Upamon was resting in Iori's arms. They stopped as they came up to us, except Tatum who threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.

"You're okay!" She gasped as I hugged her back.

"Always the tone of surprise," I laughed at her as she kissed me on the cheek. "Where's Betamon?" I asked them. My mood fell when I saw each of them looking at one another nervously.

"What happened?"

"He disappeared." Iori said. "He was right there, and then... he wasn't. No one saw him leave."

"But we were right by the water, so he likely just hid there." Tatum nodded, trying to smile, "He's safe, don't you worry." I could tell she was just trying her best to calm me, and I had to admit that it was working. I nodded and she sighed with relief.

"Piedmon is crazy strong." Iori said suddenly.

"He almost killed me with one hit!" Upamon said quickly.

"Where is he?" Ken asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"He and his partner vanished after a while." Natsuni explained, as she examined a rather painful looking wound on her partner's arm. "They just turned and ran. Not that I'm complaining. We would have died."

"Any idea where they went?" Ken asked.

"Nope." Iori said.

There was silence met with only strange glances from each of us. Iori looked scared and nervous about the fight with Piedmon as he looked down to Upamon who was trying to give Iori hope. Natsuni was worried as she cleaned her partners wound with a medicinal leaf she had found as he bit his lip in pain.

"And where have you been?" Tatum asked.

"It's a long story..." I said, thinking about the quickest way back to the monitor that would lead us back to Mimi's restaurant so I could get my coat back.

"How long?" Tatum asked.

"Like... four million years long." Ken, Meiyomon and I laughed but the others gave us quizzical looks. "I told you. It's a long story."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Miyako is finally narrating, and letting us know a little bit about what is going on with her. Stay tuned to find out!


	9. Night Terrors

**Y/N:** This is Miyako's. Sorry it's late. I had internet issues. The issue being that I didn't have access… Here it is though, review to let me know what you think.

**U/N: **This is Miyako's chapter... which... is one of my favourite chapters... we both kind of wrote it, but only because my sister got scared xD. It's one of, if not my absolute favourite plot line from 03, 04 and 05. It's also the darkest we've ever gone, which might be competing against Kurayami's history for that prize. Point being, just warning you it's a little dark, and this is only the beginning. I hope you like it though... it's really cool, and Miyako is my favourite character in our stories, sooo... yeah :P

Also, my sister is "busy" (doesn't want to write) And so there will be a (hopefully short, at longest, two week) Hiatus after chapter 10. We've decided the next arc won't start being uploaded until the final chapter in it is completed, writing wise. We're currently writing chapter 17 out of 20, so hopefully it'll get done quickly.  
Sorry...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 9: Night Terrors**

_**Miyako:**_

The mirror was mocking me.

I stood in front of the cracked bathroom mirror in the library that I worked at. The dim, bluish lights above my head were flickering down on me as I tried to look away. But I couldn't. I had to force myself to look at my reflection. It had been so long since I'd seen myself... I couldn't let fear run my life. I was horrified by what I saw though. It wasn't right. But I didn't know how it happened. One day I was fine, and the next I woke up mutilated. Thankfully it was easily hidden. Unfortunately, none of my tricks were working.

It had started a few months ago, but I had thought nothing of it. I'd woken up with just a small scratch or two on my arms, but slowly they grew worse and worse and lately they were just large, deep gouges straight from my wrist nearly to my elbow. Just three deep cuts that bled constantly.

At first I'd just thought that it was me doing it to myself subconsciously in my sleep—or perhaps I'd been scratched by something during the day and just not noticed... but they never went away, only getting deeper and deeper, not showing any signs of healing.

One night I woke screaming. Ken was awake in seconds, trying to calm me, but I wouldn't show him my arms. He wouldn't believe me when I said I didn't know where they were coming from. _That_ explanation made no sense at all. But it was true. And I curled up into myself, crying from the pain, desperate to believe I'd done it to myself by accident…

Except with gouges that deep, bleeding that much, I knew that if it were me, I'd have blood or skin under my nails... but I didn't.

So that meant I wasn't doing it to myself. And I _knew_ Ken wasn't doing it to me. But just because I knew that and fully believed it—and totally had proof, because Ken was absolutely frantic that night, trying to get me to tell him what was wrong so that he could try and make it better—didn't mean that anyone else would. Momoe would jump to the conclusion that Ken was abusing me, which couldn't be further from the truth. Natsuni would try and tell me the different scenarios that characters tried in all the movies she'd seen. Kurayami would assume I was being taken hostage by some evil digimon, and start worrying about when it would come after her. Sora and Mimi would try to be like mothers, trying to tell me that it's not _my_ fault, and that I didn't need to protect him, and if he was abusing me I'd need to tell someone. And Hikari would tell me that it would work out for the best, because it always did. I just had to _talk_ about it.

But I couldn't. I wouldn't.

I was not going to have any of them judge Ken that way. He was trying his hardest to help me, but I couldn't tell him either. He would assume, like I said, that I was hurting myself, and try and council me into signing up for therapy.

Daisuke would beat Ken into the ground first, and ask questions later. It didn't matter that Ken was his best friend. I'd been his friend longer, and I was a girl. In his eyes, that meant I was off limits for anything, and that any injury I received was punishable by death.

So I clearly wasn't going to talk to him.

Mantarou was similar to Daisuke, only he wouldn't feel guilty afterwards, when he found out it wasn't Ken's fault. And I was torn between thinking that Chiziru would flip out on me, or just not care. I mean having Masa, her little baby boy, didn't mature her at all. If anything, I was sure she was acting even stranger than before. And Mom and Dad had _just_ gotten over the fact that I married Ken. I wasn't going to talk to either of them about it. So my family was off limits.

I couldn't even imagine talking to Iori or Jou about it. They would react the worst I was sure. And I wasn't close enough to Taichi, Yamato, Willis, or Michael to bother with telling them. Maybe Takeru…he was level headed, and would listen to me, to my side. But he was always off travelling the world with his new girlfriend. I didn't want to weigh him down with my strange happenings. He was happy. I hadn't seen him be so happy since he learned he liked Hikari. He'd been miserable watching Hikari and Willis' flourishing love. And he'd been left to deal with the many heartbreaks Hikari had gone through throughout that love.

No. He deserved this happiness. Besides, a couple of scratches weren't worth mentioning.

Neither was the bruising. As I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts I began wrapping the tensor bandage around my arm, shielding the cuts from view once more. I stared at the bruises and was unable to keep myself from thinking what had happened just that morning.

I had awoken from my sleeping as I felt a tight grip on my wrist. I fumbled for my glasses, but when I finally found them I discovered that there was no one there in the room—not even Ken who was still downstairs, not having come to join me for sleep yet. I wanted to scream. Or panic. Or cry. But I couldn't draw any attention to myself. So I flicked my watering yes between the empty space where someone should have been, and the spot on my arm which was growing redder and redder.

The moment Ken groggily stepped into the bedroom the pain had vanished. I spun around to greet him with an attempted smile, but he saw right through it. He knew enough not to ask me what was wrong, but he held me tight all night as I cried into his chest which would explain the bags under my eyes.

I saw that my skin was paler and dryer than usual as I hadn't been sleeping or eating properly... I shook my head again and hoped I'd be able to find a way to move past this for just a while at least.

I had to remember to get the sheets from the dryer when I got home. That was a good thing to think about. What other house hold chores could I think about...? Of course the reason I'd had to wash the sheets in the first place was because of the blood.

I found that I was still staring at the bruises and the way they curled around my arm. Two distinguishable handprints. I'd taken off my gloves and my sweater while in the safety of the washroom. I'd been sweating in them. It was too warm inside the library to be wearing such articles of clothing, but I couldn't risk not wearing them. I had to keep them hidden.

Ken was getting suspicious of course. I was always wearing gloves. I wouldn't let him see my arms. This was starting to cause some strain in our relationship, but he was trying to understand for me. He was so perfect. I couldn't spoil whatever trivial problems he thought this was by telling him what I was going through.

As I slowly wrapped the bandages around my one arm again I stared in the mirror, unable to find a way to look away, in contrast to before when I couldn't even force myself to take a glance. The way the lights above were flickering was staring to make me nervous. I glanced over my shoulder and saw nothing besides the simple toilet. As I turned back I jumped at the sight of what appeared to be eyes hanging over my shoulder, just as the lights went out over head.

I couldn't hide the squeak of fear as I panicked in the darkness before the lights shone back on. I sighed with relief when there were no eyes. It had just been my imagination... I was going insane. I needed to tell someone...

No.

It was better this way. To suffer in silence.

"Miyako?"

My co-worker and friend Mari knocked on the bathroom door.

"Are you done yet? You've been in there for like half an hour. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said quickly. It sounded fake to even my own ears.

"No you're not," she said with a sigh. "I'm coming in. You better be decent."

"I'm not," I said frantically. I forced my one arm into the long black glove that had kept it captive for so long, the tensor bandage hanging loose still. I was just picking up the second one when she opened the door.

"Okay," she said casually poking her head inside the door, her long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing fake glasses over her bright blue eyes. "What's the issue—Oh my god. What the hell is that?"

I winced as she caught sight of my mangled arm. The bruises were the _second_ thing she noticed. She was quick to move across the bathroom, her boots clicking loudly on the tiled floor. She grabbed my arm, careful not to hurt me, and pulled it closer to her. She slowly wrapped her fingers around my bruised muscles, matching up the best she could with the handprint.

"Why didn't you tell me," she demanded. "This isn't acceptable. I know you love him, but this is wrong. You know that right? You know that whatever he's saying that you don't deserve this. Tell me that you know." Just as I'd expected, she'd jumped straight to the conclusion of Ken being abusive.

"I do know that," I told her roughly pulling my arms away from her, and regretting it instantly as pain shot through my entire arm. I pulled the glove down a little and tightened the tensor bandage, clasping it together. "And I would be touched I think, if it actually pertained to my situation."

"You don't have to protect him," she said fiercely. I hadn't seen her so passionate before. She was fun loving and whimsical. She'd spent a few years in America, but came back not too long later. We'd never rekindled the same, seemingly unbreakable friendship we'd once had, but she was still my best friend outside of the digidestined. She was my rock in reality. I needed that sometimes. It was hard to remember what I was free to talk about in the middle of the street, and what everyone didn't know. She helped me with that. She would question me with a raised brow every time I mentioned Hawkmon—"And then Hawkmon told me," I'd say. "You mean your stuffed bird from your childhood? The one you thought could talk?" she'd question. "Er, yeah, that one…"—and give me advice about the search in the Digital World without understanding what I was talking about anyway. I needed her. But I didn't need her to rant about Ken. He wasn't responsible.

"You don't have to accuse him without the full story," I hissed at her. "It wasn't Ken."

"If it wasn't Ken," she said, her eyes narrowed. "You'd better have a damned good excuse. Because I won't believe you otherwise." I wanted to be mad at her, but I couldn't. She was only trying to help, but I could hardly find the energy to argue back as I wrapped up my other arm slowly.

"I don't know," I said in a wavering voice.

"What was that?" she asked. "It sounds like a pitiful excuse that in no way sounds like you're covering up for Ken's handy work."

"I don't know who it was," I shouted at her, pulling my sweater back on over my gloves. "I woke up this way. I can't… I've never seen it."

"It?" she asked skeptically. "Like you don't know if it was a girl or boy?"

"Like I don't even know if it was human," I corrected. "I'm scared of the dark now. Did you know? 'Cause I am. I won't walk down the street in the dark. I _never_ go into alleyways, and run past them even at the brightest points in the day. I sleep with a nightlight. A freaking _nightlight._ Ken doesn't know what's wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with me. But there is someone or _something _out there that is after me. It wants me for something, and damn it! I don't know what they want."

"You're making it up, right?" she asked. Her voice was quieter now. She was clinging to the hope that Ken was responsible as she nervously looked over her shoulder.

"I wish I was," I said. I couldn't stop myself from crying. I'd been keeping this in for so long. I didn't have control anymore. I couldn't stop myself from talking either. "But you saw it. Does it look like I'm lying? I wish I knew who it was. But I don't. I can't figure it out. How are they getting into my bedroom? Why don't I hear them coming in? None of our windows are broken. I've put locks on every one of them. I lock the door, and I put in a deadbolt. And I have a little latch lock too. Ken thinks I'm being crazy with safety. He thinks I'm scared because I'm alone at home a lot of the time, and just can't handle it. And he's right!

"I'm scared all the time Mari. And there's no one there with me. It's not like back home. I always had Mom tinkering away at some craft or some dish in the kitchen, or Dad was coming in for a lunch or dinner break from the store. Momoe and Chiziru were always yelling at each other, and Mantarou would play music really loudly. I never had a moment of peace. I always wanted it, Mari. I really did. But now that I have it, I'm terrified. I wake up sometimes, and I don't remember how I got there. Why did this have to happen now? I'm supposed to be living my happily-ever-after, not a nightmare!"

"I don't know why it's happening to you," she said sadly. She clutched both of my hands in her own. "But you're not alone anymore. You shouldn't have been alone in the first place. You have to tell someone."

"I already did," I told her. "I told you!"

"I'm not enough," she insisted. "I'm not close enough to help you. We work at the library. It was an accident that we even found each other again. You know that. I don't know _how_ to help you. I'm going to do all that I can. I swear it. But it's not enough. You need to tell Ken."

"No!" I shrieked. "I can't do that. He'll worry too much."

"He has a right to worry," she snapped. "His wife, his _wife_, is being attacked in his home. While she sleeps even. That's not okay. He needs to know."

"I won't tell him," I said firmly, daring her to change my mind. "He needs to focus on school. There's enough on his plate right now without adding more to it. Taichi has us all searching for that guy that wants to destroy the…you can't know about that … But he's training to become a police officer too. His eventual goal is a private investigator. I can't stress him out anymore. I _can't_."

I swiped at my eyes ferociously. Why couldn't I stop crying? I didn't sound nearly as intimidating as I should have.

"Miyako," Mari said softly. Pulling me into her and wrapping her arms around me. I got a face-full of blonde hair, but I was crying too hard to care. "You are his wife. You're the most important thing to him. He would gladly take time off of studying to help you. You know that. And you're life, if it really is in danger, is more important than studying anyway. Why can't you see that?"

"Because," I cried. "I want us to have a future. A stable one. And Ken's the only one that knows what he wants to do for that. I'm at a library. I take weekend classes on computers and audio work. Where's that going to get me? Nowhere. I'll be stuck at this library for the rest of my life. And I'll never be able to provide for my family. I'm not risking my future children's happiness for something so stupid. I could be doing this to myself, right? There's that chance."

I was lying. I wanted to believe it so badly though.

"You know it's true," Mari said, squeezing me closer to her. "But there won't be any future children if you don't take care of this problem first. Now, if you won't tell Ken, you _do_ have others you can tell. Try your sister. The nicer one, Momoe was it?"

"Momoe's busy. She's got a baby to take care of. She's got friends she's trying to catch up with, because Emiko takes so much time and energy to look after that she's pulling away from them. And she's looking for a job too," I told her. "I'm about thirty percent sure there's going to be a wedding within the next year and a half too. She doesn't have time for her hysterical little sister. She won't believe me anyway."

"Tell someone," she insisted.

"I will," I lied. Who could I tell after all?

"Good," she said. "Now, I came down her to tell you that I was going home. My shift ended, forty minutes ago now."

"Right," I said, letting her lead me out of the bathroom, up the stairs to the main level.

"I can stay if you need me to." Mari insisted.

"No, go home." I nodded, wiping away the remaining tears.

"You'll be okay, right?" she asked.

"Of course," I said nervously. I was the last worker today. I still had an hour left in my shift. I looked around the library. There were no patrons, and no workers. It was still. It was eerie. The aisles were poorly lit. Anyone could be lurking in them. The lounge in the corner was shrouded in shadows. Someone could be hiding behind one of the couches. There were so many windows. I could have a stalker spying through any one of them, and the moment I was alone they'd attack. I was in a deserted library. No one would hear me scream…

"Mari," I said panicked.

"Yes," she called, peeking around the corner to me, from where she was putting on her coat and scarf.

"Could you, maybe you would like to, I don't want," I stammered, my eyes still flickering around the place.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asked softly.

"Could you?" I asked desperately.

"Of course I will," she said. "I told you I'd help you however I could. I may be a lot of things, but I'm your friend too. I'm not going to leave you alone. Especially not after last time." I knew she was talking about her being forced to break her promise to be best friends forever as her parents took her away to America.

"Thank you," I said feeling myself sag with relief.

I wasn't going to do this alone anymore. And though I was still terrified, I was able to breathe easier for right now. And that was all that mattered.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **Koushiro and Kurayami round out the first arc next chapter.


	10. Speculations and Accusations

**Y/N:** Kurayami and Koushiro. I was excited a bit by writing this, even if I don't remember exactly what went on during it. I hope you enjoy it!

**U/N:** This is the final chapter until the hiatus, or break or whatever you want to call it, sorry, again, but i hope you like this one and, I hope that the dramatics of it will leave you wanting more for when the break is over :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 10: Speculations and Accusations**

_**Kurayami:**_

"_W-who are you?" I asked slowly as the trees around me seemed to wither and die, the leaves falling like lead, straight down toward the ground. The skies turned dark and the air was cold. I could hear a voice, a loud, angry voice._

"_Why are you here?" The voice asked in a low voice. "Who are you?"_

"_I'm Kurayami sir," I gasped, "Kurayami Higorashi! And I'm looking for my mother." I looked around to all of my Digimon friends that I'd gathered during my search. There was a gust of hot air, rushing past me suddenly, and I clutched to Fangmon, my first sighted digimon as Lynxmon growled and tried to protect me from the voice. Even Honeybeemon slowly drifted into the air around me to protect me._

"_Why are you in my land?"_

"_I told you!" I insisted, "I'm looking for my mother. She's been gone from home a real long time. I think she is in this place!" I tried to smile. Every digimon I'd met so far had some good in them. Even Fangmon, who at first had tried to chase me and hurt me. But I didn't let him, and of course I was protected by Bakomon. But this time I had lots of friends to protect me as I tried to make the digimon a good guy. _

_But he was just so scary._

"_Kanashimi." The voice said._

"_That's my mother's name!" I said quickly, "You know where she is?"_

"_No," The voice said, "But you do. You've already seen her. She rejected you, and she doesn't want you."_

_Fangmon and Lynxmon looked to me in surprise as Rabbitmon hopped in front of me, unable to find the source of the sound._

"_But... I know someone who does want you." The voice said._

"_Really? Who?" I asked excitedly._

"_Me."_

_My excitement drained completely as I stared in horror toward the sky as lights flashed above me. I didn't know who this digimon was, but it was time to make him a good guy, but the more he talked the more I knew he'd never change. He was so evil, and his voice was making its way into my brain._

"_Who are you...?" I asked slowly._

"_My name is Fanglongmon," _

"There you are sweet-cheeks!" A lady said, pulling me from my thoughts as she spun my chair around. "What do you think?" I stared into my reflection and smiled at the bright purple streaks hanging down in the pigtails hanging from my head.

"I love it." I told her with a smile. I slipped out of the chair and followed her toward the desk. She pressed a few buttons and turned to me with a smile. I handed her the money she was asking for and then tried to leave.

"You miss someone, don't you?" She asked me. "I know the look. I get a lot of people coming through here, and a lot of gossip. You're a quiet one, but your expression says it all."

I turned to her and nodded, "I do. My mother." I didn't want comfort though. She wouldn't understand my situation, and so I turned and I left the salon, stepping into the hallway of the mall where, not far from where I was Daisuke was sitting on a bench, back to back with Hikari, talking as they waited for me.

"There she is!" Hikari grinned. "Your hair looks amazing!" I bit my lip, trying not to smile as she leapt through the air and came to play with my hair. Daisuke whipped around in his seat and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back then. Every time he looked at me my heart tugged and warmed up, wiping away any fear or sadness I had. He winked to me and then jumped to his feet.

"You look awesome." He said. "Now can we _please_ go get that video game?"

Hikari laughed, "Fine, let's go get your silly game. But then you have to come clothes shopping with us."

"Do I have to?" He groaned.

Hikari nodded simply. Hikari loved shopping as much as anyone else, I didn't like it so much, but she was good at it, and I needed new clothes. I felt bad for calling her from America to help me shop, but she was always happy to help, and I missed seeing her all the time... it seemed kind of selfish and... well, it was.

As we were walking towards Daisuke's store we passed a woman carrying a large load of groceries. She smiled kindly at us so I smiled back, but as she was passing us she dropped a few cans of food.

I moved quickly and picked them both up, and chased after her.

"Here ma'am. You dropped these." I smiled at her as she thanked me with much enthusiasm. I'd been getting so used to doing nice things and smiling instead of walking around glaring while trying to destroy everything. These good deeds at first seemed like such a chore, but I honestly thought I was getting the hang of being nice now. Which was a relief—I hated the old me... and the others should have too. But for some reason they didn't... I hoped they'd like this me too.

I ran back to the others and slipped my hand into Daisuke's. He looked to me shocked, he knew I didn't really like public displays of affection.

"Where did you go?" He asked me.

"Oh you know," I said, with a wave of my hand, "Just had to beat off a rabid dragon. No big deal." Daisuke laughed at me and rolled his eyes.

"Oh the sarcasm again?" He asked, "I can play that game too."

"Oh I'm well aware of your high levels of sarcasm Daisuke." I told him with a wink. The three of us walked toward Daisuke's gaming store where he ran in alone as the two of us waited by the door. I knew it wouldn't take long. He knew his way around that place as well as Takeru knew his way around the candy store.

I was watching the people walk by as Hikari started telling me in great detail about how her best friend was running around the globe with some French girl. I'd heard the story at the same time as her, she didn't need to keep bringing it up, but I supposed it always got longer with each telling, and I wasn't sure if Takeru was actually telling her things that she could add, or if Hikari herself was just embellishing the story.

The people walking by were more interesting than the story in any case, having heard it multiple times. There were adorable children who wanted everything they saw, but each of them left with a saddened face, Christmas was just a couple months ago, their birthdays would be coming up I hoped. They would get something nice then.

Then I saw someone walking tall and proud, his hands in the pocket of his white jeans as his scarf hung low, past his sleek blazer, and atop his head was a mop of messy white hair.

"Hey..." I said as I watched him walk past, "Isn't that Neo?"

Hikari stopped telling her story and looked toward him with a nod. "Yeah it is." She waved to him rather animatedly but he didn't see, "Hey Neo!" She shouted. Neo jumped in surprise and turned to us with a smile. He strode across the hallway toward us, almost bumping into an old lady.

"I'm so sorry!" He said, patting her on the shoulders as he slipped past and toward us where he and Hikari burst out laughing. "I almost ran her over!"

"She's fine," Hikari insisted, watching her go. "So what are you doing here?"

"Shopping for Rei's birthday." Neo admitted slowly.

"Isn't that in May?" Hikari asked suspiciously. Neo nodded.

"I'm a failure, I know." He laughed, "It takes me months to find the right present for her. Last year I started in January and I was still late with her gift. I never know what to get her. Everything she's ever wanted is given to her by Mom. Except... walking."

"Neo, Rei loves you," Hikari said, "She'd love anything you give her."

"Exactly." Neo said, "She'll love anything, which is why it's so hard. She can't just love it and pretend it's just something I gave her—which it is. It has to be super special and amazing. Something she'll want to keep forever."

"You're a really great brother." Hikari said with a smile.

"Even better than Taichi?" Neo asked with a nudge of his elbow.

Hikari laughed and shook her head. "I can't say that."

"Alright," He laughed, "Well I'd better go, see you later guys," He shot a smile at me before leaving but I couldn't help but glare. I didn't like him, and I didn't hide that fact even for a moment.

"I don't like him."

"What?" Hikari gasped, "Why? That was so nice and kind of him? Yamato got to you didn't he?" Hikari was sending me a look that I'd never seen etched upon her face. It was... disappointment? I felt so terrible for saying what I had. I didn't want Hikari to be mad at me... I just didn't know what to do—lying was bad. But so was making Hikari mad at me.

"No, Yamato's words are all out of petty spite." I told her simply, hoping she'd understand. "He's just... I can't explain it. I don't like him."

"Okay..." Hikari said, twisting her face up a little, trying to understand as Daisuke hopped between us.

"_Special effects like you've never seen before!_" He read the back of his game as dramatically as he could, "_New characters—new story—new everything! The zombies are still there though. They're not new! And the world still needs you to destroy them!_"

"Sounds like loads of fun," Hikari said with a smile as Daisuke hopped onto a nearby bench and held the game into the air.

"Fun?" Daisuke asked, "This is going to be more than fun—it's going to be a very spectacular time of destruction and mayhem!" Daisuke laughed maniacally toward the ceiling and then hopped down excitedly. "Can we go home and play it now?"

"Nope." Hikari said, shaking her head, "We have to shop."

"I promise I'll play with you the moment we get home." I told him with a smile. He wrapped his arms around me and smiled.

"I love you!" I couldn't help but laugh as my face turned red. Suddenly he pulled away. "I thought you were going to camp out with Labramon tonight?"

"He changed his plans." I told him with a sigh.

"Where is he?" Hikari asked, "Don't you usually take him with you during the day?"

"Yeah," I told her with a smile, "Usually. But he doesn't like the mall, too many people stare at him as if he's deranged. He might look like a dog—but he's still pink." Hikari laughed as we hurried toward my favourite clothes store.

"So what have you guys been up to?" Hikari asked, slipping through the aisles toward the section where she knew I'd want to be. "All us Chosen Children have been separated so much in the past few years. I always knew it would happen eventually, but I'm not ready for it. I don't want to grow up yet."

"What do you mean separate?" Daisuke asked.

"Well Willis, Michael and I live in America, and Kurayami is there sometimes too for her dad. Taichi is too busy with work and stuff to hang out with the others, and Mimi has her own restaurant now. Mimi and Taichi used to hang out you know, but I bet they haven't even talked since they got jobs. Jou has a daughter—a lovely one. Miyako and Ken are married and shutting out from everyone, Iori is always secretly busy which I'm starting to get rather curious about, Takeru is travelling the world with his new girlfriend. You know, I'm not sure I like her very much—"

"Yamato's travelling too." Daisuke said, thankfully cutting off yet another one of Hikari's rants about Takeru and his new girlfriend. "Because of his band. Koushiro is still the same though! So am I! Koushiro and I can be buds! And Sora!"

"Sora's always busy trying to create a fashion line." I reminded him.

"So I guess it's just me and Koushiro." Daisuke said awkwardly, "I don't think I've ever had a complete conversation with the guy."

"Exactly." Hikari said, holding up a rather frilly violet top and showing it to me. I shook my head as she continued, "I just don't want everyone to move on. Not yet. I want to stay friends! We've been through so much together, wouldn't you think that would mean something to us? Shouldn't we want to stay friends forever."

"We will." Daisuke insisted.

"I don't mean just getting together once a year to celebrate a random holiday, or just sending cards. I mean actually being friends. I want our children to grow up together."

"Hikari, you're asking a little much..." Daisuke said slowly. "It's not really normal for people to be friends forever."

"Well it should be." Hikari said through gritted teeth as she held up a pair of black leather shoes which I grabbed excitedly, unable to hide the smile on my face. I wanted them so bad! "And I mean—" Hikari stopped talking and pulled her phone out of her pocket suddenly, reading it over. At first her face seemed just totally confused, but as she reread the message again and again she eventually formed a look of panic. She flipped her phone around to let me read it.

_Hikari, it's time to fight. Get Willis and whoever else you can and meet at Mimi's restaurant. We have some pretty crazy stuff to tell you... Hurry! – Iori._

"Fighting?" I asked breathily turning to Daisuke as he read it over.

"Sounds _awesome_!" Daisuke grinned, "Whatever fool has chosen to deal with us digidestined is an idiot. We'll wipe the floor with him!"

Hikari looked excited too—though I knew it wasn't about the fight, it was about the peace the fight would bring. That, and the fact that everyone would be working as a group again.

Hopefully that meant that they could do it without me. I wasn't going to fight. Not ever.

_Everyone was sitting together, laughing, but I was sitting off on my own. This was almost a full year after Fanglongmon had died, and there was total peace everywhere... it seemed impossible to have gotten over everything so quickly... and that was why I didn't fit in with them just yet. I wasn't over that. I wasn't over Fanglongmon._

_I slowly stood up, unnoticed by the others and I ran, a totally different direction from them. I couldn't be part of their group. I didn't belong with them—I barely knew them. Why had Ken and Miyako invited me to their wedding? I was dreading that experience. I knew I would screw up—or be in the way..._

_I found myself sitting on a Cliffside, crying, when Shaomon scurried toward me._

"_Kurayami!" He gasped, "There you are!" He leapt into my arms and I sighed suddenly. He was so soft and fluffy... and innocent and kind. I didn't deserve him for a partner. "You shouldn't run away from me like that. It's not safe—I could die!" He was joking of course, and I couldn't help but laugh as I wiped my tears. _

_And so we talked for a bit until I heard the sounds of heavy footsteps and a loud roar. I barely had any warning as I jumped to my feet and spun around. It was a large fallen angel digimon, NeoDevimon. One of the remaining Fallen warriors of Fanglongmon's army. He never did like me—jealous I figured of my ranking in the army._

_And now he was getting his revenge as he laughed wickedly. A blast of total dark energy was flying toward me. I couldn't move—I was going to be hit... there wasn't time! Suddenly Shaomon jumped out of my arms and began glowing._

_What was this?_

_Was he finally digivolving?_

"_**Shaomon digivolve to... Labramon!**__" He landed as a majestic white and pink dog just in time for the attack to strike him. I let a scream of horror escape my mouth as he flew through the air toward me. He was hurt! _

_I tried to catch him, but the force pushed me backward and I lost my footing, sending both of us toppling backward over the Cliffside. I screamed again, but not for long. I was suddenly wrapped in someone's arms. I opened my eyes and saw Daisuke. And upon closer inspection I saw that he was standing on Aeroveedramon's head. His digimon soared over the edge of the cliff and shot toward NeoDevimon, striking him and killing him easily._

_As he turned to dust and data I turned to Labramon who was gasping for breath in my arms..._

He almost died that day... if it wasn't for Jou he would have too. And I couldn't let that happen. No more fighting. Ever.

"Come on Kura," Hikari insisted.

"R-right..." I nodded, "Just let me buy these shoes first..."

_**Koushiro:**_

Mimi had to be mad at me. That was the only reason I could gather for her to subject me to such torture. Visiting New York should not be as horrible of an experience as it was. But having been dragged out here, against my will, and forced to endure hours of conversing with her mother was making it very hard for me to appreciate the wonders of the city.

The only positive—though admittedly it wasn't a very bright positive—was that I had plenty to occupy my mind, so as to keep me from angering Mrs Tachikawa any further.

The Digital World was in danger. We knew that much. And we also knew that a human was behind this danger. Unfortunately, who was doing it, and how they were accomplishing it were still unknown.

I'd thought about it long into the night, making me groan when the alarm clock that Mrs Tachikawa so _sweetly_ set up for me went off at six in the morning. It was much too early to get up. It was even worse, considering I _knew_ Mimi's alarm wouldn't be going off for another hour at the very least. It was yet another attempt of her mother's to get me alone, and then convince me that I didn't want to be dating her daughter, and therefore should break up with her.

I was fairly positive, that mothers were supposed to want to keep their children from heartbreak, not intentionally cause it. And it wasn't as if I was some hoodlum, running around doing drugs and drinking excessively or riding a motorcycle—Mrs Tachikawa _hated_ those. I was a computer geek. I had a well paying job. It was stable too. I could actually _help_ support her daughter in the future, but I wasn't good enough. And it was because I wasn't an actor—no. It was because I wasn't Michael.

"Good morning Michael," Mrs Tachikawa said in a bright and cheery voice as I slipped into the kitchen for some coffee. I needed caffeine to wake up, so I could think on our problem. It was most unfortunate that she was waiting there for me.

"Oh," she continued, her voice now dripping with distain. "That's right. You're not Michael. You're that annoying kid she used to know."

"I've been dating her for over two and a half years," I told her. "I'm glad to know that you can recognize me."

"You have been dating her awhile," she said sadly. "So you know all about her annoying habits. She won't tell you when she's used the last of the milk."

"I know," I told her dryly. "And if that's the worst you can come up with… I'm not going to lie. There are habits she has that annoy me a little. But _she's_ the one that has them, so I can look past them. It's not my fault that you can't stand me. The feeling is mutual by the way."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she said, plopping a mug of plain, black coffee in front of me before sitting across from me with a coffee of her own.

I stared down at the rich, dark liquid, and tried desperately to come up with a connection.

This person knew we were looking for them. That much was obvious. We weren't being too subtle about the whole thing. The only problem with it was that they knew too much. They knew when we'd be there. They were getting their information from someone. There was no way for them to always be mysteriously missing whenever we were searching for them. None of the digimon were able to catch sight of them either, so this person knew how to avoid them, and therefore knew their patrol schedules.

They were smart.

And possibly had a source from within.

Suddenly, Iori's skepticism wasn't looking so cynical.

Who was it then? If we knew them though…only _one_ of us had to be connected. That left countless options. Jou and Miyako were tied to Momoe, Chiziru, Mantarou, but they'd been around long before these attacks, and weren't particularly clever—Momoe excluded. Yamato had his three band members, his body guard, that young journalist he thought he might have a chance with. The latter two _could_ potentially be held accountable, if they knew about digimon. Takeru had Catherine now, and she was already an established digimon tamer. There was a chance, however small, that it could be her. And if Takeru actually bothered to attend most of our meetings, I might've put her on a list of suspects. But as he spent most of his time travelling the world, I felt it safe to strike her off of it. Other than Catherine, the only new person he'd started being around, was his grandfather. I didn't know anything of Hikari's new friends and acquaintances. There could be so many suspects that I couldn't include, because I didn't know of their existence.

I had to stick with what I did know then.

Willis was now Michael's brother. Between the two of them, I could only add Tatum, Mrs Kennedy—now Washington—and Michael's father to the list. But I knew they were friendly enough. They could also have countless friends, countless unknowns to fit into my equation. Iori had Natsuni. She was still new enough, just as Tatum was. We didn't know much about her. But Iori was a strict judge of character. I doubted I could truly accuse her. That left Daisuke, Kurayami and Ken. Ken was swamped with school at the _police_ academy no less. I doubted he'd have time to bother any of them with details of the Digital World. Kurayami was adamantly trying to turn over new leaf, and Daisuke was busy with her and the noodle-cart. It would be bad for business if he started regaling tales of his past victories and contemplating his future ones.

But each of them had school or a job which opened new doors still that I could not look into.

Taichi on the other hand… I knew he had Rei. She'd been to the Digital World, or at least remembered the few hours when the worlds were combined. She stood to gain a lot from a plan such as this. Literally. She could stand with the influence of the Digital World.

I couldn't make myself accuse her directly—she was so caring and harmless—but I could discount her either.

"_You ready to go?" Taichi asked at the end of our meeting._

"_I suppose so," I said, my mind still reeling at the new information I'd been provided, and I was trying to put together a valid argument about why we really did need a representative of both the Dark Digimon and the Holy ones._

"_Great," Taichi said happily. "I've got to tell Rei about what Marrow said today. She's gonna get a kick out of it."_

"_Rei?" I asked. "Won't she wonder about who Marrow is, rather than find the humour in the situation?"_

"_Naw," Taichi said nonchalantly. "She knows more about my job than I do. I tell her everything. Don't tell Marrow though, he'd be furious if _another_ human was in on it."_

She had a source. A pretty big one. Taichi wouldn't have known when to shut up. And the sweet persona could in fact just be a carefully created façade in order to attain such knowledge whilst going unnoticed.

But she wasn't the only person that had an in like that. She was one of four at the very least—more if you included Tatum, Natsuni and Momoe, who more than likely already knew as much as we did, due to their close friendships and relationships with our members—that I knew for certain knew something.

Mimi talked about Genki all the time. Not in a way that made me in any way jealous—though I was starting to think that might've been her intention—but a way that made me curious nonetheless.

"_I was talking with Genki, you know, about the case," she said one night over dinner. "And he said the most interesting thing. He said that sometimes you have to wait."_

"_Is it really safe to talk with him about this?" Sora asked nervously._

"_I don't see why not. He gave me his background information when I hired him. He's an orphan, and grew up in the system. No one ever adopted him, and then he came to Odaiba after reaching the age of majority. He's a sweet kid," Mimi insisted. "And he's adorable. You should see him when he gets talking about something important—or Yamato. He gets this glint in his eye and this wicked big smile. And he's so enthusiastic. I think he's really pleased that I chose him to confide in over all of my other workers."_

"_And what did he say?" I asked, though I did find it a bit suspicious that he would provide information on his past without Mimi requesting it. The fact that he was an orphan struck with me though, so I didn't enquire any further._

"_He said that, like with animals, this might be something we need to be patient for. We can't just scare them out of hiding. They're avoiding us; they know that we're looking. We have to draw them out, catch them by surprise, and just be patient."_

It sounded like he knew way more than he should have about the situation. He knew, even before we did, that they were capable of knowing where we were going to strike. It was suspicious. I cursed myself for not catching it at the time. Mimi must've told him plenty of more recent discoveries by now.

"What are you thinking so hard over?" Mrs Tachikawa demanded to know. "Is it about how best to break up with my daughter? Because I actually have a list that I feel is quite thorough. You could take a look if you'd like."

"I love your daughter," I told her quickly. "I'm trying to protect her actually."

"She's in no need of protection," she said. "She's a strong girl that will get over the heartbreak really quickly, and move on to a new man, a movie star this time."

"It's a Digital matter," I said offhandedly. If it _was_ Genki, how could I possibly break it to her? She was so dependent on him.

"Now don't you go involving my daughter with any more dangerous battles," she said strictly. "I brought her to New York to get her away from those monsters. I don't want her to fight."

"She doesn't like fighting really," I said. "So I'll do everything I can to make sure she won't have to. But it's her choice. If it comes to down to it, and she's willing, I won't stop her."

"That's better than nothing I suppose," Mrs Tachikawa drawled. "Not that I can actually take your word on it."

"Who's down there?" Mimi called from the top of the stairs, her voice heavy from sleep.

"Go back to bed darling," her mother replied. "Kizmo and I are just having a chat!"

Kizmo?

"Koushiro's down there?" Mimi asked hurriedly. Her voice was more alert now. "With you? And you're alone? That's wonderful!"

I could hear her running down the stairs with a spring in her step.

"Is it though?" her mother asked with distain.

"You're finally getting along," Mimi cheered, bursting into the kitchen.

"If we were getting along," I supplied. "She would perhaps know my name. She's mistaken it twice already this morning."

"You didn't have to come," Mrs Tachikawa told me.

"I didn't want to," I told her with forced charm.

"This is why you're not good for each other," she told me. "She's too vibrant and you're disrespectful."

"And yet you want _me_ to break up with _her_," I commented.

"Don't be silly," Mimi told me, planting a swift kiss on my cheek. "Momma loves you. Don't you Mamma?"

"With all the world," Mrs Tachikawa deadpanned.

"See?" Mimi said happily. "Now I'm going to throw together some breakfast. I hope your both hungry. Is Daddy still asleep?"

"Yes, I didn't want to ruin _his_ sleep schedule," Mrs Tachikawa said, sending me a wicked smile. I forced back a shudder, and tried to resist putting her on the suspect list out of spite.

But there were others, as loath I was to include them. My newly discovered cousin was one of them. He was an odd fellow. He talked to himself almost as often he did to me. He referred to himself in third person a lot as well—"Who are you talking about?" I'd ask. "Oh, sorry, I mean me," he reply unconvincingly—as if he felt he were two distinct people. And then there was Pie-Pie. His best friend who'd visited only once. It was an awful nickname, yet he refused to share his real name. Gansuko didn't particularly seem keen on sharing anything, now that I thought about it. But he was always eager to learn something new about the Digital World. And I'd been hesitant at first, but he was so insistent, and it did help me.

"_It helps to talk about things," Gansuko told me once, while he was visiting. He was sitting on my old bed, leaning against the wall in my childhood room at my parents' house._

"_Sorry," I told him, feeling bad for ignoring him. I'd been so caught up with this terrorism issue that I'd been neglecting my guest. My only living blood relative._

"_You dwell in your thoughts, don't you?" he asked. "I used to. But I found that talking helps things along. You must find someone you trust inexplicably. They will be able to help, even if they can only listen. Speaking to an outside source can clear up whatever is muddled in your own mind."_

"_And you do this?" I asked._

"_All the time," he told me. "You can trust me to help you, I do."_

"_You trust me? Or yourself?" I questioned._

"_Myself," he said tilting his head. "I trust no one more. I am a very good listener. Sometimes I can even respond."_

"_O-okay," I said, finding him stranger by the second._

"_Is this a big problem?" he asked. "About your friend, whom you've yet to name?"_

_He was talking about Tentomon. I couldn't tell him about the Digital World, fearing his reaction, but he seemed open to learning. And I did need help._

"_Tentomon," I finally said, deciding to throw caution to the wind for once. "And it does involve him. His whole world actually."_

"_Ah, he is from another world," Gansuko said with a smile and a glint in his eye. "Such as the worlds mentioned in Norse Mythology?"_

"_A lot like that, yes," I told him, before proceeding to inform him of my issue in its entirety._

Yes. He was definitely a suspect too. He was entirely too eager to learn of this, and asked too many—and too specific—questions for comfort. I shouldn't have caved. But it _did _clear my head enough for me to see things as they were.

I'd witnessed one other moment, one that drew my attention more than the rest, though it shouldn't. It wasn't nearly as obvious as the others.

_Sora was wound tightly that night. Stress was getting to her. Between her designing and our search of the Digital World, there wasn't much time for her to relax. Neo was with her, but she wasn't acting in a way that was normal for when he was._

"_What do you want to do?" Neo asked her. So I stuck around, ready to deflect whatever snappish remark she was bound to make. I didn't want him leaving her simply because she was stressed._

"_Nothing," she said immediately. I was right. She snapped at him. For his part though, he didn't flinch or move away. "Sorry," she said, before I needed to fix it for her—not that I would've done that great of a job, but she would've appreciated my trying. "I'm just freaking out over some stuff. Like my deadlines. They're coming up and I haven't finished even one design!"_

"_I don't like seeing you so tense Sora," he said, standing behind her, while she sat on the couch. He reached down and started massaging her shoulders. "It can't be healthy. Is this about your top secret mission?"_

_Apparently he knew about that. Sora clearly showed more restraint than I did._

"_Yeah," she admitted, relaxing completely into his touch. "We're not getting anywhere."_

"_Perhaps you don't need to," he decided._

"_What?" Sora gasped, pulling away from his hands. "Of course we need to. I know I haven't exactly explained what it is, because I can't, but you are entirely wrong."_

"_Am I though?" he asked with a shrug, walking around the couch and sitting down next to her. "Have you thought of _why_ these 'people' are doing what they're doing? What is their motivation? Maybe they're doing something worthwhile, but you can't see it yet."_

"_No," Sora insisted. "They're not. What they're doing is horrible, and they need to be stopped."_

"_Think about it," Neo said. "Think about it from their point of view. You might surprise yourself."_

_I left at that point, not particularly wanting to stick around while they started kissing. I didn't really need to know about that, and Sora didn't seem so wound up anymore at least._

Was it enough though, to conclude he was the mastermind? Not on its own. And Sora believed in him so firmly. She cared so much about him, and he made her happy. That was important to me, but something Taichi said once rung through my mind each time I chose to move on to another suspect.

"_It's not Neo. It can't be. Rei would know. She tells him everything. He gives her good advice."_

She tells him everything. _Everything_. Taichi was already telling her everything we ever learned about the case. If she went ahead and told Neo everything, in exchange for advice on the matter…

Then, as Taichi would say, we were screwed.

"Could I use your computer?" I asked suddenly, pushing my—now empty—coffee mug away.

"Koushiro," Mimi gasped. "I told you this was for bonding. You're not spending our vacation on the internet."

"I'm not," I said urgently. "But I figured it out. I know who's behind it. I need to tell Taichi."

"If my company isn't enough for him, darling," Mrs Tachikawa said snootily. "Then perhaps you should find another man, preferably an actor, for the next time you decide to bring someone home with you?"

"Shut up mother," Mimi told her. "I'm not doing this today. I love Koushiro, not Michael. Get over it."

"I won't," Mrs Tachikawa said firmly.

"This bickering is quite lovely," I told them. "I'll be using your computer to transfer myself across the world. I'll probably be back in time for lunch."

"You're not going without me," Mimi insisted.

"Then hurry up," I said quickly. "The meeting has already started."

She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the kitchen towards the home office. I had the computer up and running in record time, and we were well on our way to the Digital World in seconds. It took us longer than I wanted to travel from the Continent of Server to File Island, but we made it with a little help from MegaKabuterimon. I thanked him hastily, and we burst through the computer screen back at Mimi's restaurant.

"Koushiro, Mimi?" Sora questioned. "I didn't think you were coming."

"We weren't," I told her simply. "But I've been running over the facts. I think I can pinpoint the mastermind behind our current issues."

"Great," Daisuke said. "Because Iori and some others have just spotted him."

"Really?" Mimi asked excitedly. "See we didn't need to come at all. Now let's hurry back before my mother burns the house down trying to finish what I started cooking."

"Are you _sure_ he's the leader?" I insisted. "Because there could be more than one. There often is."

"You just want to say you figured it out first," Ken said rolling his eyes. "You aren't happy finding things out second hand."

"That is partially true," I allowed—though I spared him a glare for good measure. "But it is not the case today. This is an important matter, and I do not wish for us to take the easy route only to have it turn out incorrect. We are talking about the safety of the Digital World, and quite probably Earth as well."

"Koushiro?" Sora asked.

"And I didn't think of it first, either," I continued. "Yamato did. Sorry Sora," I said with a wince. "But according to my research, it's Neo."

_**Kurayami:**_

"Koushiro?" Sora questioned, her voice fading thin as Yamato formed a grin on his face that he quickly hid from Sora.

Koushiro nodded and created total silence in the meeting.

Iori was standing with Ken and Michael at the edge of the table staring toward Koushiro and Mimi who had interrupted their retelling of their trip to the digital world. Ken was glaring at Koushiro, but Iori seemed willing to listen.

Miyako was sitting next to Daisuke staring down at the table, not paying much attention it seemed as Daisuke, sitting rather close to me, held my hand tightly. Taichi was sitting at the other end of the table between Yamato and Sora, and all three of them were watching the two newcomers with much interest. And lastly, Hikari and Jou sat at the end of the table, trying to pay attention to the two people standing directly behind them.

"Sora, I'm sorry." Koushiro whispered.

"I'm not." Mimi said pointedly. "I knew it was Neo all along." No one believed her of course, as far as I was concerned, the only person who truly blamed Neo was Yamato himself.

"Well, why do you think that it is him?" Sora asked, "Do you have any proof?"

"I don't necessarily have actual, solid proof, no." Koushiro said slowly.

"See?" Sora said with a wave of her hand. "It's not proven. I would have thought that you would have more faith in me Koushiro..."

"We flew across the Digital Ocean and you don't even have proof?" Mimi growled, squeezing Koushiro's arms tightly. "Couldn't you have just called them?"

"I feel that any serious matters should be dealt with in person to avoid any conflict or message intercepting." Koushiro said, wincing at his girlfriends vice grip on his arm.

"Why did you blame him then?" Yamato asked, looking a little put out that Neo wasn't under the spotlight as much. I couldn't blame him. There was just something about Neo that irked me. He wasn't a bad person, or so it seemed anyway, but there was more to him than he was showing, and to me, that was lying. Lying was the gateway for me, and so who knows? He could have been evil...

"Taichi is the only one other than myself who knows everything that goes on." Koushiro explained slowly, "The only other one of us who knows all the information and thus holds all the cards."

"Me too!" Sora smiled, raising her hand, "I listen in on the meetings."

Koushiro looked to her slowly and then nodded, "Okay, Sora too." He cleared his throat, "Taichi tells Rei everything that goes on in those meetings. And Rei is Neo's brother. She tells him everything."

"She wouldn't tell him the things about the meeting!" Taichi shot quickly.

"You said it yourself Taichi." Koushiro insisted, "She tells him _everything_."

Koushiro said the final word with so much certainty and force that the entire room fell silent, even Taichi and Daisuke fell silent for the time being.

"But enough of that," Koushiro said, looking toward Iori and Ken, "What were you two saying?"

"Well," Ken said, "Before you rudely interrupted..."

Iori elbowed Ken and then cut across him, "Michael wanted to prove that it wasn't him, so we went to the Digital World and Betamon showed us this Coliseum where the terrorists are holding their digimon."

Michael took over from there, "Then we were spotted and attacked by someone. But it wasn't Neo. This person was blonde and wore a weird mask to hide his face. And he had a partner." Michael finished, "And turns out it wasn't me."

"I already apologized." Iori defended, weakening under Michael's smirk.

"Hm..." Koushiro hummed to himself as he thought.

"Perhaps Koushiro is right then?" Jou asked, "Maybe it is more than one person?"

"You really think that makes sense?" Ken asked, "We can't really assume that more than one person wants to take over the Digital World at once..."

"Why not?" Jou asked, "Kurayami's will was taken by Fanglongmon. Perhaps there is another digimon out there who can control the will of humans. Maybe he's doing that to a handful of them."

There was another short lived silence, overshadowed by the swinging of a door. "I've got your food!" It was Genki, Mimi's favourite employee. He shuffled toward the table with a large tray of the French Fries that Taichi had hastily ordered upon our arrival.

Daisuke and Taichi immediately began eating the food as Koushiro sent Genki a look that said "leave now."

"I think you're thinking too much Jou." Ken said slowly, "Fanglongmon was the God of the Digital World. We defeated him. What other digimon would be able to do something so powerful and insane?"

Everyone turned to me suddenly. Except Miyako of course who was still staring down.

"Kurayami," Jou said in a voice that reminded me of my therapist. He was calm and airy, but weirdly comforting. "Do you know of any other digimon that might have been in league with Fanglongmon? Do you know anyone else that could be a suspect?"

I wasn't sure... I couldn't remember much from when I was under his control. That was the work of my therapist of course. He wanted me to forget all the bad things so we could work them out one at a time... but I did have faint memories of Fanglongmon trying to comfort me... memories of him protecting me from harm, which I now realized was Gennai's people... I remembered that battle so well. So many men had died... so many men I thought had been out to kill me...

But why was Fanglongmon doing what he was doing? I knew that was where I had to look. I had to think about that...

Fanglongmon wanted to take over the Digital World... but he wasn't doing it alone. There were three of them. Dragomon was one of them... Fanglongmon was another... and the third... I couldn't remember the third...

But I listened to one of their meetings once... they weren't in charge... none of them were. It was someone else...

"Fanglongmon was taking orders from someone else." I blurted suddenly, letting my eyes fly open.

The others just stared at me expecting me to come out with more random revelations, or information, but I couldn't. That's all I had...

"Who?" Yamato prodded.

"I don't know." I told them. "I remember hearing his voice. But I don't remember anything more about him." The others looked put out, of course... but even as I pushed further into my mind I had nothing... I didn't have any more information on the subject.

"Well..." Taichi said slowly, "That would have been nice to know about three years ago."

"Sorry..." I muttered.

"Don't be too hard on her." Iori said, moving to take his seat next to me. "She's been through a lot."

Taichi shrugged and then stood up, making room for Mimi and Koushiro to sit down. Ken finally sat down on the other end of the table next to Miyako.

"This is a lot of information guys," Taichi said slowly. "Give me a minute to register it all..." he cleared his throat and then began speaking aloud. "Neo could be the culprit—but the one Iori saw was blonde. And apparently there is a new potential threat that has to do with Fanglongmon."

"We have no proof that the new threat has anything to do with the terrorists." Koushiro said. "So let's put this fact on the shelf for now."

I tensed up at how loosely and openly they were talking about him. Whoever he was... I couldn't remember anything—but I did know that Fanglongmon was scared of him. And anyone that could frighten Fanglongmon certainly frightened me.

I caught Hikari's eyes and she smiled comfortingly, noticing my fear as Iori grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I smiled at him and then turned back to Taichi.

"So what do we do?" Taichi asked. "We can't just go to Neo without solid proof that he's evil. If we tell him he's taking over the Digital World he won't admit to it, and if he doesn't then we don't know."

"And if he is," Koushiro said, "Then when he knows that we know he will be better at hiding it. And then we'll _never_ know."

"Why don't we just ask him?" Sora said, "He's an honest person. He won't lie to me."

"You really think your boyfriend would admit to taking over a different world?" Mimi asked, "You're crazy Sora."

"Well who were the other culprits?" Sora asked. "Everyone who knows anything, right? So it could be... Kurayami's therapist? It could be Takerus' girlfriend Catherine—or, it could even be one of us."

"We would know if it was one of us." Mimi said with a roll of her eyes. "One of us would come clean by now. We'd remember."

"What if—"

"It could be me." Miyako muttered, causing everyone to look at her. "It... It could be me! I don't remember things sometimes. I've been blacking out!"

"Miyako," Ken said soothingly, taking her hand only for her to pull it back, "The _boy_ we saw had blonde hair."

"Ken," Miyako said, "Do you remember when you were the Digimon Kaiser, and you put those damned glasses on? Your entire appearance changed. You said the boy you saw was wearing a mask. What if that's me? What if the mask changed my appearance?"

"Miyako—" Ken tried, but Miyako had already jumped to her feet and stormed toward the door, pushing past Genki on her way out. Ken and Daisuke hurried to their feet to chase after her.

There was total silence again as we turned to Taichi. "What do we do then?"

"What if Miyako is right?" Jou asked, "What if the mask does change appearances?"

"So you're blaming your own sister now?" Sora growled.

"No..." Jou said, "I'm blaming Neo. That mask could make him look like the blonde boy they saw. It could all be Neo. All the confusing tales and facts—they could all just point to Neo."

"Neo doesn't even know about digimon." Sora argued.

"Has he ever said that he doesn't?" Jou asked.

"No—because he doesn't know what they are!" Sora said loudly, "How can he tell me he doesn't know what they are if he... doesn't know what they are?"

"Sora," Jou said calmly, "I need you to calm down... I'm not blaming you. I'm potentially blaming Neo. Don't do anything rash until we come up with a plan. But we won't do anything until we truly know if it is him or not."

"Okay." Sora nodded, relaxing a little, "Thank you."

"So whose gonna ask him?" Taichi asked.

The meeting ended only ten minutes later after much yelling, eventually stopping with Daisuke poking his head back in the door stating that he was going to walk with Miyako and Ken back to their apartment and that he'd be back. The final words of the meeting itself were spoken by Koushiro who said with a sense of finality, "Neo may or may not be the culprit. But no one in this room has the permission to act upon this notion, or ask him about it until further notice and consideration. Now all of you leave so I can have some time to think."

And so that's what we did. Mimi, Iori, Hikari and I stepped into the kitchen where Genki was cooking as Yamato left with Jou, Sora and Taichi.

"I think everyone is being too serious about this." Iori said quietly, "I mean, I know it's a serious matter, but everyone is accusing each other and it's not okay anymore. We don't know that anyone of us is leaking information to the wrong people. Maybe it's just some random person with a digivice who happens to be smart."

"Kind of like Ken?" Hikari asked.

"Exactly." Iori said.

"That's true," Mimi said, "None of us were leaking information to him, he just knew everything because of the dark spore. There really is no need to blame anyone."

"I'm glad you see my point." He said.

"I still blame Neo though." She laughed.

"Me too." I admitted finally. "He just seems like the problem. Koushiro had lots of good points about why it would be him... and as we all know, Sora has a tendency to drive boys off the dark side."

"She made Taichi crazy," Hikari pointed out, "Yamato joined Fanglongmon... and Kiyoshi turned from a very nice boy to someone who would cheat on her... I guess you have a point."

"None of you see _my_ point though." Iori sighed.

"You're all too focused." Genki said without looking up, drawing each of our attention. "You're looking at all the wrong things. Look at a bigger picture instead of the box that Koushiro has handed you. He may be a smart, good looking guy, but he doesn't necessarily always have to be correct. Maybe he's missing something that all of you should be seeing."

Genki seemed mysterious, and kind of strange, but the way he was talking was so raw and honest... I knew I could trust him at that moment.

Finally he looked toward us and suddenly smiled. "Hello!" His eyes were directly placed upon Hikari. "You're quite gorgeous." He said simply.

Hikari's face flushed and she smiled, "T-thank you..."

"You are quite welcome," He winked. He turned back to his cooking leaving us with a very flustered Hikari.

Mimi giggled and patted Hikari on the shoulder. "Well, I have to get to work on a new menu since everyone hates my octopus salad... so I'll see you guys later, okay?"

"Okay Mimi," Iori smiled, taking both Hikari's hand and my own and leading us toward her office. I caught a glimpse of Koushiro on my way past as he typed away on his new laptop, a very concentrated look in his eyes, and there was a black haired boy standing over his shoulder that I didn't recognize. He looked up to me slowly and when I blinked he was gone.

"Where are we going?" Hikari asked as Iori pushed open the door and turned on Mimi's computer.

"Well," Iori said, "I know it's late, but I'm not done searching the Digital World just yet."

"Why?" I asked him, "You almost died last time—you said it yourself."

"But this time I know what I'm looking for." He said. "We now have a list of culprits. It could be any of them. But what are they doing? What do they want with the digimon and the Digital World? I want to find out."

He turned toward the computer and raised his digivice, and before either Hikari or I could say no he had dragged us along, through the computer.

When we landed and the light faded my first thought was that we were in a different world. It couldn't be the Digital World... because... it just wasn't right. There was nothing here anymore. The trees were gone... the lakes were gone—the sky was gone. Everything was gone, replaced by a set of Digital Gridlines tracking over the world in an endless state.

In the distance I could see a small village though. The buildings were still intact, and as I looked around I began to see that the digimon themselves were as well.

"Well," Iori said nervously, "I think we know what their evil plan was..."

I looked to Hikari who was grinning like a mad-woman. "What are you so happy about?" I asked her.

"Well... remember how I said we'd all been separating?" She asked, "Well... looks like we get to come together one last time!" She clapped her hands together.

"Your priorities concern me." Iori scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** After the short hiatus, we'll be back with another five-character arc opener. Stay tuned!


	11. Raising the Stakes

**Y/N:** Well, the hiatus wasn't quite as long as we expected—mostly because we never finished what we planned on doing (it seems as if my brother only demanded I write mine, while he dawdled on his)—and so we're back with another chapter! I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review to let us know what you think.

**U/N:** Soooo this is arc "2" which is really still arc 1, because it's the same premise really just with more going on, so we'll call it... Arc 1.5. The hiatus technically would have lasted until next Wednesday, but as we're nearly done this arc anyway, and it's a Saturday, and that would be our regular update day, and it's my birthday, we're just putting it up.

Soooo this chapter is kind of mellow in a sense, but we get to see more of what might be, or what _is_ going on. We just don't know xD Well we do. you don't. MWAHHHH.

Also, we thought it might be helpful to do a "Here's what you missed on blah blah blah" thinger. If you don't like it or don't think it's necessary, just like... say so. but we just thought... since there are so many characters you might like it... anyway, i hope you like this, aaaaand review

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**So Here's what you missed on Digimon Adventure 05:** All the Digidestined are moving on with their lives, much to Hikari's dismay "I want to stay friends! We've been through so much together, wouldn't you think that would mean something to us?". And the Digital World itself is gone. Like. It just packed it's bags and left, leaving behind a black hole of nothing.  
Miyako is going nuts with the crazy horror story that is unfolding around her. A Fairy Queen changed the whole world's memory and then seemingly disapeared from the Digidestined's lives without a second thought. Kinda mean.  
And Michael and Ken found a strange mural of runes that Michael just happened to read. I guess he's not totally useless, but what are they supposed to do with five new crests?

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**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 11: Raising the Stakes**

_**Kurayami:**_

"What do you think it means?" I asked Daisuke who sat across from me as I stared at the black haired boy who had been watching over Koushiro's shoulder a few days prior. Had he followed me?

"You heard what Willis said." Daisuke said. "I don't know if he's right, but he's just as smart as Koushiro, so we can trust him right?"

"But it doesn't make sense." I said, looking back for the boy who was suddenly gone. "How can the Digital World be deleted?" I looked around to see if I could find him, but he was nowhere in the building.

"I don't know." Daisuke said. "But it's impossible to delete something forever. There's always a way to recover the files, even if it's hard. Don't worry though Kura, we're going to figure it out. We always do, I have faith in our abilities. Now let's ignore the fact that the Digital World is destroyed and our friends have no home just for an hour so we can enjoy this dinner."

"What if the worlds combine now?" I asked suddenly. "What if we break the balance—since the Digital World is destroyed... then so will Earth."

"Whoever planned this clearly planned it well." Daisuke said, "So we'll just have to keep a close eye on everyone to make sure the balance doesn't shift. Now would you please just pretend everything is happy?"

"You're right, I'm sorry." I nodded, staring down at my plate. Daisuke always took me out to get a hamburger. It was the most romantic thing ever in his mind, and because to him it was wonderful, it became wonderful to me. He put a lot of thought into it every time. He would always ask me in different ways, sometimes by creating a map, sometimes by laying roses all the way to the diner, just anything. This time however he asked me if I wanted to go to Mimi's restaurant or not, but I told him that I didn't because this broken down old place was our spot.

And he agreed.

"So we haven't done this in a while..." Daisuke said using a fork to pick up a French fry before making it fly around in front of him like an airplane.

"Done what?" I asked.

"Gone on a date." He said. "We've been so busy leading our separate lives."

"Well it's always nice to come back to where it all started." I said, reaching across the table and taking his hand. "I missed this you know,"

"I did too." He said slowly, before eating his French fry. "So I saw my Mom yesterday."

"Oh really?" I asked, straightening up and listening.

"She was at the noodle cart across the street." He sighed, "She was eating from my rival! That's not really fair if you ask me. Remind me if I'm ever mad at my kids, to always support then anyway. Because it hurt."

"Daisuke, I'm sorry..." I said squeezing his hand gently. "I'll make sure to eat from your cart twice as much from now on."

"You don't even like noodles." He laughed.

"But I like you." I said, "And I want you to be happy." Daisuke smiled at me, but his smile fell as he shook his head and took his hand, pulling it out of my grip, and pulling his chair closer to the table.

"Where do you see yourself in ten years Kura?" He asked me, staring into my eyes with utmost seriousness.

"Well I've always wanted to travel I guess." I said, "And I've been thinking about applying to a university for courses to become a therapist. I've been spending enough time in the therapist office, and I think I really like the concept of helping people through hard times. Maybe I could be famous one day for being a super great therapist, though that's not really likely."

"That's really cool," He said with a smile, "You'd be good at that. And travelling seems like your thing. You'd get to see all those places you keep talking about."

"Why?" I asked.

He looked toward the window and gazed out at the snow as it fell in circles down to the ground. He looked back to me and sighed. "I'm a loser Kura. I'm always going to be right here in Odaiba selling noodles out of a cart that barely keeps itself going."

"Daisuke—"

"Let me finish." He said slowly. "Please... You know... you have all these dreams piling up inside you, and we've already established that you have so much potential, breaking free of Fanglongmon's grip on your mind, and surviving to tell the tale... You're too good for me Kura."

"Stop it." I said quickly, "You did the same thing! Fanglongmon had your mind under his control too, but you broke free and you saved everyone. You see those goggles on your head? That shows how loyal you are to your friends and how great of a leader you are. Daisuke, if any one of us was too good for the other, it would be you."

"You're destined for great things though." Daisuke said. "I'm not."

"What are you saying?" I asked slowly, my heart beating quickly. I could barely make sense of things in my mind, "Are you breaking up with me?"

"I'm actually setting you free." Daisuke said, staring down to the pile of French fries in front of him.

"No you're not." I said flatly. "Not unless you have a better reason. I'm going to be living in Japan Daisuke. I'm going to be a therapist here where I'm going to help as many people as I can. And then when I travel, I want you to come with me. And even if you don't come... travelling is just that. Travelling. I'll always come back. I'll always come right back to you and tell you all about my trip, and that I missed you, and that I love you. Because I do love you."

Daisuke looked up at me, and he was smiling which was a relief.

"I love you too." He reached across the table and took my hand at the first time he'd ever told me that he loved me. "You're so freaking wonderful Kura..."

"I get that a lot." I said sarcastically.

"Do you want to live with me?"

My jaw dropped open for a moment as my eyes widened. I was taken aback by his question, I didn't know how to respond. The last time I'd moved hadn't been the most wonderful of times... moving in with my father after being forced to live with my grandfather for some time... but it seemed different... it seemed right.

"I do." I nodded. He grinned at me and then returned to his fries, raising his other hand and calling out for the check. "Right now?" I gasped.

"Yeah, sure," He said, "Why not?"

Why not? Simple enough. Why wouldn't I want to move in with Daisuke? Well, I'd miss my dad... that was pretty much it.

"Check!" I called out again fidgeting in my seat and Daisuke laughed at my excitement.

"I'm glad you stopped me from doing that." Daisuke said. "Setting you free. I was so scared... I don't want my life to be without you."

"Then don't set me free." I said with a wink. "I'd be lost without you anyway. And besides, you know I'd do everything in my power to get you back, and you said it yourself, you don't want one of those relationships where there are constant break ups and make ups."

"You're right..." He said with a smile, "So very right. As always."

I smiled at him as a waiter handed us our check. Daisuke shot me a glare as I reached for my bag, so I raised my hands in defense and let him pay.

He picked up the check and looked at it. I gasped at the sight of the back of the paper. In shimmering red letters someone had written '_Help me Humble Child_.'

"Daisuke!" I said quickly. He followed my point and flipped the paper over and read what it said. His eyes widened as he set the check down and pulled out some money. When the waiter came back Daisuke pointed to the paper.

"Who wrote that?" He asked, but when the waiter picked up the check there was nothing written there.

Daisuke and I exchanged worried glances and then stood up quickly, turning to leave the restaurant. Daisuke rushed back and grabbed his hamburger though before following me out the door.

_**Iori:**_

I needed a break. School was killing me. My job was taking up far too much of my homework time. The Digital World was falling apart. There was a blonde mystery guy that was helping to destroy said world, and I was trying to hide the fact that I'd had a girlfriend for the past two and a half—nearing three—years.

There was only one person I could talk to when I got frustrated like that: my Fairy Queen.

She had her arms around me, pulling me right up against her side. Being with her always made me feel like a small child. But it was different with her than it was with my friends. She made me want to _be_ that small child; all the while she respected my thoughts and took my words into account before she ever said anything. She respected me and accepted that I _wasn't_ a child, but loved me as one anyway. She was like a bubbly aunt who wanted nothing more than to spoil her nephew. Well, in this case, I guess I was her knight, but it made no difference.

"You should tell her how you feel," she said softly.

"That came out of left field," I said surprised. I knew what she was talking about. Of course I did. But I hadn't thought of it in awhile, hours even.

"I do not understand your analogy," she said.

"I meant nowhere, it came out of nowhere," I explained.

"It didn't come out of nowhere," she said with a giggle. "It came out of your head."

"You've really got to stop doing that," I said pulling away a little. It was kind of creepy when she pulled things out of my subconscious like that.

"Tell me things and I won't have to pull it out of your mind like that," she said.

"Respect a person's privacy and they'll be more likely to tell you things," I countered.

"You're no fun," she said. "I want to hear about her. What changed? When?"

"Awhile ago," I admitted. "I didn't mean for things to change. But each time I look at Jou's face, I just know he can tell something's different. I want to share it with him, you know, but I can't, because our mothers are foul."

"That's not nice," she scolded.

"I know," I sighed. "But they won't like it. And now I'm lying to my friends, well, not exactly lying, but I'm keeping it from them, just so my mother won't guilt me into breaking up with her. It's not right. I should do something about it. I know, but Mom insists I'm too young, and that I should save myself, and all the joys of first love, for 'the one'."

"It seems you've already found your one," she said. "And it just took you awhile to notice. You're mother will need to know. She will get over it, but it will take time. She may be upset with you for awhile, but she will come to accept this in the end."

"You say that like it's a guarantee," I said bitterly.

"Oh, love is the most powerful magic," she told me.

"Then why'd you make me swear to protect the light instead?" I teased.

"Mistress Love is strong, stronger than she yet knows," she told me. "But Young Light was not ready for such feats. She was weak with illness; she needed you, my Forgiving Knight."

"And now the Digital World needs me again," I said with a sigh. "All of us. Why can't it just hold onto peace? Why is it always in danger?"

"Peace is not peace without a fight," she informed me. "The Digital World is a mirror of your world. You too are facing conflicts nearly every day. Instead of countries waging war with one another, the Digital World has digimon that wish to rule over all. It is not so different. Peace can only last so long, before it needs to be fought for once again. It is the way of things."

"You wouldn't happen to know how the Digital World changed, would you?" I asked. An image of the world I'd seen so often flashed before my eyes. Instead of the lush vegetation and the vibrant colours, I saw it as it was now, a big black emptiness, with bright green gridlines. A few villages were all I could see, and a view that went on forever, delving deeper into that darkness. The mountains, the oceans, the clouds in the endless sky, the trees, the soil beneath my feet, they were all gone.

"I would," she told me kindly, watching Meiyomon playing with a butterfly, and laughing as he discovered that in the land of dreams, he could wish more into being. A cloud of butterflies surrounded him, and his laughter quickly turned to fright, as he ran out of their reach, only to be followed by his 'friends'.

"Can you tell me?" I asked.

"Not exactly," she replied. "There are rules you see. I can tell you that Lady Darkness is wise to fear the great power she remembers, for he has created a villainous plan. He has taken those elements that weave together and create the Digital World, and given each of the ten parts to those that work for him. To heal the world, these digimon must be defeated."

"So we've got to defeat ten digimon that we have no way of identifying, on top of discovering who the human is that's working with this ancient power?" I asked in exasperation. "Sounds easy."

"Your sarcasm is neither needed nor warranted," she told me softly. "The Digital World has a plan of its own, you need not concern yourself with the elements. Instead, be wary. There are more enemies than you have accounted for. I need you to promise me you'll be careful."

"I will," I told her. "But if we don't have to worry about the ten digimon, who else do we have to watch out for?"

"The rules state that I cannot tell you forthright," she said apologetically. "But I can say this: keep the holy three safe. They are wanted. They are hunted. You mustn't let them be caught. It is of the utmost importance."

"Of course," I said, my mind reeling with the possibilities. Who were these holy three? Why were they so important? And just what were these rules that kept her from telling me anything more?

"You will find out in time," she said gently. "But the rules, I cannot break. Keep my words close, and remember them always. It is more than Young Light at stake this time. Without them, the darkness cannot be defeated."

This was big. I had to tell the others.

"Meiyomon," I called out. "It's time to say goodbye to the butterflies. We've got a world to save and people to protect."

"Yay," Meiyomon cheered. "I don't like butterflies no more. I think I like flowers better."

As he said, a trail of flowers sprouted behind him, expanding further with each step he took. There were daisies and lilies, and a few others that I didn't know the name of.

"How lovely," the Queen said, clapping her hands together. "They're beautiful, Meiyomon. How did you know they were my favourites?"

"I didn't," Meiyomon announced happily. "I don't even know where they came from!"

"Come on, buddy," I said, taking his hand, and bowing my head at the Queen—a force of habit that she continuously berated me for—and pulled him towards the still open gateway I'd made from my closet.

She raised her brow at me, and narrowed her eyes at my bow, but otherwise seemed very pleased with the outcome of our visit.

"Where are we going now?" Meiyomon asked as he ran to my bed. He started jumping on the mattress while I locked the door to the Land of Dreams.

"We've got a meeting," I told him. "And don't jump on the bed."

"Why not?" he asked, but he stopped. "Is it at Mimi's restaurant?"

"Yes," I said with a sigh. He was always so full of questions while in his rookie form. "Like it always is."

"Oh good," he cheered. "Mimi has good food. And Genki is so funny."

I didn't particularly like Genki. But I didn't dare tell Meiyomon that. He might decide to blow him up, funny or not, if I did. He was strange like that. I didn't hate anyone enough to warrant Meiyomon killing them.

We took the subway downtown, where Meiyomon started a conversation with a drunken passenger. I was very pleased to get off the train, since the man was trying to get me to bring him to the Land of Dreams, having heard all about it from Meiyomon—who promised him a never ending supply of whatever he wanted if he went there. I wasn't about to bring him along the next time I met the Queen, that was for sure.

"We're here! We're here," Meiyomon sang and proceeded to run into the restaurant, hopefully _not_ disturbing whatever other patrons were inside.

"Hello Meiyomon," Genki said, slinking out of nowhere, like he always seemed to do.

"Genki!" he shouted. "Say something funny."

"I don't know…how about a knock-knock joke?" Genki suggested.

"I hope yours are funny," Meiyomon said. "Daisuke's aren't."

"Knock knock," Genki started.

"Who's there? Who's there," Meiyomon shouted excitedly.

"Howard," Genki said.

"Howard _who_," Meiyomon whined, upset that he didn't know who Howard was already.

"Howard I know?" Genki finished.

"I don't know Howard I. Know," Meiyomon insisted. I muttered the answer to him, slurring the words together a bit more, so he'd get it. "Oh! Ha, that's funny. Like how would I know? I like it better than the one about Biyomon."

"I know right," Genki said, pleased he'd been able to make Meiyomon laugh again. "Daisuke really needs to pick some better base material if he wants to make it as a comedian."

I raised my brow, confused as to why he knew Daisuke's jokes. They were about digimon. He shouldn't have understood them at all.

"If you're looking for the others, they're not here."

"What?" I asked, forcing myself to pay attention better.

"Taichi called it off. He said something about having an emergency council meeting, apparently, and since that Marrow guy's is such a major jackass, he had to cancel the weekly meeting just so he could go in and argue with him..and then not do anything about it. What a loser."

"Why do you know all of that?" I questioned, feigning aloofness.

"Oh, Mimi tells me everything," he said. "Apparently I'm a good listener."

I stared at him.

His statement was followed by a long, awkward silence. That was not something I could take lightly.

"Mimi's so nice," Meiyomon said after awhile. "Sharing is good. Mommy said so."

"She is nice, isn't she," Genki said with a laugh. "Anyway, you clearly have something important to tell them. I could tell Mimi. It wouldn't be any trouble."

"No," I said quickly. And a tad rudely. "Mimi is actually the only person I wasn't planning on telling."

"Oh?" he questioned, cocking his head to the side and sending me a smirk.

"Yes, so, I'll just be leaving now," I said. "Come on Meiyomon."

"But we didn't eat anything," he whined, following me out of the restaurant.

"I don't like him," I muttered. "Something's not right with him."

"I could make him go boom," Meiyomon suggested eagerly.

"No," I said firmly.

He scrunched up his face angrily. One of the clouds overhead seemed to spontaneously combust as he let off some steam. "You never let me!"

"No," I said. "That was bad. People are going think we're being attacked or something. You can't just do that."

He sighed exasperatedly and started stomping off towards home. I followed after him, wondering whether we could trust our faithful waiter or not…

_**Michael:**_

Ken and I were sitting cross-legged next to each other, staring down at the pile of crests on the ground. Wormmon and Betamon were on either side of us, watching them as well as if we expected them to find their own owners.

"Why can't things just be easier?" I asked Ken as I looked around at the empty world around us. "These weird grids aren't the Digital World, and whoever deleted it must have a good enough reason for it."

"I'm sure they do." Ken said, "In their mind. I mean, I originally thought that the Digital World was just a game. I thought that the digimon around me had no feelings. I ruined everything for so many digimon. And then I got a wakeup call." He slowly looked down to Wormmon who inched closer to him and rubbed his head against his leg. "Wormmon died to show me I was wrong... it made me good again. It reminded me of what I had to lose, and what I'd already lost."

"I lost Betamon too." I told him, even though he already knew. "It didn't take losing him to snap me out of the stupid situation I was in though. It just took Kurayami and Daisuke implanting the X-Virus into him. Do you remember that bud?" I turned to Betamon who looked up at me with a worried expression as he tried to think. "Don't strain yourself." I joked.

"So maybe we just have to show the terrorist what it means to lose their digimon partner." Ken said slowly.

"But how are we supposed to defeat Piedmon again?" I asked, "He's kind of strong. And what if they fuse him with one of their other digimon? Then he'd be even _more_ powerful!"

"Well," Ken said, "We'll just have to defeat him before he can jogress."

"Ken," Wormmon said, "Would you really put someone through the pain of losing their best friend?"

"Absolutely not." Ken said, "I wasn't going to kill the partner—just show them that we could. And then they'd come to their senses about how they wouldn't want that to happen. It's all I can think of really. I mean, even Kurayami stopped being evil for a bit when Apocalymon died. I mean, he wasn't exactly her partner, but nonetheless."

Ken was right. We had to show them the seriousness of the situation. Then, and only then would we be able to convince the Terrorist to switch sides. Whoever the terrorist was. But that wasn't what was confusing me. I was leaving the figuring of that out to everyone else, and the destroyed Digital World was up to Koushiro and Willis. Ken and I had our own project.

Apparently, whoever these crests belonged to could bring peace back to the Digital World. And I had no idea who they belonged to. We'd already tried everyone! Meiyomon said that the crests would glow if they came in contact with the person they belonged to...

We'd started with Natsuni...

"_Hey Natsuni." I smiled, holding out a basket excitedly. "Touch all these things."_

"_Why?" She asked, nervously placing her hand inside the basket. But nothing happened, so I pulled the basket away and ran off._

And then moved on to Tatum and Rei.

"_I can't reach." Rei said with a glare as Ken held the basket up._

"_Sorry about that." He said slowly, lowering the basket. The crests didn't glow for them either so we left. _

I was questioned by Tatum afterwards but I wasn't allowed to tell her. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone, I'd promised Meiyomon that I would keep them safe from anyone else. And he'd threatened to blow me up if I'd told anyone else.

But that wasn't where we stopped. We tried Noriko which was a rather unpleasant visit. We tried Yamato's father, Sora's parents, Taichi's father, Daisuke's sister Jun, Jou's brother Shuu, Mantarou, Chiziru and Momoe Inoue. We'd even tried Emiko, but she tried to eat one of them, so that was... an awkward situation to explain to Meiyomon. And that was everyone with a digimon, so we moved on to my sister Jenna, and everyone else we could think of that had any connection to us or the digimon. With exceptions of course. Meiyomon wouldn't let us go near anyone who was being questioned by Koushiro about being a Terrorist. Rightly so.

And so we sat in the Digital World, with five crests laying in a pile in front of us. We'd yet to find the owner of any of them! What were we supposed to do about them? Finding peace from the Digital World seemed so easy! But it suddenly seemed like it was a lot harder than it looked.

"We need a better plan." I sighed, falling back in attempts to lay down, but falling right through the ground and spinning to a stop. "This world is confusing as hell." I groaned as Ken took my arm and pulled me back to sit next to him.

"We haven't tried everyone yet." Ken said slowly, counting on his fingers, "There's still Catherine if Takeru will ever come back... Rosa from Mexico, and all the digidestined from around the world, and even Neo I guess."

"But that'll take forever!" I groaned.

"Well peace is not easy Michael." Ken said with a sigh. "In any case we have a lot to do, so we'd better get moving."

"Wait—" Wormmon said, scurrying around to stand near Betamon who was staring at the crests. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Ken asked.

"There's something coming." Wormmon said quietly.

"I think we'd see something coming." I said looking around. "We can see for miles!"

Wormmon closed his eyes, his antenna's twitching when he suddenly threw his eyes open and looked down. "Look out!"

Both Ken and I looked down just in time to jump out of the way, rolling and flipping through the sky, gripping each other tightly. As we slowed to a stop we saw what had been ready to attack us. It was a Drimogemon. He opened his mouth and let out a rather loud scream as he thrashed his legs around.

I looked to Ken who was staring at Drimogemon with a look of fear and anger. Why was he angry though?

Suddenly I knew. The crests were laying on the ground near the beasts feet.

"Wait a minute." Ken said slowly, "You're the Drimogemon that we saved from Fanglongmon's castle! I can tell because your horn is crooked! Why are you attacking us?"

I was impressed that Ken had such a good memory, but as I stared at Drimogemon I realized that he didn't have quite the memory that Ken did. He didn't remember us—or didn't care. He screamed loudly again and then looked down to the crests with a grin.

"No!" I shouted. "Betamon!"

"Right!" He shouted, much braver than usual. He glowed and shifted into Seadramon quickly and head butted Drimogemon out of the way. Drimogemon whipped his head around and used his horn, cutting Seadramon's neck.

"Seadramon!" I shouted as Drimogemon lunged toward the crests. Wormmon was quick though and shot some strange thread toward them, snatching them up. All but one. Drimogemon reached down and touched the brown crest and a wave of power shot from his foot.

"What's going on?" Ken asked. I didn't know at first, but I soon did. Drimogemon was glowing—he was digivolving. He shifted into Giromon, and then straight to HiAndromon. He had black armour all over his body and two colourful shoulder plates. "He d-digivolved?" Ken stuttered. "Wormmon! You're up!"

Wormmon shot his thread toward Ken who caught it and looked down into the mess of threads where the remaining four crests were entangled. Wormmon jumped toward HiAndromon and began to glow. I noticed that Ken's digivice was glowing brightly, and was impossible to look directly at. Why hadn't mine glowed?

"**Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!**" Stingmon flew straight into HiAndromon and knocked him over as Seadramon wrapped his long serpentine tail around the android and thrashed him toward the should-be-ground, sending him flying downward.

"You need to digivolve again!" I told Ken quickly, "He skipped the ultimate stage and went straight to mega. You need to do the same."

"Right." Ken nodded. "Stingmon! Go for it!"

"**Stingmon digivolve to... Jewelbeemon!**" He shifted quickly, and as HiAndromon was coming for him again he went one stage further. "**Jewelbeemon digivolve to... Grandkuwagamon!**" Ken's digivice glowed again as his partner digivolved just in time to swat his opponent out of the sky.

"Ice blast!" Seadramon called out, sending a wave of ice toward the enemy who jumped quickly out of the way as he raised both of his arms, shifting his hands into cannons as his shoulder plates began to glow.

"Atomic Ray!" He shouted quickly, sending a large blast of energy toward Seadramon who dodged by swimming into the ground.

"Ice Blast!" He screamed again.

"Dimension Scissors!" Grankuwagamon roared. And as the two attacks met in the middle HiAndromon burst into data leaving behind a glowing brown light that faded away into the crest and remained floating in midair.

Both digimon returned to their rookie forms quickly as Ken and I ran toward the crest. Ken leapt into the air and snatched it out of the air and then landed next to me.

"Well that was sudden." Betamon said, shaking his head slightly.

"Kind of crazy." Wormmon agreed.

Ken stared down at the crest in his hand and then looked to me. "The digimon want the crests." He said, "They make them stronger. But that was a perfectly nice Drimogemon. And the crests drove him mad in his quest for power. And he was a mega digimon with just one crest... and we had to destroy him. Michael, imagine what would happen if someone got a hold of all of these crests."

"You're right." I nodded, "Kind of terrifying to think about..." There was a moment of silence as Ken broke the ball of thread in half.

"We'll split them up." He said. "I'll take this weird brown one, and the dark purple one, and you take the boring faded coloured ones."

"Gee thanks," I laughed as he handed me half of Wormmon's thread ball. "I guess I'll be untangling this tonight."

Ken laughed as he grabbed Wormmon and hugged him. "We still have to figure out who they belong to though."

"We'll figure it out." I said to him. "I promise."

_**Willis:**_

"I thought you were good with computers," I said to Miyako as we headed up the stairs outside the library where she worked with Terriermon and Lopmon bouncing around at my feet. "Iori tells me that you used to be in the computer club."

"I just can't focus anymore." She said nervously as she tugged on her sweater sleeves. "I would have asked Koushiro, but he's always busy now trying to figure out what happened to the Digital World."

"Yeah, I was actually doing that with him." I told her.

"Oh I'm sorry!" She insisted, "You can go if you want to... I don't really _need_ a computer. I mean, the library will have to shut down..."

"I'm happy to help Miyako." I told her with a laugh, "You're lucky you caught me today though, I'm only in Japan until tomorrow."

"You know," Terriermon said, "I'm really sick of having to fly back and forth all the time for you. You silly humans need to figure out what's going on so Willis, Hikari and the others can stay in America for longer periods of time."

"I told you I could take over for a while." Lopmon argued.

"It's a man's job!" Terriermon grinned which received a punch from Lopmon. She was very anti-sexist lately.

"I miss you guys though," Miyako said quietly. "I mean Hikari most of course. I miss you and Michael and even Tatum too! But... Hikari was a really close friend of mine, and she just up and left last summer. For you. And I don't resent you for it or anything, but I kind of miss having her in a walking distance."

I nodded, but said nothing. I understood how she felt, having had to wait a long time for Hikari to move to America to be close enough to me. I felt bad for taking her from the rest of her friends—but it wasn't me who had done it. Hikari had made that choice all on her own, but I guess I didn't argue with her either. "I'm sorry."

"No," Miyako said, holding the front door open for me, "Don't be. Just fix my computer." I laughed and stepped inside.

"Is anyone here?" Terriermon yelled out.

"Hello!" Lopmon continued. I nudged them lightly with my feet and shook my head.

"If there is anyone here, they won't be very happy about monsters running around. Perhaps you should remain quiet?"

"Right, right." They said together.

"No one is here." Miyako said, turning around and shutting the door. "Well, besides Mari. She works here though, just... don't surprise her and she should be understanding about the whole thing. I'm pretty sure she practically knows about them with all the hints I've been leaving. You know I didn't even mean to at first, I was trying to keep quiet but then I accidentally told her about the thing and then I just couldn't stop talking whenever I was in this library with her. I would just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. You know?"

"Oh I know." I laughed.

She hung her head. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry." I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. "This is you. You're hilarious and energetic and you like to talk. Don't worry about annoying me because the only person who can do that is Daisuke." She laughed a little, "Now are you going to tell me what's been bothering you in these past few... however long it's been?" Miyako looked up to me shocked. "Everyone knows something is wrong Miyako... and we all just want to help. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but—"

She grabbed her sleeve and she pulled it up suddenly, and I was expecting to see something crazy, but it was just a tensor bandage which she unclipped and began to unravel.

"Excuse me?" A voice said behind us, causing Miyako to jump and clip the bandage back together as we both spun around. "Oh it's just you Miyako." The girl whose head was poking around the corner said. Her hair was long, wavy and blonde, her eyes were big and blue, and she was wearing fake glasses. And I knew her.

"Oh hey Mari," Miyako smiled nervously, pulling her sleeve down, "He's come to fix our computer, his name is—"

"Willis." She said.

"Right..." Miyako said slowly, "Willis this is—"

"Rebecca." I said flatly.

"No, that's Mari." Miyako said shaking her head and stepping up next to me.

"Maybe to you." I said with a sigh, "But she'll always be Rebecca to me."

"Terriermon!" Rebecca grinned, running across the room as Terriermon did the same, leaping into her arms. She hugged him tightly as Lopmon waved. "You must be Kokomon all grown up?"

"Lopmon," Lopmon nodded as Rebecca held her arms open for Lopmon to run into them as well. She hugged hem both tightly as I smiled.

"It's good to see you Willis," She said with a smile, but I could tell there was more going on in her mind.

"Likewise." I said with a grin.

We stared at each other for a while until I turned to Miyako who looked very confused. She shook her head and grabbed my wrist, dragging me toward the computer. She showed me the chair. "You sit here."

"I remember how chairs work." I told her with a wink.

"Right, sorry..." She said slowly. "I'll just go put things away, okay? If you need something just call me alright?" Before I could answer she had set off across the room to the 'Book Return' shelf.

I began fiddling with her computer instantly as Terriermon and Lopmon popped up on the desk and sat beside the computer. I looked toward Rebecca who was sitting on a chair by the tables only a few feet away, watching me. I couldn't help but smile as I turned toward her.

"I thought we'd never meet again." Rebecca said, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"We never made that promise." I reminded her. "I believe all that was said was that I wasn't ready to be in a relationship. Especially a long distance one."

"Right." She said waving her hand, "Silly me!" She laughed a little and then sighed, "So... do you have a girlfriend now?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah... I do actually."

"Her name is Hikari." Lopmon grinned, poking her head over the divider on the desk and staring toward Rebecca. "She's really nice and pretty. And she stopped Marshall from hurting Willis the other day."

"Tried." Terriermon corrected.

"What?" Rebecca gasped, "He's still doing that?" I nodded. "Is that what happened to your face?" Again, I nodded, "Oh good! I thought you just developed weird and swollen." I let out a laugh, "I'm going to have a serious talk with him."

"You still keep in contact with him?" I asked her.

"No. But he can't keep doing this. I'm going to put a stop to it." She said simply.

"I wouldn't." I told her. "He's looking for you—and he's crazy. He'll probably do something awful. And besides he already thinks I'm lame since my sister broke the fight up."

"You have a sister?" She asked.

"My mom got married to my friend's dad." I told her.

"Oh yeah," She nodded, "I read about that in a magazine. I didn't know Michael Washington had kids!"

"Two," I nodded. "Michael Jr, who is like my best friend." Terriermon and Lopmon both glared at me. "Best _human_ friend." I corrected, "And Jenna. She's a little ball of energy to say the least."

"Well she'd have to be to stand up to Marshall." Rebecca nodded. "Anything else I should know about your life?"

"Well..." I said slowly, "I'm still working at the same top secret job, I kicked my mom out of that old house you used to love so much, and now I live there with Hikari, Jenna, Michael and his girlfriend Tatum because none of us wants to live with my mother."

"Understandably." Rebecca said, "You're all quite old, and living with your parents is always a drag."

"This is true," I laughed, "But that's pretty much it. What about you?"

"I work at a library in Japan and I live with two boys who are nuts. Oh, and Hideto," She said simply. "Fun times." She was being overly sarcastic. "But I met up with Miyako again recently which was nice, I really missed her—I just noticed—you actually did learn Japanese!"

"You taught me." I told her.

"I thought you were cheating or something!" Rebecca laughed, "You actually learned it that fast?"

I nodded. "I did."

At that moment everything seemed to rewind to all the times I'd had with her. Becoming her friend, learning Japanese, her walking out on me because of Terriermon, and then finally me kissing her, and sending her away to protect her. And regretting it every moment of my life since then. But she was here... right now.

"What are you doing on Saturday?" She asked.

"Nothing," I lied. My mother could wait to hear from me for a few days.

"Good. I want to take you somewhere." She smiled.

And suddenly... all those bad feelings didn't matter anymore, because she was back. Rebecca was back in my life—sitting right next to me. Whether her name was Mari or Rebecca didn't really matter to me... just as long as she was there.

_**Miyako:**_

"How crazy is it that you and I both know Willis?" Mari asked excitedly, as she continuously peered over at him, through the book shelf we were putting books on. "I haven't seen him in forever. He looks good, doesn't he? I mean, not _good_, like I'm not hitting on him—but I so would in a heartbeat—I just mean… He's happy. He wasn't really happy when I first met him. He had Terriermon and Kokomon, but that's it. He didn't have any human friends. No humans he could relate with."

"Now he has a whole pile of friends," I said. "Me included…and a truly wonderful girlfriend who is actually one of my best friends, and would literally do anything in the world for anybody if she could."

"I get it," Mari said holding her hands up in surrender. "You don't want me trespassing into her happy relationship."

Was it really happy though?

I cursed my traitorous thoughts. I wanted Hikari happy, and Willis made her that way. I needed to support her fully, and not allow any corner of my mind to betray her in any way.

But I couldn't help but be pleased about it—my mind being on something else I mean. Having Mari and Willis both at the library with me, and Terriermon and Lopmon too, made me feel safe. Safer than I had in a long time. I didn't trust it to last, but I wanted to savour it while it did. I needed to.

"Good," I said after an uncomfortably long silence.

"Right," she said. "So, you wouldn't hate me, or anything, if I just wanted to hang out with him, for purely platonic reasons? Because I desperately want to meet up with him again. I have so much I have to tell him. He'll have so much to tell me. I really want to be friends again. It's really important for me."

"Don't screw Hikari over, and I won't care," I told her seriously.

"You are the best!" she exclaimed.

"Shh!" I hissed. "We're at a library."

I checked over my shoulder again, to make sure no one had snuck up on me. I sighed in relief when no one did.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Mari asked noticing my skittish behaviour. "With the—you know—on your arms?"

"No," I said. "And it doesn't even matter. Because it's getting worse. I'm awake sometimes, but I just…I seem to blank out, and then I'll come to, but I won't be where I was when I stopped functioning. I'm pretty sure I'm doing something bad."

"How bad?" she asked hesitantly.

"There's this guy," I said. "No. I can't tell you. I can't. I'm not supposed to. I wasn't supposed to tell you anything that I have already."

"I won't tell anyone," she insisted. "I just want to help you get better."

"Fine," I relented. "There's this guy, and he's doing some pretty deplorable things. But we don't know who he is. I mean a bunch of us are accusing Sora's boyfriend—because trends don't lie and whatnot. But I don't think it's him. I barely know the guy, so I can't be sure, but he makes Sora so happy. And I don't know enough about him to make an educated decision, but that's why I can't blindly follow Yamato's jealous accusations, you know?"

"Sure," she said. "But I don't understand what this has to do with you."

"The guy," I said quietly. "He wears a mask."

Something flashed in her eyes. Recognition, understanding maybe.

"You think it's you?" she asked gently.

"I don't know," I said. "Probably. Look at the facts. The only time they've seen him, I wasn't there. I could totally be him. I mean, I have some reasons, but you probably wouldn't understand them, since I haven't told you their back story, but they're good ones. I could totally be doing this. You know?"

"I doubt _you_ are the one wearing the mask," Mari said with a laugh. "In fact, I know it. You couldn't do anything bad Miyako."

"Couldn't I?" I asked. "What about my arms? What if it's really me doing that?"

"Go take a break," she told me. "I'll finish up here. Go visit with Willis maybe? Or go for a walk—inside the library, don't go outside alone—and think it over. You're not a bad person. Maybe this guy isn't really a bad person. Maybe he has his reasons for doing what he's doing. Reasons that make total sense. Reasons that do not boil down to it being you behind the mask. It's absurd. Think about it. You'll totally agree with me."

I shook my head, but put down the book I was holding, and headed to another aisle. I didn't want to get too far from her though, so I just went two or so over. I wanted to be close enough for them to hear me if I screamed.

And I almost did.

In the corner of my eye, I saw movement. I didn't get a good look though. All I could see was a shadowy outline. Maybe it was a person all in black clothing…maybe it wasn't. I almost hoped it was. My body seized up. But only for a moment. Foolishly, and without thought, I started following it. I needed to know what it was. Who it was. I needed to know if it was following me, or just a trick of the light.

I turned around the corner at the end of the bookshelf, and was met with nothing. There was an aisle there, in between the non-fiction and the adult fiction sections. Each section had seven or eight rows of their own. It could be in any one of them.

A cold fear sank into my bones. Why had I done it? I wasn't close to Willis or Mari or the digimon anymore. If I blacked out now, there was no telling what I could do.

Then I heard it: the quiet rustling of fabric against books on a shelf.

It was ahead of me. Instead of listening to the logical part of my brain, the part insisting that I run back for help, I surged forward, desperate to find the source. Desperate to prove that I really wasn't falling to pieces.

I reached the spot the noise had come from, but found nothing. No. Not nothing, but no one.

There, at the base of the autobiography shelf, was a mask. A full face mask. One I had heard Ken and Iori talking about. One that I was afraid was my own.

No.

Someone had to have put it there. I couldn't have stumbled upon it by chance. I'd been following something. I picked it up and started running. They couldn't have gotten too far. I searched and searched. But I found nothing. The only people that were in the library, were Willis, Mari and two college students who'd been studying ferociously for their classes.

There was no one who could have left it.

No one but me.

I swallowed thickly and tucked the mask underneath my shirt. It was noticeable, but not too much. Then I walked back to my friends.

"Willis," I said forcing my voice to stay strong. "You know, why don't you and Mari go have coffee or something. Go catch up. I know you want to. We don't need the computer fixed right now. Really."

"Are you sure," he asked hesitantly.

"Yes," I said not meeting his eye.

"Miyako, are you alright?" Mari asked with wide eyes. She could clearly see my panic I was trying to hide.

"Fine," I told her. "Just a little frazzled is all."

"And pregnant," Lopmon added.

"No," I said. "I'm not pregnant."

"But your tummy," Lopmon said pointing. "It's bigger now. That means there's a baby in there. Is that why you're acting so strange?"

"Are you hiding it from Ken?" Willis asked.

"Not pregnant," I insisted. It was a mask! Why did they think it was a baby? Did they really think I would actually get pregnant with all the stress I'd been going through? Stress wasn't good for babies. I wasn't even ready yet. Seriously.

"Fat then," Terriermon surmised. "You've been eating too many of Daisuke's noodles, haven't you?"

"Terriermon," Willis hissed. "You know what? I think I will take you up on that offer, Miyako. Sorry about them. You look great. You don't look like you've gained any weight at all. Especially not in that middle section…okay. I'm done talking. Let's go."

"If she's sure," Mari said hesitantly.

"I am," I told her. I nearly pushed them out the front door. "Take your break now. I've had mine."

"Okay," she said. The second they were out of sight, I ran down to the washrooms on the bottom floor. The flickering lights seemed to personify my fears.

"You can do this," I whispered to myself encouragingly. "You have to see. If it doesn't work, then you're not him. Everything will be fine. Ken's right. Mari's right. You're not evil. Oh please let me not be evil."

I looked into the mirror. I looked horrible. My eyes were wild, my hair looked dead on top of my head, covered in its bandana. My skin was sallower than usual, and if anything, I'd lost weight, not gained it.

I slipped the mask out, and looked down at it.

This was the moment of truth.

I took a deep breath, and raised the mask up to my face. I stared at the mirror intently, searching for any sign of change. I let out a strangled laugh when my hair stayed it's dead sort of violet. I wasn't the blonde, masked man. That was good. It was really good. I searched the mirror again, just in case, and my eyes stopped at the reflection just over my left shoulder. There was a man there. A shadow man. I shrieked, and whirled around, throwing the mask at him.

But he wasn't there.

Nothing was.

I looked back at the mirror and sighed. I was the only reflection again.

"A trick of the light," I insisted to myself. "Nothing more. You're just wound up because of the mask. You're fine. And you're not evil. You're fine."

I kept repeating it to myself, but no matter how many times I insisted upon it, I couldn't make it feel true.

_**Kae:**_

It was different. Grocery shopping I mean. It used to be so difficult. Would Ken like something? Would he despise it? Kazuya would eat anything. Ken was fussy. No. Not anymore he wasn't. He used to be though. And moody. He could act so sweet and loving one moment, and the next he'd be violent and angry.

He tried explaining it to me once.

But I didn't understand what a Dark Spore was supposed to be. Wasn't a spore a part of a plant? Did Toshiko Takenouchi dye a plant a dark colour, and then a spore got at Ken? Was it a severe allergic reaction, or was it something else? He didn't ever go into details. The way he spoke of it, I felt as though he didn't really know the answers either.

He was kind now. All the time. He didn't have those mood swings anymore. I was thankful for that, because I didn't know how to act with him when he did.

Not that it mattered now.

I only had to buy for Kazuya and myself now. Mostly myself. As I said, my husband would eat anything.

My son had his own wife, his own family now. He didn't need me.

It was a hard concept to accept, but I was happy for him. Overjoyed really. They married a tad young perhaps, but that left them plenty of time to spend together over the rest of their lives. And maybe…just maybe…I would get more than one grandchild out of them too! I'd always wanted grandchildren. I thought about it a lot when Ken was younger, and Osamu was alive. I knew Ken would've been the better father, supportive, loving. But Osamu could have done wonderfully if he'd had the chance.

I shook my head.

It didn't do to dwell on the past, no matter how much I longed to still be there sometimes.

"Are you alright?" Toshiko asked me.

"Oh yes," I said, forcing the hard memories away. "What do you think? Salmon, or tuna?"

"I prefer cod myself," she said with a short laugh. She knew I was lying. She always did. It was a habit she picked up because of her daughter. Sora used to hide things from her all the time, including her digimon partner, so it was no surprise she'd caught my poorly hidden anguish.

"I'll be alright," I told her. "My son's birthday is just coming up."

"I thought Ken was a winter baby," she commented. "Not spring."

"Not Ken," I said with a wavering voice.

She caught on immediately. She was wonderful like that. She put an arm on my back, shifting her grocery basket in her other hand, and steered me towards the back of the store.

"You'll need ice cream," she informed me. "It's a broken hearts best friend…well, that and sappy movies."

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Not a problem," she said, waving it off. "Now, do you want chocolate, or something a little more elaborate?"

"His favourite was chocolate…"

"Then let's get mint chocolate chip," she said quickly. "Can't have that acting as another reminder dear."

"Toshiko? Toshiko Takenouchi?"

Toshiko turned around, searching for the woman who called her name. I spotted her first. She was blonde, and wore clothing that was combined style with comfort. A black tank top was paired with a pair of grey trousers. Around her waist, was a sweater, tied by the sleeves. It wasn't high end fashion, but it was a tad closer to it than my own. She had a pencil stuck behind her ear. There was something familiar about her, though I knew I'd never met her before. Perhaps I'd spoken with her on the telephone once…?

"Natsuko," Toshiko said in surprise. "I didn't know you shopped on this side of town. Don't you and your son live on the north end?"

"We did," she said. "My renewed relationship seems to be progressing quite nicely actually. And Takeru moved in with Daisuke a few months ago. Not that you'd know. That boy is off gallivanting the world with that new girlfriend of his."

"Oh, do you two know each other?" Toshiko asked suddenly. I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I thought you must, my mistake. This is Kae Ichijouji, Natsuko. Ken's mother. And Kae, this is Natsuko…?"

"It's still Takaishi, don't get any ideas now," the woman teased.

"Oh," I said in sudden recognition, though in retrospect, I should have guessed when she mentioned Takeru was her son… "You're Natsuko, the woman Hiroaki was desperately trying to find. It was so romantic."

"Yeah," Toshiko said sarcastically. "Romantic. The man looked deranged. It was actually quite terrifying."

"He's not very good with romance, is he?" Natsuko said with a sigh and a smile.

"Are you just about done?" Toshiko asked, slipping the ice cream into my basket.

"I am actually," Natsuko said. "I was just headed to the register."

"I think we were too," I said, looking to Toshiko. She nodded.

"I just have to grab some eggs real quick," she said. "But I'll meet you up there in a moment."

I nodded. I was a grown woman. I could do this. Though I had to admit, talking to strangers was something I was never very good with, and I tried to impress the dangers of it into Ken. I was sure I scared myself far more than I scared him. But that might've been due to that Dark Spore again.

"How is Ken?" Natsuko asked. "I haven't seen him in awhile. Not since he got married I think. Is it working out for him?"

"I think so," I said quietly. She wasn't even _really_ a stranger. I knew who she was. I should be more confident. Just to prove that, I added a little more to my answer. "They get along even better than before, I think. Or they do when they're over for dinner. They seem very happy."

"That's good," she said.

It was very awkward. We both moved forward in the line. There was only one person ahead of us now. And he only had a box of chocolates.

"I do hope Toshiko hurries," I murmured. "It would be unfortunate if anyone were to join the line."

"We'd just wait for her," Natsuko said, rolling her eyes. She reminded me very much of her son. Takeru was like that. He would roll his eyes. It was endearing on him though, not so much on a fully grown woman who was insulting my thoughtfulness, without being too rude about it.

"Oh good," Toshiko called, walking towards us. "I thought you'd be gone already."

"I could never," I said insistently.

"Next," the cashier called. She pulled the first item from Natsuko's basket, and scanned it. "Eight million dollars? No. That can't be right. Let me try one more time."

Toshiko was almost at us now.

"Oh, there we go, eight fifty. Much better, don't you think?" the cashier joked. But I couldn't even force a little laugh, because I was distracted by the look of horror on Toshiko's face as I was engulfed in a bright light that sprouted from the computer monitor behind the cashier.

Suddenly, I wasn't in a grocery store anymore. I was in a large, stone room. It looked much more like a castle than anything else. There were eyes on me from all sides...

And I had Natsuko with me.

_**Rei: **_

It shouldn't be hard. I mean, I was just asking my brother a terrible question. A terrible question that was going to make him mad at Taichi. But I could see it being true. And that was the part that worried me the most.

_I_ was the one that told him everything. I just wanted Taichi to like me a little more. To see me as a valuable member in his group of friends. But I wasn't like the others. I couldn't go out there whenever I wanted to just run around and solve the mystery. I was stuck on Earth and I was stuck in a chair. I couldn't do anything like Sora and even Momoe could.

What I _could_ do, was give Taichi advice.

So that's what I did.

I wasn't really all that great at first though, I didn't really understand the situation. It helped me a lot to talk to Neo about it. He seemed to understand what was happening better than I did. He told me what to say, and gave me advice for Taichi. It all seemed so genuine. And Taichi told me that I was really helping him. It felt really good to be able to do that. I liked being the one that he went to when he needed help or advice or just someone to vent to, because the job was ridiculously difficult and he was stressed out about it. And sometimes, he said things…things that made me think that he could like me. Maybe as more than a pathetic girl in a chair, and as a potential girlfriend instead. He never did anything about it. But I knew that when he looked at me, he didn't see the chair. He saw the girl in it. He understood me. He knew that when he talked about feeling trapped in his job, I would understand, and not take offense to it.

He made it so easy to like him.

Neo was the only person that I knew that didn't like him.

And I knew that was because he was furious that he was "playing with my feelings" as he called it. He didn't want me to give Taichi my heart, because he didn't want to witness another part of me being broken.

I loved him for that almost as much as I hated him for dating Sora.

He wasn't right for her. He was too…stifling. Sora needed to be free, to learn about herself all the time, but to also _give_ her love, rather than have it taken. Neo was an overbearing part of my life, and I knew it wouldn't be too long before he became super protective of Sora too. And if it turned out that he really was the bad guy…

Well, then it'd be my fault that they were dating in the first place.

"Please Neo," I pleaded to myself. "Don't let it be true."

I couldn't be responsible for letting Neo sink his hands into _two_ parts of their group.

"Don't let what be true?"

I gasped. Neo was behind me. He was right behind me. Okay, I thought. Breathe. I could do this. I just needed to tell him what it was that I needed to know.

"You'll always be honest with me, right?" I hedged.

"Always," he promised. "You know, Sora and I just had this discussion not too long ago."

"Okay," I said. "So you'd tell me if anything was…_happening_?"

"I'm not telling you anything about Sora and me," he told me with a snort. "If you want information, get it from Sora. If she'll give it. Apparently you haven't seemed too supportive."

"I'm not talking about that," I said quietly. "Neo I need you to tell me something."

"Get on with it then," he said. "I've got to meet up with some friends. We've got something important to discuss."

"Is it about how best to destroy the Digital World?" I asked bravely.

"He he," he laughed. "No, but close. Very close."

He was moving around behind me. I heard him pick the phone up off of the table. It sounded like he tossed it on top of the fridge. I turned to look as best I could. He was walking around, picking up my cell phone, dad's cell phone—that he'd left when he went to work—dad's pager, even the electronic gaming systems.

Anything that could contact someone outside of the apartment I realized.

"Neo," I asked, forcing my voice to stay calm. "Neo, what are you doing to the Digital World."

"I'm rebuilding it. It's going to be perfect. It will be a world that you can feel free in Rei," he said. His eyes were wrong. They weren't the eyes I'd grown accustomed to. They were slanted down in anger, and there was something in them…something that made my skin crawl. "There is nothing but the mission. I will be the best. I will rule that world, _Neoworld_, and your little friends can't stop me."

He picked up a crowbar, and I panicked. I let out a breathy scream, and I tried to move my chair out of the way. I had to get away from him.

"I'd never hurt you Rei," he said earnestly. "You're my sister. You will never get hurt. I won't let you."

That promise didn't stop me from shaking as he knelt down behind me and slid the crowbar through the wheels of my chair.

"Just in case you got any ideas," he told me. "I can't have you finding _Taichi_ or _Yamato_ and letting them in on my little secret, now can I?"

"Why Neo," I asked shakily. "Why do this? I'm happy where I am."

"But I'm not," he said simply.

Then he left. He walked out of the door. And to add insult to injury, I heard him locking it from the hallway. As if I could roll my chair to the door and get out. I couldn't get the wheels to turn, not with the crowbar in the way. I reached down as far as I could, but I couldn't do more than graze the very tips of my fingers.

I was stuck.

And Taichi was in trouble.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Yamato is back with a big discovery of his that leads to an adventure and a discovery!


	12. Digi-Napped!

**Y/N:** Here's Yamato's part. I found a bunch of this one funny when I got to read it, and then Natsuko is there at the end, which is more epic than funny, but I still enjoyed reading it too. My brother will be Natsuko for every time she shows up from here on out, so he's added a new character to his roster. Just thought I'd let you know, in case it gets confusing later.

**U/N:** Soooo this one is all me, I was trying to be more descriptive and such in this one, more toward Natsuko's part at the end than Yamato's. This is the first instance of Arc 1.5 being... hastily plotted and re plotted numerous times due to REALLY poor remembering skills on our parts. Sorry about that.  
I wasn't overly thrilled to write as Natsuko... she's probably my least favourite parent of ALL the digidestined. I don't know why though... anyway, you should review and such :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 12: Digi-napped!**

_**Yamato:**_

I kicked the door in and stormed into the apartment, throwing Gabumon toward the couch in a fit anger. Taichi poked his head out of the kitchen and stared at me, shocked and then looked to the clock that sat on top of the television.

"Yamato!" Taichi shouted, "He has to get into the Digital World like an hour ago!" Taichi was frantic, running from the kitchen and grabbing his digivice off of the table by the door and running toward the computer.

"Did the worlds combine?" I asked him. Taichi froze and thought for a second before shaking his head. "Exactly." Gabumon sat on the couch, fear all over his stupid face. "Taichi, the worlds didn't combine because this isn't Gabumon."

"What?" Taichi gasped. "What do you mean—it looked like Gabumon to me."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." I said slowly. "But then he started calling every stranger with blonde hair 'Yamato' And he even thought that Michael was me! I'm not Michael. I was telling him about my concerts, and he didn't even know that I was a rock star. I asked him how we met and he said some random story about France in a romantic book shop, he doesn't know my middle name, he was flirting with Sora, and he didn't even recognize the crest of friendship when I was doodling the other day! This isn't Gabumon!"

"Uhm..." Taichi was dumbfounded so I continued.

"And even then I wasn't sure—what if he just got amnesia or something?" I said, "So I kept him out after dark. And turns out that I was right. Not my Gabumon."

"Okay," Taichi said quickly raising his hands in defense, "Let's ask him."

"Go ahead." I said, rolling my eyes. "He won't talk."

Taichi turned to the Gabumon who sat on the couch and glared at him. "If you don't tell me exactly who you are I will take you into the digital world and get Agumon to tear you to pieces."

"I'm Gabumon!" Gabumon squealed, "Really I am! I'm just not... _his_ Gabumon." He pointed to me and I nodded.

"Told you!"

"Tell me more." Taichi growled. "Now."

"I was switched with his Gabumon a while ago... by my actual partner. Hideto." Gabumon explained.

"Who is Hideto?" Taichi asked.

"My partner." Gabumon groaned.

"Where is Gabumon?" I asked loudly.

"With Hideto!" Gabumon raised his hands above his head and curled into a ball.

The sound of someone clearing their throat cut across the conversation causing all of us to relax and look toward Sora who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding a bowl of cookie dough. Everyone stared at her as she walked across the room and sat on the arm of the couch.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"I'm visiting my friends." She said calmly as if it were obvious. She was wearing normal clothing which meant she was in a bad mood, but I wasn't going to push. That was none of my business anymore no matter how much I wanted it to be. "You should all calm down really."

"If it were Biyomon you wouldn't be calm either." I told her sharply.

"Yamato," She said, shaking her head and sliding off of the chair, "I still care about Gabumon. But you're going about it the wrong way. She handed me the bowl of cookie dough and then sat down next to a relaxed Gabumon. "Who is Hideto."

"He's my partner." Gabumon said, "You guys know him."

"Do we?" Sora asked, "I don't remember anyone by that name."

"He doesn't go by his real name around you guys." Gabumon said.

"And what's his name around us?" Sora asked.

"I don't remember..." Gabumon admitted, inching closer to Sora who awkwardly moved further away, making Gabumon have to move closer creating a chase down the length of the couch.

"Where is Hideto?" Taichi asked using his finger to scoop some of the cookie dough out of the bowl.

"In the Digital World!" Gabumon screamed out in a panic, remembering that Taichi and I were still here.

I shoved the bowl of cookie dough into Taichi's arms and reached down and pulled the Gabumon into my arms. "Come on." I said, "We're going to the Digital World."

"Yamato!" Sora said, "Shouldn't we come up with a plan?"

"No." I said flatly. "Gabumon is my best friend Sora—I can't just leave him in there now that I know he's been kidnapped."

"You're being rash because he's your partner." She said quickly.

"Oh really?" I said, "Let's look at it from a different perspective, shall we?" I cleared my throat, "Hideto has deleted the Digital World. And now he have my Gabumon which he can use to upset the balance of the worlds and add the empty shell of the Digital World to this world. What will that do, Sora? Probably something terrible. No one knows though. So instead of waiting around to find out, I'm going to go save Gabumon and put a stop to this mess." I could feel the tension in the room as Sora and Taichi looked to each other both of them looking rather indecisive.

"Me too." Taichi said, setting down the cookie dough, making a decision

Sora face fell as she looked away for a moment. Finally she looked back to me and nodded, "Fine, I'll come. But only to keep you two out of trouble."

I smiled at her and she rolled her eyes before smiling back and leading the way toward the computer. She jumped back quickly and ran into the kitchen. She was back in a few seconds laughing nervously. "I could have burned your apartment down!"

"Thank you for remembering," I said with a laugh as Taichi held up his digivice and opened the portal into the Digital World dragging all four of us in.

We landed in the baron Digital World that I'd only been in once since it had happened, and I felt chills again. It was so wrong seeing the world... just gone like it was. It didn't feel anything like the Digital World. I shook my head and dropped Gabumon who floated slowly to the ground.

"Where is he?" I asked Gabumon. He shrugged his shoulders but closed his eyes and sniffed the air. "This way!" He said suddenly, pointing off in the direction of... something. It was kind of hard to tell where we were going really.

"Has Koushiro found anything out about this problem yet?" I asked.

"I don't know." Taichi admitted. "Basically I've been spending most of my time with Marrow and the others because we're trying to vote on what to do about the Digital World. Marrow is frightened that since someone has found the 'Fractal Code' of the Digital World that they might be able to do the same to the digimon and his kind. So he wants to move everyone out of the Digital World in case that happens."

"Where would you put everyone?" Sora asked.

"Earth." Taichi said slowly. Sora and I looked at each other as if Taichi were insane, and tried to talk him out of it immediately, but he cut us off by waving his hands. "I know guys!" He said, "I'm trying to convince the council to vote upon remaining in the Digital World. Or what's left of it anyway. But Marrow has over half of the council convinced that he's right, including your Gabumon—who I guess really isn't your Gabumon, and if I can't come up with a counter argument fast... then Earth is about to be overrun by monsters."

"You can't let that happen." Sora insisted. "It's dangerous."

"I know!" Taichi groaned, "But what else am I supposed to do?"

"Well Koushiro hasn't been going to those meetings lately right?" Sora asked, "Make him come to the next one and you have one more vote! Also if you let me on the council..."

"Sora, you know I can't do that." Taichi sighed.

"Fine..." She sighed, "But you're supposed to find a representative for Holy Digimon—just make sure the one you find agrees with you! Then you have two more votes. And plus whenever we get Gabumon back I'm sure he'll vote for you."

"You're right!" Taichi nodded, "Thank you Sora," He patted her shoulder, "Has anyone ever told you you're the smartest person ever?"

"No, I don't think they have." She laughed.

"I have." I said quietly, but neither of them heard me.

We walked in silence for a bit, following Gabumon wherever he was leading us as he stopped every now and then to take a deep breath in and smell for his partner—or whatever he was doing.

"I'm sorry Sora." I said suddenly. I hadn't meant to actually say that out loud. I didn't want to seem caring anymore—that was against everything I embodied. Well not true really—but I didn't want her to think I still loved her. Because I didn't. Or something.

"Sorry?" Sora asked, "For what?"

"For blindly accusing Neo just because I didn't like him." I said flatly. "He's actually a pretty okay guy. And if I wasn't so focused on figuring out how he could be evil then I could maybe have actually been his friend. Even though he hates me. And I might have even been able to spend some time looking for whoever this Hideto fellow is. Neo was never the terrorist. That was Hideto."

"It's okay Yamato." Sora said, slowing her pace to walk by me. "You know... it's pretty scary to think that we were searching in the wrong place. If it was Hideto all along... Gabumon says that we know him. He could have been watching us." Sora was right... it was really creepy. He'd known everything and we'd trusted him so easily. But something didn't quite feel right about it all.

"Pepper Breath!"

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a ball of black flame flying toward us. I pushed Taichi out of the way quickly and grabbed Sora's arm, pulling her out of the way.

My head started hurting when I realized how stupid I had been. We had nothing to defend ourselves from whatever might attack us except for our enemy's digimon partner. And worse. No one knew where we were!

"You brought them right to us." A high pitched voice said as I looked around for the source of the attack. "Well done Gabumon." My eyes focused on an Agumon and I sighed with relief. That would help.

"Agumon?" Taichi said slowly.

"You wish." It was neither Gabumon nor Agumon who had spoken this time, but a human voice a dark figure glided slowly from the sky. "It's my Agumon." The figure landed and slowly stepped toward us.

"Genki." Sora growled staring toward Mimi's favourite employee.

"I _knew_ it!" I yelled, clapping my hands together.

"Liar." Taichi said, catching my lie. But if what Gabumon said was true, then Genki was listening into all of our meetings and that's how he knew all about what was going on. He was getting information from his side and ours! How did we not see this sooner? Genki—or rather, Hideto had a partner Gabumon... and apparently an Agumon as well.

"My name is Hideto," Genki said, "Surely my friend Gabumon informed you? He's done such a good job luring you here though."

I tried to run toward him to punch him, but Sora grabbed my wrist, pulling me back. "Where is Gabumon?"

"Right behind you." Hideto laughed, "Unless you mean your own Gabumon. Because he's right up there." Hideto pointed up in the air where Gabumon was floating there, tied up with thick brown rope and gagged with a white cloth.

"Gabumon!" I shouted, trying to get to him, but quickly being restrained by the other Gabumon while the other Agumon prepared to attack Sora and Taichi.

"What did you do to the Digital World?" Sora asked.

"Me?" Hideto asked with a little laugh looking around, "I did nothing. That was all—huh. I almost said his name. That would ruin the surprises up ahead. But you can have your Gabumon back if you want. I don't really care that much."

"Hideto!" OtherAgumon growled. "Not part of the plan!"

"Sorry, right." Hideto shook his head lazily. "You can't have him back!"

"You're a jerk!" Sora growled. "Whoever is teaming up with you in this battle, and yourself... you're just awful. You're evil!"

"I'm not evil." Hideto said shaking his head. "I can promise you that."

"Then what does that make us?" I asked, "Are we evil then...? Wait..." I tried to figure out how that could make sense, but it didn't... which often meant that it could be true! "Are we evil?"

"Calm down Yamato." Taichi sighed. "What Hideto is doing isn't good. We're still in the right."

"Oh?" Hideto asked. "You seem so wise on the matter Mr Yagami. Tell me oh wise one, what is it that you think I'm doing that's so evil?"

"You're taking digimon and infecting them." Taichi said with a rather serious anger hinting in his voice. "I don't know why or what you're infecting them with... but you are! You're taking them and hurting them! Plus you've destroyed the Digital World!"

"We deleted it." Hideto growled, "And actually _I_ did nothing. I cannot stress this point enough."

"You're lying!" Taichi snapped.

OtherAgumon lunged forward and used his claws to scratch at Taichi's legs, cutting his pants and drawing blood. Taichi winced but made no further effort to show pain.

"Master Hideto is not a liar!" OtherAgumon growled.

"Agumon." Hideto said firmly, "Back off." OtherAgumon glared at Taichi for a moment before sighing and doing as he was told. He stepped away from Taichi and then stopped a few feet back, still glaring.

"Not to mention you took my digimon!" I added to Taichi's list when no one made an effort to speak.

"Why did you take him in the first place?" Sora asked.

"You know, I honestly don't know." Hideto said, "It was pretty funny though." I balled my hands up into fists and once again tried to run toward him, but OtherGabumon grabbed me tight once more.

"You're a liar." Taichi said again, this time through gritted teeth. OtherAgumon gave Taichi a threatening look and then looked back to Hideto who shook his head. I looked to Taichi and noticed that his digivice was flashing inside his pocket.

"And you're adorable." Hideto said catching all of us off guard, "But you're right. I am lying. Having my Gabumon in place of your Gabumon meant that he would rule a whole section of the Digital World since your digimon took over for the Digimon Sovereign after brutally murdering them, making it easier for us to sneak in and take the digimon of that sector for our own needs. Plus he sat in on the council."

"You're an ass." Taichi growled. This time OtherAgumon wasted no time checking for permission and instead wound his head back and shot a ball of flame toward Taichi.

"Taichi!" Sora and I gasped as one. I tried to move to help him, but I only tripped over the grip that OtherGabumon had me in. Sora however acted smoothly, pushing Taichi out of the way, having the flame barely missing her instead.

She wound around and stared at Hideto with fiery eyes, "You're a jerk!" She turned to help Taichi to his feet but he shook it off, pulling himself up. I noticed how she made no effort to help me up at all.

"Yeah, well, that's your opinion." Hideto said simply with a shrug of his shoulders,

"As far as I'm concerned everyone is entitled to their own opinion." I growled, kicking OtherGabumon away as gently as I could so I could stand up.

"Oh really?" Hideto asked as he began to pace across the use-to-be-ground toward us. "Then here's mine." He stopped in front of me, and reached down to grab my hand and pull me up. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me to my feet. "Your music sucks."

Without any further thought my fist was flying toward his face, but I was stopped by a quick burning at my legs. I looked down to see that OtherGabumon had set my pant leg on fire.

"Gabumon!" Hideto barked.

"Fine..." He grumbled, patting my leg until the fire went out. Thankfully I hadn't been seriously burned, but I could feel the pain pricking at my leg.

"Anyway," Hideto said turning to walk away, waving his hand into the air, "I don't really care what anyone else says about it, I think you can have him back. We've already got all the digimon out of the sector that we wanted, and your meetings give no real information because there's too much controversy. In other words, they're totally pointless."

I heard Taichi growl, but he said nothing. "You can't give him back!" OtherAgumon argued.

"We'll tell on you!" OtherGabumon growled.

"Fine!" Hideto groaned, "You can't have him back apparently."

"Oh yes they can!" I spun around to see Agumon jumping through the air as Taichi held tightly to his digivice. Pepper breath!" He shot a ball of orange flame toward Gabumon, burning the ropes off of him.

"Yamato!" Gabumon cried out from in the air as he ripped his gag off of his mouth. "Yamato you came!"

"Did you really doubt me?" I asked him with a grin.

"Oh no!" Hideto said sarcastically. "How will I ever break this news to the others?" Hideto tried to turn and walk off, but Taichi pushed past OtherAgumon and ran toward him, grabbing him by the wrist.

"Who are the others?" He asked, "What happened here in the Digital World? Answer me!"

"Well sergeant Handsome," Hideto said, rolling his eyes and pulling his arm out of Taichi's grip as Gabumon reached me and landed in my arms, hugging me tightly, "You already know that the world has been deleted. You already know that there is a Rosemon on the team—do either of my digimon look like they can digivolve into Rosemon? No. And you already know there are others. Why don't you just look at the most obvious places instead of always missing the finer details?" Hideto turned to walk away again, motioning for his digimon to follow.

"You're not going anywhere." Taichi barked. "Agumon!"

"I'll fight too." Gabumon said from my arms as he leapt toward the ground and snarled at OtherGabumon.

"No!" Sora hissed. "They don't want to fight, let's not tempt them."

"See ya later Alligator!" OtherGabumon said over my shoulder, waving to me and Gabumon as they ran off.

"Until we meet again loser!" OtherAgumon growled to Taichi.

"Yamato!" Gabumon said spinning around and hugging my legs when they'd gone. "I was so scared that you wouldn't come back for me! I was so scared—I was so confused!" Gabumon was frantic to explain the situation, "He led me to the washroom—and inside there was a mirror, but it wasn't a mirror, I thought it was a mirror—he'd made me think there was a mirror—but it turned out it was just another Gabumon who tied me up before I could call for help! How did you find out it wasn't me?"

"I know my best friend." I told him with a nervous laugh, as my heart plummeted thinking about all that Gabumon had to go through, while I was off in the human world. If I'd been able to spend more time with him... then something could have been different. But it wasn't like that because the balance was off. How had we managed to keep the balance there in the first place? Oh right... the Sovereign. There had to be a way to keep things separate. I noticed Gabumon was still watching me so I smiled at him and patted his head, "I knew all along."

"Hah!" Taichi barked sarcastically.

My phone beeped suddenly and I looked to Gabumon to see if it was okay if I turned my attention from him for a moment. He nodded, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

_My boss says he liked your interview, so he wants another one done. –Katsue._

I responded quickly with a smile on my face, _Is this a date?_ The last time I'd thought it was a date she'd told me otherwise rather quickly, and it kind of put a damper on my mood, but I was pretty sure I'd convinced her that I was pretty awesome.

"Who is it?" Sora asked, smiling at the response to my expression.

"Katsue." I told her, "She's a reporter."

"That's really cool," Sora smiled, knowing that there was more to just an interview just by my tone of voice. She was so smart...

Sora's phone rang causing her to jump in surprise.

"Thanks for coming Agumon." Taichi said, patting his partner on the head. "It means a lot."

"Well you called." Agumon said with a smile, "I'll always come so long as you still need me!"

My phone beeped again as Katsue texted me back. _I suppose..._ I grinned and put my phone away as Sora finished a rather quick conversation.

"That was my mother." She said flatly. "Apparently Mrs Ichijouji and your mother are in the Digital World Yamato."

"That's bad." Taichi said before I could say anything. "That will upset the balance." That hadn't exactly been what I was thinking. I was actually more worried for her safety, not that I'd seen her lately. Not since she'd started dating my father again... "We have to find Patamon and Wormmon and get them out of here before the balance is shifted."

"This balance thing is getting a little out of hand." I groaned. "We need to find a way to overcome it.

"Well..." Sora said slowly, "Koushiro and I have an idea. We're saving it for the meeting."

"Well great—the sooner the better." Taichi agreed.

_**Natsuko:**_

"Who are you?" A growling voice boomed through the stone room from some dark corner I couldn't see. I was scared already. The force in the man's voice was terrifying as Kae and I sat on the cold, wet floor, staring around at the glowing eyes in the room. "I asked you a question." The man said. "Who are you, and how did you get here?"

"I-I-I..." Kae tried to answer, but her words failed her as I knew mine would.

"ANSWER ME!" The voice was so low and loud that I could feel the vibrations in my bones as I winced at his loud words. I winced and tried to back down, but my hand slipped in a puddle of cold water and I gasped in pain.

"My name is Natsuko Takaishi!" I blurted suddenly. "I was just shopping and then was suddenly dragged into wherever this is!"

"A likely story," a female scoffed with a voice softer and prettier than any I had ever heard. My fear lessened slightly, but this was short lived.

"Tell the truth!" The man boomed again, his voice once again be stilling fear through my entire body, and apparently Kae's as well. Her hand jumped to my wrist as she gripped me tightly.

"I just did!" I insisted. "I told you the truth. Where are we?"

"You know full well where you are!" The woman's velvety voice said as it floated across the room.

"Is this the Digital World?" Kae asked quietly. "Is that where we are?" It had to be. I couldn't understand why I hadn't thought of that myself, but I had seen the computer light up, and swallow us. That was the only real explanation.

"Of course that's where you are!" The man boomed. "Where else would you be?"

"Home." Kae muttered, "On Earth."

"Humans..." A different voice buzzed sharply.

"Vulcanusmon," The first man said. "The lights." In an instant the room was lit up by floating balls of glass that resembled light bulbs. We were in a large stone room, as I had guessed, but it wasn't as depressing as I had first thought. The walls were however crumbling, and the ceiling had a rather large hole in it, opening up to the darkness in the sky above. My eyes fell to the large window where I could see endless darkness with green grid lines strewn across it. There was a red carpet leading toward stone steps and a podium where two large golden thrones sat, occupied by none. But none of that was as interesting as the inhabitants of the room.

There was a man with a wolf pelt and a horn on his head, that made me think of Yamato's digital partner Gabumon. His arms were on fire and he wore large metal boots and gloves, accompanied by a long cape. Next to him stood another wolf like man who looked much more like Garurumon. His face was shadowed by the pelt over his head, but his hair was long and green. He was standing with his arms crossed, as he leaned against the stone wall.

At the other side of the room there was a woman who wore next to nothing besides a white dress that covered only the front of her body. Her eyes were blindfolded by a white strip of fabric, and her hair was long and golden. Next to her was a man with eight arms and a space helmet on. Each of his arms were shining with electricity as he powered the lights... he must have been Volcanusmon.

I looked down to the pale, smooth hand that clutched my wrist and followed it up to Kae's face and froze. "Kae..." I whispered slowly. "You're... a child." Well that was a bit of an overstatement, but her face was smooth, clear of wrinkles, and her grey hairs seemed to disappear. Even her eyes looked younger, more energetic while not being consumed by fear. She looked no older than twenty years old.

"You as well..." She said in a whisper as she stared at me in shock. I looked down to my hand and gasped. My hand was younger and fresher... I looked up quickly to the other Digimon who were all glaring at me. I supposed that now would be an inappropriate time to ask them what had happened to us.

"Marsmon... is it them?" Volcanusmon asked, his eight arms waving up and down nervously. His voice buzzed and echoed as if it were far away.

The man with the flaming arms and long cape stepped forward, so he was Marsmon. "I do not know." His voice was still low and booming, but he was suddenly afraid of us.

"It simply must be." The woman said waving her arms frantically, raising her voice. Even at a yell her voice was soft and clear. "What other humans come to the Digital World?"

"You are correct Venusmon." Marsmon said, nodding toward the woman. "That must be who they are... there's no other explanation."

I looked to Kae who relaxed a little as my heart beat slowed a little. They thought we were our children—they wouldn't hurt us now, there was no way.

"You are sentenced to death." Marsmon's voice was cold and clear as he darted his eyes between the two of us. My heart pounded suddenly as Kae burst into tears.

"Sounds fun." A slick voice said from behind us. I looked over with fear and saw a merman with a large trident reach down and grab us both. His hands were dripping wet and ice cold, as was his breath I found out as he whispered to us, his cold breath working its way down my neck. "An execution... My favourite form of punishment."

"You can't do this!" Kae shot loudly, surprising everyone in the room, including myself. "You cannot kill us! You don't even know who we are!"

"You're the humans who have come to this world to wreak havoc!" Marsmon said coolly. "No question about it."

"We haven't started any trouble!" Kae said fiercely, her eyes flaring up.

"What did you say?" Marsmon barked loudly, shrinking Kae back into her previous state. "Look out this window." He motioned toward the large open window I had looked out earlier. "This is your fault. Stupid humans. All of you are at fault!"

"That's not true." I said quickly, "That was done by evil humans! There's no way my baby would do that."

"Your baby?" Venusmon scoffed, floating across the floor, her footsteps as light as air. "This was not performed by a child. It was you! You did this!"

"I did no such thing!" I growled back at her. They couldn't blame us for something we didn't do! It wasn't fair! I had to find a way to prove to them that it wasn't us, but as I growled at Venusmon, the merman behind me tightened his grip on me, causing me to cry out in pain rather than think of a solution.

"It was these Alias people." Kae said quietly drawing all the attention again. "It wasn't us or our children. Ken was talking about it a few days ago with his wife Miyako. She was upset—she thought it was her, but he was trying to prove to her that it couldn't be her. It wasn't them. It was the Alias III."

"You have children who know about this world?" Marsmon asked loudly. I couldn't tell if his voice was filled with surprise or anger. Either way I knew he was an unpredictable Digimon, and we should keep our guard up. Perhaps Kae knew enough about this to get us off the hook though.

"Could it be...?" Volcanusmon buzzed excitedly as he worked his way across the floor toward us. "The Digidestined...?"

"Yes that's right!" I said quickly, "Yamato Ishida, and Takeru Takaishi—Friendship and Hope! That's my children! And Kae is the mother of Ken Ichijouji."

"Of kindness." Kae added.

"Kindness...?" Volcanusmon said slowly. "Marsmon—they are telling the truth. I can see it in their eyes!"

"Why are they so young?" Venusmon asked, "It's impossible to have had children and still look as young as they do."

"When we entered this world we took on new appearances." I said, "We look like we did when we were younger—at the prime of our life." It was true, that was a fact. What I didn't know, was why, but quite frankly I didn't care. I felt really good.

"Should we trust them?" The merman asked from behind us. "I think we should off them. Just to be safe."

"Nobody asked you Ariel." I barked over my shoulder which caused him to grip me tighter.

"Release them." It was the quiet one with the long green hair who spoke this time. He uncrossed his arms and stepped away from the wall. "They are telling the truth Neptunmon. Drop them."

"As you wish," Neptunmon scoffed, releasing us instantly, sending us both flying toward the stone floor. I landed roughly, but it barely hurt... damn, being young felt nice. I looked to Kae who was slowly stepping to her feet as she reached out to balance herself. I took her hand and pulled myself to my feet and stood next to her.

"They are telling the truth, and we should trust them." The man with green hair said sharply causing everyone to hold their breath to not interrupt him.

"Are you sure?" Marsmon asked.

"I'm very sure." Merukimon nodded.

Suddenly the sound of a creaking door could be heard behind us and so I spun around as a small voice let out a cry of fear.

"Help!" It was a small lavender and violet coloured rabbit with four ears and large animated eyes. She was wearing a robe and had a sash over her shoulder held together with a pendant with a crescent moon on it.

"Lunamon, what is it?" Marsmon asked quickly, striding past us all sending a wave of concentrated heat gushing through the air toward us. "What's the problem?"

"Marsmon!" Lunamon called out as she tripped on her robe and fell face first toward the ground, "Marsmon—Coronamon is in trouble!"

"What did he do this time?" Venusmon asked, with a wave of her hand, "Fall in the river and put his little fire out?"

"There is no river Venusmon." Neptunmon reminded her, "If there was I'd be there right now instead of here."

"Right, of course." Venusmon said. If her eyes were uncovered I felt like she would have rolled them then.

"It wasn't the river!" Lunamon cried out as Marsmon helped her to her feet. "It was the U.K.O.D!"

"The who?" Venusmon asked snidely.

"The Unpleasant Knights of Death!" Lunamon explained quickly, "That's the Death Knights... it's what they call themselves."

"Does anyone else actually call them that?" Neptunmon asked.

"I really don't think so," Venusmon said, stepping toward Neptunmon and standing next to him, blocking our view. I grabbed Kae's arm and dragged her to the side to get a better look of Lunamon.

"You're not listening!" Lunamon cried out. "They have Coronamon! He's in danger! We have to help him!"

"We will little one," Marsmon said, patting her head. Marsmon spun around quickly and pointed to Volanusmon, "You will accompany Lunamon to where they are keeping Coronamon and retrieve him. Bring him back, do you hear me?"

"I understand sir," Volcanusmon said with a nod.

"And you," Marsmon pointed to Merukimon. "You will take these two women to the portal and get them out of the Digital World. Safely."

"My pleasure." Merukimon nodded.

"No!" I interrupted suddenly, "I want to help Coronamon!" I wanted to get a little taste of what this world was like and why my children always had so much fun saving the world. This was my time. Mine and Kae's. I looked to her and saw that she was less confident about my decision.

"Me too." She said quietly, but I could tell she was unsure.

"Great!" Lunamon said with a smile, "I love new friends."

"We all know that." Venusmon scoffed.

"You must go back to your world." Marsmon said addressing Kae and I with a fierce glare, "Your world is safe, this world is not."

"He's right." Merukimon said, "I don't want to have to deliver a message to the Digidestined telling them how we've let their mother's die."

I shook my head and clenched my fists, "I'm going to help. It's my choice, you can't really stop me from doing anything. Unless of course you are the king of the Digital World, in which case I am _so_ sorry for being so rude."

"There is only one ruler of the Digital World." Marsmon said as everyone in the room seemed to shrink down a little, "She vanished many years ago. No one knows where or why."

"Well then," I said with a smile, "Looks like you don't have any right to boss us around. I guess Kae and I will be accompanying you Volcanusmon."

"You will go with them." Marsmon said as he stared firmly at Merukimon for a long moment. Merukimon nodded in understanding as if some secret message had been relayed. "As for the three of us." He said, turning his attention to Venusmon and Neptunmon. We will stay at the castle and defend against the oncoming attack."

Volcanusmon motioned for Kae and me to come to him with one of his eight arms and so I started toward him, dragging Kae along behind me.

We were headed to the door, Merukimon walking slowly behind us as Lunamon joined in with us. "Hi!" She said with a bright smile, "I'm happy you want to help me save my friend. He's my best friend and I need him saved. I'm Lunamon," She reached up to shake my hand and so I greeted her with a smile, but couldn't help but notice that she certainly liked to talk.

"I'm Natsuko Takaishi," I said as we released hands, "And this is Kae Ichijouji."

"Nice to meet you both, I feel like we'll be really good—" Lunamon was cut off by a loud booming voice so she spun around to listen.

"Lunamon," Marsmon said firmly, "You will stay here where it is safe."

"And where you won't get in the way," Neptunmon added.

"I won't get in the way I promise!" Lunamon said, suddenly panicked, "Please let me go! Please!" She looked to Merukimon and Volcanusmon who were both staring toward the ground.

"My word is final Lunamon. You will stay here with us." Marsmon's words were clear, and the tone of his voice made no room for complaint.

"Bye guys..." Lunamon sighed as she stepped from the group, "Good luck... save him okay?"

"I promise," I told her with a wink as Volcanusmon held open the door for us all to step through.

"Good luck to all," Marsmon said loudly, "And come back safely."

"Bye! Bye! Have fun!" Lunamon called out. She continued to call to us as Volcanusmon closed the door, blocking out all sound.

"Well... we're off." He buzzed, stepping forward to lead the way.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Jou tries to figure out what's going on in the Digital World, while Emiko gets into mischief.


	13. The Virus

**Y/N:** My brother wrote the entire chapter again. I really enjoyed Emiko's appearances and Isao's part at the end was…interesting? Not the word I'm looking for, but I don't know what to say about it. I don't like Isao as a person, not the way we've developed him. He's a jerk, but I do enjoy reading from his perspective. I find it interesting, developing parent-child relationships, which is great, because we work on them so much…but I'm rambling in my half-asleep state. I'll let you go enjoy the chapter now! :)

**U/N:** Sooooooo I don't want to make this too long, so i'm going to explain things, it's not meant to be blunt i just figure you don't really want to read a long explanation sooo, yeah.

The reason the plot in the last chapter was so rushed was because of the plotting stages.

We plotted each of the fifty chapters out in full, but then we realized so much went wrong with the Neo stages and there wasn't anything being drawn around or anything, so we added as many as we could for the later parts so they'd make sense, but with people mentioning that the chapters were long we didn't want to add too many extra parts. In all actuality, Yamato would/should have had an extra part later on in the story, like at least two or three chapters down the line, but due to our own errors we didn't have room with the chapters already piling up as they were/are. I'm sorry about that... it was a pretty crappy chapter, I'm admitting that, i knew it was when i wrote it, and i knew it was now. Partly because i'm SOOOO done with Yamato's mourning over Sora, but also because of the issues stated above. I'm sorry about that...

Also, I feel like people missed the end of chapter 10, which was also rushed due to people not being happy about the long chapters, but due to... this new turn of events, we'll be sure to add as many chapter parts and stuff as we need to make sense of all of the plots... Sorry, again... i know it was bad.

There IS foreshadowing/drawing out of plots, you just all don't see it yet ;) But you're all quite right about this chapter being just BAM... and again, I'm sorry about that.

While i'm at it...

-The parents being young will be explained, but there really was no way to foreshadow that,  
-Takeru will be back :P Just wait for it, it's not some big dramatic moment, but he and Hikari are my favourite characters, there will be LOT'S of Takeru :P  
-I'm about to edit this chapter (or at least re-read it) for more description of the world as it is... but I think Emiko is playing a lot in here so I'm pretty sure it's already there, but i'll make sure.

-Aaaaaaaaand their phones working was a GIANT mistake on my part. I completely forgot their phones don't work. I'm sorry :S Yamato's chapter was a giant flop OBVIOUSLY :P but i knew it was, I personally like this one more... but maybe just because of Emiko.

Again, sorry. Also, this is long... i said it wouldn't be. I'm a liar. I'm sorry again :P I hope you like this chapter...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 13: The Virus**

_**Jou:**_

"You'll be fine." I assured the humanoid digimon who sat in front of me... Kinda. She was actually just floating there it seemed. This world was falling apart again... why did this always happen? I was reminded immediately of Apocalymon, and the strange area that seemed to go with him both times we had defeated him. Everywhere around me was just total darkness, but with strange green gridlines everywhere. And would it really be the digital world if there weren't grids everywhere?

The digimon who was in front of me was wincing as I wrapped her leg tightly with the bandages. I recognized her since she was here a lot. Well, wherever I was at the time. I didn't have a hospital or anything, but I did come frequently to the Digital World to help whoever needed help healing. This time, just like most other times, D'arcmon was there. She was a kind digimon though, of Holy attribute and we'd actually become rather close friends. She smiled at me as she gripped my arm to ease the pain. She had some sort of tribal clothing on and a scarf wrapped around her head and neck. Her sword and sceptre lay next to her as her wings flapped lightly. She wasn't a very pain resistant digimon I'd noticed over the years. "See?" I prodded when I had finished, "All better." She smiled at me again and then relaxed.

"Your daughter is growing," She said, her smile falling as she watched Emiko with a smile. I looked over my shoulder and nodded. That she was. She was almost three already! Only five more months until her birthday and I hadn't even picked a theme or gotten her presents or figured out what kind of cake she'd want—time was of the essence here. I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I watched her run around through the air. The gravity seemed to be deleted along with the landscape, but she didn't seem to mind. She quickly got used to the endless gridlines of nothingness and made the most of her new ability to fly. Gomamon and Bearmon were exhausted, clearly as they played with her, chasing her in circles through the air.

Momoe was sitting, leaning against one of the buildings in the village I had chosen to stop by. The small stone dome-shaped buildings were drifting slowly, almost not at all, through the air, so the village was on different levels, and so the buildings resembled the giant mess that was Emiko's bedroom.

"There are less digimon around here." I pointed out to D'arcmon, turning back to her. "Why is that?"

"Allias III." D'arcmon said airily, as she gazed toward a group of Yokomon who were piling up in some sort of game which was ended quickly as Emiko ploughed through them. I started to move to tell her how wrong that was, but Momoe caught it first. She was such a good mother... Emiko didn't seem happy to be in trouble, but she nodded, and she understood. That was my girl!

"Who?" I asked D'arcmon, focusing back on her.

"There are three humans who travel about the world lately." D'arcmon said. "Three humans who are not you or your fellow Digidestined. I've never seen them myself, but they've been scaring digimon into hiding. Not many digimon are willing to leave their villages now for fear of being infected and enslaved."

"That's terrible!" I said, my hands shaking as a bottle of medicine slipped from my hand and fell a few inches before freezing in midair. "Do you know who they are?"

"I told you, I've never seen them." D'arcmon said with a sigh. "Nor would I like to. My friend has though. He is here somewhere. Hiding most likely."

"Could I speak to him?" I asked her quickly, hastily shoving the rest of my supplies back into my bag.

"No." D'arcmon whispered. "He is hiding because he is scared for you." D'arcmon looked away and reached toward her sceptre.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"I mean that he has been infected." She said, turning toward me, her eyes locking with mine with such fierceness and precision that I shivered under her gaze. Before she spoke again she pulled herself to her feet using her staff as balance, "The masked Alias member has infected him with the virus they have been spreading around. He is fighting their control, though the battle is futile. The virus is spreading more and more each day."

"Can I just speak to him?" I asked her. "Please? I need to speak with him."

D'arcmon raised her eyebrows and stared down at me, "Very well." She said, "I shall see if I can convince him to converse with a human."

"Does he not like humans?" I asked.

"Do _you_ know what the virus would do if spread onto a human?" D'arcmon asked.

"N-no..." I said quietly, my body tensing up at the thought.

"Neither do I," D'arcmon said turning from me. "Do you really want to risk this danger?"

"Yes." I said, regaining my confidence. "I need to speak to him. Just for a moment."

D'arcmon glanced at me over her shoulder and then flew off without another word.

As I waited for her return I watched Momoe play as she tossed Emiko into the air toward Bearmon. Emiko giggled as she drifted slowly through the air until Bearmon caught her and began tickling her.

"Hey Jou," I jumped and spun around to see Gomamon staring at me with his eyebrows raised, "You okay? You seem all jumpy."

"Really?" I asked sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."

"No need to be snarky!" Gomamon defended. "I was just saying!"

"I know, I know." I said with a nod. "I'm sorry."

"That D'arcmon seems to be getting in more fights than she should." Gomamon said as he watched her float through the village searching for her friend. "What's her deal?"

"She says she's protecting the Digital World." I told him with a shrug, "I believe her. She's really quite kind and gentle. I swear she'd never hurt anyone."

"Okay!" Gomamon said raising his fins, backing down, "I wasn't arguing that fact—oh here she comes."

I looked over and saw that he was right. D'arcmon was swooping down toward me once more, a lilac coloured shell with magenta markings decorating the top held tightly in her arms. She landed softly, which I supposed made sense as there was nothing to land on, and she knelt down, holding out the lilac shell as it slowly opened.

Inside was a green digimon with yellow eyes that were full of pain and concentration.

"Syakomon!" Gomamon gasped, "You don't look so hot!"

"Gomamon..." I mumbled, elbowing him to get him to be quiet.

"It's alright," Syakomon said with a little cough. "D'arcmon says that you wanted to see me... to talk to me..."

"I do." I said quickly, "Do you have any idea who did this to you?"

Syakomon shook his head after a small coughing, "No. The boy who did this to me wore a silver mask—all I could see was my own reflection... I could see the fear in my own eyes as hurt me..."

"What did he do?" I asked. So he didn't know who did it to him, but that didn't mean I couldn't reverse it. "How did he do this?"

"It was a needle. A really big one." Syakomon said. "It was painful too..."

"So he literally injected you with something." I said quietly. "Would you mind if I took a sample of your data?" Syakomon looked scared as he froze solid.

"Do you think you can cure the others who have been hurt like me?" Syakomon asked.

"I can try." I promised.

"Okay." He nodded, still scared. "Okay, go ahead."

I smiled at him before turning to my supplies and pulling out a small needle. Syakomon let out a yelp and clamped his shell shut in fear.

"It doesn't hurt." Gomamon told him, sliding toward him. "It's super gentle. Jou does it to me all the time. He's really interested in the changes you see. Did you know that our emotions change out entire makeup?" I knew what he was doing, just talking to Syakomon to comfort him. He was a really good partner. "Yeah, I know! Really cool, huh? Like, when we go from happy to angry our entire self just rewrites! It's seamless and effortless, but we're like a totally different digimon with different emotions." Syakomon had slowly opened his shell to hear Gomamon better. "Anyway, the needle doesn't hurt."

Syakomon turned to me and swallowed. "Just do it!" He said, squeezing his eyes shut. I nodded and carefully lined up the needle to his skin and sunk it in, quickly pulling the plunger out and ejecting some of his data. I was shocked to see that it was a bright violent shade of red instead of the calm green colour it usually should be. I pulled the needle out and patted Syakomon. "All done?"

"All done." I confirmed with a nod. "I'll examine this and see what I can do. I promise you that I will try anything and everything though.

"Thank you Doctor Jou!" Syakomon smiled at me. "You're the greatest!"

"Second greatest." Gomamon corrected. "Next to yours truly."

"You're pretty cool too!" Syakomon giggled.

"Thank you." D'arcmon said with her mystical sounding voice. "Thank you for trying. Thank you for healing me and the other digimon. You truly are a great Digidestined."

"It's nothing." I said sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head.

"Hey!" Gomamon argued, "I'm his wonderful partner! Why am I getting no recognition today?"

D'arcmon ignored him and stood to her full height once more. She stared off into the skies and then relaxed a little. "Goodbye Jou. Until we meet again." She flapped her wings and then set off into the gridlines.

"Bye Jou! Bye Gomamon!" Syakomon called out as she dragged him across the sky.

"Bye!" Gomamon and I called after them, waving.

I turned back to Momoe and saw that she and Bearmon were leaning against one another, clearly exhausted. I couldn't blame them though, Emiko was really something. But where was she? I could hear her laughing, but couldn't spot her. Eventually I found her though, spinning through the air, and jumping from building to building.

"I swear that kid never runs out of energy." Gomamon pointed out. "She reminds me of... me." I smiled at him and patted him on the head. "But not in a sappy way. I mean, she's really cute, intelligent, energetic, fun to be around—you know? I guess she's like you too. She cries a lot."

I laughed loudly as I dragged Gomamon into a headlock and held him there.

"Lemme go!" Gomamon laughed, pushing against my hold and falling back, sending me a glare. I smirked at him, but my attention was dragged away when I heard Emiko scream. I spotted her on top of a nearby building as her scream turned into a hysterical giggle. A green monkey digimon had popped up in front of her before disappearing again.

"That's Monmon." Gomamon said easing my fear with the calmness of his voice. "He's a funny guy. He's quite the prankster though."

"Oh great." I said sarcastically, "The perfect digimon for my daughter to be conversing with."

"He doesn't talk much actually." Gomamon said, "But he's super creepy when he appears out of nowhere with those perfectly round eyes of his..."

I realized that he was right as Emiko let out another scream-giggle. Monmon was wearing a leopard fur toga and brown gloves and had an oversized slingshot on his back. His bunches of green hair were tied in a short and spiky ponytail on the top of his head and he had painted red war lines under his eyes that were, as Gomamon had said, perfectly round.

"Kinda cute though." I smiled at him.

"Not as cute as me!" He winked.

"Jou..." It was Momoe's voice as she walked up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder as she sat down next to me. "Do you find it odd that Emiko has such an attachment to the digimon?"

"No," I told her with a shrug of my shoulders, "I think it's because she's so young and doesn't know that they're not normal? I dunno, I'm not an expert."

"Well she got the hang of this weird new world too." Momoe said, "I just... I'm worried."

"About what?" I asked her, "There's nothing wrong... Although I am still a little confused as to how she's even allowed in the Digital World." We'd found that out by accident one day when I entered the world and she just followed me without a digivice... I stopped and thought for a moment, and suddenly I wanted to kick myself for not getting it earlier. "I think I get why!"

"Why?" Momoe asked excitedly, "Tell me she's not a mutant."

"Close!" I joked causing her to shake her head and smile. "She was born here Momoe. She was born in a mix of three different worlds. She probably has a connection to the Digital World and its inhabitants because she's... well—partly digital."

"So she _is_ a mutant!" Momoe cried out in a panic causing Gomamon to laugh as Bearmon tried to comfort her.

"No," I said quickly, trying to take it back, "She's perfectly human, but she was born here, so she would have a connection you know? Plus we take her here so often... she's growing up with it."

"I guess..." She sighed, "If you say so."

"I do." I said, "And besides—" I stopped talking to the sound of beeping. I looked for my pager and my phone, but neither of them were here, I'd forgotten them both at home.

Gomamon pulled my digivice out of my bag and tossed it to me as it beeped quietly. "What is it?" Gomamon asked. I shook my head. "It's just telling me that there's someone coming."

"Who?" Gomamon asked.

I stared down at the digivice, at the three dots moving toward the two dots that represented Momoe and I. Who were they? Suddenly D'arcmon talking about the Allias III flashed into my head. "I don't know." I said, suddenly panicking. "It could be them! We should get out of here."

Before I could even move though my suspicions were proven false.

"Jou?" I spun around, ready to protect Momoe, but sighed with relief, and felt Momoe relax at the sight of my friends. It was Sora who had spoken, and in her arms sat Wormmon who looked very out of place without Ken. Patamon sat perched on Yamato's head as Gabumon stood by his feet, and Agumon and Taichi took the lead.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them.

"It's a long story. We're headed to the meeting now." Taichi said, running his fingers through his hair. "You coming?"

"I thought the meeting wasn't until tomorrow." I said, checking my watch for the date before realizing that was completely unhelpful.

"We sent out a mass text asking everyone to meet us now instead." Taichi explained, "Dude, how many times do I have to tell you to carry your phone around?"

I laughed a little, it was true. Ever since... forever I kept forgetting my phone on the days Taichi needed me. Sora was always there to relay the message though.

"C'mon, you can take Emiko and Momoe." Taichi said.

"Taichi," Sora said, elbowing him sharply. "They might be on a family thing..."

"Oh—sorry." Taichi chuckled as Emiko let out another scream. All of them panicked and tensed up as they looked around and Patamon even took flight, but her scream, just like before had turned into laughter. I glanced over my shoulder at her and saw a flash of light. It must have been a trick Monmon was pulling.

"Nah," I said with a shake of my head, "We can come. Just let me get Emiko."

"I'll do it," Bearmon said with a smile, jumping into the air and kicking off of Momoe to set him flying through the air toward her. Soon enough Emiko was in my arms as we all walked from Monmon and the village.

"Bu-bye!" Emiko giggled, waving to her new friend.

"So what's this news?" I asked, "It must be really important to call everyone to an emergency meeting."

"Oh it is!" Gabumon nodded quickly, "I was kidnapped!"

"Oh really?" Gomamon asked, "You seem to be here to me... or is this just an illusion?"

"I was saved." Gabumon said with a roll of his eyes as everyone laughed.

"Piggy, piggy, piggy!" Emiko said as she climbed up my shoulder and tried to reach toward Patamon who hissed at her, angry about being called a pig again. Emiko jumped back and rested on my shoulder, relaxing the rest of the way toward the monitor where we said goodbye to Gomamon, Agumon and Gabumon. Yamato apologized to Gabumon which I didn't really get, but it didn't matter because I was sure he'd explain it.

And then we were all standing in Mimi's restaurant office with Patamon, Bearmon and Wormmon.

"I hope everyone is here already." Taichi sighed, "I don't like to be kept waiting."

"That's true. You are impatient." Sora said causing Yamato to laugh as we all followed Taichi out of the room. We stepped around the corner to see that some of the others were already here, though I could tell that Taichi was upset that not everyone was present. At the corner table that we usually sat in was Koushiro sitting next to a boy I didn't recognize with his hood over his head, shyly staring at the table. Mimi was on Koushiro's other side, and Hikari, Daisuke, Kurayami and Iori made up the rest of the corner by Koushiro's friend.

"Momoe," I said quietly, "You want to just sit with Emiko? I don't want her to distract them."

"But I wanna listen too!" Momoe whinned.

"I'll pay for whatever you order," I offered.

"Deal!" She grinned, and with a bounce and smile she pulled Emiko from my arms and led Bearmon to a table in the opposite corner of the room. Taichi led the way for the rest of us, and sat down at the end of the table. Yamato sat next to him and Sora gave me a look that demanded that I sat next to Yamato so she didn't have to, and so I did, just to be nice. Sora sat next to me as we all turned to Taichi.

The door burst open suddenly and Michel jumped through the door, snow covering his black coat as he smiled at us.

"Sorry, am I late?" He asked, and without an answer her moved to sit by Sora, "Ken's coming—he's just slow." And sure enough as I looked to the glass doors and out into the dark snowy night I saw Ken come from the right and pull the door open, but he didn't enter instead he held it open for three people to rush in, coming from the left. The first was a girl I didn't recognize and the second was Willis with Terriermon and Lopmon draped over his shoulders, who wiped the snow off of his hair as he directed his friend to sit by him as he sat next to Michael.

The third was Miyako. She looked quite pale though, almost sick. Ken stepped in after her and she furrowed her brows at him, "Where were you?" She asked.

"Nowhere." Ken said quickly. "You?"

"Also nowhere." Miyako said crossing her arms and looking away.

"Funny," Ken said, "Must have just missed each other." As he turned to find a place to sit down his eyes glazed over me and froze on Sora, "What's Wormmon doing here?"

"Long story." Sora said, "Here," She held Wormmon out for him so he rushed across the room to grab him, and then pulled out a chair next to Willis' friend for Miyako to sit in before pulling a chair from another table to sit in for himself.

"Where's Takeru?" Patamon asked.

"No clue." Hikari said, throwing her arms up into the air in defeat as if Patamon had asked her a hundred times and she'd finally decided to answer him.

"And what are Terriermon and Lopmon doing here...?" I asked slowly, glancing back to the darkness outside.

"Yes Willis," Hikari asked with her eyebrows raised, "What _are_ they doing here?" Willis laughed a little as Taichi laid across the table and yanked Koushiro's computer from him.

"I kind of experimented?" Willis said slowly, "Turns out the digital world doesn't need Destiny and Miracles?"

"Experimented how?" Koushiro asked angrily, but he was cut across by Taichi who slid Koushiro's computer down the table. It slid to a stop in front of Willis.

"See that?" Taichi asked. I craned my neck and saw that on the screen was a picture of a German Sheppard. "That's called a dog. You Terriermon, are a rabbit."

"I'm a DOG!" Terriermon snapped.

"Woof, woof," Taichi said, "Sorry, you probably can't understand me, this is dog language."

"Hikari," Willis said, grabbing Terriermon as he ran toward Taichi with anger, pulling him back into his lap, "This is Rebecca." He motioned toward his friend whose blonde hair was far bushier than it should have been.

"You found her?" Hikari asked, "That's great!" She smiled at Rebecca who stood up and reached across the table to shake Hikari's hand.

"Mari," Rebecca corrected Willis before turning back to Hikari, "You're Willis' girlfriend then?" She asked, "He's told me all about you!" Rebecca winked at her.

"All good things, I hope?" Hikari asked.

"Naturally," Mari... or Rebecca—or whatever, said.

"Everyone this is my cousin," Koushiro said, "Gansuko." He pointed with his thumb towards the boy next to him. That did make sense. I wasn't under the impression that Koushiro knew how to make friends, but he had briefly told me about his biological cousin coming into his life recently.

"Now that all these introductions are over," Taichi said, "We have serious business to attend to."

"I'll say." Iori said, "I came here last week expecting a meeting but you had an emergency council meeting. I have some seriously important stuff to talk to you guys about." He looked to Kurayami who sat next to him. She nodded and motioned for him to speak up.

"Alright," Taichi nodded, "You go first."

"Okay," Iori nodded, standing up and clearing his throat. Why hadn't he told me about this? We went out for coffee just like usual, but he didn't tell me anything about this... well at least he was telling us now. I couldn't help but feel like he was keeping secrets from me though. Some I already knew... "So I went to visit... my aunt." He was lying. But I knew this one, he often referred to his personal Fairy Queen as his aunt. He'd even taken me to see her a few times, but she didn't like me—well she often stared at me as if she was trying to send me away from her alone time with Iori anyway. "And I came to a few realizations."

Iori paused, clearly for someone to speak up, but before I could Daisuke had, "Get on with it!"

Iori shot him a glare and then nodded, "Right, so the Digital World hasn't been deleted. The data was split up into the ten elements and then hidden with ten separate digimon. But we shouldn't worry about them apparently. Supposedly the Digital World has a plan for them. I also learned that Kurayami's memories are true and that we should fear that darkness that she remembers, whatever it is, and that there are more enemies than we are counting."

"Where the hell did you learn all that?" Daisuke asked, shocked. I realized that the others were all confused as well.

"My Aunt." Iori said quickly.

"Your Aunt must be working on the dark side, or secretly a digidestined or something." Daisuke groaned, "She knows way too much."

"Trust me." Iori said slowly.

"I trust him." Hikari said, "I mean, if I didn't trust him last time I would have died."

"Gennai would have taken the dagger for you too." Iori said slowly, reaching up to his shoulder where the dagger had hit him three years ago.

"I trust him too." Kurayami added quickly.

"Me too." I said as Iori grinned at me. Even if he was keeping things from me, that didn't mean I was going to not trust him suddenly. Iori looked around to the others who all eventually nodded and slowly came around as he cleared his throat to continue. "Also, we're supposed to protect the Holy Three."

"Who?" Mimi asked the question that I could tell we were all thinking. All except Koushiro who suddenly spun around and reached into his backpack to pull out a green book.

"Well," Iori said, "They're three of us. I don't know who yet. But apparently they are hunted, and if even one of them is taken out, then the darkness will prevail."

"So dibs on being one of them!" Mimi said, raising her hand.

"Why?" Sora asked her.

"Well Sora," Mimi said through gritted teeth as she addressed her friend. I was certainly going to have to talk to her about that. "If you're not one of them I could kill you and the darkness might still lose—but if I'm one of them you can't kill me or all balance would be corrupted. That means that I'd get extra protection in whatever battle is coming up."

"Kind of selfish," Sora muttered, but no one besides Michael and I had heard her.

"You're not one of them." Koushiro said, pointing to a page in his green book. "It says here that the three ancient Holy Digimon once ruled over the lands until the great and evil Lucemon took over. But he's dead—don't worry. But the three Holy Digimon were Cherubimon, Seraphimon and Ophanimon."

"So..." Taichi said slowly, "Willis, Hikari and Takeru?"

"I don't remember ever being a Holy digimon." Patamon said slowly.

"I have a way more important question." Willis said, raising his hand. "Where in _God's_ name did you find a magical book with all of the answers in it?"

"Sora's Dad..." Koushiro said quietly glancing at Mimi who's face screwed up in anger at the thought of Koushiro and Sora doing more things together. And with her parents. Mimi had told me all about her trip and how Koushiro hated her mother, but now that she knew he and Sora's father got along, the jealousy would only grow stronger. I glanced back at Mimi but she was nervously looking toward the kitchen door, "His digimon actually... Centarumon. He's been around since the start of the Digital World. He actually accompanied the original digidestined on their journey—but that's a whole different story."

"Whatever," Yamato said, disregarding the random information, "So we know now that we have to protect Takeru, Willis and Hikari."

"I'll protect Hikari." Iori smiled. "I'm good at it."

"I'll help." Kurayami and Daisuke said as one.

"I'm her boyfriend," Willis pointed out, "So, I'll do it."

"I'm her biological brother." Taichi said. "I knew her first. So I'll protect her the most. You can all help though. She needs all the protection she can get."

"I'm a big girl Taichi." Hikari said quietly.

"What?" Taichi asked.

"I'm a big girl." She said louder, "I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself. And do you realize like half of you just swore to protect me? What about Takeru and Willis—and Willis—you're supposed to _be_ protected, not be a protector. But none of that matters. I am a big girl, like I said. I don't need any of your help. Except maybe Iori's, but that's different."

"Hikari," Willis tried.

"No." She said. "I know I've done this rant before. But even then, I was sick. I _did_ need help—and it turns out, that if I didn't have that help, I'd be dead. But now... It's different. I'm not sick—I'm not helpless, and Iori getting hit by that sword has actually made me surprisingly more aware of everything. I'm not accepting _any_ protection. And that's that."

Everyone was silent for a moment, until Taichi spoke up.

"You don't really have a choice."

Hikari didn't say anything. Instead she calmly pushed her chair out and stood up, heading for the door.

"Hikari, don't go alone!" Patamon said, taking flight from Yamato's arm.

"I don't need protection." Hikari barked at him.

"I'm just coming so you have a friend." He said, not listening to her arguments as she put her coat on. She smiled at Patamon and let him land in her arms.

"I'll be back. I need a break." She sighed.

"Patamon, keep her safe." Taichi said as the door closed behind her. Through the glass I saw Hikari turn to face Taichi with a look of both disgust and anger before she turned and stormed off.

"Any other news from your freakish Aunt?" Daisuke asked Iori.

"Nope..." Iori said, "That's all." He slowly sat down and motioned for Taichi to speak again.

"Alright, so I guess Yamato can go next, and tell you all what just happened to us..." Taichi said.

And so he did. Yamato stood up and told us about how Gabumon had been switched by a boy named Hideto, and how he, Sora and Taichi saved him.

"But who is this Hideto person?" Koushiro asked.

"Genki." Yamato said slowly.

_What?_ Was my first thought, but no one else spoke at all, and so I kept my thoughts to myself as I, along with everyone else turned to Mimi.

"Oh... uhm..." He laughed a little, "About that..."

"Orders up!" A very loud voice boomed from the now swinging open kitchen door. Genki was walking toward us with another large tray of French fries.

"HEY!" Yamato yelled, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Genki—or... Hideto I guess raised his eyebrows, "Sorry bro," Hideto said loudly, "Can't hear you. I promised Mimi I'd wear earplugs. Turns out I'm not a liar, look!" He turned his head sideways so Yamato could see as he placed the tray on the table.

Daisuke leaned forward to eat the fries but Yamato pulled the tray toward us. "Don't eat them—he probably poisoned them!"

"He didn't poison them!" Mimi insisted.

"Wait a minute..." Taichi said, staring at her, "You knew about this didn't you?"

"No!" Mimi said loudly, "Well, yeah."

"Mimi..." I said quietly. She stared at me apologetically, but then shook her head, "I only found out like... yesterday! And I didn't know that he stole Gabumon. And for that he's not getting paid today."

"He shouldn't be getting paid at all!" Willis hissed as Hideto started playing with his hair.

"You have very soft hair!" Hideto said loudly. "And your girlfriend is pretty!"

Willis looked to Mari and shook his head, "Not my girlfriend."

"Still can't hear Dude." Hideto said as he grabbed a handful of Mari's hair. "Your hair isn't as soft."

"Get off." Mari snapped, slapping Hideto's hand away.

"I'm not firing him if that's what you're suggesting," Mimi said flatly. "I like him! He's a good and valued worker."

"And a digital _criminal_." I said quickly.

"Mimi, he's doing bad things." Michael nodded, "Are you sure you've thought this through."

"Koushiro, talk some sense into her." Sora said quickly.

Koushiro turned to Mimi but Mimi raised her finger to silence him. "Nobody asked you Sora." Mimi snapped, "And I'm not firing him. He's not a liar, and he says he isn't evil."

"Well he was clearly lying when he said that he wasn't a liar then, wasn't he?" Michael said.

"I'm not firing him." She said again, very sternly. "He is a good person. But if it makes you all feel better I won't have him work on our meetings anymore."

"That would make me feel significantly better, yes." Taichi nodded. "But I still think you should rearrange his face."

"Or we could just force him to talk to us?" Koushiro said, trying to be more logical about the situation.

"He doesn't know anything." Mimi said, "I already did that. I tied him to a chair and everything, and I threatened him with an octopus. He doesn't know anything."

Everyone stared at her and... I had to admit that Mimi had a very good judge of character, she wasn't one to lie, and she was always truly honest... so I believed her. Even if I knew her judgement was slightly clouded recently, but that was reserved for Sora and Koushiro only.

"Go!" Mimi said loudly, waving her hands and motioning for Hideto to return to the kitchen. He winked to Taichi before turning and skipping off, waving to Emiko on the way. She giggled and waved back, dropping something. It bounced from the table and then to the floor, and rolled before stopping. I knew what it was but it didn't make sense...

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my digivice. I looked to Momoe and saw that she had hers as well. She looked up and made eye contact with me as I remembered the flash of light when Emiko had been playing with Monmon... that had been her getting a digivice. She was... dammit. Gomamon said Monmon was a prankster...

But still—youngest digidestined ever. I turned to the others to tell them the news, but Yamato had spoken.

"Oh, and my mom and Ken's mom are stuck in the Digital World."

"_What?_" Ken gasped.

"That was my reaction too!" Yamato said, pointing his finger animatedly.

"We have to go save them!" Ken gasped, "Now!" He jumped to his feet, but Miyako pulled him back down into a sitting position.

"Miyako is right." Yamato said, "We can look later. Right now we have to deal with all of this information."

"Speaking of which," Koushiro said, "Does anyone have anything else to say?"

I looked around at everyone else and noticed Michael and Ken exchange glances and then look away as if it were nothing. I wish people would stop keeping secrets.

"You could tell them about that note." Kurayami said to Daisuke.

"No." He said flatly, shaking his head.

"Emiko has a digimon!" I said suddenly, but no one really acknowledged me except for Miyako, Iori and Mimi who all smiled at me. I guess it wasn't really a "happy news" meeting. It was more like "the fate of the worlds" kind of meeting.

"Alright," Koushiro said slowly. "Sora—"

Miyako interrupted with the sharp scraping sounds of her chair as she stood up. "I have something important to say."

"What is it?" Ken asked her gently.

Miyako reached under her shirt and pulled out something silver before tossing it toward the table where it clanged and spun before it slowly stopped in the center of the table.

"Wh-what's that?" Mari asked her, looking toward her panicked. "You didn't say you actually _had_ the mask!"

I looked back to the table where the silver mask sat still. This had been the mask that Syakomon had described. Why did Miyako have it.

"I told you all," She said as everyone gawked at her with their mouths hanging open. "I keep blacking out—I told you it could be me."

"So then you made a replica of the mask?" Ken asked, "To prove your point?"

"I've never seen the mask before Ken," Miyako said, "Not while conscious anyway. How could I replicate it. I found this. In the library. It has to be me."

"Did you put the mask on?"Koushiro asked as he and his cousin leaned forward to get a look at the mask.

Miyako glanced over her shoulder and then back to the mask. "Yes."

"Did it change your appearance?" Koushiro asked.

"No. Not in the Human World," She said.

"But it did in the Digital World." Koushiro surmised.

Miyako shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I haven't tried. But I can't just pretend like it's a coincidence that I found the mask." Everyone was quiet again. "Guys... weird things are happening to me, and this mask would only be a small part of it. It's possible. And I'm scared."

"Of?" Ken asked.

"Of me." Miyako whispered, sending chills down my spine.

"Miyako..." Koushiro said quietly, "Can I take the mask? Would you mind?" Miyako shook her head and motioned for him to take it. "I want to do tests on it for any bizarre digital matter. And in the mean time, I'll have it. So you won't be able to hurt anyone. You'll be safe."

"Do you really think it could be me...?" She asked quietly as she looked around for our opinions.

"Well," Koushiro said, "Like you said... it's possible." He was voicing the opinion I could tell the others had. But I didn't share that. I knew Miyako, even under a subconscious mind wouldn't do that. She wouldn't fight us—but she was successful in keeping Fanglongmon out of her mind, so no one could break down that wall. But then again, she was acting strange lately... maybe...

"Alright," Koushiro said with a soft smile, "I have some good news. Finally." He looked to Sora and then back to the rest of us. "Sora and I have come up with a solution."

"Oh this should be good." Mimi said sarcastically.

Koushiro ignored her and continued, "Instead of having representatives of the crests on either side to keep the balance," Koushiro said, "We just need to have an embodiment of those crests keeping the Digital World pinned to where it needs to be." He pulled out his green book again and flipped to a bookmarked page and pointed to an image. "It says here that the eggs were created to not only add power to the ancient digimon, but to also help keep the world in place. We've been messing around in things that ought not to be meddled with. We need to put them back into the Digital World."

"What?" Daisuke asked, his nostrils flaring as he leaned forward to look across Kurayami and Gansuko. "No way Jose!"

"Daisuke," Sora said, "Listen... the people of the Temple found other Digieggs. 'Dark Digimentals' They've called them. In Koushiro's book it says that there are four Digimentals of Darkness, one to represent Boastfulness, one for Tenacity, one for Desire and one for Darkness itself. And those are the ones we've found. But they're keeping them safe. And that's where we need to put all of your Digieggs."

Koushiro took over, "Since, combined you have Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Purity, Faith, Hope, Light, Kindness, Destiny, and Miracles. We already have the darkness, and although we don't have Humility, Honour, or Forgiveness, your traits would have been passed into those crests. Besides the fact that there aren't Digimentals for those crests. But in the book there is picture here..." He faded out as he leaned closer, "A drawing of three others. One has the crest of strength, and two... I have no idea... but Betamon will be the only one that has to stay inside."

I looked to Michael who was staring at Ken again and then he turned to Koushiro, "That's fine he'd never come out anyway. But we can always locate that Digimental of Strength right?"

"Absolutely." Koushiro said enthusiastically.

"So," Iori said, "If I give up Digmon and Submarimon then the world would be balanced again? And I'd get to see Armadillomon all the time?"

"Yes." Koushiro said simply. "And I realize that it would be difficult. I would want to give up a form of my digimon either, but it's for the greater good."

"I'll do it." Miyako nodded, "I'll miss Halsemon and Shurimon... but if it means I get to see Hawkmon more... I'll do it." Miyako seemed relaxed. Almost as if she was happy already to have the protection of her digimon.

"Well have fun guys, but I'm not giving up my Flamedramon." Daisuke said firmly. "Or Raidramon."

"Even if it means you'll get to see Veemon again?" Taichi asked.

"They're too useful." Daisuke said.

"Well if you don't, then I don't get to see Gabumon, and I'm not letting any more slip ups happen, so you're going to give up your damned Digimentals." Yamato growled.

Daisuke shook his head and crossed his arms in a pout, but then finally, when Kurayami put her hand on his shoulder he sighed. "Fine." He groaned.

"Well it's settled—" Sora started.

"Nothing is settled." Willis said quickly, "Since my digimon can already be here... do I have to give up mine?"

"N-no?" Koushiro said, looking to the book. "I suppose not. But I would just to be safe."

"If he's keeping his than I'm keeping mine." Daisuke said, darting his eyes toward Willis.

"Fine!" Willis said, raising his hands in defeat. "I'll give mine up too."

"_Now_ it's settled." Sora said with a sense of finality. "Taichi, this is a serious matter that you cannot, under any circumstances mess up. You take everyone who has a Digimental to the Temple to give them up and restore balance!"

"I'll do that tomorrow." Taichi said through a heavy yawn as he stretched his arms into the air, "I'm way too tired." Everyone laughed but then he froze, "I'm totally serious."

_**Isao:**_

I slowly set the glass unicorn back on the shelf. Emiko wouldn't like that. Not that I would ever be given the chance to give it to her anyway.

Life without my family was rather boring to say the least. I desperately wanted them back in my life. But only if they were going to smarten up and get things straight. Shin was a wonderful boy who had been sent north for his job. He'd be back though, I knew he would. He loved me, and I loved him.

It was the other two that were the problem. Shuu was dating that awful ball of energy still, and gallivanting across Japan as a _researcher_. In no way did that live up to the expectations I had for him. He was to be a doctor like his brothers.

Jou had his job right. Even more so than his eldest brother Shin. Jou was both a doctor and a veterinarian. All at once. I was proud of him. I was not however proud of his choice to have an illegitimate child with a woman who came from the same household as those God awful Inoue children. Emiko was my grandchild and I'd only seen her twice.

Once in the supermarket over two years ago with her mother. We'd exchanged a rather interesting conversation at that point.

"_Greetings Momoe," _I had said to her.

"_If you've come to rant or complain about me, my baby or your son, I'm not interested." _

And that was all she said. I found that to be totally uncalled for, however she was correct. That is exactly what I had come over to her to do. Rant about how they were wrong. It felt childish even thinking about it though—but how could I let them live their life whilst making so many crucial mistakes?

And the only other time I'd ever seen my daughter was when I had held her for the first time.

"_Would you mind too terribly if I ask you to just hold her while I get things started?"_ It had been Jou's childhood friend Mimi Tachikawa who had spoken. I hadn't even realized that she was my own grandchild at the time... and after I'd given her up... after I'd found out the truth I argued with my son for more than a full hour.

"_You need to get out of my house."_ Jou had said, concluding the arguement. _"And you are not welcome back here until you smarten up, and realize that what you're doing is wrong. You should be happy for me! I'm happy Dad. Finally happy. Why can't you be happy for me? I just need my only parent to be proud of me. Just once."_

"_I suppose I'll see myself out then?"_ Again. It was a childish remark, but what else was I to do? Of course I was happy that Jou was happy, but where had I gone wrong? I'd raised them all wrong! Each one of them was a little more screwed up than the last... if only I had another chance... or if only she was with me. She would have known what to do. She'd help me out...

"Asami..." I said quietly.

"That's a very nice unicorn." I turned and saw a smiling woman with platinum blonde hair. She was holding a wicker basket in her pale hands and was dressed in a very nice dress and a yellow knitted sweater. "Do you mind grabbing that for me and putting it in my basket?"

I looked back to the glass unicorn. It would be my last chance to get it... what if Emiko would actually like it? I needed to make up my mind...

"Unless you wanted it?" The woman asked.

"N-no." I stammered, "It's not really my type of thing." I laughed lightly and grabbed the unicorn off of the top shelf and placed it slowly down into her white basket.

"Thank you so much dear," She said with a bright smile, "Have a nice day then."

"You too Ma'am." I told her with a smile. As she walked off I ran my hand through my short hair and sighed. Why couldn't the answer just come to me?

I looked sharply toward the sound of a throat clearing. It was the woman again. "Excuse me," She said with a little giggle, "Would you be ever so kind as to reach something for me once more?"

"I'd be happy to," I told her with a smile. She smiled back and turned to lead the way with a bounce to her step. She stopped suddenly and pointed up to a high shelf. "Just that glass rose. I think my daughter Cho would love it!"

"You have a daughter?" I asked her as I retrieved the rose for her.

"Three," She smiled at me, "And the eldest would be rather disappointed if I didn't bring home something for her as well, so would you help me look?"

"Absolutely," I said as we set off down the aisle.

"Do you have any children?" She asked.

"I have three." I told her with a firm nod. "I used to."

"Did they die?" She asked bluntly.

"No, we just had a falling out." I told her.

"Then you still have them." She smiled, "You just need to forgive them. And if you do, then they'll forgive you in time. You just have to be the bigger man, you are their father after all. Oh! Would you grab that snow globe?"

I looked over and saw a snowglobe with a glass scroll inside. The scroll read _'Come now, let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'_

I couldn't help but notice how ironic the Bible verse was. I slowly reached out and grabbed the snow globe and handed it to the woman. "Here you are." I told her.

"Thank you," She said, "Did you read it? Ohh I just love the Bible."

"You do?" I asked her, knowing full well that there weren't a large number of Christians here in Japan. "Me too!"

"As you should." She said with a smile as she shook her shoulders. "Thank you for your help today sir,"

"You're quiet welcome miss," I told her, "Perhaps we'll see each other again?"

"Let's." She nodded as she stuck her hand out for me to shake it. I did so and she winked at me, "My name is Aimi."

"I'm Isao Kido," I said, "Would you like to eat dinner sometime?"

"How about tonight?" She asked me, "It's nearly dinner time now, but we have some time to kill. Perhaps you could tell me about your sons and we could find a way to look past all these problems?"

"That sounds lovely." I told her as she smiled at me, taking hold of the basket with both hands again as she led the way toward the cashier.

Aimi wasn't exactly the sign I was looking for Asami... but if she was willing to help, then I was willing to let her. Besides she seemed nice enough... and maybe I'd end up happy at the end of this.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** There are three narrators next time, Hikari, Daisuke and one other that you've never read before. Stay tuned to find out just who it is!


	14. Ex-Egg-Cuting the Plan

**Y/N:** Okay, so this is Hikari's chapter that my brother wrote, with Daisuke and another character that I wrote adding to her parts. I hope you enjoy and review if you can!

**U/N:** Soooo I was listening to "the first time ever I saw your face" The glee version... the whole time I wrote this-it was very dramatic to me, just so you know, it was dramatic. I hope you see it that way too :P  
I quite like Hikari, and I'm interested (since i haven't really written it yet) to see where her mind goes in the future of this story since she's going to be acting up a little ;) But i really like her, and... yeah :P  
This chapter is kind of a closure thing... Which is super sad for me. But i hope you like it...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 14: Ex-Egg-Cuting the Plan **

_**Hikari:**_

When I had moved to America I'd been hoping to get away and take some time to find myself, and work on me. And Willis of course, but it hadn't worked that way. Instead I found myself being called back to Japan every week for silly meetings, or random get-togethers. It wasn't that I was unhappy to see my friends, it was just that it wasn't the life I'd expected. Everyone was taking me for granted, and my ability to show up here in Japan all the time. Even my mother. She'd called me here a week ago stating that there was some kind of emergency, but when I got here it turned out she just wanted to bake with me again. I was happy about it in a sense though, I missed it as well, I just hoped she wouldn't be making a habbit of it.

These silly meetings took place on Sunday every week, except for this emergency meeting—and luckily I was on my Reading Week Holiday... but honestly I couldn't keep coming here and then rushing back to America for a quick nap before Monday morning classes. No one seemed to get that. Not even Willis or Michael, neither of whom attended schooling.

But since I was here so often no one saw my visits as anything special. It was just another day where Hikari had come to visit as if she had nothing better to do. But Takeru would... I knew that Takeru would care about me being here. He always loved to see me, just as I loved to see him.

Willis sometimes gave me that look. The look that he was excited to see me, but he hadn't lately. Not since he found Rebecca again last week. I'd acted as if I hadn't known, but Miyako told me, and she also told me all about how much of a flirt Rebecca could be. He didn't know I knew. I was waiting for him to tell me. And he finally did. I guess that was something...

And now apparently I was some magical Holy One that needed to be protected at all costs, but why couldn't any of them see how strong I'd become? The excuse that they never saw me wasn't good enough since I hadn't been away long enough to even miss any of them. Except Takeru... he'd been gone for so long that I barely remembered what his voice sounded like. But I had become strong. And wiser and—I grew up somewhere along the line, and none of them stopped to take a double take. None of them saw what I was capable of, or who I was... and I didn't know why. I just... I couldn't get it.

"Hikari," Patamon said from my arms as he struggled to keep warm. "You and Willis are in love aren't you?"

I looked down to him and smiled a little, "Yeah... I guess we are." He looked up to me and smiled, but there was something hidden in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"It's just not how I thought things would pan out." Patamon said with a sigh. "But that's not my business." He looked away, down the sidewalk and into the park where the snow had piled up high enough to cover the seats of the swings. "What does love feel like?"

"What do you mean?" I asked him slowly.

"Digimon..." He sighed, sadly as he looked back to me, "We can't feel love."

I felt my heart break at the rawness of his voice. He was holding back tears and I suddenly found myself in the same boat. "Patamon..." I whispered.

"It's okay." He said looking up at me with a forced smile. "It's not important for us since we just pop out of nowhere. No need for a relationship. No need for love." I couldn't help but pull him up and hug him. So I was worrying about all my stupid problems when Patamon was right here thinking about his own and I hadn't noticed. I was so selfish. "But what does it feel like."

"It's like..." I trailed off for a moment as I walked along the partly ploughed sidewalk. "Every time you see him... your heart skips a beat, and you feel warm. You feel happy. You feel like you could do anything... you could fly into the skies or anything. You feel... complete."

"I can fly anyway." Patamon laughed, "I beat all you silly humans to the punch!" I smiled at him as he took flight and soared to the sky and began to spin around. But I could still sense that he was sad. Patamon suddenly stopped flipping around through the sky and sniffed the air as a strong gust of wind burst through the trees sending snow flying everywhere.

"Fancy seeing the two of you here."

I spun around, clutching my hat to keep it on my head. Through the blowing snow I saw a grinning face as his blonde hair was kept down by a black hat. He waved to me and I couldn't help but run toward him and throw my arms around him. I felt him hug me back, and suddenly everything was better.

"Takeru!" I cried out, "You're back!"

"Didn't think you'd miss me so much," He said with a little chuckle.

"Are you joking?" I asked as I pulled away from him. "You jerk!" I punched his arm as hard as I could. "You can't just pick up and leave! You could've called! You could've visited! You just _left_. How could I not miss you?" I punched him again, this time on his chest. "You complete _ass_! We're supposed to be best friends! Why would you just ignore me like that? Do you know how many times I tried to call you only get your Grandfather who told me that you'd gone to Bulgaria, or Russia, or Australia—and the worst was when he told me you were in America. You didn't even come to see me!" I felt tears poking at my eyes, but I fought them back. "And besides—you can't be gallivanting around the country! You're being hunted apparently! Ha! Yeah, that's right. We have to be protected again!" I turned to storm away, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him as he hugged me again.

"I missed you too Hikari." Was all he said, and then I couldn't stop crying. Everything seemed to be building up and I just couldn't take any of it anymore. I didn't want to be protected. I didn't want to be without a best friend, the Digital World was in danger again, and I still had to pass all my tests—but I hadn't realized just how much I missed him until that moment.

"I missed you too Takeru..." Patamon said, flying toward us, "I'd like a long and meaningful hug too please."

Takeru and I both laughed as he joined the hug.

"Is this the warm feeling you were talking about Hikari?" Patamon asked as he was squished between the two of us.

"Something like that," I laughed through my tears.

After a long moment where the three of us hugged I finally turned away and looked up to the dark snowy sky. "Why are you back?"

"I live here," Takeru said. "And even though travelling was loads of fun... I always knew I belonged here."

"Where's Catherine?" I asked.

"She's waiting for me in France." Takeru said with a sigh, "She wants me to move there with her."

I felt my heart beat grow louder as I refused to look at him. "And are you going to?"

"Can you think of a reason why I shouldn't?" He asked quietly as the wind roared around us. If he was asking what I thought he was asking. "Hikari... I never told you this. Not loudly anyway. I know you know... but I... loved you." I noticed the past tense with a pang, "You were a lot more than just my best friend. And I'm asking you now, can you think of a reason for me to stay here in Japan?"

I took a deep breath, unable to form words in my head. He wanted me to answer... what was I supposed to say? I wanted him to stay... but he was asking me if I loved him. But I didn't. I loved Willis. I couldn't ask him to stay and wait for me when I had no intention of ever leaving Willis...

"I get it." He said slowly.

"Takeru," I said quickly, spinning around and reaching out for him, seeing that he was turned the other way.

"You don't need to say anything Hikari." Takeru said quietly, "I knew this was coming. I just... I needed to say it. I can't keep living in my head." He turned around with a smile and a wink. "I should probably go see my Mom though. She'll probably be wanting to see me... and I'll probably be grounded, even though I live alone—or rather... with Daisuke."

"And Kurayami." I said quietly, "She moved in with you guys while you were away."

He smiled, "Sounds great." His face fell a little as he stared at me. "Bye Hikari." He said before turning to leave.

"Goodbye..." I said, "Bye Takeru..."

"Goodbye Hikari," Patamon said as he flew off with Takeru as he walked off.

I turned around and kicked at the snow angrily before falling to my knees. Why did these things have to keep happening? Couldn't something nice and simple happen for once?

"Hikari?" I looked back and saw someone walking toward me. I squinted my eyes and saw someone with dark hair coming toward me, "Is that you? Are you alright?"

I nodded, "I'm fine." I said, "Please leave me alone."

"Are you sure...?" As the person grew closer I saw that it was Genki, from Mimi's restaurant. He didn't listen to my request and instead knelt down in the snow with me. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, "No I'm not okay!" I said, "My boyfriend was beaten up by someone who is out to get him, and he found his old girlfriend and I think he still has feelings for her, and I just sent my best friend packing as if nothing matters at all but it does matter—it does. I have so much school work to do, and to add to it, I can't _get_ to school because my brother keeps calling me back to Japan. Oh my brother... he thinks I'm a baby! He thinks I need to be protected... but I don't. I don't need to be protected. I'm perfectly fine here by myself!"

"You're not by yourself." Genki said.

"Well I don't need to be protected from you." I said with a shake of my head. There was a silence, where I slowly looked back to him and saw that he was staring at me with a strange look in his eyes. My heart began to beat quickly as I panicked slightly.

Suddenly my cell phone began ringing. I jumped in surprise and I pulled it out of my pocket, staring into Genki's eyes. "Hikari?"

"What do you want Taichi?" I groaned into the phone.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay." He said.

"I'm _fine._" I insisted.

"And also, stay away from Genki." He told me as my eyes looked back to Genki who was sitting right next to me. "He is part of the Allias III people. His name is Hideto and just—I don't want you to be hurt." He took a break and then sighed, "Could you please come back now? I want to make sure you're safe."

"Goodbye Taichi." I said, snapping my phone shut and returning it to my pocket. I looked back to Genki who was now staring at the ground. "G-Genki...?" I asked slowly.

"That was your brother, wasn't it?" He asked, "Telling you that I'm evil?" I nodded slowly. He must've heard the conversation... "Well... let me explain something to you. I kidnapped your friend's Gabumon, switched it with my own and then refused to give him back. Mimi didn't fire me from her restaurant, but I did wear earplugs—and I never once lied about anything."

"Your name..." I pointed out.

"I handed Mimi information about a completely random human being." Genki said, "She assumed it was mine. She dubbed me Genki. I didn't lie. And I even tried to point you all in the right direction. I'm not a liar. I am _pretty_ awesome that way."

He was telling the truth. There was no denying that. I sighed, "Well, I believe you. Is that what you want?"

"Do you trust me?" He asked.

I nodded, "You're a deceitful trickster, but I suppose if the right questions are asked then you can be trusted. So yes." He smiled brightly.

"Do you want to go out for dinner sometime?" He asked.

I wanted to say no. I had Willis as a boyfriend. But he was spending so much time with Rebecca lately... and that wasn't cheating. He was totally and honestly spending time with a friend. Genki could be my friend... that wouldn't be cheating.

"How about right now?" I asked.

"Sounds splendid." He smiled at me and grabbed my hand, helping me to my feet. "I have loads of great places to eat where the special won't be a lentil and octopus salad."

I laughed at him as he linked arms with me and lead me out of the park.

_**Hideto:**_

"That girl can talk," I called when I entered the apartment. I chucked my shoes into the closet and threw my jacket in after them.

"Who?" Mari called from the kitchen. I'd just eaten with Hikari, but it smelled great. I knew I had room for more, so I headed to the kitchen to see what all I could snatch.

"Hikari Yagami," I said with a wink. "She's cute though, so it's fine."

"She's also Willis' girlfriend," she hissed at me. "You can't just do that."

"It wasn't a date," I said. Though, aside from not kissing her goodnight at the end, it totally was. I even paid for everything, and complimented her periodically. She laughed and talked and even flirted with me. We joined the older couples on the dance floor near the end too. "So you can calm down. Besides, I thought you'd enjoy that. Having little-miss-perfect cheat on what's-his-name, I mean. You'd get to comfort him in his misery, and then slip right into her place as his new girlfriend. It's what you want, isn't it?"

"No," she denied quickly. Too quickly. I laughed as her face turned bright red. "I just want him to be happy."

"Don't lie to me," I said. "It's okay to want to be with him, you know. You can want to be happy yourself."

"I could make him happy too," she said in a small voice. "Happier than Hikari could. Did you know they've spent longer 'taking breaks' from each other than they have actually being a couple? That's not a very good track record."

"You think you could do better?" I asked looking down at the stir-fry she was making. There was a pot of rice cooking on the back burner. I could see the ingredients for a salad on the counter, waiting to get chopped and thrown together. Realizing that she'd be more likely to share if I actually helped, I started on the lettuce.

"I know I could do better," she said haughtily. Then she started laughing. "I had a chance with him once, you know? I threw it away because I was afraid of a digimon. Now look at me. I've got one of my own. I take down other digimon all in the name of the Alias III. I wish I could go back and change it. Maybe just not run away when I met Terriermon for the first time. He's adorable. Why was I scared of him?"

"Maybe because he's a freaking talking rabbit," I said wryly.

"He's a dog," she said quickly. "He's very sensitive about it too."

"I don't really care," I told her honestly. "I still think it's weird that he's got two digimon anyway."

"You do too," she pointed out.

"Yeah," I said. "But I've got two digivices for them." I looked down at my wrist braces. I'd had them made specially. One digivice was embedded in each of them, and laid on the back of my hand. I was all about flair when it came to fighting, so it added a nice touch when my digimon digivolved. "He's just got the one."

"That's true," she said, pondering it. "I wonder why that is."

The apartment door crashed open. Sigma was home. And he was angry. The door was slammed shut with excessive force.

"What crawled up his butt and died," Mari asked.

"Who?" was all Sigma had to say as he stood in the doorway to the kitchen. He was still wearing his coat and boots. His hood wasn't covering his face anymore though. In his right hand, he was clutching his silver mask.

"What do you mean?" Mari asked.

He turned on her and pushed her up against the fridge, lifting her so that her feet were off of the ground. "Was it you? It was 'found' at the library. What gave you the right?"

"I didn't touch it," she shrieked. "Why would I? It's terrifying!"

"It was at your workplace," he shouted angrily.

"It wasn't me," she told him. "Maybe it was your other self? Maybe he was fed up by you, did you think of that?"

"He doesn't question me," Sigma snarled. "Ever."

"Then who was it?" she asked. "Because it wasn't me."

"Dude, calm down," I told him. His eyes changed for a second. They were softer. He was his other self. I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at me. He let go of Mari, letting her feet touch the ground again.

"It was him," he said, his eyes flashing angrily again.

"No," he countered. "Hideto's not mean."

"He's stupid enough," he opposed.

Apparently his nicer side didn't have another argument point, because Sigma slammed me against the counter—granted I was tall enough that I just ended up sitting on it, but he tried—and picked up the knife I'd been chopping vegetables with.

"Did you take it?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "It was hilarious. Did you not see her? She's freaking out man. She thinks she's you. If we let her keep thinking that, you won't get caught."

"It's mine," he snarled.

"Sorry," I said. "I'll ask next time I get a brilliant idea like that. But there wasn't time."

"There won't be a next time," he growled.

"Fine," I said defensively. He backed off. He was funny like that. I could get away with anything, but Mari couldn't get away with burning his toast.

"Good," Mari declared. "Now get to the table. Both of you! You'll eat what I give you and I don't want any complaints."

"No ma'am," I said with a wink.

Sigma said nothing, but moodily threw himself into the chair in the corner. Note to self: Never steal anything of his again. I doubted I'd stick with it, but I knew it was good advice. Mari brought over dinner, which we ate in angered silence. We barely got along, united by a cause, Neo's cause. We were going to remake the Digital World, and those pathetic digidestined weren't going to stop us.

_**Daisuke:**_

"Why are you even here?" Taichi groaned, as that Marrow guy said yet another offensive thing about humans.

"Someone had to be sure you did your job, and only your job," he said in a sickening voice. "You tend to stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

"So do you," Taichi said. "You don't even have permission to be in this section of the Temple."

"And you do?" Marrow snarled.

"Yes," he said. "I am leading the presenters to the room of the digimentals. Isn't that right, Centaurumon?"

"Yes," Centaurumon said. I could see him rolling his eyes at their arguing. He was such a laid back digimon. That paired with his ancientness, totally made him a brilliant member of the council. From what I'd been told, the council was mostly just a funny bunch of digimon arguing all the time. There should be more laid back digimon, and less angry ones. That's what I thought anyway, which didn't add up to much.

I didn't even want to be there. I didn't want to give up Raidramon and Flamedramon. They were two of my partner's forms. It was like giving up two of my digimon. What if I needed them again, in like a life or death situation, and I couldn't digivolve Veemon into them, because I'd put them on some stupid pedestal in an old ugly Temple? I mean, what if I was lost in the woods and needed to start a fire? I didn't know how to make a fire. I'd need Flamedramon for that. But I wouldn't have him, and I'd end up dying due to hypothermia.

That wasn't fair.

Taichi didn't have to give up any of his digimon. Neither did Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Jou or Koushiro. But they were all quick to ask us to give up ours. And okay, I understood to a degree. I wanted to be able to have Veemon stay overnight at my apartment. He hadn't stayed with me overnight since I lived with my parents. That was a long time ago. Four years almost. I hadn't even seen my old room since then. I wondered if Mom and Dad threw out all of my stuff, or if they left it there, waiting for me to come home and claim it.

I didn't have time to worry about that. I had more pressing matters to attend to. Mainly giving up my digimon. It was lame, but it was still easier to handle than the idea of going back home. They didn't want me anyway. If they did, they would've tried to contact me. And they wouldn't have supported my rival noodle-cart.

"Why are they all just standing there?" Marrow asked sounding disgusted.

"You know they understand you, right?" Taichi asked him dryly.

"Can they?" Marrow said sounding shocked. "I hadn't realized they were capable of anything."

"You know what?" Taichi growled. "You can either smarten up, or leave. I'm still the head of the council, and I have the final say."

Marrow grumbled, but kept him mouth shut. He'd brought his little side-kick with him. Erif or something equally as weird. Taichi had to bring them with us, because the council decided they needed witnesses. Taichi managed to get Centaurumon to be one of those witnesses though, so we weren't just stuck with the terrible two.

"It is time," Centaurumon said sagely. "One by one, please place your digimentals on the altar."

No one moved.

"Are you sure they are capable of understanding us?" Marrow hissed at Taichi.

"Hey, that's my sister you moron," Taichi said. "She's just as capable as I am."

"Suddenly I fear for the Digital World should it be left in the Digidestined's hands," Marrow told Erif. Erif snickered gleefully, bouncing up and down and clapping as his thick, greasy hair flapped up and down.

I decided then that they were both morons.

And that was coming from _me._

"It isn't fair." Hikari said. "Why do I have to do this? I don't want to."

"Hikari, just do it." Taichi said sharply. Hikari glared at Taichi.

But no one moved.

"I suppose I'll go first then?" Hikari asked looking each of us over. No one made any indication they'd like to go first. "Fine. I present the Digimental of Light. Let its light shine upon the Digital World and keep the balance we fight to protect."

She said all this in a powerful and mystic voice as she carefully set the Digimental of Light onto the altar.

"What was that?" Taichi asked with a snicker.

"I thought it called for a little more than just setting it down Taichi," Hikari explained. "This is a big moment for both us and the Digital World."

"Who wants to mystify me next?" Taichi said still laughing at her.

"I guess I will," Takeru said, stepping out of the shadows.

"When did you get here?" Miyako asked. She'd been in a daze the entire time we'd been in the Temple.

"He came back yesterday, Miyako," Hikari told her gently. "After you'd left."

Miyako nodded her understanding. She seemed a bit more alert now. I figured that was a good sign. Plus I was happy to have Takeru back. I mean, Kurayami was great, but she wanted me to protect _her._ Living alone could be pretty scary, and it was pretty lame, but I felt safer having Takeru back home.

"I offer the Digimental of Hope," he said, stepping up to the altar and putting it down. "I hope it helps."

"Corny," Taichi said chuckling.

"The Digimentals of Knowledge and Faith," Iori announced, taking his turn. "May Forgiveness be represented through my past use of them."

"What?" Taichi demanded. "No play on words about your crest? I'm appalled."

"Don't worry," Iori said with a small smile. "I'll forgive you."

I laughed at Taichi's face. "Well played."

"Thank you," Iori said with a little grin.

"I give the Digimental of Kindness," Ken said, placing it down. He looked to Marrow—the self-proclaimed guard of the Digimentals. "I do hope you'll treat it kindly?"

Marrow, unsure of how to respond, sent a glare in his direction.

"Well, it'll be a miracle if they're even needed, but it seems like a part of my destiny to give them up right about now," Willis said placing two digimentals with the collection. "The Digimental of Miracles and the Digimental of Destiny."

"Love and Purity," Miyako said. "I uh, well…I hope they will honour the balance for the Digital World?"

"Close enough," Taichi said, giving her a break. She sighed in relief, and rubbed her right forearm. "Just you Daisuke. Are you ready?"

_No._

I actually thought about turning and running away. It'd serve him right. Making me give up two of my digimon. It honestly felt like I was ripping Veemon's legs off just so I could see him again. But I was doing it because Taichi was making me. So really, I was trading Veemon's limbs for Taichi's chance to see Agumon. And he was being a jerk. He passed the goggles and the leader role along with them to me, but he still took charge of everything. He was still a big jerk.

But, even if Taichi was a jerk... I wasn't.

"I _humbly_ offer my Digimentals of Friendship and Courage," I said with a grin. "Get it? I totally won that cheesy contest."

"Whatever," Ken said rolling his eyes.

Takeru was pointing to two indents in the stone in front of us between the golden digimental of destiny, and a strange black one with a dark crystal orb on it. I had a feeling that one was darkness. It was accompanied by three other 'Dark Digimentals' as Koushiro had called them. "What're those spaces for?"

"The digimental of Strength." Iori said, "That's what Koushiro said anyway. And the other one—even Koushiro didn't know."

I noticed Ken fidget uncomfortably, but he shook it off and remained silent. I'd have to ask him about that later.

"There," Marrow said with finality. "They are finished. They must now go."

"But I wanted to look around the Temple," Hikari protested.

"Yeah," Willis said. "I wanted to see if the market place was still around."

"I'll save you a trip," Marrow said. "It is. And tours are not offered. One must be a part of the Temple to get to wander around freely. Leave now."

Taichi glared at him, but Erif was nodding like a fool.

"Guess I'll see you guys later," Taichi said.

"Hold on," I said. "Veemon told me to come check out the Knights. As Veemon's—the one who came up with the idea—partner, he said I could come watch them train anytime."

"He should have put that up to the council," Marrow grumbled.

"No," Taichi said. "The Knights are my responsibility, and I get to choose. So no, Veemon did not have to do that. C'mon guys. Let's go watch the Knights train."

"That's okay," Hikari said. "I should get going. I have school in a few hours."

"A few hours?" Taichi questioned, noting that it was just after two in the afternoon.

"Time difference," Willis said. "It's killer, but it's like midnight back home. We really should get going."

"Besides," Hikari said. "We wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your council."

"Finally a sensible human," Marrow said with a malicious grin. As Willis put his arm around Hikari and led her from the room as she looked back and tried to smile at Takeru who just looked away awkwardly.

"I should go too," Miyako said, backing out of the room right after Willis and Hikari left.

"Wouldn't want to wait for me," Ken said sarcastically. "We're only going to the exact same place." He rolled his eyes and hurried out after his wife.

"My… aunt… wanted to see me," Iori said shrugging his shoulders. "And Natsuni has a movie planned for later, so I'll be going to that too."

There it was again. He kept bringing up that aunt of his. Who was she? How did we know she wasn't evil? She knew far too much about the Digital World to not be…

"Fine, whatever," Taichi said grumpily. "Nobody wants to come and see my super cool Knights."

"Hey, I do," I said, waving off Iori who'd sent him a sheepish look as he left. "I wanna see Veemon doing something."

"And what am I?" Takeru asked, "Chopped liver?"

Marrow did not look pleased, but he couldn't say anything against Taichi, so I let Taichi lead the way. Marrow and Erif followed us, but Centaurumon, I noticed, headed back to the council room instead.

"These Knights of yours are unnecessary," Marrow told Taichi angrily. "There is no need to waste energy training them. We mustn't have you wasting what little focus you have on something so unimportant."

"You're kind of a jerk." Takeru said sharply as Taichi put his hand on Takeru's shoulder to quiet him to avoid a fight. Taichi had matured somewhere along the line… I felt bad for missing the big event.

"You say that now," Taichi said. "But when they save your behind, you'll be thanking me."

"I hardly doubt they would ever save _me_," he said, raising his eyebrow at Taichi.

"No," Taichi grumbled. "Because you're 'too powerful' to depend on them."

"They are all rather _small_," Marrow pointed out.

"For now," Taichi said, stopping at a random door. He pushed it open, and pulled me into a meadow. I heard Takeru grumble something behind me as Marrow and Erif shoved him through the door.

I was shocked. There was a freaking meadow inside the Temple. I was so surprised, that it took me awhile before I noticed the small group of digimon fighting against each other in the distance.

"Agumon!" Taichi called out. "Bring the trainees in."

Agumon did as he was told, and brought Gabumon, Kotemon, Veemon, and another digimon that I didn't recognize over and had them stand in a line. "Wormmon isn't here, because he had to keep the balance, and Wizardmon is still on the fence about joining."

"Good, good," Taichi said. "How's Dorumon holding up?"

I figured Dorumon had to be the purple dinosaur-fox-like digimon that I hadn't recognized.

"He's getting closer to champion level with every practice," Agumon said. Dorumon straightened up proudly. "Kotemon's doing well now too."

"Excellent," Taichi said. "Any other interested parties?"

"Just Wizardmon for now," Agumon said sadly. "But I was thinking, that maybe, Andromon or Centaurumon might like to join? Or mentor the recruits at least. We could use their knowledge."

"Hey Veemon!" I said cheerfully. "How's training going."

"Really, really good," Veemon said. "I'm practicing to reach champion on my own, but I don't really need to, because I have you!"

"That's great!" I said happily. Marrow rolled his eyes at my antics. "Now, show me what you've got."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Alias III strikes again, and Koushiro is sure surprised. Can he beat this member? Or will there be one less digidestined standing in Alias III's way to total digital domination?


	15. Pie-Pie and Hate Clubs

**Y/N:** It took awhile to write this one, but it was actually a lot of fun to work on. Koushiro's was my only writing part…I think…but that doesn't make it any less my favourite one. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and review if you can!

**U/N:** This is an Izzy chapter... with all of my characters added in around it -_- I mean, Satoe was technically a given due to it being an Izzy chapter and all, because she gets one every one of Izzy's chapters, but still.

Anyway, I like Satoe! I mean i HATE her, but I LOVE writing as her... she's so... awful. And it's hilarious. So easy to do :P

Jou is all mature, and I like writing that, and i also love his relationship with Emiko who, as we know, grows up to be a sarcastic little prankster due to Hikari's wedding and all, so i just like the two of them :P

Aaaaaaaaand I really like writing as Mari. There are three one shots that i've written about her actually, and she's really... dramatic i guess. You'll get to read those eventually, she's pretty cool though ;)

Soooo I hope you like this :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 15: Pie-Pie and Hate Clubs **

_**Koushiro:**_

It was decidedly cold for ice cream. I realized that, but Gansuko seemed pleased by the simple outing, so I found myself in an ice cream parlour. Gansuko was switching between bouncing in his seat with excitement, and tapping his foot impatiently on the floor.

"So, how are you?" I asked awkwardly. It was a question that should have been asked far earlier in the conversation, but I was just then getting around to it.

"Good," he said licking his ice cream cone. "Better than before. My roommate stole something of mine, but I've got it back now. And we're going to see Sora. I'm really excited for her to meet Pie-Pie. For all of us to be together really. It's going to be _fun_."

Sadly, Pie-Pie was not the name of an imaginary friend dreamed up by his somewhat childish mind as I'd originally thought. He was just his best friend. Gansuko did seem to be the one that dreamed up that nickname at the very least.

"I like this," Biyomon said, pointing to her bubblegum flavoured ice cream. "Should we get some of this for Sora?"

"I don't think she'd appreciate it tonight," I said. She'd decided to go for a more 'professional' look for the fashion show. I didn't really think that ice cream would fit in with her theme for the night.

"Speaking of Sora," Tentomon interjected. "Shouldn't we leave soon?"

"You're right," Gansuko said jumping to his feet. Without a second though, he threw his ice cream cone into the garbage bin—which I found odd, since he'd been so excited. But I didn't have time to question him. Tentomon, Biyomon and I had to run out of the parlour, because he'd already wandered out and started down the road.

It was strange, I decided, just how easily people were swayed to believe my digimon was just a little boy in a hoodie. It was all it took to transform a digital bug into a human in their eyes. Take the sweater away, and they started screaming bloody murder, but with a sweater, Tentomon was just an eccentric little boy.

No one even questioned Biyomon, as she walked around in one of Sora's digimon themed sweaters, despite the clearly bird like feet sticking out the bottom of it.

I sometimes wished it was as easy for me to blend in the Digital World. The council could tell easily that I didn't belong. They hardly took my advice into account. I wasn't the ambassador. I wasn't their leader. That made me dispensable.

At that morning's meeting for example. They refused to acknowledge anything until Taichi decided to voice it for me. This was the reason I typically waited until the end to bring up any problems I'd noticed.

"_So, none of you have discovered anything at all about the Alias III?" Taichi asked with a groan._

"_Well, there seems to be a bigger problem right now, okay?" Tinkermon snapped._

"_What is worse than your fellow digimon getting poisoned?" Taichi demanded._

"_The disappearance of our world would be a start," Babamon said sounding snarky. It was the first time I'd ever heard the two agree on anything. And if they weren't joining up to fight against the most pressing issue, I would have been pleased._

"_The Digital World has plans for that," I said. They ignored me. I couldn't see why. I had the answers they were looking for. Granted, I was sure Centaurumon and Andromon were listening. They were just so passive in these meetings that I knew they'd never say anything._

"_Clearly you weren't good choices for the council," Taichi started angrily. "Not if you aren't concerned about the digimon. This council was made to ensure that the goings on of the Digital World can be monitored and all threats can be taken out."_

"_Are you sure that the missing…well…everything is not an issue we must deal with?" Benjamin asked nervously._

"_No," Taichi growled. "Koushiro's already told you that the Digital World already has plans for that."_

"_What exactly do these plans involve?" Marrow inquired._

"_We don't know," Taichi said before I had the chance to. I personally was going to word it a little more mysteriously than that._

"_You don't know?" Tinkermon said sounding scandalized._

"_And where did you stumble upon this information then?" MetalifeKuwagamon wanted to know._

"_Uh…well…I actually don't know who she is exactly," Taichi stammered._

"_One of the Queens depicted in your stories of old," I supplied._

_Again, they all merely continued to stare at Taichi, waiting for an answer._

"_Oh, it was that Fairy Queen? Then Tinkermon, you totally have to side with us, being a fairy yourself," Taichi snickered._

"_Well, I never," Tinkermon gasped, sending a glare his way._

"_A fairy," Marrow said dryly. "You don't say."_

"_I do say," Taichi said. "But it doesn't matter. It's being taken care of. What we need to be focussed on is finding an antidote to this serum that the Alias III is using. They're the ones behind this by the way. It isn't just digimon being evil like normal. It's a group of three people that are working towards creating an army of mindless digimon."_

"_So it's humans?" Marrow prodded._

"_Yes," Taichi admitted. "Humans that the Digital World deemed worthy, or else they wouldn't be able to get here. My guess is that they just met up with some unfortunate digimon when they got here—a really evil one—and don't know that what they're doing is wrong. But, on the bright side, I have a colleague who is trained in multiple medical fields who is willing to work on creating an antidote."_

_Marrow's eyes narrowed as he stared at Taichi, "As it happens," he said when he'd schooled his features. "I hired some people to do that exact job. I have the antidote, right here." He pulled a vial out of his robe pocket, jostling his new necklace while he did so. He wore an icy blue orb as a pendant. From what Sora and Mimi told me, it was not a choice accessory. It was too big. But that didn't matter._

"_Why didn't you tell us the minute you had it developed?" I queried._

"_See," Babamon commented. "You were worrying for nothing. Now let the digimon work out what to do with our home."_

"_No," Taichi said. "Koushiro's right. Marrow should have told us—the entire council—the second he had that antidote created. By not doing so, you're showing me that you don't care about digimon-kind."_

"_I apologize," he said sarcastically._

"_How long have you had it?" Leomon asked, a bit of a bite to his voice._

"_A few weeks now," Marrow said. "Not too long."_

"_A few weeks? Hundreds of digimon have been poisoned in that time," Ogremon argued angrily. Marrow was taken aback. Clearly he wasn't expecting a Dark digimon to be so passionate about doing the right thing._

"_I apologized," he snapped. Then he gave the vial to Taichi. "Give that to your colleague. He can develop more. Give it to the digimon, and they'll be back to their own selves in no time. Also, I feel that we do in fact need another member to the council."_

"_Why?" Taichi asked._

"_That friend of yours, him," Marrow said, pointing to me. "He wishes to have a Holy digimon. I'll hunt one down for us. It shouldn't be too hard."_

"_Whatever," Taichi said. "I'm getting this to Jou. We can't waste any more time. Marrow's wasted enough_."

"Could we get Pie-Pie first?" Gansuko asked me, distracting me from my musing. He, along with Biyomon, Tentomon and myself were on our way to Sora as she took part in a fashion show. "I'd really feel more comfortable with him around."

"We've already promised Sora to be there…five minutes ago," I reminded him, checking my watch hurriedly, "But we can get Pie-Pie after we swing by her fashion show. Alright?"

"That's where she is?" he asked feigning surprise. I couldn't fathom why he'd need to do so, or why he thought he could convince me it was genuine. "What a coincidence. Pie-Pie is going to be there as well. He really enjoys such events. He says that the fashions are simply a way for the models to become someone else for awhile. As a master of disguise himself, he finds their attempts amusing."

Something in the way he said it made me uneasy. Something wasn't adding up, and I needed to figure out what it was, because there was a part of me that thought it could be dangerous.

No matter how hard I tried to shake it—Gansuko was perpetually shy, how could he seem dangerous?—I couldn't.

"You know, we _are_ late," I said. "We should maybe pick up the pace a bit."

"I don't mind," Gansuko told me. "By the way little girl, where did you get your mask?"

"Who, me?" Biyomon asked surprised.

"Yes," he said. "It's very interesting. Unique, I think. Much more detailed than my own, but I do like variety."

"I—uh," Biyomon stammered.

"Biyomon here actually served as inspiration for Sora's new sketches," I supplied, gently switching the focus of the conversation. "In fact, there's a piece based on these sketches in the show tonight."

"How interesting," Gansuko said. "I wonder what she'd make of my mask."

"You could always ask her," Tentomon told him.

"Oh," he said with a smirk. A smirk that seemed very out of place on his face. "She's seen it before."

My heart stopped.

The puzzle was slowly piecing itself together in my brain, and I did not like it at all.

Gansuko appeared to me directly before the "terrorist" activities in the Digital World.

He looked terrified—but was perhaps horrified instead—by the mask Miyako brought to the only meeting Gansuko had ever attended.

Said mask disappeared not long after I'd gained possession of it. Perhaps I'd mistakenly thought that Sora or Mimi borrowed it. It seemed like the only logical explanation at the time. But I'd forgotten Gansuko. He left before I'd discovered it missing.

Gansuko's friend, known only as the not so clever guise of Pie-Pie…

His odd moments of strange behaviour. I'd thought he'd opened up to me during those bolder moments, before he fled behind his shy demeanor once again. Maybe he was showing me the vicious being behind the mask.

And lastly…I'd been feeding him information.

"Just what colour was that mask?" I asked, forcing myself to sound nonchalant. My heart was beating faster than it should have. My stomach was clenched in tight knots waiting for him to utter the words I didn't want to hear.

"You know that," he said. "I had to steal it back, after all."

"Damn," I muttered before I could stop myself.

"What's going on?" Biyomon asked.

"We've got to get to Sora," I said immediately. Pie-Pie, no, _Piedmon_ was already at the fashion show. She was defenceless against an infected mega level digimon. She could already be…no. I couldn't think like that. Though the odds definitely weren't in her favour.

We ran through the streets, paying no mind to any people we may or may not have run into. I heard Biyomon shouting back an apology once, but afterwards, we were too focussed on our mission.

Gansuko—if that was even his real name—was just behind us. He didn't seem to be in as much of a hurry as we were. I was angry with him, and humiliated. He'd manipulated me into doing just what I had recently accused Sora and Mimi and Taichi of doing. And I didn't add him to my final list, _just_ because he was my cousin. What was worse was that I wasn't sure he really was my cousin. What if Gansuko Izumi didn't exist? I'd wanted so much to believe it was true, that he _was_ related even if he was evil, and that I did have blood family. But I didn't know. Not for sure. And I wasn't about to ask him.

We heard the screams before we saw the community centre where the fashion show was taking place. People were fleeing the scene, and we had to fight the flow of human traffic in order to get close enough to see the commotion.

Sora was standing on the catwalk, wearing a blazer and a skirt. She'd wanted to look presentable for the moment she was called on; she was sure she was going to get praised for her unique and bold designs. Now it looked as though her outfit was hindering her ability to fight the digimon that she was facing. Piedmon was letting his disguise fall away with each step he took closer to her. It was an impressive disguise thankfully. It was understandable how I'd never noticed his identity before.

His name was a dead giveaway though…

"Sora!" Biyomon called.

Sora looked to her, and grabbed her digivice without hesitation.

"**Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!"**

Biyomon grew into a large flaming bird, incinerating her sweater the moment the flames ignited on her wings.

"Now would be an excellent time to follow suit, Tentomon," I suggested. He nodded.

"**Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon!**"

"This isn't going to work," Sora shouted as she jumped off the runway. She kicked off her heels the moment she was on the ground. "They're too big. They won't be able to move around."

"And they can't reach a higher level without causing structural damage," I added.

"And if the structure goes down, we get crushed," Sora commented. "We need to get out of here, and we can't let anybody get hurt either. We need Taichi."

"He's busy elsewhere," I told her. He was headed to Jou with the antidote. Sora looked over my shoulder and I followed her gaze for a moment. In the doorway to the community center stood Gansuko.

"Gansuko," Sora called. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

"Leave it Sora," I told her.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked horrified. "I thought you'd stopped being so cold-hearted and aloof. He's your cousin."

"Piedmon won't hurt him," I told her. She looked confused. Understandably so. She took a step toward him but I grabbed her arm quickly. "Because, damn it. He's one of the Alias III."

"What?" Sora asked aghast.

"How perceptive," Gansuko said sarcastically. The sound of his voice made it evident that he'd moved closer while I had been looking away. "It took you long enough. Gansuko was such a terrible Alias. The word literally means fake. It was so easy to fool you, oh _knowledgeable_ one. I thought you'd at least prove to be a challenge."

I winced. He was right. I was too easily fooled.

"Who are you then?" Sora demanded. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why wouldn't I be doing this?" He asked. "It is so very fun."

"Just for kicks?" she asked. "You're doing it for the hell of it? You're ruining digimon's lives!"

"That's the fun part," he said maliciously.

There was something different about him. Something in his eyes. It wasn't the Gansuko—or whatever his name may be—that I was used to. This was much more twisted than I'd ever seen him.

"As for my name…" he said tilting his head as he pondered it. He reached into his jacket slowly. "I suppose you may call me Sigma." He pulled out he silver mask I'd been dreading, and the light from Birdramon's flames reflected off of it as he held it tightly, casting a mirage of colour around the room.

"Oh my god," Sora gasped as I gripped her arm tighter.

"At least it's not Miyako," I said weakly. Sora looked to me and nodded, but I could tell that it wasn't enough to make it better.

"Very good," Sigma said, sliding the mask into place. He pulled out a small laptop as well, and opened it up. After he typed a bit, an electronic voice filled the air. "You fools really believed she could be me? It's laughable."

"Birdramon," Sora said, her voice shaking. Sigma was unstable I realized. That was the difference. He wasn't thinking clearly… I had to believe that he wasn't merely inherently evil. I _had_ to.

"Yes," Birdramon answered her.

"We need a plan," Sora said. "And we need to get outside."

"Do we?" the computerized voice asked. "Or shall we go inside further?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sora groaned.

I looked around, searching for a clue, trying to piece it together. And I found one. A clue that is. He was holding a computer in his hands. And a computer was merely a gateway for those with a digivice.

"The Digital World?" I guessed.

"Close," the computer responded thanks to Sigma's prompting. "But no. We shall enter a world of my own creating. Piedmon?"

"Yes Sigma?" the digimon answered from behind us. I let go of Sora finally to watch Piedmon as he leapt through the air and shot across the room, past our own partners, past us. He landed softly next to Sigma.

"Prepare for battle," Sigma typed.

"It is already done," Piedmon told him.

"Excellent," Sigma replied. "Now we shall enter my domain."

"Where—" Sora started to ask, but she wasn't able to continue. The community centre walls seemed to swirl around us before disappearing completely. I fell to the floor disoriented. I pressed my eyes closed, to keep from getting motion sickness.

When I opened them again, I was met with swirling colours, red, orange and yellow. The walls, the ground, it was all swirling. We looked like we were in a vortex of sorts.

"Like it?" the computer asked for Sigma. "I made it myself. My own personal haven."

"Where are we?" Sora questioned.

"Inside my computer, you daft girl," the computer answered. If it could sound impatient, I was sure it would have. "Now, Piedmon, take care of those flying pests," Sigma ordered through his computer.

"As you wish," Piedmon said, sauntering towards Birdramon and Kabuterimon.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon shouted, flapping her wings and letting loose a barrage of meteors at the clown digimon.

"Not so fast," Piedmon decided. He held a sheet in front of him, shook it, and disappeared, letting the meteors land harmlessly on the swirling floor. The floor itself seemed to absorb the energy and started swirling faster.

"Electro Shocker!" Kabuterimon tried.

"Let's try something new, shall we?" Piedmon asked, throwing his sheet onto the large concentrated ball of electricity, and taking it into his hand. He pulled out a bouquet of flowers. "This is a fun game. We should play some more, shall we?"

"We need a distraction," I muttered. "Just long enough to get us to mega, maybe even fused."

"I think I've got an idea," Sora said. She sent a strangely scary look in Sigma's direction. I almost warned her to be careful, but thought better of it. It was, after all, the warning that tended to convince people to do the very opposite. And she could handle herself. Probably better than I could even.

She ran at him, and he only noticed when she was practically on top of him. She tackled him to the ground, causing the two of them to roll. His small computer went tumbling across the swirling ground. Thankfully, when they stopped, she was on top. She pinned him down, and he struggled to get loose. But she wasn't done there. Sora took a quick look at our champion digimon trying to survive—and optimistically _win_—their battle, and nodded to herself. Reaching down, she grabbed the edge of his mask. He caught her wrist with his fist, and tried to pull her away, but she was still holding tightly to his mask. She let go of his other wrist to get a firmer hold on it.

He screamed a muffled scream at her from behind his mask and I wince. It was a horrible sound, knowing that until that day, this had been Gansuko, my quiet, terribly shy, little cousin. He sounded like he was physically pained by her attempts at stealing his mask, as though it were a part of him, like he desperately _needed_ the mask to be himself.

"Going to hide behind your mask Gansuko?" She asked him. "I know he's in there. The little boy that was adorable when he blushed. Where's the boy that couldn't accept a compliment without being awkward about it? Where is he?"

He struggled harder then, his screams turned angry, rather than pained. She wasn't getting anywhere. If anything, she was making him more dangerous. I stepped towards them, but I was too late. He threw her off of him, and headed to his fallen computer.

She was back on her feet in no time, ready to take another go at him, but he wasn't going to fight fairly.

"Piedmon," his computerized voice said. "Help me here. They are not worth your time."

And that was the moment we were waiting for. Piedmon looked at him, and then back at our digimon before shrugging. And he headed, _quickly_, in Sora's direction.

"Now Birdramon!" Sora screamed.

Kabuterimon looked at me, and I nodded at him. We didn't have much time.

"**Birdramon digivolve to… Garudamon!"**

"**Kabuterimon digivolve to… MegaKabuterimon!"**

"**Garudamon digivolve to… Phoenixmon!"**

"**MegaKabuterimon digivolve to… HerculesKabuterimon!"**

"**Phoenixmon digivolve to…"**

"**HerculesKabuterimon digivolve to…"**

"**Eaglemon!"**

I smiled at Sora's and my golden digimon, as he reached down one of his clawed hands, and picked Piedmon up by the back of his jacket before he could reach Sora.

"Put me down you miserable oaf," Piedmon grumbled.

"I don't think so," Eaglemon rumbled in his deep voice.

"Now you see me," Piedmon said lightly, reaching into his sleeve. He wasn't about to give up, that was for sure. He pulled out a _very_ familiar white sheet. I really did not want to add to my tally of times I'd been a keychain, and I didn't want to add to my digimon's tally either. And then he threw the sheet at Eaglemon's face.

"No!" Sora and I yelled in unison.

"Now you don't," Piedmon said with a laugh.

Eaglemon shook his head though, and the sheet fell off.

"See, that never works," Piedmon told us with a sigh.

I wondered momentarily if his lack of ability had to do with the serum, as it forced him to digivolve, and therefore the digimon was not ready for this much power…but I didn't have time to dwell on it, because Piedmon fixed Eaglemon with a strange look.

"But I know something that does," he said, reaching for one of the four swords on his back.

"Stop him," Sora demanded of Sigma. "You stop him right now."

"Why would I want to do that?" his computer spoke for him. "I've wanted this for so long. I've waited only a short time for you Digidestined to be put in your place beneath me. But I've waited so long... for victory. Piedmon... kill them."

"No you don't," Sora told him sharply, rushing toward him. "You can't. You're a sweet boy, not a murderer." I wanted to help her, but I wasn't any use in a physical fight like the one she'd tangled herself in... but still—I couldn't let Sora do it alone...

"That's where you're wrong," The computer corrected her.

She angrily swiped at the mask once again, but Sigma jumped back and out of the way, "It's this stupid mask. It's making you someone else. You're not yourself right now. That's all." And with one final stretch of her arm she grabbed hold of the shining silver mask on his face.

Sigma made a strangled yell, and hit her in the stomach. Hard. She flew backwards through the air as if he had hit her with some strange super human strength—perhaps that was what his world did to him. Perhaps that was the benefit to taking us here. Thanks to the limited movement her pencil skirt allowed, Sora was not able to catch herself before she landed roughly on the ground.

In that moment, I didn't care if he was supposedly my cousin. He'd hurt Sora. She was my best friend. The closest thing to a sibling I'd ever had. And that did not sit well with me. So, despite my severe lack of strength, I stalked over to him, turned him around, and punched him as hard as I could, right in the mask.

And while I was doing that, I heard Eaglemon let out a yell. "Mystic Break!"

Piedmon screamed, and I heard the crack, mimicked by Sigma's own, of his mask breaking in two.

The bottom of Sigma's mask fell to the floor as he staggered away from me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Piedmon's mask do the same as he fell to his knees. Eaglemon landed smoothly on the ground and turned to Sora as she stirred from her place on the ground.

"What did you do dat for?" Sigma asked, drawing my attention back to him. He holding his nose tightly and was standing shakily, his knees bent. "I didn't do anyding."

"Oh no!" came the cry of a new voice. I turned to see the rookie digimon, Tapirmon flying towards Sigma on his little cloud. "Sir, Sigma, are you alright?"

"Do I look alright?" De asked, his voice coming out in a whine.

He confused me greatly, but I couldn't be bothered with it. Not while Sora was still lying on the ground. Eaglemon reverted to Tentomon and Biyomon and they flew towards us.

"That was quick," Sora said sounding very pleased when I'd helped her to her feet.

"Sir," the Tapirmon said again in concern. I looked to see Sigma trying to piece his mask together, and failing as Tapirmon, his partner, rushed around him frantically trying to find the best position to get his attention, "_Sir_."

"Leave me alone!" Sigma snapped, his voice wild. "I can do it. I _need_ to do it."

"Sir, you can't," Tapirmon told him.

"You'll regret this," Sigma said, glaring at me and ignoring his digimon. "One defeat won't keep me down. The goal is still alive and I will always strive towards it. You are nothing to me now."

"Gansuko?" Sora said hesitantly, her hand placed gently where Sigma had hit her.

"Speak only when spoken to," Sigma snarled in a voice I didn't think could come from his mouth. He pressed a few keys on his laptop's keyboard, and the swirling walls melted away, returning to those of the Odaiba Community Centre.

"Sir," Tapirmon said. "We should go now. The Miss will be wondering where you are."

"She can keep wondering," Sigma snapped, but he collected the pieces of his mask anyway, and allowed Tapirmon to pull him to his feet.

"It's broken Sir," Tapirmon murmured. "Just like you."

"I am not broken," Sigma told him angrily. "Not anymore."

Tapirmon nodded, and led him away hastily, sending worried looks in our direction every step of the way.

"So," Sora said tiredly. "Pie-Pie?"

I blushed and turned my head away. "We never speak of that again."

And she laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh exactly. It was tired and sad too. Just the way I felt about the situation.

"Are you alright?" I asked her nervously. She tore her hand from her stomach and nodded with a fake smile.

"Fine," she lied. I wasn't the only one who noticed the lie. Biyomon took her hand quickly and rubbed her head against her legs comfortingly.

"Koushiro," Tentomon buzzed. "Perhaps it is time we re-analyze the situation involving the Alias III."

He was right. The second member had been revealed. First Hideto and now Sigma. Who was the third? It couldn't be Neo as we had been led to believe. Tapirmon spoke of "The Miss." Who could that be? And were these three really that much of a threat if Sigma was defeated so easily? Could they really have thought of, and executed, the plan to destroy the Digital World with such ease? And right under our noses. So many had tried before, but we'd caught wind and defeated them. But Alias III had succeeded in the battle before it had even begun.

And now that we'd defeated one of their numbers would they back down? Or would they come back stronger and destroy Earth the way they had to the Digital World?

I just didn't know. I couldn't be sure.

_**Jou:**_

I must say, something was really wrong with Emiko. I'd never seen her act this way before. She was a little nuts to say the least. She had been bouncing off the walls all day long, and I honestly had no idea why.

"_Take her for a walk!" Momoe had screamed, running into the room in a panic. "If I don't get some sleep for that job interview tomorrow then there is no way I'm going to get it!"_

She was right. As a father who had nothing in store for the next day, it was my obligation to take my daughter out for a walk so my beautiful girlfriend could get some sleep and get back out there in the working world.

She was really excited to do that too. I wasn't really sure why... Emiko could sometimes be a handful, but wouldn't one rather be with their child than work? I supposed it was the whole independent thing. Momoe often told me that if two people aren't whole in themselves, then the relationship will fail to work out, or communicate properly. So she was finding herself and becoming a whole person.

I could respect that.

Not to mention we were running low on funds. My job didn't pay well really, since most of the time I was tending to Digital wounds... Originally it had been fine. Mimi was staying with me and paying rent, but ever since she moved out, our funding had dropped significantly. As the only working person it was hard enough to pay for my home and all of its expenses let alone pay for food, clothes and entertainment for three humans and a digimon

I thought about inviting Gomamon and Monmon to live with us, but we just didn't have the money yet. Which was why it was all the more important that Momoe get a job. That way I could see Gomamon more often. Also Monmon—but I hadn't actually seen him since Emiko had gotten her digivice.

"Where's Mommy?" Emiko asked as she skipped down the street, bundled up in her assortment of mismatched winter clothing.

"She's sleeping silly!" I said with a grin, trying to keep up with her.

"Why?" Emiko asked.

"Because she's tired." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Why?"

"Because you're so energetic!" I laughed.

"Why?"

"I don't know..." I admitted slowly.

"Why is Mommy sleeping before me?" Emiko asked.

"She has to get up early for a job interview." I tried to explain. She looked at me as if I had spoken a foreign language so I tried again, "Mommy is going to work."

"Where?" Emiko asked.

Now that was a good question... I hadn't even bothered to ask her where this interview was... I'd be sure to ask her that later... with other people around. Talking to Momoe had grown more and more difficult due to the fact that she was always planning a wedding that I wasn't entirely sure I was ready for. I wanted to marry her _so _bad... but was it right to do that?

"_Do you love her?" Shuu asked._

"_Absolutely." I nodded. "I do."_

"_Enough to want to spend the rest of your life with her?" He asked me._

"_Yes." I confirmed without a moment's hesitation._

"_Then _what_ is holding you back?" He asked me. I had just shrugged my shoulders as he shifted his position on the couch and reached for a bowl of chips, and the television remote. "Whatever it is, figure it out, push it over and marry the girl Jou. You love her, she loves you, and you need to show her that. Also you need to get married before I do. Remember? And Jun _really_ wants to get married so..."_

It was really that simple wasn't it? Figure out what was making me so unwilling to get married, and just knock it down, because I did want to get married. Really I did.

I had thought so much lately about what it might have been. And I'd come to a few silly conclusions that made no sense in retrospect. So I'd gone for help.

"_Jou, I don't care if there's a wall. Marry her!" Jun said rather forcefully when I asked her about it while Shuu had gone to the washroom._

"_But if what Shuu says is right, and there is a wall there, blocking it..." I said, trailing off into thought, "What is it?"_

"_Well let's think then, shall we?" Jun asked, "Is there any feelings remaining from another girl?"_

"_What do you mean?" I asked slowly._

"_Mimi?" Jun suggested. "You used to like her right? And now you two are like besties. There's got to be something going on between you and her."_

"_No." I said flatly. "There isn't. It isn't Mimi. And what would I do if it was?"_

_She raised her eyebrows at me and said, "You'd have to stop being friends with her. It would be the only fair thing to do. Momoe's being generous letting you be friends with her anyway. You know it's really hard to have friends of the opposite gender while you're in a relationship."_

"_Momoe would never make me break it off with Mimi." I was sure of it. Momoe was more than just a little understanding._

"_If she did make you... who would you pick?" She asked._

"_I'm not picking between the love of my life and my best friend, Jun." I told her without hesitation._

_Jun grinned as she threw a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "Good answer."_

It couldn't be Mimi. I didn't have any sort of lingering feelings for Mimi. I loved Momoe, and no one else would ever—no, no one else _could_ ever come close to her.

So what else could it be?

"_Maybe you're not ready to grow up?" Taichi had suggested as the two of us spent out monthly "guys night out". Mostly we just did whatever Taichi wanted to do but Yamato didn't want to. Which was fine. So long as we were spending time together. I'd been friends with Taichi since I was eight years old, that was a seventeen year old friendship..._

_I didn't respond to him with words, and instead just raised my eyebrows._

"_You're right," He laughed, "You were ready to grow up the moment you were born." The two of us laughed a little as he ranted about how I was probably born in a suit with a briefcase filled with medical equipment in hand. "But no... you're right. There has to be something. Maybe you just... maybe marriage isn't your thing?"_

"_Marriage has always been a part of my plan Taichi." I said, "I've dreamt about marriage for as long as I could remember, though the person under the veil had never been clear until I met Momoe."_

"_Don't get all romantic on me!" Taichi warned. "Dude... what do _you _think the problem is?"_

And that was really the question wasn't it? What did _I _think the problem was? What was the wall in between the two of us? What was keeping me from truly spending my life with Momoe?

"Daddy look!" Emiko giggled as she pointed up to a large flashing sign. I looked up and saw that it was some kind of restaurant. I laughed and picked Emiko up.

"We're not going in there sweetie." I told her.

"I wanna!"

I heard the door open behind me as a laughing couple came through the doors.

"I guess they didn't like what I had to say!" A man said.

I turned around and stared, wide eyed, at the couple standing at the top of the steps leading to the door to the bar.

"Jou?"

"Dad?" I asked.

He was wearing a blazer, and normal, human clothing. But what was more shocking was that there was a woman linked to his arms. Her hair was very blonde and she had a very kind look in her eyes.

"Jou." Dad said again, "This is Aimi. We're seeing each other." His face full of laughter had fallen quickly as he composed himself and spoke to me with as much dignity as he could. I wasn't sure if it was normal after such a long time to be upset about it all... but she wasn't my mother, and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take this information in... but I didn't do it well.

"Oh this is your youngest?" Aimi asked with a smile, clapping her hands together. Her eyes fell to Emiko and a grin spread across her face. She must've realized how cute she was. Because she was. Super cute.

"Nice to meet you," I said slowly, "But I really should be going—"

"Wait!" Aimi called as I tried to turn away, "Would you like to come eat dinner with us sometime?"

I didn't even know what to say. No, no I did not want to go eat dinner with you and my horrid father. Speaking of which, he gave Aimi the exact look I wished to give her. But I couldn't be rude about this. "I've been really busy lately, so I'll have to check my schedule and get back to you."

"Busy with what?" Dad asked, his eyebrows raising.

I knew what he wanted me to say. He wanted to say that I was planning a wedding to legitimize Emiko, but the joke was on him. I wasn't going to get married, just to rub it in his face.

And suddenly I felt like I'd walked into that metaphorical wall I'd been thinking about. The reason I wasn't getting married wasn't because of me, or Mimi, or Momoe—it was because of my father. I was specifically avoiding marriage just to rub it in his face that I didn't want to follow anything he said. He was a very mean person, and other than that moment a few seconds ago I hadn't seen him smile since the death of my mother... But was avoiding marriage because of him any better than getting married because of him?

"Busy raising my daughter with love," I told him flatly, "Something you'd never understand."

"You're right, I never had a daughter." Dad said, his eyebrows still raised.

"I was talking about—" I tried.

"I have three daughters." Aimi cut across our argument.

"That's lovely." I told her with a nod, "Now I really must be going." And with that, I turned and left, walking away from them. They both said something, but I wasn't even sure if it was directed at me, I had to force myself to keep walking, to not listen...

"Who was that guys?" Emiko asked. I paused my walking and looked down to her. It almost... hurt that my own daughter didn't know my father. Was that my fault? Should I have been less stubborn about the whole situation? Or was it his fault? Either way...

"That was your Grandfather Emiko." I said quietly as I resumed my walking, not even bothering to correct her grammar which I knew Momoe would get mad at me for if she were to find out.

She was confused. I could tell that though. Emiko was trying to place Momoe's father with my father and they weren't going together, but I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"Do you want to see Aunt Mimi?" I asked her.

"Ya!" Was all Emiko said. And it was enough, her adorable and simple mind had been cleared away and the excitement of visiting Mimi had taken over.

Mimi's restaurant wasn't very far away, and so I was there in only a couple minutes. I slipped in through the door and set Emiko down in on the floor. We were in the little hallway of the building where we were supposed to hang our coats and so I waited for a long time, watching Emiko take her winter stuff off. She never let anyone help her, because she was a big girl... but sometimes patience could run rather thin. But she was pretty cute, struggling with her boots... and the glare I received while trying to help her certainly helped me through the wait.

Finally though she took my hand, leaving her things in a messy heap on the ground as she led me down the hallway and into the main room of the restaurant.

"Oh, I'm sorry, we're closed—" Mimi was saying as she turned away from the table she was cleaning, but she stopped and smiled excitedly as Emiko ran toward her for a hug. "Ohhh! You're so cute!"

Emiko nodded and smiled at Mimi as they hugged.

"So what's up?" Mimi asked as I looked around. Taichi and Yamato were there also, sitting by the counter as some waitress that Mimi had hired counted through the money in the register.

"We just came by to see you." I explained, "Emiko couldn't sleep, she was too wired up so we went for a walk to burn through some energy, ran into my dad, and then came here." Mimi gave me a look as I told her about my dad—the exact look I was looking for. A mix between confusion and apology, and it made me feel better instantly.

"How about I make Hideto cook you up something to eat?" Mimi asked Emiko in her mock baby voice. Mimi was the only person Momoe allowed to speak like that to her, and I think it was because Mimi was borderline adorable when she did.

Emiko seemed really excited about the idea. Far more excited than I was anyway. Hideto was working with the Allias III, though Mimi trusted him... and she said that he promised not to do anything against us anymore. I didn't know how much of that I believed, but I trusted Mimi's judgement, and so I trusted Hideto.

"Could you take her back when you're done?" Mimi asked her waitress friend who nodded and then poked Emiko's nose with a grin.

"So what are you two doing here?" I asked Taichi, turning away from my daughter.

"Well," Taichi said, "Firstly we came here to tell Mimi that we can no longer have meetings here involving anything Digital, as Hideto works here." Mimi rolled her eyes, "We've respected her trust in him, and we've respected that she can't fire him, as he's one of her only employees, but we're not willing to risk it."

"I still think you're being stupid." Mimi said with a sigh.

"And why else are you here?" I asked.

"No reason." Taichi and Yamato said together.

"Alright then..." I said slowly, "How's Takeru doing? I haven't seen him since he came back..."

"Yeah he's working on it," Yamato explained, "He's visiting everyone in turn. Right now he's at Miyako and Ken's apartment or something. I'm not sure. He hasn't talked to me much. In fact he's talked to Sora more..." Yamato pointed to Mimi who nodded and ran to grab a piece of chalk and ran behind her chalkboard.

I paid no real mind to that, and instead just moved forward with the questions, "And Katsue?"

"She's awesome!" Yamato said, perking up, "The two of us are going out to lunch tomorrow and everything." I'd not seen him happy in a rather long time. I was going to comment but then I heard Emiko scream and then laugh maniacally as something smashed against the floor in the kitchen.

The waitress poked her head out and sighed, "She just threw a plate, everything's okay."

I saw Emiko smiling in the background and sighed.

"What's up with her?" Taichi asked. "She's never been like this before, has she?"

"Nope..."

"Must be from the Inoue side," Taichi joked.

"Well I think she just stayed up late with Sora last night, and something about candy—I didn't really listen to what Sora was explaining. I was tired." I told them.

"So Sora turned your kid into a wack job?" Taichi asked with a grin.

"Join the club..." Yamato said under his breath. Taichi and I turned to him in confusion. "No, seriously, there's a club." He pointed toward Mimi who spun her chalkboard around excitedly and smiled.

On the other side of the board, across the top, was written, "Reasons Sora Sucks".

"Welcome to the second weekly, 'We Hate Sora Club!' meeting," Mimi cheered.

I sighed. I was beyond disappointed in Mimi here. Not so much Yamato, this was just him trying to work his way through his time with Sora, even though he did have a girlfriend now. I didn't even know how to respond, but Taichi pretty much covered everything I wanted to say.

"This is really messed up." He said, "This is why you wanted me to come here? I don't think Sora sucks. I think she's a great person!" And that was all that needed to be said... but he continued as he stared at the chalkboard reading through the reasons, "She's really pretty, and funny, and talented and... that hat."

"What?" All of us asked.

"Why didn't you list that time I gave her the hat?" He asked, "She was so picky and annoying about it all!"

"You're right!" Mimi said with a smile, picking up her chalk to write, 'picky and annoying'.

"What about you Jou?" Mimi asked.

I stayed quiet for a moment as they all stared at me and I shook my head, "Everyone has reasons as to why they suck. I just acted incredibly immaturely to my father setting a terrible example for my daughter, Taichi can be a total jerk sometimes, Momoe has a tendency to rearrange the cupboards every time I want the peanut butter—but there's one thing that can't be said about most of us."

"What's that?" Mimi asked quietly.

"Absolutely cruel." I said. "At the end of Mimi and Yamato's lists there would be those two words." Mimi and Yamato both stared at me as if I was crazy, so I explained for them. "Sora is our friend. Not someone to be taken for granted. Having meetings about how you don't like her is no way to deal with your issues. If you have something to say to her, then say it to her face."

All three of them stared at me as if I was crazy as the kitchen door burst open and Agumon, Gabumon and Palmon burst through the doors being chased by a laughing Emiko.

I stepped forward and picked her up, turning away from the others and sighing.

"That's all I have to say." I said to them.

"Bye!" Emiko called out as I walked with her away from them all.

"Jou, wait!" Taichi called. I looked over my shoulder as Taichi ran toward me. "I'll walk you out."

And so he did. In the hallway, as Emiko was putting on her winter clothing once more, Taichi grabbed his bag from the hook by the door and pulled out a small vial.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"It's the antidote for the Virus." Taichi said quietly. "I'm trusting you to spread it. Recreate it—whatever you have to do to save the Digital World. It's up to you."

I nodded slowly as I took the vial from him.

He turned to leave, but then stopped. I expected him to apologize for partaking in the hating of our friend, but instead he just asked for Emiko's uneaten food that Hideto was preparing.

"I'm sure that would be fine." I told him as I scooped Emiko into my arms and left the restaurant.

Half an hour later when I had gotten home and put the sleeping Emiko into her bed before getting ready for sleep myself and laying next to Momoe I had a lot to think about. My father was the reason I wasn't getting married. My daughter had spent so much time with Mimi, was she setting too much of a bad example for her with the hating of Sora? And now I had a vial full of some amber coloured liquid that was ready to save the Digital World...

"Did you have a nice walk?" Momoe asked me groggily.

"No." I told her flatly, "No I did not."

_**Satoe:**_

I really didn't think she'd mind too much if I just walked in, nor did I really care if she did mind. I needed to talk to her, and I didn't want to be kept waiting by the door like some peasant begging for food, so I turned the door knob and pushed open the shabby wooden door. I stepped into the apartment and instantly smelled some strange assortment of smells. What was that? Cookies?

I looked toward the coat hook and grimaced at the sight of the mangy old coats hanging there, I suppose it would be alright if I just kept mine on. I turned and clutched my bag tightly as I walked along the hallway, my hells clicking with ever step along the hardwood floor. I was passing photographs of a red head child growing up. Pictures of him as a child opening presents, pictures of him shut in his room, trying to shield himself from the camera...

Un-photogenic? Ew...

I peered into the kitchen where steam was coming from the oven. I strode across the kitchen and pulled open the door. Inside there was a tray of cookies baking peacefully in the heat erupting from somewhere. They smelled poor and homemade, so I shut the door and turned away from them.

Where was everyone? Someone must have been here. The door was unlocked and there were cookies in the oven...

"Honey?" A female voice asked, floating through the air as it sang with joy. "You're home early!"

I set off toward the voice, heading back down the hallway and stopping in front of a door that read "Koushiro Izumi". I turned the knob and pushed the door open to see a red haired woman in a green dress with a yellow apron tied around her waist, sitting on a well kept bed, staring at a photograph in her hand. The computer across the room from her was lit up. The room was clean, but smelled like a grungy teenage boy. Not one suitable for my Mimi in any case.

Yoshie Izumi slowly looked toward me and her eyes bugged out for a moment. "Who are you?" She gasped.

"Oh calm down," I hissed, closing the door tightly behind me. "I'm Satoe Tachikawa, I'm here to speak to you about our children."

"You're Mimi's mother?" Yoshie asked with a sigh of relief, "Who let you in here?"

"I let myself in." I told her with a roll of my eyes, how thick could she really be? "You had no doorman so I figured, 'what the hey?'" Yoshie raised her eyebrows at me, but I ignored her, "Look. Our children are a couple, you're aware of this, no?"

"Oh yes," Yoshie said with a bright smile. "Koushiro is very happy with Mimi, and she is a very beautiful girl. I think they're a very happy couple."

"I think they're faking it." I said sharply. "I think the two of them are unhappy but too afraid to admit it. I've seen the way they look at each other. Get your son out of my daughter's house if you know what's good for him! If he doesn't leave they may even get married. If they get married who knows what will happen. They're unhappy. Don't allow them to go on any further."

"Oh dear!" Yoshie said, horrified. "I'd best call him and tell him to break up with her."

"The sooner the better." I nodded, pursing my lips.

"Right now?" Yoshie asked.

"That would be preferable, yes." I nodded again.

"Oh—I'll just grab the phone then." Yoshie said, a very adorable look in her eyes. I'd have to give her that one. Sure she wasn't as pretty as me, but she certainly was cute. But she also wasn't moving. Suddenly the cuteness drained from her face and she let out a laugh, "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

"Well yes actually I did." I told her. "You don't come across as a very bright woman. In fact I do believe I've met bread who have kept better conversation than this."

"You don't even know me!" Yoshie said quickly, setting the photograph down with such enthusiasm. "And if we're talking first impressions right now, you seem like a rather stuck up, lying, prissy little snob who needs to keep her perfectly kept nose out of other people's business."

"How dare you speak to me like that?" I growled, jumping to my feet, my nostrils flaring as I opened my eyes wider. "And in the comfort of a home too! How would your child feel if he heard you speak so harshly in his home?"

"I think he'd understand." Yoshie said, her own nostrils flaring as she refused to look at me, crossing her arms. "Espcially since no one welcomed you into this home, and you just waltzed right in as if it were a public place. Well let me tell you. It's not. This is my home!"

"Well usually public places smell rather dingy, and I was guiding myself by my nose." I told her, "I'm sorry—my mistake. Perhaps if you'd taken better care of your home then we wouldn't have this problem."

"You need to leave my house—" Yoshie tried, but I cut her off.

"And what is this?" I asked, waving my hand around the room, not willing to leave without letting her know exactly how I felt about her, "This room is your son's. He lives with my daughter now. Why keep it here? It's like a weird shrine. Do you pray to your son? He's not dead! Get over it. Clean up this room, and make use of it. Perhaps you could store some new cleaning supplies in here?"

"Don't think I won't tell Mimi and Koushiro every word you've said to me." Yoshie defended.

"Oh dear!" I mocked fear, "I'm so scared! My baby girl and your computer nerd son might team up and become a tag team of weaklings."

"You called your daughter weak—" Yoshie started.

"She is. Any good woman will wait for her man to save her." I told her.

"Mimi isn't weak." Yoshie said, very calmly and seriously. "Mimi is a very strong and independent woman. She may not be the brightest, but she follows her heart and uses her abilities to their fullest. She is the truest, most wonderful young lady I've ever met, and I will not have you insulting her in my house."

"You didn't defend your own son." I pointed out before clamping my teeth shut on my tongue to avoid lashing out in anger. Mimi was _my_ daughter, I would speak about her however I felt like.

"All you said was that he was a computer nerd." Yoshie said simply.

"Exactly." I said sharply.

"He is." Yoshie said.

"Whatever." I said, turning and grabbing the door knob to leave the room. "Just you know that I'm not finished here. Not with you, and not with the relationship my daughter shares with your son. I'll put an end to it if it's the last thing I do."

I waited for her response, but it never came, so I looked over my shoulder and saw her squinting her eyes and looking toward the computer screen that seemed much brighter than it did before.

"What's going on?" I asked her, but she ignored me again, but this time she had a real reason. The room was suddenly engulfed in light and I felt a strange tug from under my navel as energy coursed through me.

Before I knew it, the light was gone and Yoshie was sitting on the floor next to me as many strange looking creatures bustled around a restaurant. My first thought was that I was at my daughter's restaurant since that's where I was headed afterwards, but there were no humans here. Just monsters.

Yoshie stood up next to me and stood back to back as we looked around, confused for a moment. I turned to her quickly to ask her what she had done, but gasped at the sight of her long luscious red hair. She looked to me and her eyes were wide and colourful. Her skin was clear and wrinkleless, she looked... beautiful.

"Satoe!" She gasped, "You look like you're only twenty one!" I couldn't help but smile. Wherever I was, this was a good place to be. It made me look even more beautiful than I already was!

"You look a little like an orangutan." I lied. She twisted up her face and then turned away from me, crossing her arms again. "Whatever," I said to her, stepping away, "I'm leaving. I'll find out where we are. You wait here and I'll probably not come back to find you." As I was walking, my large bag knocked something and I heard a loud smash, but didn't turn back to find out what it was.

I was busy weaving in and out of the tables, chairs and monsters as fast as I could to get out. I was so scared. These were the monsters who had tried to destroy Japan and America on numerous occasions, and here I was, watching them all have dinner.

As I threw open the heavy front door I let out a rather unbecoming scream. There was no ground! The building was floating! All there was as I looked out the door was a dark endless pit of darkness with what looked potentially like green walkways all over. Perhaps if I could just step onto one of them...

I sat down on the bottom step, just outside the door and reached my foot down toward the nearest green pathway. It was thin, but I thought I might be able to balance. Unfortunately my foot passed through the line as if it weren't even there. I groaned and stood up quickly, brushing the dust and dirt off of my tan jacket. I reached up and brushed my bangs out of my eyes and sighed. My hair was still perfectly in place though. So there was a plus.

"Who broke this!?" A loud growly voice asked from back through the door. I turned around and saw that an egg with two green feet and yellow glowing eyes was staring angrily at a broken vase.

Dammit. It was me... I'd broken it! I slipped behind the open door and hid as the entire restaurant fell silent.

"Who broke this!?" He asked again.

"It was the human." A higher voice said.

"YOU!" The egg yelled, "You broke my vase!?"

"I-I..." Yoshie stammered.

"The other human." The high voice corrected. "The one behind the door." Suddenly my entire body tensed up as I held my breath. I heard quick and heavy footsteps stumble toward the door, and soon an egg popped outside and spun around to look at me.

"YOU BROKE MY VASE!" He yelled, "YOU BROKE IT!"

"I'm so sorry!" I tried.

"Save it." The egg hissed. "You will work in my kitchens until you pay off your dept."

"I-I can't cook." I said slowly. "I don't know how!"

"I do." Both the egg and I looked toward the doorway where Yoshie was standing, her hand half-heartedly raised in the air. "I'll take her place and pay off the vase."

"No." The egg said. "You may both stay if you wish—but the one who broke the vase must stay!"

"Okay." Yoshie nodded, "We'll both stay until the vase is paid for."

I rolled my eyes. Why would Yoshie agree to that? I didn't want to stay and work here of all places! The restaurant looked like it was old and broken down! I couldn't be caught here! It would ruin my reputation. My reputation... that I didn't seem to really have. Not in... wherever this was anyway.

The egg nodded, "Very well." He said, "Follow me." He pushed past Yoshie and jumped back into the restaurant.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked Yoshie before she could follow the egg.

She looked almost angry for a moment, but she just sighed and shook her head, looking down at me from the top of the stairs. "You seem to think there is something wrong with me." She said kindly, "And I'm sure there is. I have flaws just like everyone else. But one of those flaws is not 'mean.' I'm not ruthless and I'm not cold hearted. And I'm not going to leave you here alone. No matter how much I currently dislike you."

That was actually kind of nice of her... perhaps I should have an internal intervention to debate my feelings for this woman. But I scrunched my nose up and glared at her. "Don't think this changes anything." I said before the two of us followed the egg into the restaurant.

_**Mari:**_

I really didn't understand why we were fighting. Apparently we were creating some sort of army of digimon, but I didn't understand why, and as far as I could tell, Hideto and Sigma didn't understand why either. Perhaps Neo knew. I honestly hoped he did, though it wouldn't surprise me if he had no plan in mind.

He never told us, either way. Not me anyway. I didn't want to do this anymore though... I had to get my own partner to do the deed for me because I was too scared... the look in the digimon's eyes as I injected them with the serum. It didn't hurt them, they were totally safe, but the fear... they were so scared. And I couldn't take that. Lalamon had to do it for me. I didn't want her to. I didn't want to do it at all but she told me that if both of us stopped them we'd be in trouble from Neo.

Which was a rather good point.

And so, as much as I wanted Lalamon to stop, and just to stay home with me... I couldn't have that happen. She had to go out and do what I was too weak to do.

I was a bad partner.

As I reached down to stir the stew I'd been preparing on the oven the door opened. I looked over my shoulder and saw Hideto closing it lightly behind him as his Gabumon and Agumon slipped through the door behind him, hanging his coat up and slipping out of his shoes before stepping into the kitchen. He smiled at me and then closed his eyes.

"I love when you cook." He said with a grin, smelling the air.

"Thank you?" I said.

"It just means that I don't have to!" He winked at me before falling into his chair and sighing. "Work is so exhausting. The new waitress Mimi hired is more sarcastic than I am, and I'm pretty sure she's smarter too, so I can't even seem bigger and better."

"Oh, muffin," I said sarcastically, "How _ever_ will you survive?"

"I have no clue." He said as though I were serious. "Plus that Jou dude brought his nut job of a daughter and she scared the crap out of these two." He motioned to his digimon who were sitting on either side of his chair, leaning against it, exhausted.

"She's crazy." Agumon agreed.

"Cute though..." Gabumon muttered.

"That's true." Agumon agreed, both of them practically slipping into a sleep.

"I'm almost done the stew," I told them, "You can have some if you'd like." Both of them perked up and looked to me as I moved to the cupboards and pulled out four bowls.

As I was pouring some stew into the bowls Hideto sighed, "I'm a lot happier now though."

"Oh?" I asked aimlessly. I hadn't realized he wasn't happy. He always acted so nonchalant about... everything.

"Yeah." He said, "Now that I'm not really anyone's side on this battle? I mean... I'd like to help Neo out, really I would, but I also like Mimi—she's really cool. But either way, staying out of the way is a lot easier, it's more fun, and people seem to like me more."

"Well I'm glad to hear that I guess," I said, as I spun around and placed two bowls on the table for Hideto's partners. I wasn't lying either. Now that Hideto wasn't really on anyone's side, perhaps the two of us could slip out of Neo's hold without too much trouble. I didn't want to leave really, but I also didn't want to keep doing all of these terrible things...

"And of course there's—" Hideto stopped suddenly. "Oh bother." He said, his shoulders slouching dramatically.

"What?" I asked, "What's wrong?" the door to the apartment burst open quickly and Sigma stepped inside, spinning around quickly and slamming the door behind him. He kicked his shoes off angrily and they flew through the room as he dropped his coat on the ground, storming into the room.

His mouth was curled into a vicious snare—but... why could I see his mouth? His mask was broken...

"Dude?" Hideto asked as Sigma stood in the center of the room, shaking, as Tapirmon floated by his side. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Sigma said through gritted teeth as he threw the bottom of his mask toward the table. It clanged loudly as it bounced and landed on the other end of the table. I quickly grabbed two more bowls from the cupboard and filled them with stew, I spun around and placed them next to Hideto. He could give it to him. He didn't like me very much. Tapirmon however flew straight to the bowl and began eating just as noisily as the other digimon.

"I lost." Sigma said quietly, and much less angrily.

"You lost?" I asked, shocked.

"That means you... fought." Hideto said, aghast. "How did it go?"

"HOW DO YOU THINK IT WENT?" Sigma burst, angrily. Hideto threw his hands up in defeat and grabbed the bowl of stew and handed it to Sigma. "Thank you Hideot..." Sigma said in his quiet voice.

"Thank Mari, actually." Hideto said. Sigma looked toward me with a glare, as expected, but then he suddenly smiled. I was so shocked that I couldn't even smile back. He turned to his place at the table and sat down with his stew. I quickly got him a spoon and hurried toward him to hand it to him.

And as he was eating, he quietly told us about his battle, and how just two of them had defeated him. But if he was defeated by two of them, how were we supposed to defeat them _all_? Neo's plans were growing less solid. What were we supposed to do now? Could he honestly expect us to win?

Maybe he didn't expect us to win?

Maybe... he was using us to buy himself time... what was he up to?

And for the third time that night the door was thrown open. I looked around sharply and saw Neo standing in the doorway. He kicked the door shut behind him and stepped into the kitchen, dragging snow from outside onto the floor. I turned from him and rolled my eyes, filling another bowl with stew and grabbing a spoon. I tried to hand it to him but he just stared at it with his eyebrows raised, so I handed it to Hideto who took it with a grin.

"I've heard of your failure." Neo said quietly, his eyes locked on Sigma. "I expected nothing more." Sigma and Tapirmon both glared at him, but he shook it off. "It's time for another one of you to step in." He said looking to me and then Hideto. "Soon. If we wait too long then they will have time to recuperate. Time to discuss and plan. Time to figure out _our _plan."

"And what is our plan exactly?" I asked.

He ignored me, "We need to keep knocking them back. One of you has to get out there."

"I don't even have my digimon with me." I said slowly.

"I don't really care." Neo said, "You need to find her, and you need to go fight one of them. Fight them all for all I care—just do it well." The look in his eyes was fiery, but so sincere. It was almost crazy to be honest, and it was scary. His finger was pointing directly in my face and he sighed. "I don't have time for this." He whispered, "If you don't follow through with my plan I will end whatever happiness you've found for yourself."

I knew exactly what he meant and I could only stare back. I knew what he was capable of.

"That goes for you too." He said, turning sharply on Hideto. "I'm leaving. You won't see me for a while because I'm actually useful and I'm going to move our plan along."

"_Your _plan." I corrected.

"What?" He asked me sharply.

"Well none of us know what's going on!" Hideto said, defending me, "How are we supposed to help? So stop calling us useless."

"Then prove to me you're not." He said, "Get out there, and stop the Digidestined from catching on."

And with that he spun around and fled the apartment leaving behind a puddle in his place. Hideto and I turned to each other, eyebrows raised. Neither of us wanted to be under his control anymore, and yet we both knew what he could do, and so... one of us had to get out there and do exactly as he said.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Ken finally has his eyes opened to his wife's condition, Kae and Natsuko make some headway on their own little quest, and Momoe tries to comfort a distraught Jun.


	16. Monkey Business

**Y/N:** Okay, this chapter was all mine. Unfortunately…. No. I'm kidding. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, or at least most of it. I still have this thing against writing as Ken for some reason that I do not understand, and since his was a big part in this chapter, it was almost like pulling teeth to get the words on the page, though I'm hoping that doesn't come across when you're reading it! In any case, please review and enjoy.

**U/N:** This is alllll my sister. And of course it had to be Ken's chapter-she has trouble with Ken due to her burning hatred for him. Just yesterday she asked me if we could tweak the story so Ken died. Yep. It's that bad. I personally really like Ken... and I think she does a good job at him sooooo yeah. Also Momoe and Kae xD They're cool too. You should all review and stuff-sorry this is late, and sorry it's not coming twice a week. We're stalling currently on a GIANT chapter coming up, and... well it's hard. Soooo anyway, yeah, sorry, but you should review and stuff

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 16: Monkey Business**

_**Ken:**_

It was rare these days, to get to spend a morning with my wife. I spent most of my time over at the police academy, pushing myself to the limit, trying to do the best work possible. I didn't want to disappoint anyone, and I especially didn't want to fail myself. I knew I could do it. I didn't need the Dark Spore like I did when I was a child. I was fully capable of accomplishing my goal. I wanted to be a police officer, and then, preferably, a detective afterwards. I wanted to help protect my world. I didn't have the greatest track record with the Digital World, but I'd protected it for years now. It was time to help protect the people of my own world too.

And I had a very childlike fascination with the idea of having a badge.

I couldn't help it. They were really cool!

But I didn't have any schooling to worry about, and no homework to speak of. And Miyako managed to finally have a day off that cooperated with my own. I was really looking forward to spending some time alone with her. I'd hardly seen her at all in the past few months. Outside of group meetings that is. We'd both attend them, showing up separately and, most of the time, leaving that way as well.

"The movie's about to start Ken," Miyako called from the doorway. I smiled at her. She looked tired, but she was smiling too. It was the first smile I'd seen in a long time, and it was beautiful.

"Then let's go," I said, loosely grabbing her wrist, and guiding her to the couch. I spun her under my arm, and she fell to the couch.

It would've been fun, except for the quiet yelp of pain she let out.

"Did I hurt you?" I asked immediately, trying to pin point the moment that I could have actually caused her harm.

"No," she lied. The light that was in her eyes when she'd smiled had gone out. She was weary again, and jumpy.

Warning lights were going off in my mind.

Her behaviour hadn't been normal for awhile now, but I'd been too afraid to ask her about it. I was afraid she'd say that we'd made a mistake, marrying too young. That it was exhausting her, and that we didn't see each other enough.

But, perhaps, I'd thought wrong. And I was afraid to find out just how wrong I had been.

"Miyako," I said slowly, taking her hand into my own. She tried to pull it away, which only made me surer that this was the source of her pain.

"Please," she whimpered, pulling again. But I held on firmly, pulling down the glove as I did so. I'd thought they were just a passing fad that she'd invented for herself. But with her reaction—the fear in her eyes—I knew that it wasn't the case. "Don't, Ken. Please. Don't."

With the glove out of the way, all that was left was to lift her sleeve. Silent tears started to fall down her cheeks. She kept shaking her head, begging me not to look. But I had to. Something was scaring her. She didn't want me to find out about it, and it made me angry with myself for not questioning her sooner.

I pulled her sleeve up her arm slowly and was horrified by what I saw. I nearly lost my breakfast at the sight of her mangled arm. How could I have not noticed this? The lines were distinct, and long. Some were healed enough to be curving lines of puckered pink skin. They would fade soon enough into scars. But others were still red and raw. They were fresher. From that morning maybe.

"Miyako," I asked pleading me. "What are these?"

"Ken," she cried, the feeble dam she'd built up breaking. "I didn't want you to worry. I didn't think it would matter. I'm working on it. I really am. Mari is helping me. Honest. I didn't want to tell anyone else. They'd think it was _you_ Ken. I couldn't let that happen."

"Then who was it?" I asked. My heart was pounding in my chest. _Please_ I begged silently. _Don't be you. Please don't be you._

"It wasn't you, I swear," she said. She was nearing hysterics now. "I'd tell you if it was, but it wasn't. I don't know who did it though, just that it wasn't you. I wake up like this Ken, I just wake up this way. I don't know anything else."

It could be the truth…

But it could be a lie.

Did she just not want to admit to doing something like that to herself? I needed to hear her say it. But she didn't seem to understand. She just kept rambling about waking up this way. I could see though, that she knew more than she was letting on. I didn't know how much she knew, but she wasn't telling me something.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, suddenly finding myself angry. I was angry at her for not telling me, for maybe being so miserable she'd resorted to mutilating herself instead of just telling me, for being able to act so well that I didn't see it from the start. And I was angry at myself for _not_ seeing it anyway. She was the woman I loved. She was my _wife_. How could I have missed something so crucial!

"I didn't want you to worry," she shrieked. "I wake up in places I wasn't before. I see images in mirrors Ken. People that aren't there! It's like I'm being haunted, Ken, or being hunted by a demon. And it's in the house! I've felt it squeezing my arm. I've seen the bruises appear out of thin air. Something is trying to kill me!"

Her panicked excuses weren't making any sense in my angry haze. I stood up and ran a hand through my hair and over my face.

"I need time," I said firmly, grabbing my coat off the back of our ratty couch. Mr and Mrs Inoue had given it to us after the wedding, having decided to get a new couch of their own. Someday, I hoped to make enough money to replace it. If we even lasted that long…

She'd been lying to me for who knew how long. Keeping something this important from me. And I couldn't tell what out of all she'd said was true. Was it a demon, or was that demon a part of herself? Did she really not know anything more, or was she trying to trick me into not stopping her? And why did she trust _Mari_ with the truth before me?

I forced myself to walk away before I started screaming the questions at her. I had to ignore her sobbing as I left the apartment, storming down the hallway, down the stairs and out the front door. I didn't know where I was going, but I needed to talk to someone. Someone that I trusted completely.

My first thought was Daisuke. We'd been best friends for ages. We hadn't spent much time together since the marriage, but then again, I hadn't spent much time with anybody. I put too much effort into my schooling. And he had Kurayami anyway.

I'd nearly decided that that was where I was going to go when I remembered what he said at our last meeting.

"_I need someone to keep an eye out for Sigma, and to keep track of Hideto," Taichi was saying. "We need to identify this third person." Everyone nodded, agreeing with him. "What about you Daisuke?"_

"_I can't," Daisuke said snapping back to attention. He'd never declined anything Taichi had asked before. He liked to be involved with everything. It was strange to see him so distracted in the first place. "I don't have time. I'm too busy to do anything. I barely have enough time to sleep, let alone stalk somebody. I even missed a few days with my noodle-cart. I can't afford to do that again."_

"_What's keeping you so busy?" Hikari asked confused. I was too. Daisuke wasn't one to put off his responsibilities. Not anymore anyway. Not since he'd left home really._

"_I'm just looking for someone," he said, passing it off like it was nothing. But we could tell it wasn't. "Or something…" he added in a murmur._

I couldn't distract him. He'd probably be angry later if he found out that I didn't tell him. He was almost as protective of Miyako as I was. Besides, Daisuke would probably kill me first, thinking it was my fault, and then ask questions later. But he needed to find whatever he was looking for. I didn't press him for information. I knew what it was like having a secret mission. I reached into my coat pocket and felt for the two crests I had in there. I hadn't made any progress with them. I still didn't know who they belonged to. Michael had the other three…

Michael.

I pulled out my D-Terminal and sent him a message. It was evening in New York, but it wasn't late, so I was sure he'd answer. And he did. Quite quickly really.

_Meet me in the Digital World._

I wondered where we were meeting though. There wasn't much left there. You know, aside from the buildings, and the digimon…and my mother. She was still there, somewhere. I hadn't found her in any of my searches. No matter how hard I tried, she eluded me.

I sighed, and headed to the library. There were computers there that I'd be able to use to get to my destination. And who knew, maybe I'd find my mother while I was at it. I was struck, yet again, by the desolation of the Digital World. The nothingness had taken over. It was as if someone had literally deleted most of what kept the Digital World in place. The mountains, the water, the sky. I felt bad for the water digimon that had no place to swim, and the fire digimon with no source of heat. The plant digimon had no vegetation, Toy Town had no colourful presence and Primary Village lacked its childlike joy.

I wouldn't find Wormmon on this trip. He was training at the Temple to become a Knight. He was very excited about it all. And I was proud of him for making it so far already.

"There you are," Michael called from behind me. "You'd think with nothing to block the view it'd be easier to spot people."

"Hi," I said sounding defeated. Betamon was at his side looking bored, but Michael had an ever present grin on his face. "How's your day been?"

"Not too bad," he said. "But we're not here for me. What's up?" he said. He was always able to see through the act. I supposed it was a side effect of his own acting career.

"Miyako," I admitted. "She's not herself anymore, and it's scaring me."

"Maybe it's just stress," Michael suggested.

"No," I said, feeling the anger bubbling beneath the surface. "It's not stress. She's keeping everything to herself. She never used to do that. We shared everything. But she's hurting herself and she thinks she's evil and I don't know what to do to help her, because she doesn't want _my_ help. Just Mari. Who the hell _is_ Mari really? She showed up conveniently after years of absence, just in time to help Miyako through some mysterious problem."

"Okay," Michael said interrupting me. "To be fair, you're keeping a secret from her. Granted, yours isn't detrimental to your heath, but it's still a secret. And maybe she wanted to prevent this. You're angry and confused and lost. She needs someone who isn't scared of losing her so much, you aren't stable in the situation. She needs someone she can lean on, something solid. Her friendship with this girl isn't as strong as the connection between Miyako and you. Maybe that's why it's easier."

"I am scared," I admitted. "There are two possibilities that stand out in my mind. Either we'll get a divorce because I'm somehow the cause of this which you know, wouldn't be so bad considering my mind is only accepting her death as the other possibility. And I can't handle that. Why do you think this is happening?"

"To be completely honest?" he asked. When I nodded he decided to continue. "It seems out of character for her to be doing this to herself. She's a strong willed person, and she _does_ have a tendency to panic over things. I doubt it's her, but I know it isn't you either. I don't know what's going on, I guess."

"She's not trying to kill herself?" I asked quietly. I needed to hear a confirmation.

"I don't think so, no," he said, patting me on the shoulder. "All that's left for you to do, is to figure out who's doing it to her. The thing's getting inside your house man."

"Look at that," Betamon said, sounding bored. Michael looked to him in annoyance, but I didn't mind. Michael had helped. I knew what I should be doing, and I was upset with my earlier reactions. Michael told me everything that I should have known from the start.

"What is it?" Michael asked rolling his eyes.

"It's a cave…I think," Betamon told him. "Right there."

I looked over not expecting to see anything. There was no ground, no rocks, how could there be a cave? But there was. Large spinning disks curved in the shape of a cave. The walls curved inwards, the ceiling arched. It really looked as though it was the lining of a cave.

"Should we look?" I questioned, kind of excited to see Betamon showing interest in…well, anything.

"Why not," Michael said with a shrug. "Unless you wanted to get back."

I thought about it. But shook my head. I wasn't ready yet. I needed time to let what Michael said sink in. And I also needed to give Miyako time to calm down too. I wouldn't be able to talk with her about it if she was mad with me.

We scrambled our way over to the cave lining, and pulled ourselves inside. I was amazed by what I saw. Through the centre of one disk, I saw a Rosemon hunting down a group of small digimon, injecting them with the serum. In another, I saw endless blankness. Perhaps they were merely windows.

"We should do something about that Rosemon," Michael commented before I could.

"Probably not," Betamon said with a sigh.

I turned to look at him in confusion, but something caught my eye. It was a woman. She dressed like my mother, but she looked far younger than she should. The woman that was with her could pass as Takeru's sister though, so I knew it had to be Ms Takaishi. What bothered me most though, was the two powerful looking digimon that they were walking with.

"Mom," I called. Her head turned, but she was looking around her without any luck. She couldn't see the cave! "Mom."

"What's wrong, Kae?" Ms Takaishi asked.

"Nothing," mom said softly. "I thought I just heard something."

"Nothing's here," the green, wolf-like digimon leading them declared. "Keep moving."

"Whatever," Ms Takaishi said, rolling her eyes at him.

"No," I said. "Mom."

She wasn't listening to me. I had to get to her. I ran out of the cave, only to find that she wasn't there.

"Mom!" I screamed.

"She can't hear you," Betamon said with a laugh. "Are you stupid or something?"

"Betamon," Michael hissed.

"Sorry," Betamon said sarcastically. "But you can't blame me. It was obviously a seeing cave. It shows you what's going on across the Digital World. Gennai and his people used to use these all the time. The Dark Masters did too, come to think of it."

"So she's still somewhere out there," I muttered. "With two digimon and Takeru's mom. I don't like this."

"We'll find them," Michael reassured me. "Sooner or later anyway. They'll be fine. You guys had to get your skills from somewhere right?"

"Maybe," I said. "Though I wish I got some of Dad's problem solving abilities. He'd have figured out who these belonged to already." I pulled the two crests out of my pocket and looked down at them, laying on my open hand.

Something jumped at me, knocking me over though, and the crests went flying.

"No!" I gasped.

"Catch them!" Michael shouted.

Whatever tackled me let out a snicker, as if it was highly entertained. I looked to see a green…monkey? It was wearing a leopard print toga, and had a sly grin on its face. It reached into the air, and caught the crests with one hand.

My heart dropped to my stomach. I'd lost the crests. To a tiny, green, monkey.

"Betamon," Michael said firmly. "You have to beat it."

"In a second," Betamon said. He was using his fin to pick at his teeth. I didn't have time to wait for him to finish. I threw myself toward the monkey. It jumped into the air, before landing, _hard_, on the back of my head, sending me flying downwards.

"I've got it!" Michael called, having caught its foot in his hands as it tried to leap over him. The digimon decided to use its tail as a weapon, and smacked Michael in the face with it. Once. Twice. It took three times before Michael had to let go.

And then the monkey was gone.

"Okay," Betamon said. "I'm ready. Where is it?"

"Gone," Michael told him with a glare to which Betamon ignored and, if it were possible, shrugged his shoulders.

"Now what?" I asked. "Meiyomon is going to kill us. Because of a stupid, green monkey."

"To be fair, he's going to kill _you_," Michael said sounding far more hopeful than I was comfortable with. "I didn't lose mine."

"Maybe not, but he'll blame you too," I growled. "And Betamon, for not even trying to help!"

"I was busy," Betamon insisted. "Or else I would've helped."

"I have to go," I said. "Today is not a good day. I'm going to go to bed and pretend like nothing has happened."

"Isn't it a little early?" Michael questioned, but I'd already opened a gateway to leave, and done so. And perhaps he was right. It _was_ only a little after lunch. But I was done for the day. My wife was keeping terrible secrets, my mother didn't even want to be saved, and a monkey stole two of the crests. I needed to think things through, and hopefully get a better start in the morning.

I came into Earth through the computer in our home 'office'. It was a small computer stand with a laptop on it. We had a mostly empty bookcase beside it, and a small table and a folding chair in the corner where I did my studying. It wasn't much, but it was home. I hadn't thought much of the quiet that was surrounding my home. To be honest, I figured Miyako probably stormed out too, going to find _Mari_, since she could trust her with her secrets and well-being.

I was surprised to find her still on the couch. She was asleep, with shining tear stains on her cheeks. I felt like such a jerk when I realized she'd cried herself to sleep, most likely because of me. She didn't look peaceful in her slumber though. She was flinching away from something in fear. I'd come home at just the right time to bear witness to a nightmare. Something I was afraid wasn't as seldom of an occurrence as it should've been. How could I have slept next to her without even _once_ hearing her whimper as she was then?

"Don't," she mumbled in her sleepy haze. "Hurts."

"Miyako," I whispered, running my fingers through her hair. I tried to be as gentle as I could, desperately trying to coax her out of her fearful slumber.

"Leave me alone," she pleaded. Well, I was sure that was what she was saying. Her words were slurred together in sleep. "Why are you doing this?"

"Miyako," I said, louder this time. She still didn't wake.

"No!" she screamed. "Go away."

"Miyako," I called out. "Wake up!"

She gasped, and her body relaxed momentarily before giving way to her shaking. She was crying, but she was awake now. That was something at least.

"Ken," she cried, grabbing my hand and clutching it between her own. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I was scared. I'm sorry. You have to help me. Please? I'm so sorry. I need you. Please help me."

She was sobbing, and her words were overcome by her shaky breaths. I took my free hand, and pulled her against my chest, stroking her hair and murmuring against the top of her head.

"I will," I promised. "Any way I can."

_**Kae:**_

I knew my mind was playing tricks on me, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it really _had_ been my son calling to me. I couldn't spot him though. I didn't dare voice my suspicions to Natsuko however. She was a journalist. She liked hard facts and evidence, and I had neither. It didn't help that I was certain that Volcanusmon and Merukimon wouldn't believe me either.

"Are we getting close?" Natsuko asked after awhile.

"Nearly there," Volcanusmon said happily.

I was nervous. I had been in a battle before, but it was just one enemy, and I was part of a large group. We outnumbered Wisemon. There was no telling how many digimon had banded together while taking Coronamon. Only Lunamon could tell us that, but Lunamon was left behind. And Merukimon rarely spoke. Volcanusmon was our only source of information—because we'd been deemed unworthy of knowing the location—and he didn't seem to think we would understand even if we were told.

To some extent, I agreed. I only knew vague images of the Digital World. None of that helped when the Digital World was imageless.

I wished Ken were here to help me.

"Nearly _where_ exactly?" Natsuko asked. Volcanusmon's shoulders—all of them—tensed. I supposed she asked exactly the question he was hoping she wouldn't. I wouldn't have expected any less from such a successful journalist.

"None of your concern," he said casually, as if he hoped she wouldn't push for more. He clearly didn't understand what she did for a job.

"So you wouldn't mind if I went off on my own?" she said, eyebrow raised.

"You can't," he insisted.

"I thought so," she said wryly. "So why don't you tell me where you're _really_ taking us. Because I can tell you're planning something. And I'd just like to remind you, that ever second you waste on your stupid plan adds up, and little Coronamon might not have all that long."

Merukimon growled at what she was implying.

Volcanusmon quieted him with two of his arms, while another set crossed over his chest.

"We've arrived," he said, using yet another arm to gesture to a fuzzy patch of the endless darkness. "You first?"

"This doesn't look like an evil digimon hangout," Natsuko told him firmly.

"I want to save Coronamon as quickly as possible," I told them. "We can't waste time."

"Precisely what I was thinking," he said. "Now hurry up. We don't have any time to waste after all."

"Where does this lead?" I questioned.

"Now who's wasting time?" he queried.

"You still," Natsuko said. "Because this won't lead us anywhere near Coronomon. Will it?"

"No," Merukimon said quickly. "It will take you home. Now go."

I paused. Home. I really could go. I wouldn't be involved in any sort of danger. I'd be back with my husband, who was probably thinking the very worst about my disappearance. I could find Ken, and tell him about Coronamon, and have him take care of the little guy.

But it could be too late by the time that happened.

It would be my fault if that poor little digimon got hurt, or worse.

"No," I said. "We promised to help. And we're going to."

"You go Kae," Natsuko cheered, sounding far too surprised for my liking.

"No," Merukimon said. "This is safer. The digidestined will want you safe."

"We're the parents," Natsuko said firmly. "We make the rules. And we say no."

"Enough," Volcanusmon said grabbing my wrist and throwing me towards the hole. Natsuko was quick, however, to catch my other hand, keeping me from falling in entirely.

"I've got you," she insisted. I wasn't so sure though. Volcanusmon didn't look to happy to have been bested by a human—especially since she only had _two_ arms, instead of eight, like him.

"Then who's got you?" I asked. Watching as he came closer. Preparing to push us both through. Clearly it didn't matter to him that we were planning to help his friends. He wanted us safe. I couldn't blame him for that. But we didn't want it. We just wanted to help.

I squeezed my eyes shut as he pushed her, preparing for the rough journey that would bring me back to earth and was therefore unprepared for his cry.

"Hurry," a small voice said. I opened my eyes, and found Lunamon standing before me.

"Lunamon," Natsuko said happily. She took the tiny digimon's hand and we ran off, before Volcanusmon could get his footing back. Merukimon thankfully didn't seem to care whether we went home or not, and did not follow after us.

I was glad the Digital World had put me back in my prime. I didn't care too much that I was prettier now—though it did cross my mind, this was around the age that I met my husband after all—but I did care that I was fitter. After having two children and losing one of them…I wasn't in the best shape. The years of battling the depression of losing Osamu took their toll on me, and I'd done nothing to combat the changes.

"We'll circle around," Lunamon said. "They won't be expecting that. Then we can save Coronamon. If you still want to, I mean."

"We want to," I said firmly.

"I want to help you," Natsuko agreed. Lunamon gave her the brightest smile I'd ever seen on the digimon's face, and sent a nod in my direction, before leading us off into the unknown.

_**Momoe:**_

"I hate you."

That was not the greeting I expected to receive from my very best friend. Especially because I didn't think I did anything to deserve it. And we were in public. A coffee shop to be exact. I tried very hard to ignore the curious stares on onlookers.

"Hello to you too," I said sarcastically. I loved my daughter, I really, truly did, but I was so looking forward to a day of relaxation with Jun. And I was a little—okay, a lot—disappointed that it didn't seem like I'd get it. Running after a two—almost three—year old was exhausting. And trying to get a job on top of all of that was hard. Jun was supposed to fill me in on meaningless gossip that I didn't care about and tell me all about her and Shuu, and everything she knew about that Aimi woman that Jou's father was dating. She was not, however, intended to rant at me, making my day of rest more tedious than any other day.

"Seriously though," Jun said angrily. "Okay. So maybe it's not _you_ exactly, but there's got to be something wrong with you right? Or else Jou would've already proposed to you ages ago."

"What?" I asked clearly having heard incorrectly. She hated me, not for something I did, but because I wasn't married. What?

"Shuu and I have been together for ages. At the three year mark, I started thinking we might be able to last in a marriage, and at the five year mark, I was pretty sure he thought the exact same way. The seven year mark I was impatiently waiting for him to pop the question, but this! It's been nine years. _Nine_! And so I asked him, you know, if he was ever going to ask me to marry him. I'm kind of impulsive see, so I didn't think that through entirely, but he didn't take it the wrong way, so that's fine. But he said he wants to marry me," she ranted. "He _does_, but he _can't_."

"What does this have to do with hating me?" I asked. I felt for her though. She wanted marriage, she wanted the white gown and the bouquets, and she wanted to walk down the aisle of a church with her family looking at her. She wanted the whole shebang. I knew she was a little miffed that my baby sister beat her down the aisle, but I just could not understand why she was mad that I _hadn't_.

"It's because of that damn man of yours," she shouted. "Shuu said he can't marry me, because he promised Jou that he could get married first."

"When was this?" I asked, my heart picking up the pace. If it was recent, that meant he was planning something, meant he'd changed his mind. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited by the very idea of it. I wanted the same thing as Jun, but I already had a daughter, a family with the man I loved. I wasn't as impatient as she was. We were already living the dream, the marriage papers seemed almost trivial in some ways. But in others, it was a piece of paper that legally bound us together. Sometimes I wondered if Jou wanted that binding, or if he was happier without it, keeping our opportunity of freedom open, should either of us feel we needed it.

I knew I didn't, but I worried that he might. I worried that _that_ was the reason he'd yet to ask me. I didn't even want it for my parents, who hounded me nonstop about 'making an honest woman out of me' and for Emiko's sake. I didn't care what they thought. I wanted it for myself and for Jou, because I loved him with everything I had.

"That's the kicker," Jun said loudly. She was getting really worked up about it. "Jou was seven! He was seven, and Shuu _still_ keeps that promise. What seven year old wants to get married? Aren't girls supposed to have cooties or something?"

I was disappointed that it wasn't a more recent promise, but it was kind of an adorable situation. I could just picture Jou, seven years old, staring his brother in the eye with a serious look on his face demanding a promise from him that he'd get to get married before him. I couldn't stop a bubble of laughter from escaping. But the glare on Jun's face kept me from laughing outright.

"It's not funny," Jun cried. "I told him that it shouldn't matter what promise he made. Jou shouldn't even remember it, but then he pulled out this."

She shoved a laminated piece of paper into my face. I sighed but took it from her. I looked at what appeared to be a contract, drafted in crayon. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing again. It was signed by both Jou and Shuu and declared that Jou was the first of the three Kido boys to be allowed to get married. It was even dated. If I thought correctly, the contract had to have been drafted the day that their mother died. That alone would keep any of the boys from going against it.

"It looks legit to me," I told her. "I don't know what you want me to do about it."

"Get down on your damn knee and propose to him if you have to," she said. "But I've been waiting nearly a decade to marry this man, and if Jou doesn't get his head out of his ass and marry you soon, well, I just don't see how your relationship can last."

"Are you threatening to break us up if he doesn't propose?" I asked with a snicker.

"Well, if he doesn't want to marry you, then you're not the one," she sighed. "And I'll have to hunt down the right girl to take your place and then I won't get to be the maid of honour in the wedding I have all planned for the two of you and it'll suck, but he'll be married, and then _I_ can be married."

"You have it planned?" I asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"To the last tiny detail," she told me solemnly. "And everything can be ready in a week, just to move things along. I brought my binder if you're interested."

She pulled a three inch binder out of a bag and dropped it on the table that rested between us. A couple at a nearby table looked over, curious at the big binder. My face flushed red and I tried to sink under the table.

"What do you think?" she questioned.

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself," I said with a sad little sigh. "Jou doesn't even want to get married. He said so a little while ago. I'd thought he might have changed his mind, what with the contract, but you'll have to convince him that he wants it, not me. Because I already do."

"Jou does too," she insisted with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "He just doesn't know it yet. But it'll happen, and soon. It has to."

I found myself wishing for the same thing.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Mimi faces off against a member of Alias III, and Sora makes an important discovery of her own. We meet Sigma, and Hiroaki and Rei find themselves under difficult circumstances.


	17. Flower Power

**Y/N:** Wow, okay. This is Mimi's chapter…and then over the course of writing the second arc (also known as Arc 1, part 2), we realized just how little planning we put into this arc, leaving us to struggle and fit everything in and make sense of things… and so there were more parts added. Now Hiroaki was supposed to be here too, right from the start, but everything else is extra, because of the plot inconsistencies we were getting. Arcs 3-5 are plotted down to ridiculously detailed points, so you won't have to worry about that, not that you would anyway, but I digress. This chapter is long, and I hope you enjoy it. Leave us a review if you can, thanks.

Also, in going with the new updates on the site, we were wondering, who would you guys think deserves to be listed in the characters for this story? We can chose up to four now, and since we've only got two, Taichi and Daisuke, we wanted to let you guys help pick the other two. Let us know?

**U/N:** So, I'm not a hundred percent sure what this chapter was about. I'm looking at the list of narrators and can't pull something up. Anyway, I'm sure it was decent. Which isn't good on a scale from decent to actually good. But since it's the second half of arc two which we knew was going to be rough, I don't really expect much out of it. That's blunt... but true. This whole arc is sketchy, and wobbly, and if you poke something on it, the whole thing would collapse. Sorry about that. We're just about done writing it though, so we'll be back on track after that. Thank God. But i do hope you like this chapter, aaaaaand review?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 17: Flower Power**

_**Hiroaki:**_

It had been five days since Natsuko had been taken into the Digital World. She had Kae Ichijouji of course, but even so, it wasn't safe for her. I couldn't actually be sure about that though. For one, I'd never been to the Digital World. Yamato and Takeru had told me that it was unsafe—but when they had told me that, they were children. Natsuko was a fully grown woman who constantly surprised me with things that I didn't know about her. It was almost as if she were a box of secrets, slowly letting me find more clues to figure out the real her.

But were the clues coming too slowly? If I knew the real her then perhaps all of the fighting and issues would start rising less frequently.

Even with all of the fighting though, I loved her. It was a much different kind of love than it had been when we had first met, but it was still love. And I needed to find her... but... I wasn't motivated.

I wanted to be motivated to find her—and I suppose it wasn't that I didn't want to—it was that I didn't know how. And so all I could do was wait patiently.

Or impatiently, which is more accurate to what I had been doing.

There had to be a way to find her. To get to the Digital World and search for my girlfriend. It felt weird to be calling her that. It had been a while since we had started dating though, but I was still use to 'wife' or 'ex-wife'. Either way I had to find her.

The only clue I had to get to the Digital World was a small device that sat on my desk next to the computer almost one hundred percent of the time. And of course my own Digital partner Wizardmon. The problem with the second clue was that he was missing too. Without a word he had left one night, and hadn't returned since. I was a little concerned, but less about him and more about Natsuko. He was a champion level Digimon after all, and thus, could protect himself.

Over the course of the past three years my relationship with everyone around me had changed so much. Yamato, who once seemed to truly love me as a father had abandoned me, and refused to speak or see me most days. Takeru, who I rarely used to see, was around much more often with his mother having moved into my own home. Though lately Takeru had been missing, gone really. I hadn't seen him in such a long time, though I wasn't worried about him. I knew he was travelling the world. He was a lucky kid. Natsuko and I had grown closer obviously, and I couldn't have been happier. Well... maybe, I wasn't really sure. And Kae, and Toshiko and Haruhiko Takenouchi had become very close friends of mine. Kazuya Ichijouji sometimes joined us, but he often liked to remain alone. I supposed that was where his son got it from.

Because of all of these changes, I had only one household to turn to in my hour of need.

The Takenouchi's. It had been Budmon who had answered the telephone upon my calling, though I wasn't totally sure how he had managed to take the call without any hands, I didn't complain, I needed help.

Sure it was obvious what I needed help with, since Toshiko was the one who had witnessed the disappearance of Kae and Natsuko in the first place, but I had initially told her not to worry. I'd told her that I'd figure it out. I'd find her. And I told her not to worry.

But I couldn't find her. I had no leads. My son's weren't available, and so maybe one of them knew what to do, and if not, then Sora. She'd lived with me for a while, but I hadn't seen more than a handful of times since. Would she be willing to help me? I could only hope.

And so when I heard knocking on the door I jumped instantly and ran to it, pulling it open.

"Hello!" I said quickly, motioning for both of my friends to come inside. Toshiko smiled to me politely, and quickly rushed through the door, Budmon held tightly in her arms. Haruhiko looked rather awkward about the whole situation, and followed Toshiko inside.

"What do you need help with?" Toshiko asked, spinning around quickly. Didn't she know? I figured it would be obvious.

"I need to find Natsuko." I told her quickly, her face didn't change though so I knew she really did know what I had needed her help with.

"Do you have any idea where she is?" She asked.

"Well, just what you've told me." I replied. "The Digital World. The problem is that I don't know how to get there."

"Through the computer." Haruhiko said, "It's really quite simple. I can show you how—hasn't Wizardmon showed you yet?"

"I don't know where Wizardmon is at the moment." I told him sharply. He threw his hands in the air and I realized I was acting harshly. I often did so as the stress took over. I had to find Natsuko, and fast. I_ did_ have a job to worry about as well. I couldn't get fired.

"Well let's go to the Digital World then." Haruhiko said.

"We can't just go in!" Toshiko said. "We've never been to the Digital World, do _you_ know your way around?" There was a small silence as Haruhiko shook his head and backed down a little, but Budmon cleared his throat. Or her throat. Huh... I had no idea what gender that little thing was supposed to be.

"I have." Budmon said. "I mean, not a lot. I was sent to Earth in the Chaos three years ago when I was just a hatchling really. I'd hardly had time to explore, but I think I could maybe find my way around... a little."

"Maybe if we had one of the kids?" I asked, ignoring Budmon's thoughts. He... She... Budmon was a nice digimon, and was trying to help, clearly, but I wasn't going to let saving Natsuko fall upon the slim chance that Budmon would know the way.

"What about Takeru?" Toshiko asked.

"Last I heard of him he was in Egypt." I groaned.

"Yamato?" Haruhiko tried.

"Won't talk to me." I told them, I could see Haruhiko about to ask why, but he stopped at Toshiko's glare. She was a really good friend, and could read me really well... I would call it woman's intuition, but Natsuko didn't seem to have it.

"Sora is always available I suppose," Toshiko said, "She'd be more than happy to help... I'll go call her." She turned to her husband and thrust Budmon into Haruhiko's arms.

Toshiko stepped out of the room and instantly Haruhiko asked me a question. "Where's Wizardmon?"

"I told you I don't know." I said quickly. "Where's Centarumon?"

"Somewhere in the Digital World with Taichi Yagami." Haruhiko said. "He's part of a council. My digimon has a job. Does yours?"

Was he actually bragging about this right now? He often would bring up subjects about how talented Sora was as if I didn't believe him, or as if she wasn't good enough for me because my son was famous all over Japan. But I wasn't saying Sora was worse, I never really mentioned my kids. Now he was trying to make his digimon out to be better than mine.

I shook my head.

"Centarumon also has been alive since the start of the Digital World." Haruhiko said, "He'd probably know his way around the Digital World. Maybe we could just find him and ask him to look for Natsuko?"

I wanted to ask him why he hadn't _already_ asked him to do that, but Toshiko entered the room again, drawing both of our attention.

"Sora's at work. She's busy until four." Toshiko said, "She can help us then."

"I can't wait that long." I said biting my tongue and thinking. Suddenly Rei popped into my mind. She was friends with Yamato as a child, and again now, perhaps she knew of the Digital World. She didn't before, not when the worlds had combined, but maybe she got more information from my son and the others. Maybe she knew her way around.

Without a word to the others I stepped toward my computer and grabbed the device that controlled Wizardmon or whatever it did, and threw open the front door.

I knocked on the door directly across the hall without hesitation and waited for a moment as Toshiko and Haruhiko stepped outside my home and closed the door. I listened through the door, but there was no sound.

I knocked again and then I heard a faint voice. It faded a little, so I knocked again on the door until I could hear a clear voice. "Help!"

I looked back to the others, but they clearly hadn't heard the voice. But I knew what _I _had heard, and so I turned the door knob and pushed the door open. I was thankful that it was not locked, though I couldn't imagine why.

"Is this legal?" Toshiko asked in a whisper as she followed me into the house.

"Are we criminals now?" Budmon asked in an excited whisper, "Are we gonna be on that show you watch? The one with the police guys?"

"Shhh!" Toshiko hissed as Haruhiko took the rear and closed the door again.

"Rei?" I asked in a quiet voice. "Rei are you home?"

"Help!" I heard it again, and this time I knew I wasn't alone.

"Was that Rei?" Toshiko asked. I nodded and quickly followed the voice. "Rei?" Toshiko called out.

"I'm in here!" I turned back and saw, through an open doorway, Rei was on her chair, and there was something sticking through the wheels. "Hiroaki!" She gasped at the sight of me. "Toshiko!"

"Budmon!" Budmon added quickly.

"Neo is just getting the mail. You have to go!" She said, "Come back at later and help me! Please!"

"Rei, _what_ is going on?" I asked her.

"Long version or the short version?" She asked.

"Whichever..." I said quietly.

She nodded, "Well, my brother is crazy and is trying to take over the Digital World, but he isn't a liar, and so I asked him—"

"How about I take you up on that offer of the short version?" I asked.

"That_ was_ the short version." Rei said before freezing suddenly. I knew why too. She had heard the door opening.

"I'm back!" It was her brother's voice. "I forgot to lock the door. I'm sorry if anyone came in and robbed us while I was gone."

"Nope everything is still here!" Rei called back. "Exactly where you left it. Stuck in one place. Forever."

Neo laughed from the kitchen, "You're so dramatic. Not forever! We can play a game or something when I'm done my work for today."

"Okay!" Rei said clearly annoyed.

I looked back to Toshiko and Haruhiko who were frozen on either side of the doorway. I looked to the left and saw a computer sitting at the other side of the room. Haruhiko suddenly pointed to my hand and I looked down to the device and then back to him. He pointed to the computer and then slowly stepped toward me, dragging me to the computer. I looked over my shoulder where Toshiko was slowly slipping the stopper from Rei's wheels. I watched as she slowly set it on the ground and stood up, and out of Rei's way.

The two girls followed us to the computer. Toshiko moved quickly, but Rei's chair hit a box on the way by causing another box to fall off of the top of it. We all froze and stared at it for a moment.

"What was that?" Neo called. He didn't wait for a response though. His footsteps were drawing nearer.

Haruhiko grabbed my wrist and threw it into the air where it began to glow, encompassing the whole room in light.

"Rei!" I looked over my shoulder to where Neo was standing in the doorway. Suddenly the world around me was being distorted as I was dragged through a tight, buzzing tunnel. And then, with a _whoosh_ I was surrounded by darkness, falling. Around me were thin green gridlines that outlined the shape of a cliff as I fell past it.

I was in shock. My first impression of the Digital World could _not_ have gone worse.

I looked above me to where a chair was flying through the air behind me with no girl inside. Rei was falling next to her chair with Toshiko, Budmon and Haruhiko not far behind.

"**Budmon digivolve to... Mushroomon!**" I looked directly at the glowing ball as it grew into an angry punk styled mushroom creature. It shot its own hand out of its socket with a strange vine keeping them together. The hand punctured the darkness, or so it seemed, and Mushroomon swung through the air, grabbing Toshiko and Haruhiko as he swung toward me, hitting me right in the stomach and the four of us fell toward the cliff and landed softly on what seemed to be an invisible ledge.

My first thought was to rush to see if I could find Rei. I saw her and her chair falling endlessly, and I made to turn back to Mushroomon but a large bird-like creature flew past me suddenly, Neo on its back. Soon it had caught Rei and was flying back upward, and out of the crevasse.

"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!" Was all Rei could manage as her brother took her away.

"Dear God these children have complicated lives." Toshiko said with Mushroomon sitting in her lap as she watched one of the most confusing things that could possibly happen unfold in front of her. Rei's brother had kidnapped her? Trapped her in her own house, and then we had gone through the computer to a land of darkness where a giant bird kidnapped her again after falling off a cliff. Not to mention both Haruhiko and Toshiko looked no older than my own son suddenly.

"I just don't really understand... how she got here." Haruhiko said.

"What do you mean?" Mushroomon asked.

"She doesn't have a digivice." Haruhiko explained, "She shouldn't have been brought with us."

"Well," I said, "I've seen that girl's legs miraculously heal, and then fail once more. There's something extraordinary about that girl."

_**Mimi: **_

I couldn't believe them. Even Koushiro. Especially Koushiro! Why could they not see that I didn't do anything wrong? Yes, it turned out that Genki was Hideto. Hideto actually suited him a lot better when I thought about it. It made perfect sense. So what if he was a bad guy though. He didn't want to be one. Wasn't that a step in the right direction? Ken wanted to be a bad guy until he decided randomly that he would suddenly join our side. Kurayami was evil, and then she was good, and then she was evil again, and now she was good again. Hideto at least knew what side he _wanted_ to be on. He was just stuck.

He wouldn't tell his boss—who I secretly hoped really _was_ Neo—anything that went on during our meetings. Not that he could actually hear them. He wore ear plugs!

But no. That wasn't enough for the others. They wanted me to fire him, just because he made a couple bad decisions in the past and he stole Yamato's Gabumon. So what? It wasn't like he came up with idea. No. That was his boss—hopefully Neo. And Yamato didn't even notice for weeks. Who seemed like the worse person there?

_And_—this is the real kicker—they decided I was a liability because of my loyalty to my new friend, and therefore banned me from attending meetings. I wasn't allowed to know what was going on in the Digital World, "just in case" Hideto decided to let his boss know our plans.

So I was stuck wandering around the Odaiba mall on my first day off in a month, because I wasn't allowed to go home.

"_It would be best if you stayed away from the house tomorrow," Koushiro had told me. "We probably won't need it, but just in case."_

"_You're siding with them!" I realized in horror._

"_It's just _one_ meeting, Mimi," he said pulling me into a hug—probably because he knew it would make me more agreeable. "We're just testing a theory."_

"_Yours or _Sora's_," I said, sneering her name._

"_I wish you'd just get along," he said softly. "She's my best friend Mimi. You've got plenty of friends, and I put up with all of them."_

I snorted at the memory. Friends. Yeah, right. Sora was totally over Yamato, and she wasn't all that into Neo. Not if she was spending so much time with Koushiro. He was just too adorably naïve to understand what she was doing. She was trying to take him away from me. She'd set us up, and after realizing what she was missing out on, she decided to take a different tactic.

"Mimi?" Palmon asked by my side.

"Yeah Palmon," I said, stopping my tirade of cursing Sora long enough to answer her.

Okay. So there was _one_ good thing to come out of this day. One single good thing. And that was that I got to spent so much extra time with Palmon. Now that the digimental of Purity was at its place in the Temple, Palmon was allowed to come to Earth whenever she wanted. And until today, I hadn't had any time off to spend with her when she would come.

"Why do you hate Sora?" she asked.

"I don't hate her," I said.

"I can tell when you're lying," she told me. "Because you're always honest about your opinions, and about yourself. I don't like it when you lie. But I also don't like that you hate Sora."

"I don't _hate_ her per say," I insisted. "I just don't like her much. Because she's stealing my boyfriend."

"Isn't she his best friend?" Palmon asked. I groaned. Not her too! "And Jou is your best friend, right? Or Hideto. Either way, it doesn't matter. But does Koushiro hate them?"

"He doesn't hate Jou," I decided. "I can't be sure about Hideto. Apparently he's inherently evil."

"Oh," she said. "Humans are hard to understand. I'm really glad I'm a digimon."

"I'm glad you're _my_ digimon," I said with a smile.

"I'm happy about that too, Mimi," she said happily. She was happy at least. That was an upside in this mess. And we were shopping. I could think of worse ways to spend the time I was forced to stay away from everybody. We'd taken a break from the mall itself, and were walking through the small park just outside.

"I wish we could be at the meeting," Palmon said with a sigh. "I want to help save my home."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "But I'm not firing Hideto."

"I don't expect you to," she told me. "And the others shouldn't either."

"Thank you!" I shouted. Finally, someone knew right from wrong. I couldn't fire him. He'd need to get another job, with someone that didn't know about digimon, and then he'd have trouble explaining why he wasn't able to go to work on time or whatever. And his roommate worked at the library or something, so she wouldn't be able to support them on her own.

"Mimi?"

It was a call from someone ahead of us. Her voice was vaguely familiar. I couldn't place it exactly, but I may have panicked a bit.

"Get in that bush!" I told Palmon, shoving her into the plant.

"Fine," Palmon said. "No need to be pushy."

"Hi Mimi," the girl said. She was a little breathy too, of course I doubted it was because she'd freaked out and stuffed her digital partner into a large bush.

"Hello…Mari?" I guessed.

"Oh good," she said. "You remember me."

"Totally," I said awkwardly. She was just standing there. I didn't know what to do. I barely knew her, and the last time I saw her, I'd vowed to take revenge on Sora…

"That tends to happen you know," she said airily. "People tend to remember their betters."

Oh no she didn't!

"Who do you think you are?" I demanded, instantly angry.

"I don't think," she said smugly. "I _know_. And I know you too. You're easy to manipulate. You're eager to prove that you're better than Sora. But you can't. Because you aren't. If you were, maybe your boyfriend would be willing to spend some time with you. And your friends wouldn't be willing to keep you out of their meetings."

"You…you know about that?" I asked.

"Of course I do. You aren't the only one with loose lips. Willis could stop himself once he'd found 'Rebecca'. It was so easy," she bragged. "And Miyako tried not to, but the things she'd say…she didn't leave much to the imagination."

"They're making fun of me?" I asked horrified.

"What are you even talking about?" she said, dropping the act she had before. "Do your friends hate you?"

"I thought that was what you were saying…"

"No," she said. "I was trying to be ominous."

"Ominous about what?" I asked confused.

"Seed Shot!"

"Ow!" Palmon shouted.

"What was that?" Mari asked.

"Nothing," I said sharply.

"Really?" she said with a smirk. "Because to me, it sounded like my digimon was kicking your digimon's butt."

"You have a digimon?"

"You really aren't catching on to this whole I've-been-a-member-of-Alias-III-all-along thing I'm trying to pull off, are you?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"You're a member of Alias III!" I shouted.

"God, you really are hopeless," she said rolling her eyes. "I wonder what that boy sees in you."

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon shouted, attacking the unseen digital partner of Mari. I wondered what it was. Was _she_ the one with the Rosemon Koushiro and I had spotted? Or was there another human running around the Digital World wreaking havoc?

"Lala…Spiral!" the digimon—female I decided—struggled to shout. Palmon let out a strangled yell, and fell out of the bush onto her back. A pink and green floral monstrosity—which might've been cute, but wasn't solely because she was trying to beat up my partner—came out of the bush after her.

"He values brain power doesn't he?" Mari continued as if our digimon weren't fighting right beside us. I took that as a sign. She wanted to fight too. She wasn't going to leave it to her digimon. And I was going to rise to the challenge.

"And you're the one who _doesn't_ have a boyfriend," I reminded her. "How's your dating advice working for you?"

She raised her eyebrow at me.

"Is that the best you've got?" she asked. I shrugged. I didn't know enough about her to target any insecurity she might have had. I needed to come up with a different plan.

"Mimi," Palmon called out, desperate to digivolve, as she dodged another Seed Shot, jumping over the nuts that the pink abomination was spewing at her.

"Beautiful isn't she?" Mari said. "Lalamon is the perfect digimon. Yours is a weed in comparison."

"Hey," I snarled. "Palmon, go for it!"

"**Palmon digivolve to… Togemon!**"

"Wow," Mari said sarcastically. "It's so much prettier."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," I growled. "She's beautiful on the inside, and that's what counts. Your digimon is tainted. She's evil. Dripping with darkness. _And_ she needs a stupid serum in order to beat Togemon's natural talents."

Mari's eyes glinted, and she glared at me. "Lalamon, take it up a notch."

"On it," the monstrosity said, sounding like a soldier listening to her general.

"**Lalamon digivolve to… Sunflowmon!**"

The pink and green digimon changed into a beautiful sunflower. I sighed. It wasn't ugly, and I couldn't even pretend it wasn't cute anymore.

"Try this on for size," Mari smirked.

"Sunshine Beam!" Sunflowmon attacked. The petals around her face started glowing, and she sent rays of sunshine towards Togemon.

I stared at Mari with a smile on my face.

"Soak up those rays Togemon," I cheered. "What kind of digimon do you think Togemon is? Plants love the sun. They use it to make food, which in turn makes them stronger. What an idiot."

"Maybe I was just trying to level out the playing field, since my digimon is so obviously stronger," Mari snapped.

"Do you really think you're little ball of sunshine can beat my boxing cactus?" I asked.

"Lightspeed Jabbing!" Togemon shouted, and started firing punches at Sunflowmon. Sunflowmon lost her footing and fell backwards.

"Looks like you improved things," I told Mari. "The balls in my court now."

"I don't think so," Mari told me. "Sunflomon, let's show them what real strength is."

Sunflowmon did nothing more than nod.

"**Sunflowmon digivolve to… Lilamon!**"

"Lila Shower," the absolutely gorgeous flower digimon sang. She didn't shout it. She _sang_ it. And it was hauntingly beautiful. Her body was a light pink, with white petals for fingers and toes. She wore a lime green leotard, and petal hat that covered her green hair. She had wings on her back, and she used them to float into the air, looking Togemon right in the face. She raised one hand, and each little petal shot of countless beams at my digimon.

Togemon raised her boxing gloves to try and keep them from getting hit. It didn't work nearly well as I'd hoped it would.

"Togemon," I started, but Togemon already knew what I was going to say, and was already on her way to ultimate level.

"**Togemon digivolve to… Lilymon!**"

"Ain't she a beaut," I told Mari with a wink.

She shook her head angrily.

"I'm going to win this," I told her. "And when I do, you'll be the one running back to your mysterious little leader. And then you'll have to tell him—or her—that you couldn't beat little ole Mimi."

"It's on," she snarled and threw herself at me. I let out a shriek, and tried to protect my face. She grabbed my hair and pulled down hard. I struggled to get loose, but she was holding too strong. I turned my head, trying to ignore the pain it caused, and bit down on the arm she was using.

It was her turn to scream. I pushed her away the second she let go of my hair, and tackled her to the ground.

"You were going to beat me?" I inquired, slapping her across the face. I went to slap her again, but she caught my hand, and used it as leverage to roll me under her.

"You were saying?" she asked.

All the while, I was hearing Lilymon and Lilamon shouting attacks at each other. Lila Shower followed by a Flower Cannon. Then Lilamon unleashed a Beauty Slap, which was countered with a Vicious Vine. Lilymon tried a Flower Wreath, but Lilamon used a Marvel Shot to eliminate the bindings.

I was losing the feeling of my face with each slap that she threw at me. Finally, I'd had enough, and summoned strength I didn't even know I had, to throw her off of me. She rolled along the ground, glaring at me when she finally came to a stop.

"Lilamon!" she screamed.

"Lilymon!" I shouted at the same time.

"Digivolve!"

"**Lilamon digivolve to… Rosemon!**"

"**Lilymon digivolve to… Rosemon!**"

"It's a real battle now," Mari told me, wiping the dirt from her face. "I didn't want to have to do this you know. I didn't want to be the bad guy."

"Then you should watch what you sign up for, shouldn't you," I told her, turning to watch my red Rosemon fight her tainted one. Her Rosemon was the embodiment of the X-Virus. Her clothing was pitch black, matching the evil it was meant to create. It was unsettling to know that the virus allowed any digimon to reach its mega status at will. She didn't need to have a crest, didn't need to learn a trait that was hidden within her. She just had to give the order. That made her a very dangerous rival. But I wasn't going to let her win.

"Attack!" we both shouted at once. Her Rosemon nodded with an angry expression ever present on her face. My partner looked a little more cautious. She didn't have the extra strength that Mari's did. But she had training. She was used to this form. She was familiar with it, and with what she could or could not do.

"Rose Spear," Mari's Rosemon declared, taking the vine whip around her right hand and straightening it into a rapier. My digimon followed suit.

So it would be down to a sword fight.

"How cliché," Mari grumbled.

I held my breath. Her Rosemon was ruthless with each jab and swing. Mine was purely defensive. The dark Rosemon jabbed twice in quick succession. And that's when my Rosemon took a chance. She flicked her sword, letting it bend back into a whip.

"Thorn Whipping!" she shouted, catching her counterpart off guard.

"Not fair!" Mari complained.

My digimon's whip circled her opponent and charged her with electricity. I'd seen her use this technique before. Just once before. I sent a triumphant grin in Mari's direction. My digimon had Mari's under her control.

"Do something!" Mari pleaded desperately.

"Okay," my Rosemon told her with a smile. "Ivy Hug."

The Dark Rosemon was entangled in various vines.

"What to do, what to do," Rosemon said, circling her now captive opponent. "One quick strike should do. Don't want it to be too painful. Just enough."

"Thank you," Mari whispered, staring at her digimon with tears in her eyes.

For the first time since the fight started, I believed that she didn't want to be here. That she was just following orders.

"Rose Spear," Rosemon said gently, stiffening the whip into a sword once again. She jabbed once, quickly through the other Rosemon's stomach.

The tears started to fall down Mari's cheeks. I had to look away, and turned back to watch as the Dark Rosemon started glowing, and reverted back to Lalamon. She was unconscious, but she didn't start to de-digitize, so I knew she'd be alright.

"Lalamon," Mari cried, running to her fallen partner.

"Let's go, Mimi," Rosemon told me, taking my hand and leading me away from the touching scene. "We have to find the others and tell them."

We didn't have far to go. As it turned out, they were just on the other side of the park. Those jerks kicked me out of my own house, only to meet in the park anyway.

They jumped to their feet when I got close.

"Mimi," Daisuke shouted. "You aren't supposed to be here."

"How did you even find us?" Yamato wondered.

"I went for a walk," I said snippily. "You won't believe what I saw."

"What happened?" Koushiro asked, rushing to my side, and examining the red blotches on my face and my messed hair.

"Alias III happened," I told them. "And if you hadn't kicked me out, I wouldn't have had to do it alone."

"Hideto?" Hikari asked. She didn't look like she believed it though. I liked that. It meant I wasn't the only one that didn't hate him on sight.

"No, the other one," I told her.

"Sigma?" Sora asked as Koushiro suggested "Gansuko?"

"Wait what?" I asked. They'd already found the blonde guy in the mask? Where was I for that?

"We've already taken him out," Sora explained.

"It was a few days ago," Koushiro said sheepishly.

"Thanks for letting us know," Taichi said sarcastically.

"Then I discovered the third. It's that Mari girl. And she packs a punch," I said. "Nothing Rosemon and I couldn't handle though."

"Girl power!" Rosemon joked.

Willis and Miyako looked horrified to learn about Mari, but I was too busy enjoying Koushiro's attention to worry about it at the moment. I really ought to get into fights more often. He was really fussing over me, and Daisuke wanted a play by play of the battle.

They were acting as if they'd never sent me away. I beat a part of the Alias III, so suddenly I was back on their side? No. That wasn't going to fly for me. They couldn't pick and choose their battles. Either they wanted me with them, or they didn't. But I wasn't going to have this in-between stuff. Not anymore.

_**Sigma:**_

People found me strange. Mari in particular had voiced that opinion more times than I could remember. On more than one occasion, I'd heard her label me as insane. But I wasn't. I _knew_ I wasn't…and Hideto always argued with her, so that was enough for me. Sigma didn't care at all, so neither of us ever bothered to correct her.

She was so pleased with herself when I'd lost against two digidestined. I hadn't meant to lose. But I wasn't built for physical fighting. I wasn't even particularly good with words. But Sigma could use words like a knife, so I wasn't completely defenceless.

Besides, nothing anyone said could reach me. Not when Sigma was around. He was like my own personal shield. He kept me from getting hurt, so long as I let him have control. I was really emotional, so it seemed like a pretty good deal to me. Sometimes he let me have control back, if only for a moment. And other times, I had to fight for it.

But I couldn't let anything happen to Hideto.

He was my best friend. Even if I wasn't his. Other than Tapirmon and maybe Sigma, he was my _only_ friend.

I didn't like Mari. At all. She acted too nice. But she talked about me behind my back. Sigma assured me she did. He wouldn't let me get upset about it though. It's better to keep people and things at a distance, he said. Then they can't hurt you.

He was right. The only person that could hurt me now was Hideto. And maybe Sigma. If Sigma was even a person. I wasn't sure. He just came to me once, and I let him stay.

I was sitting beside Hideto on the couch in our apartment. Well. It was Hideto and Mari's apartment. I didn't have a job. I wasn't allowed to have one, on account of Sigma. Hideto told me I didn't need one anyway. So I couldn't pay rent. Or pay for food. Or anything at all.

I was sitting as far away as the couch would allow, because Sigma refused to sit right next to him. He said it was pointless and that the less human interaction I had the better. I couldn't help but think he might be wrong on that front, because I really wanted to sit closer to him sometimes.

The door opened quietly, but since it squeaked I heard it anyway.

Mari was home.

I felt Sigma put a smirk on my face.

"Not so hot now, are you?" Hideto said when Mari walked into the room, her shoulders slumped. He was laughing, but she didn't seem to care for his sense of humour. She looked like she hoped we wouldn't have heard about her failure already. Sigma was laughing too. His laugh wasn't like Hideto's though. It was a dark chuckle, almost sinister.

"I didn't think she'd win," Sigma said. Sigma used my body to speak more often than I did. It was a part of relinquishing control.

"At least I didn't lose first," she snapped at me. Sigma wouldn't let me cower away though. He was nice like that.

"At least it was two against one for me," Sigma pointed out. I winced mentally. I remembered the end of that fight very well. Sigma didn't want to feel the punch, so he pushed me to the front just in time for me to meet a fist head on. It was really painful. "You lost to a single digimon. A Rosemon, who, unlike yours, did _not_ have the X-virus injection. It was weaker than you, and you still lost."

"Don't be too harsh man," Hideto said, sending me a confused look. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't me, but I couldn't. Sigma was still in control. Instead, Sigma sent him a sneer and told him shut up.

"He's right," Neo said from behind Mari. I hadn't noticed him come in. He couldn't have used the door. It squeaked. I supposed that meant he came from the computer in Mari's room.

"Don't do that," Mari gasped, turning around and holding her hand over her heart.

"Do _not_ tell me what to do," he snapped. She took a step back from him. Sigma found Neo to be amusing. No matter how scared I felt in his presence, Sigma always wanted to laugh. He basked in the negative energy coming from Neo, and loved the anger.

"Sorry," she squeaked, falling onto the couch in between Hideto and me. Onto the spot I'd wanted to sit in…

_She would have fallen on you_, Sigma informed me. _Be glad I do not cater to you foolish desires._

No. He only ever did what he wanted, and he made me want to do them too. Except taking a punch in the face. There was no way he could make me want to do that.

"Sorry doesn't cut it. Those digidestined are meddlesome. I gave you one task. One simple task, and you couldn't defeat even a single one of them!" Neo growled.

"It's not as easy as I thought," Mari whimpered.

"It's child's play," Neo snarled. "But you're pitiful. Both of you are pitiful."

Sigma narrowed my eyes at him. He did not appreciate being called pitiful.

"If it's so easy, why don't _you_ do it?" Sigma barked. I often found it strange to hear such sounds coming from my mouth. I was rather timid after all, and would never make those sounds on my own.

"You wouldn't want to see what would happen to the digidestined if I were to do it," Neo said with a sadistic smile on his face. An image of Koushiro sprawled out on the ground, body mangled next to his digimon, who was fading into nothing but data flashed across my mind. It was something Sigma had thought up. And I didn't really like the fact that he seemed _excited_ about it. Koushiro was my cousin. The only family I had anymore, since I ran away from my parents when I was thirteen.

They kept yelling at me, telling me how I wasn't worthy of my own name. The name they gave me. Told me I was worthless. An abomination. A monster.

The memories faded away, as Sigma pushed them back. I relaxed. Sigma had shown up then too, letting me take on his name. He helped me survive until I met Neo and Hideto and Mari. I owed him everything. But I couldn't let Koushiro die. I couldn't.

"Now, Hideto," Neo said, nearly purring. "You'll succeed. Won't you?"

"I don't know," he stammered. "I'll give it a go I guess…"

"You don't sound too sure to me," Neo pointed out.

"Hideto," Mari pleaded. "Willis. He'll hurt Willis. And Miyako's already going through enough. Don't let him hurt them."

"You're going soft," Neo sneered.

"K-Koushiro," I said, forcing myself past Sigma's barriers. Hideto looked at me confused. He looked at my eyes in particular. Sigma ripped passed me, determined to keep me out of his way this time. Sigma was in control again, and from Hideto's reaction, he could tell it wasn't me anymore.

_Don't look into it,_ Sigma snapped at me. _He's weak. You need something stronger. You need me. Not him. Only me._

I couldn't argue with him. I did need him. I couldn't survive without him anymore. I wouldn't know what to do. And I'd be so alone. I didn't like being alone.

"Will you, or do you want _me_ to do it?" Neo asked, losing patience.

"I'm going to," Hideto decided. "But not for you. For Hikari and Mimi. And Willis and Miyako. And Koushiro. And Mari and Sigma. Not you."

Mari beamed at him, and even Neo seemed pleased.

Sigma wasn't though. He was angry. He'd really wanted to see just what Neo was able to accomplish.

And I wasn't too happy either. Because he said he was doing it for Sigma. And Sigma wasn't me.

"Good," Neo said. "Now I have to get home. I've left Rei in a bit of a…predicament. And I'm sure she'll want some company."

Unfortunately, Sigma decided that if he couldn't brainstorm deaths for the digidestined, he would come up with as many bad situations as he could for Rei instead.

_**Rei:**_

Things weren't exactly going to plan. On the plus side, I was in the Digital World now, or what was left of it anyway, and therefore I could walk. I didn't know if Neo had really even noticed or not though. He was half dragging, half carrying me away from my saviours. I knew I could count of Hiroaki. He was just that type, you know? And he saved me. It wasn't his fault I'd got caught again. This time I'd have to plan better, wait for just the right moment, and then make a run for it. A crowbar through my wheels wouldn't be able to hinder me this time.

"Really," Neo was complaining, more to himself than anything. "What did they teach in schools back in the day? That was breaking and entering, not to mention the kidnapping charge I could slap them with."

"But then, you'd have to turn yourself in," I told him. "Because you trapped me first, and they were rescuing me, because I _asked_ them to."

"You wouldn't testify against me," Neo said confidently. I hated that he was right. I couldn't do that. He was still my brother, and he hadn't hurt me. Not really.

"No," I said dejectedly. "But I wouldn't testify _for_ you either."

"Duly noted," he said. "Now, what do you think of my kingdom?"

"I'm thinking you'd have to be a digimon at the very least in order to rule over this place," I told him, rolling my eyes. "And I'd fire your designer, because this place looks depressing."

"Now, now," he said with a smirk. "I can't fire my crew. I was told to hire them, you know. They are just one small part in the big picture."

"Who are they? Your Alias III friends?" I questioned.

"No. They are an elite team of digimon that were recommended to me," he said. "And for the record: the Alias III are minions, not friends."

"That's hardly fair," I said. "You need friends, Neo."

"I had Sora," he said, his voice gaining an edge to it. "But she doesn't appreciate what I'm doing here. Doesn't see the brilliance in my work."

"I don't see it either," I said. "You're tearing apart someone's home, Neo. How would you feel if a digimon came to Earth and took away everything that made it Earth? No water, no vegetation… How do you expect these digimon to survive?"

"I don't care about them," he said, dismissing my argument. "I'm doing this for you."

"Me?" I gasped, horrified. It was all happening because of me.

"Yes," he said. He looked down at me, and moved me so I was upright. Then he let go. "Look. This world can fix you. You'll be whole again. Don't you want that? Don't you see that I'm doing this for you, so that you can be how you used to be: happy."

"I am happy," I protested. "I mean, I don't have a boyfriend, and haven't since I was put in my chair, but I don't _need_ a guy to be happy. And that chair is a part of who I am. I'm not the person I used to be. I can't live in the past. What happened, happened. I can't change it. Abandoning Earth and letting you take over the Digital World, morphing into a shadow of its former glory… it's not worth it."

"Of course it's worth it. You're worth it," he insisted, looking down at me, his eyes glowing. "You'll see. You won't ever want to leave."

"Yeah," I snorted. "Right."

"Come along," he said sharply, annoyed that I wasn't thanking him already. "We have something to find."

"Are you going to tell me?" I asked impatiently.

"No," he snapped. "It's none of your business. I'll just find it, and then I'll bring you to where the magic really happens. When you see it, you'll know I'm right."

He pulled out a device—I thought it might be a digivice, but I couldn't be certain—and scanned the area around us. "It's close," he murmured. The screen of the device, which I caught a glimpse of, held a red flashing dot. Each time the dot flashed, a sound would ping, with the sounds getting closer together the closer he got to the device. I got bored of watching him wander around, searching for something that he couldn't trust me with. I noticed then, that we must've been in a village. There were tiny huts scattered about, though they seemed to be empty.

"Where are we?" I asked my brother.

"Some village for weaklings," he answered. "It might be the Yokomon Village…but it could just as easily be the Koromon one. I didn't think it was important."

"What a jerk," I muttered, walking towards the huts. He was getting closer to them too, and the pinging was getting annoying with how often I heard them. That's when I heard a noise that was most definitely _not_ a ping. It was more of a whimper.

"Hello?" I called.

"Yes," Neo said. "Hello. Now can you be quiet? I'm searching."

I glared at him, but lowered my voice. I needed to find the creature that was whimpering.

"Are you okay?" I asked in a whisper. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help."

"Rei," Neo commanded. "Don't get too close. There are a lot of digimon around that would just _love_ to get their hands on me."

I groaned. Why did he have to do things like that? It was hard enough hating him when he was a jerk, but then he'd go and be a good big brother.

I was about to voice my angry opinion when I heard another whimper. It was coming from inside the nearest hut. I peeked over at Neo, and upon seeing his back to me, I crawled toward the tiny hut door. I was able to get my head and one arm through before I was met with a startled green digimon that looked like a clam, sitting in his shell thrown.

"Please don't," it pleaded.

"I won't," I promised, saddened that this tiny digimon was so scared. "I just want to know if you're alright."

"No," it admitted. "I won't let the virus win. You can't make me."

"I'm not part of the Alias III, honest," I told it. "They kidnapped me; well, abducted might be a tad more accurate…" I trailed off. It wasn't listening to me. Its eyes kept flickering from me to a small, white stone—maybe it was an egg…?—that was decorated with various coloured spots that looked like gems. There was a symbol in the centre, but it wasn't one I recognized. "Can you not reach it?"

"No!" it shouted. "I can. I don't want to. I can't. The virus. I might lose control."

"Do you want me to take it away?" I asked.

"Alias III can't get it," he pleaded. "I should keep it, protect it. But…"

"How about I protect it for you?" I asked. If this was what Neo was looking for, then I would definitely be keeping it as far from him as I could.

"Keep it safe," the digimon told me.

"I will…?" I told it, waiting for it to supply its name.

"Syakomon," it said softly.

"I'll protect it for you, Syakomon," I said. I reached forward and scooped it into my hand. Syakomon whimpered again, but I didn't drop it. Whatever this was, it was powerful, and the power was making the virus inside of Syakomon act up. I was disappointed in my brother. No. Not disappointed. Furious with him. How could he do something like this to anyone, let alone a tiny, helpless digimon?

"Where did it go?" Neo shouted angrily. I jerked back too quickly and banged my head on the doorway. Wincing, I tied the egg-like stone to my necklace, before tucking it into my shirt. I couldn't let Neo catch sight of it after all.

"What are you doing on the ground?" he asked, raising his eyebrow at me.

"I wanted to see a Yokomon, or a Koromon, whichever one lives here," I said, lying through my teeth. I prayed that Syakomon would be quiet.

"They aren't here," he told me. "They've been recruited."

My heart stopped. He'd injected those tiny digimon with the virus too? When did he become so heartless?

"Oh," I said half-heartedly. "Then it's no wonder why I haven't found one yet."

"Let's go," he said, grabbing my elbow. "The Digimental's gone now anyway. There must've been a digimon that I missed. It doesn't matter. It's gone. I'll have to see if Mari can find it."

"Not Mari," I gasped. Were there _any_ genuinely nice people anymore? Taichi had talked about Mari being at a meeting before…and she was Miyako's friend.

"Yes, Mari," he said. "As useless as she is. Couldn't even beat the Tachikawa girl. Sigma at least tried to take on two."

"And the other one?"

"Hideto better win," he said simply. "You're a liability now. I can't just have you wandering about. I'm going to have to lock you up. I don't really want to, but you're being difficult, you see. I have to keep my plan in motion."

Great. I was going to be locked up in the Digital World. Momoe, Natsuni and I would have something to talk about at the very least, with this shared experience. I glared at him as he dragged me behind him. I would definitely be keeping this thing—the digimental—he wanted away from him.

* * *

_**Sora:**_

I felt so awkward. I knew he didn't feel the same way though... mostly because his friends hadn't been suspecting me of being evil. Then again... maybe they had... who were his friends?

I'd been dating him for over a year and I didn't even know his friends... the only person I knew that he talked to frequently was Rei.

I hadn't seen her in a while...

"How's Rei?" I asked, trying to make conversation as Neo cut through the steak on the plate in front of him. We were eating in Neo's favourite restaurant, since Mimi seemed to have a problem with me lately... whatever it was. It wasn't that I didn't want to support her just because she was mad at me, but every time I was at her restaurant she messed up my order on purpose, or just didn't bring it until a few hours later. I wasn't worried though, I was sure she'd move on from whatever it was that was bothering her... eventually.

"She's great." He said simply. "She doesn't leave home much anymore though."

"Well she could at least call..." I said quietly. Rei was one of my best friends, and I had thought she'd felt the same...

"She's just busy is all." Neo said as a violin began playing in the distance.

And then we were silent again. Neo was eating normally, acting normally... which was perfectly normal! Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he act normal around me? I was his girlfriend after all.

"How's Yamato doing?" Neo asked.

I was shocked for a moment, trying to find a reason why Neo would care about Yamato. Probably because he _knew_ Yamato's digimon was taken, and he wanted to know how he was coping with his actual partner now they were together again. He knew all of this. He was evil. I _knew_ it!

"Isn't his tour ending soon?" Neo asked, "I just mean he won't have much to do, he might call you more..."

_Stupid Sora!_ I hissed in my head. _Why would you even think that? Of course Neo wasn't evil! You're being ridiculous jumping to insane conclusions like that._

"Well he's got a girlfriend now I think." I said as casually as I could. "She seems nice."

"You don't seem happy about it though," Neo said, seeing right through me. "You don't like her do you?"

"I don't." I admitted. "She's kind of... sarcastic? I don't know. She doesn't seem like someone Yamato would fall in love with."

"Why do you care who he falls in love with?" Neo asked, "I thought you said you were over him."

"I am." I said with complete certainty. "That doesn't mean I don't care about him. He's one of my closest friends Neo, and he doesn't seem happy. I want him to be happy, and I want him to move on... and I just don't know how to do that."

"You don't have to." Neo said, shaking his head. "It's not up to you Sora. Stop worrying about other people and worry about yourself for a change." I suppose he had a point. Since Yamato and I were broken up, his problems were no longer my problems. They were Katsue's. Katsue could help him. And so could Taichi... "Speaking of what you want..." Neo said, placing his fork and knife down on his plate. "What _do_ you want?"

"What do you mean?" I asked him, brushing a strand of hair from my face.

"What do you want from this?" He asked. "From us."

What was he getting at? What was he implying? Where did I see this relationship going? What if he was asking me what I wanted because he was going to break up with me? Why was he going to break up with me? Because he was evil and didn't want to jeopardise my friendship with the others. How valiant of him.

"Where do you see the two of us being five years down the line?" He asked, causing my entire speculation to fall apart again.

_Stop this Sora. Neo is not evil._

"I suppose... we could go to Paris—or New York... or anywhere really. Unless you wanted to stay here, because that would be fine too. You see, I've—"

"The 'where' was a figurative statement." Neo said. "I don't care _where_ we are. But... _what_ we are."

"Oh..." I said slowly. "Well... are you implying marriage?"

"If that's what you want." He said.

_Oh God._

Was he actually asking me? I didn't know the answer to that. When it was Yamato the answer was 'no.' I didn't want to be married. I wasn't ready. Why would it be different with Neo? I still wasn't ready... but why not? What was I waiting for?

"I think marriage is definitely a possibility." I said as calmly and collectively as I could.

He smiled at me and then sighed, "Well said."

There was more silence after that, and more awkward... what was wrong with me? Why couldn't I just get past all of this?

"How is your friend Miyako?" Neo said, clearly catching on to the awkwardness.

Why did he want to know what was wrong with her? Did he do something to her? Was it him she was so scared of? Was it him she was so afraid of? Did he know something about her blackouts?

"You mentioned something about her being off lately." Neo said. "Did you figure out what it was?"

_Dammit Sora._

Why was my mind jumping to such insane conclusions? I knew full well that Neo Saiba was not an evil man. He was my boyfriend, and soon-to-be-fiancé, or so it seemed. Maybe—No Sora! Not the most pressing issue right now.

Why was I so caught up on this issue anyway? Neo couldn't have been evil. He promised me that he would be honest...

"_Well if he promised you to always be honest with you," Takeru had said the night before as he visited me after his trip around the world with Catherine. "Then just ask him Sora. Ask him if he's evil. If he truly loves you, then he'll tell you the truth."_

"_I can't ask him if he's evil!" I growled. "He doesn't know anything about digimon, he'll think I'm nuts."_

"_Well if you want to, you can introduce him to Biyomon." He said, gesturing toward her as she watched a movie on the couch with Tentomon, Patamon, Palmon and Mimi. Koushiro had been gone to a meeting, and left Tentomon in Mimi's care. She and Takeru had apparently made plans to meet up a separate time, and so he was letting this time be for me and me alone... "And then ask him."_

"_I can't show him Biyomon." I told him, "He'll be scared."_

"_Maybe." Takeru agreed, "But if he really is evil like everyone seems to think, then he _does_ know about digimon, and you'll be able to tell."_

"_So I show him Biyomon," I said, "And he gets scared, and breaks up with the 'Crazy-Bird-Lady', or he doesn't get scared, reveals himself to be evil, and I'll break up with him. Either way it doesn't end well."_

"_Maybe you're not meant to be—" Takeru said._

"_Gee, thanks," I said, rolling my eyes._

"_Let me finish." He said, "You need to find out if he is evil or not, and you can't keep Biyomon a secret forever. If it's going to work out, it will. You have to trust him."_

...

Trust him?

I could do that. I could trust him. He promised to always be honest, and I knew he was sincere. I could just ask him. What was I afraid of anyway, he clearly wasn't evil.

"How are Taichi's meetings working out?" He asked.

How did he know about them? Who was I kidding—of course he was evil! How else would he know about them?

"That's where you go every week right?" He asked, "To Taichi and Koushiro's meetings? What goes on in those meetings anyway?"

"I'm so sorry." I said suddenly. He raised his eyebrows. "I keep jumping to awful, judgemental conclusions in my head. They go to a different world to discuss what to do next for that world. Neo... I have a large talking pink bird as a best friend. She can glow and transform into a giant fire bird, and I'm supposedly the embodiment of love for this other world."

Neo's face went completely blank as I spilled all of the information to him. I wanted to punch myself in the face! I had been so blunt and open and—too much at once! Sora! You're so stupid!

Suddenly his lips curled into a smile. "The Digital World." He said slowly, "A pink bird? Probably a Biyomon?"

How did he know these things?

Had he been there? Clearly. What else did he know though? What did he know about the Digital World? And why did he know what he knew?

"_Honesty is my police Sora, just so long as someone remembers to ask the right question."_

That's what Neo said. It was his words?

So what exactly was the right question?

"Neo, are you working with the terrorists to take over and destroy the Digital World?" I asked. My eyes widened at the sound of my voice. That certainly was _not_ the right question. But I relaxed a little as Neo looked down and sighed before slowly looking back up to me.

"Sora..." He said, "To make this blunt, like you seem to be looking for... yes."

"That's not the answer I was looking for." I whispered as the world crashed down around me.

"Sora, there are reasons for everything." Neo said, reaching across the table for my hand. I shook my head and pulled my hand away. "What you have to understand is that—"

"Neo." I said, standing up, pushing my chair back. "I'm going to give you ten seconds to try and change my mind."

"What's your mind set on?" He asked suddenly.

"You're wasting your time." I said sharply.

"Sora, I can't explain why I'm doing it." He said, "But the Digital World has reached it's time. I'm doing what is right."

"Well," I said, "Your time is up." I slowly pushed my chair back into the table. "And you've failed at convincing me anything except that you're a terrible person."

"Sora—" Neo tried.

"Goodbye Neo." I said flatly, turning, keeping as strong as I could. I walked toward the door of the restaurant where the doorman smiled at me.

"It's quite wet out there," He said, "Would you like to use my umbrella miss?" I shook my head and tried to smile at him, but he could sense the pain clearly, and he tipped his hat to me. I looked outside to see the rain falling onto the snow, creating piles of mush and slush. "Have a nice day miss."

I looked back over my shoulder to where Neo was sitting at the table, his head in his hands, and then turned out the door, stepping into the rain.

The moment I left the restaurant, I knew I was going to cry, and so I pulled out my phone to call for help before that could happen. The first person I thought of was Taichi, and so that's who I called.

"Hey, Sora!" He said after a couple of rings on the other end.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked.

I guess he could hear the frustration and sadness in my voice, and so he quickly said, "Yeah—where are you? I'll come get you." I quickly told him where I was, and he spoke quickly, "Mkay, I'll be right there."

And with that he hung up the phone. The moment I heard the line fall dead on the other end I sat down, closing my phone and putting it back in my bag. I knew I was going to cry, but I had to stay strong. I just felt so humiliated... so betrayed... I knew my makeup was going to run, and I knew the rain was going to ruin my new dress, but none of that bothered me. I knew the truth now... I knew that Taichi and the others were right. Neo was bad. He was evil. He was fighting for the opposite side... and I'd been stupid enough to fight for his side.

After a while of crying in the rain, around the corner from the restaurant a couple of guys walked by and then turned back to talk to me.

"Hey babe," One of them said, "Wanna come over to my place?"

"Nah," The second one said. "Come to me instead, I'm a lot better at everything."

"Hey!" A voice growled sharply before I could stand up for myself. "Get out of here. Now."

I turned to see who was speaking and saw Taichi in his black winter coat as he stormed toward the men who were talking to me. The boys raised their hands in defense and then walked off as Taichi rushed toward me and pulled me to my feet, wrapping his arms around me, and I instantly burst into tears. So much for being strong.

"Sora, I'm so sorry..." He said.

"You don't even know what happened." I managed to say.

"I'm sorry for whoever made you feel like this. Because they are _so_ going to get it." He said. I laughed a little as he hugged me, because for some reason I suddenly felt safe. Better... almost... happy.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Taichi picks up where he and Sora left off, Iori and Jou try to make headway with the antidote problems, and Daisuke meets a mysterious little girl. Could she be the one leaving him the messages? Or is there something bigger happening?


	18. Lost Girl

**Y/N:** Yay, we're actually getting somewhere with the writing, so we're ahead again. Which means more/actual updates for you! I don't even remember writing this chapter…but I remember what it's about. I enjoyed Jun and Iori, and Daisuke's was kind of fun too. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and leave a review if you can. I'm getting really excited about the writing of arc 3(which is secretly just act 2…) And because April is Camp NaNoWriMo, I'm going to try to get as much written for this story as I possibly can in order to reach 50,000 words in one month. I think I can do it…hopefully. On a side note, no one left a response to our character dilemma. We can now chose four characters to represent this story, but we've got so many characters that we can't decide on the two new ones. If you have any suggestions, please, do let us know.

**U/N:** Sorry this chapter is late, but we're going to start putting them up two a week again starting... this week :P

It's kind of a break between the action... which was also nice since the next two chapters are pretty intense.

I hope you like it and review :D  
We're almost to the explanations as to why characters are acting certain ways which is good since most of you are really wondering about that...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 18: Lost Girl**

_**Taichi:**_

It was raining. And worse, she was crying. And I didn't know what to do about it. Not exactly. The fact that I was consistently confused about Sora made it that much harder to deal with her. Did I still want to impress her? Or was I really happy with just being her friend? I needed to know these things.

And I felt like a huge jerk thinking about these things while she was in my arms, crying her eyes out. I meant what I told her though. I would totally beat up the jerk that made her cry if she'd let me.

"So, who's the problem?" I asked, though I had a pretty good feeling that I already knew who it was.

"Neo," she said. I was right.

"What'd he do?"

"He's honest," she insisted. "He really is. That's about the only thing I can vouch for anymore."

"So it's him then," I said. I wasn't really asking. She'd just confirmed it for me.

"I really thought I'd finally found a good guy," she said angrily.

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," she said, cracking a smile. "I don't think I'm sad anymore."

"No?"

"No. I'm a little angry actually," she growled. "How could I have missed it? Koushiro told me not to ask him, but I was questioning his every move. I couldn't handle it. And I fought _for_ him against my own friends. Why the hell did he even ask me out in the first place then? Was he just trying to get inside information? I do not handle being used very well."

"I never would have guessed," I said, again, with sarcasm.

"Shut up," she said, smiling again. She really was beautiful when she smiled. Did that mean I _did_ still like her? Or was I over her, and just noticing that fact in passing? Why was it so confusing being friends with my ex?

"Did you eat?" I asked casually.

"I little," she said. "Why?"

"Just wondering if you'd like to go get dinner," I said, forcing myself to keep using the casual tone.

"Are you asking me out?" she asked. I looked away quickly and was rewarded with a short laugh. "You are. You're trying to pick me up on the rebound."

"No," I said quickly. But it didn't sound convincing. I said it too quickly. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I'm not. I swear."

"I know you do," she joked. "But I believe you, I guess."

"I just…I need to know, okay?" I said exasperated. "I need this. Just once. You won't need to worry about it again. I just need to figure it out."

"I won't even ask," she said. "Because I feel like crap, and I'm pretty sure spending time with you will fix that."

"Good," I said with a laugh. "Then, dinner. Any preferences?"

"Not Mimi's," she specified, wrinkling her nose at the idea. I realized that Mimi hated her—for a variety of reasons that she and Yamato had compiled together at a meeting—so I accepted that, and brought her to a fast food place. Not very classy, but it was open, and I didn't think we'd run into Mimi, Neo or Yamato in it. She appreciated the gesture anyway.

"This food sucks," she said with a laugh.

"But it's warm," I pointed out. But it did suck. Really bad.

"True. Oh God. My makeup is a mess, isn't it," she said, pulling a little mirror out of her purse. Sure enough, she was horrified to find that she had mascara running down her cheeks, and surrounding her eyes like a racoon's mask.

"It's fine. I find it…endearing…" I said. She glared at me, not believing my lie.

"Whatever," she said. "I don't even care."

She said that, but she still snuck into the bathroom for ten minutes, and came back with perfected makeup.

"So, the Alias III, huh?" she said, trying to strike up conversation. I made a face. "What?"

"That's got to be the most unromantic topic you could come up with," I pointed out.

"Oh," she said. "This is a real date? Not a friend date?"

"Did you want it to be a friend date?" I asked. What the hell was a friend date anyway?

"No, no," she said quickly. "It's just nice to know which it is."

"Couldn't you tell with the romantic dinner?" I joked.

"I'm sorry," she said laughing. "So, if it wasn't raining, what would we be doing right now?"

"Oh, we'd be going for a romantic stroll through the park," I said, picking the first cliché I could come up with. "You'd have your arm in mine, and we'd talk about nothing in particular and not notice all the time passing by."

"And then we'd go to an ice rink, where you'd teach me how to skate, and laugh when I fell down. But you would've helped me up anyway, keeping a firm grip on my hand as you lead me along the ice," she added with a smile.

"Then we'd head to the fair, where I'd play a ridiculous number of games until I won you a giant stuffed bear that I'd have to lug around for the rest of the night. But I'd do so without complaint, just because of the smile on your face," I continued.

"And we'd go dancing," she contributed. "We'd lose ourselves in the music, and not notice everyone around us, just swaying to our own rhythm, lost in each other's eyes."

"And when the night came to a close, I'd walk you home, right up to the door, where I'd wait, until the last possible moment, and then, I'd lean in and—if it was alright with you," I said.

"It would be," she smiled.

"I would take a single kiss," I said.

"That sounds like a wonderful evening. It's really too bad that I missed it," she said, staring into my eyes.

"Maybe we could recreate the ending," I suggested, leaning in closer to her.

"I might enjoy that," she said, following my lead. Our lips were almost touching, when a thought occurred to me.

"Quick question," I said, berating my nobleness. "You and Neo are through, right?"

"I think so," she said.

I pulled back. "Just 'think so'?"

"I mean, he's evil, he has to know we're over," she said. "I'm pretty sure it was clear."

"I can't be the Yamato to his Taichi," I told her seriously.

"His what to his who?" she asked, clearly not following my train of thought.

"I walked away, but we were still dating," I explained. "But the next time I saw you, you and Yamato were together, and _then_ you broke up with me. And you walked away from Yamato, thinking it was clear, just because he was evil, but he didn't know for certain until later, when you had to spell it out to him. I'm not going to move in on someone else's girl…not until it's completely over. I can't."

And just like that, I wasn't confused anymore. I couldn't do that to myself. Not again. And I wouldn't do that to someone else. Not even Neo.

Besides, I realized—far too late—that this might've destroyed Yamato's and my friendship for good. And it wasn't worth losing over a girl. Even a girl like Sora.

"I'm sorry," she said with a sigh. "I shouldn't have done that. Shouldn't be on this date. But sometimes I wondered where we would've gone, if we hadn't broke up. And I wasn't thinking straight. I just found out that I turned my fourth boyfriend evil."

"We weren't _all_ evil," I said with a small smile. "Just Yamato and Neo. You just made me and that other guy into jerks. There's a difference."

"It doesn't seem like there is," she groaned.

"You'll always be one of my big 'what ifs'. But, I should've tried to figure this out when you weren't just crushed by some jack-ass," I said. "I wasn't fair to you. If it's any consolation, you can stay at my apartment tonight."

"Trying to get me home with you eh?" she joked.

"You can have my bed, I'll take the couch," I told her, rolling my eyes.

"But Yamato…"

"It's got to be better than listen to Mimi gloat about the Neo thing all night," I added.

"I'm in," she said quickly.

We'd finished eating, so I took her hand, and led her back to where I'd parked my car before I'd found her, hoping that we wouldn't be in for too awkward of a night back at my place.

_**Daisuke:**_

I was going stir crazy. I needed to be doing something. But what could we do? Taichi's hands were tied with his counsel, and everyone else was busy with their careers, their schooling, their life. I was a part of that too. I couldn't just _not_ go out with my noodle cart, I couldn't afford it. It wasn't an option.

But I needed to do something.

Veemon had to stay in the Digital World most of the time. He was in training to be a Knight for Taichi. He wanted to be like Gatomon: strong enough to maintain his champion level without my presence being necessary. He wanted to be strong enough to help other digimon when I couldn't be there. He and Wormmon both.

So, there I was. At an old restaurant with Kurayami. Our spot.

"Are you sure this is where we should be?" Labramon asked from his spot in Kurayami's arms.

"Yes," Kurayami said with a soft smile. I loved to see the two interact. I couldn't imagine being in her position. She spent so long without her proper digimon. Without knowing Veemon, I wouldn't have become the person I did. He was my best friend. One of the few constants I still had in my life. Especially now that my parents had given up on me. I had Jun and I had Veemon. They were always there for me, and they would continue to do so. And, looking at my girlfriend as she played with her fluffy pink and white dog digimon partner, I knew I had another person to add to the list: her.

"Can we get food here?" Labramon continued.

"I'm not sure you're allowed in, actually," she said uncertainly.

"That's not fair. Why not?" Labramon complained.

"Because dogs can't go into restaurants," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I," he told me indignantly. "Am not a dog. I am a digimon."

"Yeah, well the managers don't know what that is, do they? They'll take one look at you and send us packing," I said with a snort.

"I'll wait outside then," he said with a pout.

"I'll stay here too," Kurayami told him gently. "Daisuke, will you get Labramon something to eat?"

"Sure," I said. I walked into the restaurant, and went over to the till. "Can I get a burger to go? Just put everything on it, he'll eat anything."

"No problem," the girl behind the register said. The tag on her shirt labelled her as Midori. I gave her a smile, and thought about the best way to go about this.

"A couple of nights ago," I started. "Maybe a week? It doesn't matter. What it boils down to, is someone left me a message with my bill. And I need to know who it was. It sounded pretty urgent."

"Are you saying that someone left their number with your bill? That's a pretty common occurrence. Tohru does that a lot. She gives them to loads of guys. Don't feel pressured to call her," Midori told me. "You could get more than just her number."

She sent me a wink.

I'm not gonna lie. I was flattered. It's not that it didn't happen, but it didn't happen often. I wasn't going to do anything about it. I had the most beautiful and perfect girlfriend already. I almost couldn't believe I'd been hung up on Hikari for so long. I almost missed out on Kurayami because of it too.

So, yeah. I was flattered. But I wasn't going to get distracted like I would've even a year ago.

"It wasn't a phone number," I said, dismissing her suggestion. "It was a plea for help. I'd really like to find out who sent it."

"A plea for help?" she asked, no longer sounding interested. "And you waited a week to ask about it?"

"Well…yeah," I admitted sheepishly. "It wasn't a whole week."

"Uh huh," she said, raising her eyebrow at me.

"Are you gonna help me or not?" I asked her, losing my patience.

"Would you like to make that a meal, or just the burger?" she countered.

"So, that's a no then," I decided. "No, by the way. Just the burger."

She rung in the total, and I paid her for it. She sent me a glare as I left without the phone number she tried to slip me anyway. I mean, I wasn't going to call her. I didn't want her to wait for me to do so. I was pretty great after all. I didn't want her to be too disappointed.

"Anything?" Kurayami asked at the door. Labramon jumped into my arms, eagerly dug into the burger—which I noticed didn't have every topping, like I'd ordered. Midori was clearly miffed at me—without even looking at me.

"No," I said. "I should've tried harder before. I feel like I'm not doing enough to help…whoever it is. How do I help someone when they don't tell me who they are?"

"Calm down," she scolded. "You can't be expected to do this all at once. Nothing worth anything is going to be easy. Maybe whoever it was could only get a short message to you. Maybe there wasn't time for more. But the clues have to be there. We're just missing something. We'll find it."

"It doesn't feel like it," I pouted. She rolled her eyes at me and I couldn't help but smile. She was right. I'd figure this out. I had to.

Over the loud chattering of the people passing us on the sidewalk, I heard soft whimpering.

"Listen," I gasped.

"Is it a clue?" Labramon asked, having finished with the burger.

"Maybe," I said, eagerly searching over the people on the street. It was a quiet sound. Small. I stopped looking at the adults, and looked lower. There were a few children walking hand in hand with their parents, but none were crying.

"There," Kurayami pointed out. I followed her finger, and saw a little girl. Her hair was short and jaggedly cut. It was in disarray, and her brown dress looked a bit small on her tiny frame. She was wearing a pair of old shoes on her feet, and had her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing her sleeved arms, and looking around in fright. How could anyone walk past her? She clearly needed help. She was lost. And she looked like she'd been there for a long while.

"Hey," I called, rushing over to her. She looked up at me through tear filled eyes that widened at the sound of my voice. She looked to be torn between excitement and fear. "Are you alright?"

"Do…do you mean me?" she whispered.

"I don't see anyone else," I said with a smile. She looked at me in awe, as if she couldn't believe anyone bothered to talk to her.

"Oh," she said quietly.

"Where are your parents?" Kurayami asked hesitantly.

"Parents?" The girl pondered, tilting her head in thought. "I do not know. Should I know?"

"You should, yeah," Labramon told her.

"Hello," the girl told our digital companion. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind that Labramon was both pink and white, and able to speak.

"What's your name?" I asked, changing tactics. She didn't seem interested in her parents.

"What?" She asked.

"Your name?" Labramon said as soothingly as he could through gritted teeth, but the girl just looked away. "Not gonna answer?"

Kurayami grabbed my sleeve and pulled me toward her and whispered into my ear about how she wasn't sure if the girl had a name or not.

"Of course she has a name." I whispered in return, but maybe she was right... or close anyway. Maybe the girl couldn't remember her name, or where her parents were, and she was lost and confused. I decided to make up a name for her on the spot. "Okay then Norn," I said smiling brightly at her. She sent me a timid smile in return. "What can we do?"

"You need to help me," she said a lot bolder than I'd expected. I met Kurayami's eyes and she sent me a knowing look. She did tell me to be patient. It looked like it was paying off quicker than I'd expected. We'd found her!

"We will," I declared. "I promise." Norn looked up at me and nodded rather professionally for a little crying girl with no name sitting on the street crying.

"Come with us," Kurayami offered. "You can tell us how you found Daisuke."

"I came here," she said. "That's all there is to know." Kurayami and I exchanged confused glances but didn't press the matter further. "Why is everyone here so cold? Like stone."

I knew she didn't mean it literally. She meant figuratively. Why had all of those people passed her by? Why hadn't a single one of them stopped by to help her? "It's just like with anything, there's some awful people, and some nice people."

"And you're the nice ones?" She asked. I nodded in a quick response. "Your name is Daisuke, correct? And Kurayami?" She must have overheard us talking by the restaurant. We nodded again. "And where do you live?"

"That's not fair," I said, feeling strange about giving her so much information, "You know more about me than I do about you."

"There isn't much to know about me," she said simply. "But there is so much troubling here. Why is that?"

"I don't know," I said, coming up blank. It was a good question, and she was a curious girl. I wondered vaguely what the answer really was, where had all of the romantic chivalry gone? Where had manners and common courtesy gone? The world that we were in was so much worse than what I had been raised to believe it was. This girl wasn't blinded by lies though, she saw right through her sheltered childish wall and saw what there really was to see.

"I think it's because the world is evolving into something better, but to get there it has to fall apart first," Kurayami said, and I was instantly reminded of what my dad used to tell me all the time, 'it always gets worse before it gets better'. I never really understood it, but I could see now, through Kurayami's words how it could actually make sense. So maybe my father wasn't the lunatic I had him pegged for.

"Humans have so many risks here in this world," Norn commented. "I remember a story once, about a tree spreading roots into the nine different worlds. Each world with more troubles than the last. If there are nine worlds, and each world has its own risks and their own issues, then what is the risks of Earth? Are the human beings themselves the risks? Are they what will ultimately cause an end to the World?" Norn looked to me, her large, round eyes waiting in anticipation to absorb more knowledge. How she knew what she already knew was beyond me. I looked to Kurayami and we shared a questioning look before I took a stab at answering.

"You know, I don't think the humans will cause an end to the World." I told her as we strolled down the old, cracked sidewalk covered in a thin layer of slush. "Like I said, there will be darkness in the humans, there will be bad ones, but there will always be good ones to counter them."

"Then what is the great evil?" She asked after nodding quickly. None of this was going over her head as it should, and the lingering question of 'who is she' was grew more prominent in the back of my mind as I kept pushing it back. But what was the great evil? Whatever it was I didn't like the sounds of it.

"The great evil?" I asked tentatively

"Oh yes," she said shaking her head sadly, I wasn't sure if that was because I hadn't understood her, or because she was saddened about the Evils plaguing us. "Each World is burdened with a powerful evil being. Nine worlds, so there are nine in all. But these are just stories that I remember a long time ago." We all stayed silent for a moment before she asked, "Why are you so interested?"

"It just seems like a really cool story." Kurayami lied. Of course it was a lie. We knew for a fact that there were actually nine worlds in this universe, all coexisting as one through each dimension, and whatever story this was from... seemed... pretty accurate. If there were nine great evils, who were they? Had we defeated them all? Or only just some of them? Or worse yet... none of them? If Fanglongmon wasn't one of these great evil beings she was speaking of, then who was? And how powerful could they be? "How does it end?" Kurayami asked.

"Each great evil meets its end." Norn whispered.

"Do you know any of the evils?" Labramon asked.

Norn shook her head, "No, I'm sorry." She said.

"What about the different worlds?" Kurayami asked.

Norn's face lit up as she began to list the worlds she remembered. Earth, A Digital Empire, which was obviously the Digital World, A world of Darkness, and one of Light and Love. If one was the Dark Ocean, that would still leave a world of light. One where Dreams were to come true. A land full of secrets and spells, a place where Time has no meaning. The World that came first and interrupted final 'world' known as 'the world in-between'. It was a really cool story, and if it turned out it wasn't true I fully intended to steal it and make big money off of a bestselling novel—but then I realized that if it wasn't true then it was likely already a story. And besides, Takeru would've written it better anyway.

I was eager to soak in as much information as possible. I knew I'd run it by Koushiro and Taichi later for accuracy, so none of that really mattered at the moment.

Norn reminding me of the nine different worlds set something off. If those evils were real then we'd have to find them. We'd need all ten keys. But we only had five, and two of them worked together to lock the Dark Ocean. We had the Digital World, Earth, the Land of Dreams and the Dark Ocean. That was only four worlds. And apparently Time itself was one? My head was spinning.

And to make it worse, this little human girl knew all of this information. It made me wonder who else might just have information we needed. In any case, it was clear to me that she was done with that topic. She was looking around us, up at the tallest points of the buildings on the street.

"Do you live up there?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"Where do you live then?" Kurayami inquired.

"Somewhere else, silly," Norn said with a giggle. "I have the key to my home. See?" She pulled out a silver key with a gold handle. It didn't look like my own apartment key, so I figured she had to have come from the suburbs, where they had actual houses.

"So we have to help you find your home?" I asked. That didn't sound _too_ hard. I'd been expecting something much more difficult, like saving the entire Digital World. This would be a piece of cake in comparison. But still my mind would be at east having helped the one who had been pleading for help.

"I am exploring," she told me. "I do not belong at home."

"Then come stay with us!" Labramon said excitedly. "That could be fun. We can play lots of games."

"Labramon," Kurayami chastised, sending me a sheepish smile. "You can't invite someone to stay at Daisuke's apartment."

"It's yours now too," I reminded her. "And she needs somewhere to stay. I feel like we're kidnapping her though…"

"You are not," Norn informed me seriously. "I want to go with you."

"What if we call the police right when we get home for any missing children reports?" Kurayami suggested.

"Oh, no one will be looking for me." Norn said, but Kurayami's expression made it very clear she was fully intending to follow through with her plan anyway.

Norn ran over and grabbed my hand, clinging to it tightly. It was still pretty cool outside, and I was sick of standing in the cold. So I walked with her, hand in hand, having passed Labramon back to Kurayami, and lead her to our apartment.

"I'm going to check the mail," I informed the others. "You head up with Kurayami, Norn, okay?"

She nodded and gave me a big smile. Like I said. Piece of cake.

We only had a couple of bills and a magazine that Takeru had subscribed to waiting in the mailbox for me. But on the back wall, there was a post-it note.

I picked it up, eyes wide. It didn't make sense. I was already helping. I brought the little girl home with me didn't I?

The note didn't seem to think I was doing it right.

_Help me Humble Child, before it is too late._

But if Norn was upstairs…who sent the note?

_**Jun:**_

I almost couldn't handle the excitement. Shuu had called me at work to ask me to dinner. He never did stuff like that. I just knew he was planning something really special. I was too excited to focus all afternoon, busy planning my outfit for the occasion. If this was going where I thought it was, I'd need memorable and beautiful attire.

I came into the apartment after work, expecting Shuu to be waiting, keys in hand, to take me somewhere, but he surprised me further, by taking my hand, and leading me to the kitchen. He didn't even give me time to change into that perfect outfit I'd planned. It had been really truly perfect too. But I couldn't stay disappointed for long. He had an accomplished look on his face, as though he were proud of whatever it was that he'd done.

Imagine my surprise when I was lead to a room that did not look a thing like our kitchen. Everything was spotless, and the small, round, rickety table was covered in a beautiful ivory cloth. There was a candelabra in the middle with three lit candles, casting the only light in the room. Everything had a soft, warm glow to it. The chairs were placed across the table, rather than beside each other as usual. There were two place settings, one for him, one for me, all laid out perfectly.

And the smell coming from the oven was mouth watering. I could smell thyme and coriander. I didn't know what the food was, but I didn't care. He'd cooked for me. _He_ cooked for _me._ That didn't happen all that often. He was always working later than I was. I hadn't even realized he _could_ cook.

"Do you like it?" he asked nervously.

God he was nervous! He decided he didn't care about his promise to Jou. I knew it!

"It's perfect," I said with a breathy sigh. His blinding smile was beautiful. I practically melted into my chair when he pulled it out for me.

"You deserve perfect," he murmured, kissing my cheek before he went to pull dinner out of the oven. "I hope you like this. Aimi actually gave me the recipe. She may have helped me plan this…if that's not pathetic."

"Not pathetic at all," I assured him. He wanted to make this perfect. So far so good. And he even asked his father's girlfriend for help. He could barely stand her. No. Not _her_. The idea of her. She was a rather lovely, if not eccentric woman. He just didn't want his mother to be replaced. I could understand that. So to have him ask _her_ for help…well, that made me think that tonight was going to be really,_ really_ special.

"Good," he said. "Because I didn't mean to admit that. I just want things to be perfect. I've been putting you through a lot lately, what with Jou and my animosity for Aimi. And work's kept me busy a lot more lately. I want tonight to be about you."

"That's fine by me," I said with a smile and a little laugh. He smiled back and let out a sigh. He was finally relaxing.

We didn't talk much while we were eating. He seemed a little excited actually, and nervous, but he wasn't scared anymore. I was too busy enjoying the flavours that burst in my mouth to be able to speak. It was amazing, and I almost didn't want to believe he cooked it. All my attempts seemed to pale in comparison.

"Okay," he said. "I'm just going tell you, since you haven't seemed to notice, but Otamamon and Meramon are over at Jou's. I thought it might be nice for it just to be the two of us tonight."

"That's thoughtful," I said. The excitement was really thrumming in my veins. He was going to ask me!

"I love you," he said softly. "So much. Things really have been great for us, especially in the last couple of years. Everything really took off when we helped save the world."

"We didn't really do anything," I reminded him with a laugh.

"But it was a turning point for us. I got Meramon," he said. "And you had Otamamon. Then you moved in with me, and we became a family of sorts, you know?"

"We are," I said with a smile. "A family I mean. It doesn't matter that they aren't our children. It doesn't make them less than family."

"I knew you understood," he said happily. "We've already got a family together. And though _someday_—probably, definitely a long while down the road—we'll add to our family, I just wanted you to know that I'm really happy with the way things are right now. With you."

"That's so sweet," I gushed. I swear, my face could split in two with how hard I was smiling.

"So," he said. "I got you a little something to remind you that I think of you all the time, and that I wish work wasn't taking up so much more time than it should."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. That's right. It was a little black box! He scooted it across the table to me, and looked at me eagerly.

Wasn't he supposed to get down on one knee? Was I really supposed to open it myself?

I didn't want to press the matter though, and I picked up the box, opening the lid.

It was not an engagement ring.

It was earrings. They were probably the most gorgeous pair of earrings I'd ever come across in my life, but they were earrings.

All my hopes for the evening crashed. I tried to smile, but it wasn't working as well as I'd hoped.

"Is something wrong?" Shuu asked me softly. He sounded disappointed. "I knew I shouldn't have got those ones. There was another pair I was looking at, but I chose these ones. I could take them back."

"No," I said quickly. My voice was wavering, and I was horrified to learn that I was nearly crying. "They're beautiful. They're just not what I was expecting."

"What do mean?" he asked cautiously.

"It's stupid," I said, holding onto the tears the best I could. "I'm being stupid. They're beautiful. You didn't need to get them. They must have cost you a fortune."

"You're worth every penny," he told me earnestly. "So why don't you tell me what's bothering you. This night was supposed to be special, and I made you cry."

"I'm not crying," I said, but I realized I was lying. I couldn't hold onto the tears, and some had escaped, trailing down my cheeks.

"Jun," he said, coming around the table to cup my face in his hands. "Just tell me."

"I just," I started, before pausing. "We've been together a long time. A really long time. And we already have a family together. I _know_ we're ready to take the next step." I watched as realization dawned on his face. He went to speak, but I cut him off. I had to get this out. I couldn't just rant to Momoe about my problems. "I just thought, _really _thought, that you were going to ask me to marry you tonight."

"Jun," he said softly. I knew what he was going to say. He always said it. "I can't. Not until Jou gets married. I signed the contract. I can't. Even if I wanted to. Even though I _want_ to."

"You do?" I asked shyly, clinging to his last words. "You mean that? You aren't just telling me so I'll shut up about it?"

"No," he said. "I really want to. We've been ready for awhile now. I was going to ask you ages ago, but then I found that contract while I was going through my old things. I made that promise, and I have to honour it. It helps that Jou and Momoe are so close. If they weren't I might've told Jou to screw the contract, because I can't wait forever."

"But you want to," I said.

"Yes," he said. "You have no idea how much I want to."

"If it's anywhere near how much I want to, then I've got some idea," I told him. "Now if you excuse me, I have a future brother-in-law to destroy."

"Don't do anything too drastic," he told me. I smiled at him, and shook my head. I was just going to open his eyes.

I was on a euphoric high as I stormed through the streets to Jou and Momoe's apartment. Shuu wanted to marry me. We were practically engaged. The only missing was the actual proposal. And a ring. I didn't care what it looked like, but there had to be a ring.

I didn't wait very long after ringing the doorbell. Jou himself answered the door. And then I slapped him across the face. It wasn't what I'd planned on doing, but I panicked when I saw him. It was dramatic enough though, so I didn't apologize.

"What the hell!" he shouted at me.

"Man up, Jou," I growled at him. "Get off whatever high horse you're on, and marry your girlfriend. My whole future is on hold until you do and it isn't fair!"

"What?" he questioned, but I turned on my heel and stormed off down the hallway. If that didn't get him thinking, I didn't know what would.

_**Iori:**_

Jou and I were walking side by side. He held the antidote Taichi supplied him with in his hand, and we walked endlessly, trying to make our way to the Yokomon village. We knew it was somewhere nearby, but we couldn't remember where exactly, without the help of various landmarks that had all disappeared when the Digital World did.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Jou asked me.

"Mind what?" I questioned.

"Having our meeting here," he said. "I know we usually meet by that tree at the lake but—"

"This is important," I told him with a sigh. "But next week we'll be back at the tree alright? I don't like being here too long. It makes me lose my grip on reality."

"That's the problem," Jou agreed. "It's too hard to know what's going on. There's no ground, there's no trees, no up and no down. The Digital World really needs us and we can't do anything about it."

"We're doing something right now," I argued. "We're working on the digimon problem. That's something. We can't do anything else until we can deal with Alias III and their leader."

"Sometimes I feel like we aren't doing enough," Jou said. "Like we aren't even trying like we used to. I know that we're older, but shouldn't that give us more to work with? We're smarter, more mature."

"And with that maturity comes fear. We know that there are things to fear now. We were reckless when we were younger. Now we know that the fear is there. You don't want to risk your life now more than ever. You have a daughter to take care of. A daughter that needs you to stay alive and be there while she grows up. Mimi has a restaurant, an entire business, resting on her, and that takes time. She can't just give everything to the Digital World like before. Daisuke does too. Yamato made a name for himself in the musical industry. He can't just go and get himself killed. People will want to know how it happened, and we won't be _able_ to tell them," I said.

"I see what you're saying. We're letting our own lives take away from our desire to save the entire Digital World. I don't like it, but I can't see myself changing anything. You're right after all. Emiko is my world. I won't leave her if I can help it," Jou agreed.

"And I have my mom, what with Grandpa and all. She couldn't handle it if something happened to me. I'm not all _that_ much more cautious, but I don't want to leave her alone," I admitted. As much as she annoyed me, I didn't want her to be completely alone. Meiyomon and Kotemon and even Armadillomon couldn't be substitutes for what she wanted, no matter how much she loved them. They weren't me or Grandpa. Or dad. They weren't her family.

"Or Natsuni," Jou added slyly. I looked to him quickly. He had a knowing look on his face. A look that I didn't like. Not. One. Bit.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I hedged. It was true enough. I could _guess_ at what he was implying. But I didn't know for certain.

"You're not that good at sneaking around," he told me. "It's not your strong suit. You're actually kind of obvious. I just wanted you to tell me, instead of the other way around. I doubt the others know, don't worry. But you're going to have to be a little bit more cautious if you don't want them to find out."

"I don't want to _have_ to be cautious," I told him. "I love her. That's what you thought, right? That I'm ashamed to admit that I'm in love, just because I spent so much time hating the very idea of it?"

"No," Jou said with a sigh. "I guess I'm just confused. Why are you even trying to hide? You're prideful, but even you will admit to mistakes. It doesn't add up to me. Why hide your love from those that love you?"

"My mother hates Natsuni," I said softly, like I was afraid of saying it aloud. "And her mother hates me. Mom doesn't want me to be with her. Not romantically at least. She knows we're friends, and routinely warns me against trying to become anything more. You're father is overbearing as well, right? Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Not really," he explained. "I might've, if I'd told him about Momoe before he found out about the baby. He's doing the opposite really. He wants us to get married."

"You don't sound thrilled," I commented.

"I'm not. I love Momoe. I really do, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. But I can't do it. I think it's because of him," Jou told me, as if he was entrusting me with a secret.

"That's stupid," I told him bluntly. "My mother won't accept the person that makes me happy, and in turn I'm making myself miserable to make her happy. You and your father want the _exact same thing_, and you're making yourself miserable, just so he won't be happy. I would love to be in your position right now."

"When you put it like that, it does sound stupid," he said glaring at me. "And I'm sure Jun would agree with you. She slapped me, across the face, and ordered me to marry Momoe."

"Think of it this way," I said with a sigh. Why was he making this so difficult? "Do you love Momoe?"

"Yes," he said rolling his eyes.

"And you want to spend the rest of your life with her?"

"I just said that, yes," he told me.

"Then do it. Don't do it for your father, do it for yourself. You can't keep your life on hold just because you think you're doing what he expects of you. Don't make yourself miserable when you don't have to. It sucks," I said. It really sucked.

"Maybe you should think about taking your own advice?" Jou offered.

"I might," I sighed. "When I'm sure my mother is done grieving, and when Natsuni is ready to leave her mother's clutches. She'd be losing a lot if we were together. Her family would never approve. And I can't ask her to sacrifice everything for me. I won't."

"That's oddly mature of you, for being the youngest," Jou commented.

"Can we talk about something else?" I asked. I was done talking about it. Talking didn't solve anything. And besides, I shouldn't have been talking to Jou, I should've been talking with Natsuni.

"What about the antidote?" Jou said, seemingly grasping a topic out of thin air.

"What about it?" I asked. "Aside from the fact that Marrow should have given it to you sooner."

"I'm not sure it will work," Jou told me. "Based on my calculations, it shouldn't work. There's something off about it. But I can't figure out what it is."

"What did you compare it to?"

"The sample I took from Syakomon. Maybe medicine doesn't work the same way in the Digital World. But we don't have time to figure out what the problem is. We have to act now."

"So we're starting with Syakomon," I said. I didn't ask. We wouldn't be headed to the village that he initial found him in if we weren't.

"As soon as we find the village," Jou joked.

"Jou!"

"That's Gomamon," I murmured. I turned and found the white and purple seal, along with the village, behind us. I was confused to say the least. How had we missed it? Was it just another anomaly that came with the altered Digital World?

"Thank God," Jou commented. "I thought we'd gotten lost."

"Hurry," Gomamon said. "Syakomon is waiting. He's kind of upset."

We rushed over to one of the small huts, and huddled at the door. Neither of us would fit inside. We'd have to wait until Syakomon felt comfortable enough to come out.

"Hey buddy," Jou called. "I've got an antidote. I'm not sure if it will work exactly, but it's worth a try right? We need a starting point."

"You're going to help me?"

Syakomon's voice was small and scared. It was enough, just to hear his voice, to make me want to put more effort into the fight for the Digital World. No one should have to be so scared. Especially a digimon that depended on the digidestined. I felt as though I'd failed. And as horrible as it was to hear, I needed to hear it.

"I'm going to try," Jou corrected him. "I can't promise anything at this point, but I'm going to keep trying until I do."

"Okay," Syakomon said, and he slid out of the small door of the hut. His once bright purple shell was faded, and his green body had turned a sickly shade. He didn't look too good.

"Jou, you should give him the antidote, right?" Gomamon asked. Jou didn't answer, but pulled out the syringe.

"This is going to pinch just a bit," he said. He looked every bit like a real doctor. I'd never seen him work before, but I was very pleased to see that I didn't just see the hypochondriac teenage I'd seen when I first met him.

Syakomon nodded and looked away from the needle. "I met a girl."

"Did you now?" Jou asked.

"Not like that," Syakomon said pitifully. "She was human. Like you. She was with one of the bad men. She wasn't bad though. She helped me. Can you help her too?"

"Who was she?" Jou asked, gently inserting the needle into the digimon's skin.

Syakomon winced, but didn't cry. "She was nice, really nice. She helped me."

"What did she look like?" I asked, when it was clear that Syakomon didn't know her.

"A girl," Syakomon said. "Her hair was brown…light brown, kind of red? She had a nice smile. She was nice."

"Anything else? Anything you can remember?" I pressed.

"The bad guy, he wasn't the one that hurt me. He was different. He was meaner," Syakomon said. "His hair was white...?"

Jou and I looked to each other.

"Neo," we confirmed.

I really hoped that Sora wasn't too attached to him.

"Jou," Gomamon said, but Jou either didn't hear him, or he was too shocked to answer.

"Did it have to be Neo?" he muttered. "Poor Sora."

"Yeah, yeah," Gomamon said. "Poor Sora. Now look."

"It happened again. She might give up after this," Jou continued.

"Jou, contemplate Sora's love life later," Gomamon insisted.

He was unusually persistent. Usually, Jou and he got along great. I'd noticed that Jou talked about Gomamon less during our weekly get-together, but I figured it was due to Emiko's continuing progress, and Jou was just being a proud parent. But for the first time, I wondered whether Gomamon was just getting neglected a bit.

The pleading in his voice would make sense in any case.

"Jou!" Gomamon shouted.

"What?" Jou said sounding a tad annoyed.

I looked at Gomamon and saw he was staring at something in horror. I followed his gaze and was shocked to see that Syakomon wasn't getting better as we'd hoped. If anything, he was getting worse. The little clam digimon was shaking violently. I'd equate it to having a seizure.

"Oh my God," I whispered, finally catching Jou's attention.

"This isn't what I was hoping for," he said. "Okay. We need to do something. I need water."

"There's no water in the Digital World," Gomamon reminded him, only to be ignored once again.

"And…I don't have time to reconfigure the antidote," he continued. "Not right now. Iori, I need your help. Can you hold him? I'm going to get another sample."

"I…" I shook my head. I had to focus. "Yes."

"How's that water coming along?" Jou asked.

"It can't," Gomamon said.

"Jou," I chastised. "Listen to what you're told. We can't help if you won't listen."

"Fine," he said sharply. "Come on Syakomon."

Syakomon stopped shaking instantly. His eyes narrowed in on something in the distance. I turned and only saw a green monkey digimon. It was holding something in its hand…looking down at the items, as if counting them.

That monkey was Syakomon's target.

"Get back!" I shouted at it.

"Monmon," Jou gasped.

"Jou, I can help!" Gomamon insisted.

"Syakomon?" Jou said tentatively. "You don't need to do this."

Syakomon's eyes—now red—shifted into a glare aimed directly at Jou.

"I can still save you," he insisted. "Give me time. Give me another chance."

"I don't _need_ saving, human," Syakomon growled. And then he attacked. He flung himself, shell and all, toward Monmon, who didn't see him coming. Syakomon swiped whatever Monmon was holding. Monmon was about to throw a tantrum, demanding for his possessions back, when Syakomon started glowing brightly.

"He's digivolving," Gomamon announced, startled.

"How?" Jou asked.

"Those things Monmon was holding… they must've been important," I guessed. "Now might be a good time for Gomamon to help out?"

"Maybe," Jou said in a daze. But he didn't have time to do anything. Syakomon had changed into a squid, and then a man-squid-hybrid, and then into a puffer fish. A mean looking one at that.

"Oh dear," Gomamon murmured, as we held our breaths, waiting for the puffer fish—a Pukumon if my guess was correct—to attack us. Even Monmon was standing still.

Pukumon looked us over, one by one and dismissed us, as if we weren't worth his time.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Gomamon asked. "Do we go after him?"

"We can't," I said grudgingly. "Taichi and the others are expecting us."

"And I've got to come up with a cure for him," Jou decided. "I'm not going to help destroy him. I promised to help him."

"Watch Monmon, Gomamon," I suggested, realizing that Jou wouldn't. "He's going to need someone stronger and smarter to help him."

Gomamon puffed up at my praise, but I could tell that it wasn't _me_ that he wanted to hear it from.

"We've got to tell the others," I told Jou, prompting him to move. We didn't have any time to lose.

_**Michael:**_

I sat impatiently, tapping my foot on the ground as I sat on the park bench. It was pretty cold out still, partially because it was just the end of March and winter had only just ended, but partly because it was nearly eleven o'clock at night, and I was sitting all alone in the darkness of the park.

I had been told to come to the park for an emergency meeting, but I had apparently been the only one who had thought it really was an emergency. Even Jou, who had been the one to send out the mass text in the first place didn't show up on time.

Though, to his credit, he was the next one to arrive. I felt relieved that they hadn't forgotten about it, and that they weren't pulling a mean prank on me. It was hard to be sure because none of them seemed to overly like me. But whatever... I could only be alone so often, and without Betamon, 'alone' actually meant... alone. He wouldn't hardly look at me...

Jou sat down next to me and then looked through the darkness and furrowed his brow.

"Where is Iori?" He asked.

"What?" I asked, "I don't know, no one's been here." He looked to me as if it were my fault and then shook his head and frowned.

"There he is." Jou said. I followed his gaze and sure enough, there was Iori, walking hand in hand with a child. "Who is he with?"

I didn't really care who he was with. I was sure that Iori had convinced whatever child that was to hate me. I sort of thought that he might have done the same with Jou, but I shook off the pessimism. Tatum would have been disappointed. Not that I'd know. I barely had any time to spend with her anymore what with all of these meetings. I was beginning to think that not only did all of these digidestined dislike me, but also that they had no respect for me, Willis, _or_ Hikari. We lived in a different country and yet they all still expected us to come see them every week.

Willis had rented a small apartment for him and Hikari to stay in during times of great importance, but I didn't want to. I lived in America, and they needed to realize that.

I tried to keep my head focused on the task at hand and saw, as Iori grew closer, that the child was Meiyomon. He liked me... for now.

Iori sat down on the swing set, which wasn't far from the bench, with Meiyomon and we all waited in silence, which wasn't much better than being alone.

Soon enough though Hikari and Willis showed up with their partners, but they didn't converse with us, as none of us made an effort, but the two chattered quietly with one another, leaning against the bars of the swings. Meiyomon watched them, hoping they'd do something interesting, but they never did. He then caught my eye and flashed me a smile to which I tried to return but couldn't. Not after what we'd done...

Eventually Meiyomon had captured Terriermon's attention and the two ran off to play in the puddles and bits of remaining snow that littered the park. Lopmon contemplated following them, but settled on sitting quietly with Gatomon. But the two digimon found a playmate soon enough as Takeru, Daisuke and Kurayami arrived with Patamon who instantly flew off to play.

"Hey!" Daisuke said, using his very loud personality to spark up a conversation. "Why is everyone so glum?"

"A lot has happened Daisuke." Jou said quietly as he fiddled with his finger, if I remembered correctly, his ring finger. "We have a lot to think over."

"Well let's think it over out loud." He said. "That's what these meetings are for isn't it?"

"We should wait for the others." Takeru said, accidentally cutting off Hikari who just pointed at Takeru who had stolen her point.

"Fine!" Daisuke groaned, taking Meiyomon's empty swing.

Koushiro was next, dragging Mimi behind him. She was being stubborn, as always. She was ranting about how no one wanted her here so she didn't want to come, but with Biyomon, Tentomon and Palmon's help they finally got her to sit still on a separate bench, Koushiro having to lay out his jacket for her to sit on since the bench itself was damp. I smirked at her, but Jou sat still, staring at his hand which I found odd since this was his best friend.

Miyako and Ken were next, just as silent as the rest of us seemed to be, but Hawkmon and Wormmon were arguing about which of their respected animals was more useful to society, most of Hawkmon's points were that Hawks ate worms. Which wasn't a valid point to help society I thought.

And finally, Yamato walked down the path, his hands in his pockets, wearing his signature leather jacket. His face showed his annoyance, and to find out what exactly was annoying him I looked to the couple following him. It was Taichi and Sora. They weren't holding hands, or linking arms, just walking together, talking, and smiling.

"We're all here." Daisuke pointed out, cutting off Sora and Taichi's conversation with a glare as Biyomon shot through the air and landed in Sora's arms. "Who called this meeting again?"

"It was me." Jou said putting his hand up weakly. "I may have screwed something up..."

"What did you do?" Mimi asked, honestly interested. She had changed a lot since she'd been in America, but she was still caring, and pure... most of the time. I glanced at Sora and then back to Jou as he spoke up.

"That antidote you gave me," Jou said, looking to Taichi, "It sort of failed."

"Okay," Taichi nodded, "We'll just try another one."

"It failed big time." Iori corrected. "Like... Jou—you tell the story."

"I love stories." Palmon chimed.

"This isn't a very happy story." Jou said to her. "You won't like it much."

"Well get on with it." Daisuke said, "I have to work tomorrow, I need some sleep." Both Takeru and Kurayami kicked him instinctively and he shot them a very daring look.

"Well I tested the antidote." Jou said simply, "On a Syakomon I'd gotten to know. He'd been affected but he was trying to fight the virus so I figured it would be a good idea to help him first, help him relax and return to normal life... but the so-called 'antidote' changed him. It fed the virus, made it stronger, it took over and he digivolved into an evil digimon." Jou was shaking as he recited what happened.

"It made him digivolve?" Taichi asked angrily.

"I think so?" Jou said slowly.

"No, that's not what happened." Iori said from his place on the swing as he rocked gently back and forth, "It wasn't the antidote that made him digivolve, it was whatever that monkey had." My stomach seized up quickly as I looked sharply toward Ken who was staring at me with a panicked look in his eyes. Miyako noticed instantly and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "The green monkey thing digimon—Monmon. Emiko's partner right? It had something, and Syakomon took it, and he digivolved."

"Well what did that monkey have?" Taichi asked.

"I think I know..." I said, forcing the words out of my mouth. "He... had..." I couldn't do it, I was just trailing off now. I looked to Meiyomon nervously, but he was still playing with Patamon and Terriermon.

"Spit it out man," Willis prodded.

"He had the secret crests we were hiding from you all." I said quickly. Everyone was silent and I figured the worst was over. But I was wrong.

"WHAT?"

Everyone turned their heads to the voice that had come from behind me. I looked slowly over my shoulder to where Patamon and Terriermon were rolling in the mud in a sort of wrestle, but the two of them were not what everyone was looking at.

Meiyomon was storming across the grass toward me a fiery look in his eyes, his fists clenched.

I looked to Ken who was literally frozen to the spot in fear.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Meiyomon screamed. "I told you to keep them safe! You _promised _me!" Meiyomon screwed his face up and stomped his feet causing the monkey bars to explode. Mimi let out a scream as Palmon and the other digimon got ready to keep Meiyomon at bay.

"Meiyomon!" Iori shouted, "Calm down!"

Meiyomon didn't listen, and was now standing behind the bench, trying his best to keep his cool. "Tell me what happened" He said in a whisper through gritted teeth.

"Technically it was Ken's fault." I said, giving him away instantly. Meiyomon turned to Ken and set off at a run. "Partly mine though!" I shouted, saving one of my only friends.

Meiyomon froze. "Tell me what happened." He said again.

"We..." Ken tried, "We were in the Digital World... and then Monmon attacked me and took the crests from me... he ran off though and we couldn't find him."

"Well at least we know where the crests are now." Iori said, trying to calm Meiyomon, again, who was growing taller. "Was digivolving really necessary?"

Meiyomon grabbed Ken's shirt collar and lifted him off the ground. Jou, Taichi, Yamao and myself all moved forward to help Ken as Meiyomon's frustration got the better of him, but Miyako waved us all off.

"Meiyomon..." Miyako said, "This is all about the crests. You had a crest once." Meiyomon looked to her and nodded calmly. "Do you remember what crest that was? Honour. You, of all people, know what honour is. Put Ken down."

Meiyomon was still for a couple seconds, but then dropped Ken and shrunk back to his rookie stage.

Ken clutched his chest looking mortified as Meiyomon fell to the ground and crossed his arms in a pout. "Meiyomon, I promise we'll get them back." Ken said. "I promise."

"Can't trust your promises." Meiyomon said flatly.

"Well I'll just have to prove you wrong then, won't I?" Ken asked, his eyebrows raised coolly. Meiyomon looked away but I could tell he was pleased. Ken looked to me and the two of us sighed with relief.

"So it wasn't the antidote then?" Taichi asked as if Meiyomon had done nothing.

Jou shook his head, "Not entirely. The antidote took hold of Syakomon and made him evil. It didn't work. But it also didn't make him digivolve."

"So the antidote was a fake." Taichi said, a knowing look in his eyes.

"Taichi," Koushiro said with a disproving look in his eyes, already knowing what Taichi was thinking. "It can't be."

"Can't it?" He asked.

Yamato raised his hand in annoyance, "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Taichi is under the impression that Marrow is the cause of the evil." Koushiro said, shaking his head. Everyone seemed to have something to say to that, my personal favourite, my own, was "Who is that?" but it was Sora who spoke first.

"It's not Marrow Taichi." Sora said, "You know that. It's Neo."

Yamato's face, once full of annoyance, suddenly formed a giant grin that was easily read as 'I told you so'.

"Sora..." It was Mimi who honestly showed pain for her friend until she looked to Koushiro who was giving Sora a reassuring look, setting Mimi into jealous mode instantly.

No one knew what to say, they all seemed to know Neo more than I did, and none of them really thought that he could really be the culprit. Hikari was especially shocked, but still said nothing. Why had we not just questioned him in the first place...? Now he's out there potentially being crazy evil... and we had no idea where he was. I wanted to go find him right then and stop him, finally knowing who was behind it all, but I couldn't I had no digimon partner.

"You know then?" Jou asked. Sora nodded.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"Syakomon told us." Iori said. "He also told us that Rei is in the Digital World."

"What?" Taichi asked in anger.

This meeting was filled with so much unnecessary drama that I didn't understand mostly. Couldn't someone just list the bad happenings and move forward? No? Didn't think so.

"We have to find her." Taichi said finally. "We have to save her."

"We will." Hikari assured him. "Rei will be saved."

"How can you be so sure?" Kurayami asked.

"Because we're going to save her silly." Gatomon said as she locked eyes with Hikari and nodded.

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Wormmon asked.

"Hideto..." Mimi said quietly.

"Exactly!" Hikari grinned, "Hideto. We've taken out Mari and Sigma," She gave both Willis and Koushiro apologetic glances, "And Hideto isn't a liar. He'll tell us where to go."

"You really trust him?" Takeru asked. "He's one of these Allias III guys right? Isn't that a little risky?"

"Takeru," Mimi said, jumping to her feet and patting him on the back, "You've been away so long, you don't understand. It's understandable. Hideto is a good guy."

"How can you be so sure Mimi?" Tentomon asked, only to be elbowed by Palmon.

"How can I be sure?" She asked, "How can Miyako be sure Ken's not going to kill her in her sleep and make a control spire out of their house? How can Daisuke be sure that Kurayami won't be taken over by Fanglongmon again and kill him in his sleep?"

"She has a point." Wormmon said looking up to Ken, who, like Kurayami was staring at his feet. But Kurayami was staring at her feet. Not his. That'd be so weird.

I was hardly following any of this to be totally honest. I just wanted all this crazy to be over. I felt like Willis. Willis never understood what was going on. He was bad with people, and couldn't read their emotions, and thus got lost very fast. I could do that. There were just so many of us with so many stories to tell that it was nearly impossible to follow them all.

"So I'll go talk to him tomorrow." Hikari said. "It'll be fine."

"Not alone." Taichi practically ordered. I noticed Daisuke roll his eyes. I could pick up on the little things still I noticed. Not all hope was lost. Daisuke was both annoyed that Hikari was in need of so much protection, just like she herself was, but also that Taichi seemed to be making all of the orders even while the goggles were still on Daisuke's head.

"I won't be going alone." Hikari said with a grin. "Takeru will be coming with me." Everyone looked to Takeru who smiled nervously.

"He needs protecting too." Yamato pointed out.

"So we'll protect each other." Takeru said, "We'll be fine. Trust me." No one seemed to want to trust them, but it was all we had. I'd go with them if I wasn't so excited to slip back to America to be with Tatum for a bit...

"Well fine." Taichi said, "I'm not happy about it though." There was a bit of silence which was then filled by Taichi again, "Anyone else have anything?" Both Ken and Kurayami looked to their partners, Miyako and Daisuke, but both remained quiet.

"Then I guess we're done here?" Taichi asked.

"What do I do about Syakomon?" Jou asked sharply.

"Well I'm going to talk to Marrow," Koushiro answered, "Taichi will be too arrogant about it—sorry, it's true. And in the meantime you said you were working on an antidote of your own, right? Continue that. That's all we_ can_ do." Jou nodded.

"And then we'll get the crests back for you Meiyomon." Iori prodded.

"Alright. Sounds good." Taichi said. "Takeru, Hikari, report back with whatever you find out from Hideto... and I guess... the meeting is adjourned."

And then everyone packed up and left. Sora bid farewell to Taichi and then hurried back to Koushiro and Mimi, and set off with the two of them, Palmon, Tentomon and Biyomon following closely behind. Yamato and Taichi set off in the opposite direction without their digimon who weren't here. Nor were Armadillomon or Gomamon, or Veemon or Labramon.

Each of their partners loved them and wanted to spend time with them, but they just didn't. So I was alone in my sadness. I just... missed Betamon a lot.

I looked up and saw that I was alone again, and figured it was time to go home.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Takeru and Hikari have a little bit of a scuffle and Yuuko finds a little surprise in her kitchen. Things heat up for Yoshie and Satoe in Digitamamon's kitchen too.


	19. Flashback

**Y/N:** I am a rabbit. Hop… Hop… Hop…..

Cheese omelets and orange toffee.

**Okay. So he didn't upload it right…he forgot the Yoshie part… so I just thought I'd fix it up. But I kind of enjoy the author's note that he wrote for me, so I'll leave it up. But I fixed the order and stuff too, nothing's too different I don't think, except that Yoshie's part exists now… Sorry for the mix up.**

**U/N:** Sooo we forgot to upload one yesterday—oops…. Anyway, as you can see ^ my sister is insane. Actually she's not here, I'm doing this. She's having Easter with our family. I'm not. They left me. Crazy people. Whatever. Crank up One Direction and just eat my chocolate in a corner. Crying. Whatever. Cool.

Anyway, for Easter, since we do things for Holiday's I thought about uploading both this one AND the next chapter—but that would be the worst thing ever since the next chapter is so long. And so, for your Easter present I am uploading this chapter completely normally. You're welcome. Happy Easter ;)

Anyway, Yuuko's part here was supposed to go in the next chapter, but I moved it because of the extremely long chapter ahead, and this one had nothing else. Well it might've, but my computer is currently broken and I don't understand my sister's mess of files on her computer so I don't know how to check. Anyway, I hope you like it.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 19: Flashback**

_**Takeru:**_

"You can go if you want." Yamato laughed. It'd been the fifth time he'd caught me nervously checking the time. I was supposed to meet Hikari in a half hour, but I was growing impatient. We had met up last minute because Yamato said he had something to tell me. He said that he'd called Dad for a bit of money which I found ridiculous, and found that Dad wasn't home, and that upon calling his cell phone he received a message say, "This number is currently out of your plane of existence." So he had gone to find Mom. I wasn't nearly as worried about him as I was about Mom because he had a digimon, and hadn't witnessed his death before.

"N-No, it's fine, I'll wait." I said quickly. Katsue was sitting on the couch in Yamato's arms, smiling.

"You like this girl then Blondie?" She asked, "That's cute."

"Not cute." I said sharply. "I don't like her. I have a super pretty French girlfriend." Which was true. I had moved on from Hikari. I just needed that push, and she'd given it to me... It was hard not to remember it, but I tried to keep it from my mind. I really liked Catherine. She was funny, smart, creative and really good at singing. France was more my speed anyway... I'd been a lot of places lately, and got a rather unpleasant tan that was already starting to fade thankfully, and of all of those places France was the best. And it was because of Catherine.

"I'm sure you do." Katsue said, her eyebrows raised as she reached toward the messy coffee table and grabbed a handful of popcorn that Taichi had made for the movie that was being left unwatched as a madman rampaged through New York and killed people. Taichi looked like he was mildly interested in the movie in question, but was still listening to the conversation at hand.

"He really does." Taichi said. "Seriously. Her name is Catherine. She's gorgeous."

I shot him a glare. He'd stolen her from me once, I wasn't going to let that happen again.

"And you know this?" Katsue asked.

"I dated her too." Taichi said.

"You guys seriously need to stop that." Katsue said. "You two are passing Sora back and forth like a heated game of tennis, and then Catherine, and me! You guys keep passing around the same girls. It's weird."

She had a point. But oh well...

"So you're going to see the Mother Theresa of your group?" Katsue asked.

"Hikari?" Taichi asked. "Her name is Hikari. She's not a nun."

"What's Barbie going to think Ken?" Katsue asked me. I was so lost, so I just turned and left their home. I hurried out of the building itself and set off at a run. I knew Patamon would be watching from the roof. I had almost walked in and shown him to Katsue, but I heard her voice so I sent him to hide.

Sure enough, a few minutes of walking down the drying sidewalk in the spring sun paid off. Patamon had landed on my head, catching a few unpleasant gazes from passersby. He sat in silence mostly, absorbing the cool and yet refreshing air of spring. Patamon had told me dozens of times that Spring was his favourite season, and I couldn't really blame him. It was all new and pretty, warm and all that great stuff.

"Hey Takeru!" Patamon said suddenly as we entered the park. "I see flowers!"

"Well spotted." I said to him with a laugh. What was he getting at? But he was right. There was a collection of flowers in the flower garden of the park. Where flowers would usually go—it was too early for actual flowers so I knew they were probably weeds, but they were still pretty.

"Let's pick 'em! Hikari would love them!" Patamon said excitedly.

"If you want to give Hikari flowers, then be my guest," I laughed.

"Then I will." Patamon declared, flying off to pick some of the pink flowers. I followed the stone path to the bench where we would usually meet, assuming that would be where Hikari was. And I was right. She was sitting in a white jacket wearing pink Capri pants, and sandals. Her hair was braided into an adorable little braid down her back, and her bangs were pinned to the side by a pink clip.

It had gotten so long... I'd spent so much time away that I'd hardly noticed. I knew she was planning on growing it out, because, and I quote, "As a mother I want longer hair." I just laughed at her initially. She wasn't planning on being a mother yet, was she? Well, whenever she was going to go through with the plan, that plan was with Willis.

Suddenly I heard a very loud, and angry cat, and I turned sharply to the sound where I saw Patamon had snuck up on Gatomon and received a punch. I laughed and then turned back to Hikari who was now smiling at me.

"Takeru!" She said, waving to me. "I just called Hideto, he said he'd be here in a few minutes. You're just on time!"

"Great!" I said as honestly as I could even though I was not, at all pleased with this. Being with Hikari was amazing. She was my best friend... she really always had been, even when she wasn't, she still was. But I had gone and made things really awkward—I knew we'd move on though. We had to, but it still didn't change the fact that I felt pretty awkward around her. Plus Hideto. He was evil! Well maybe not, I couldn't judge him as I'd never met him, but from what I heard, he'd kidnapped Yamato's Gabumon, and joined the side of evil alongside Sora's boyfriend, Koushiro's cousin, and Willis' ex-best friend. But Hikari trusted him. We'd have to keep an eye on him... but I was scared. If Hikari and I really needed protecting due to some 'Holy One' problem, was it safe to be going right up to this guy, or was Taichi actually right?

I sat down next to Hikari and tried a couple times to say something, but settled on keeping silent. Patamon flew over and landed in Hikari's lap and handed her the flowers. He'd never given _me_ flowers... probably because I kept making jokes about him being a pig...

"So what's the plan?" I asked her.

"Since when do you need a plan?" She said with a gentle smile, "You just traveled the world on a whim."

"This is a true fact." I laughed a little, "but I don't want to screw up."

"Remember that time that we wanted to prank Daisuke?" Hikari asked, "We thought we'd just go improvise? Who was it that screwed up?"

"You." I said as she nodded, "You'll do fine."

"You don't have a plan, do you?" I asked her.

"No, I do not." She said, laughing.

"He's here." Gatomon said suddenly, "And he smells like a weird perfume." I assume she meant some sort of cologne, but from what I'd heard he was a pretty odd guy, so maybe it really was perfume.

"Purrr-fume!" Patamon laughed, "Do you get it? Because you're a cat?"

Gatomon would have been raising her eyebrows if she had any, and then shook her head in shame, "It's not funny if _you_ make the puns Patamon—only if I do."

Hikari laughed, and I couldn't help but follow suit—her laugh was so infectious. But the laughing died off just as quickly as it had come. Hideto was walking toward us. He was wearing a thick black sweater that was rather tight, and a pair of jeans. At his feet was a Gabumon, and an Agumon, not disguised or anything. So careless. I realized that I hadn't disguised Patamon nor had I even attempted to pretend he was a stuffed animal, but I just wanted something to complain about. But there really wasn't anything. He was smiling friendly, he waved kindly, he was dressed pretty neatly, his hair was literally perfect—there was nothing to complain about.

"Hello Hikari!" Hideto said in his smooth voice, "Blonde boy." He nodded in my direction.

"Takeru," I corrected.

"Ah, Yamato's brother..." He said, and I could hear the awkward in his voice, "Please... apologize for me."

"Will do." I said with a nod, unsure if he was serious or not. He didn't seem too evil as of yet...

"So what can I do for you?" Hideto asked Hikari as his Agumon and Gabumon stood still at his side. Hikari looked to me as if she expected me to do the dirty work, but I didn't even know what I was supposed to ask, so I just stared back at her, until Hideto cleared his throat.

"Where is Neo?" We both asked.

"Smooth." She said with a grin, elbowing me.

"Not so bad yourself." I said sarcastically in return.

Both Gatomon and Patamon raised their hypothetical eyebrows at us, but Hideto had a much different reaction. His shoulders fell and he twisted his face up slightly before relaxing and putting his hands in his pockets, "You're using me to find Neo. That's what this is about?" Hikari nodded lightly and then he sighed, "Well I'm sorry to inform you that I actually have no idea where he is."

Hikari was visibly upset by his answer, biting her lip and clenching her fists tightly.

"Do you know what he's doing?" I asked him. Maybe he was lying... I couldn't be sure. Hideto shook his head. "I find that hard to believe." Hikari elbowed be sharply bringing me to the realization that I'd said that aloud. I turned to Hideto apologetically but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"It is what it is." He said, "Neo told me nothing. He won't tell me... I know... a little bit." He seemed genuinely unsure though.

"Well tell us what you know." Hikari said.

"I can't." Hideto said, "It—" Gatomon cut him off with a snarl toward his digimon who each jumped back. Hikari ignored Gatomon, but drew her closer to herself with her arms. I looked down to Patamon who was staring directly at the Gabumon. He slowly crawled into my lap and I held him tight. Something weird was going on.

"It?" Hikari prodded.

"It wouldn't make sense to you." Hideto said, "it doesn't even make sense to me. I just know what he told me most recently." Hideto took his hand and rubbed the back of his head nervously, his sleeve falling part way down his arm revealing a strange looking bracelet.

"And what was that?" Hikari asked. Hideto bit his lip, and took his hand to rub his forehead revealing that a digivice was attached to his bracelet. "What did Neo tell you?"

"I'm sorry..." Hideto whispered.

Suddenly everything was happening very fast. Patamon dug his claws into my leg as Agumon let out a snarling noise. I pushed Hikari off of the bench and then dove out the way myself as a ball of black flames erupted from Agumon's wide open jaw. I looked in horror to the bench as it caught fire quickly.

"That was _completely_ uncalled for!" Gatomon spat, jumping from Hikari's frame on the ground to the nearby Agumon, punching him in the face, and sending him flying off toward a pit of sand.

The Gabumon turned his head toward us jerkily, his pupils looked like snake eyes, and he was barring his teeth.

"Oh nuts." Patamon said airily as the Gabumon ran toward us at a terrifyingly quick rate.

"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon called stupidly, as his flame was as black as Agumon's had been. But it wasn't the time to be picking out random errors in our enemy. It was time to fight. Something I'd oddly been craving for a while. I needed to vent a _lot_ of frustration.

Patamon had dodged the attack and then turned to Gabumon and flew after him quickly.

"Takeru!" Hikari called. I turned to her to see Hideto moving slowly her. Couldn't this have waited until after dinner? I was pretty hungry—but nonetheless...

I ran toward Hikari, jumping between her and Hideto and pushing his shoulders roughly. "Go away." I said firmly. He shook his head and then leaned his head back in frustration. "Go away Hideto." I said flatly. "_Now_."

"I can't." He said slowly. "I have to do this."

"You _have _to?" I asked.

"There's always a choice Hideto!" Hikari said quickly.

"Not this time." He said. "This is the better option. I have to do this."

"You have to do this huh?" I asked again, "You're ridiculous you know that? You all are. Every one of you. You think you have to do this? Destroy the Digital World, take the home away from millions of digital creatures? Well you're wrong. You don't have to be a total jerk, but you are. That's what you're doing. So stop fighting, and tell us what Neo's done to the Digital World. Tell us what he's planning. Tell us where he's hiding."

"I don't _know_!" Hideto shouted. "And I can't!"

"You don't know, or you can't?" I asked, "Which is it."

"I can't do it!" He said throwing his hands up in defeat.

"You _can_!" Hikari and I insisted at once.

"No!" Hideto said loudly, swinging his fist toward me. I reacted quickly and in a panic and blocked his punch from hitting my face, and then punching him in return.

Hikari gasped as Hideto staggered backwards but he soon shook it off. He looked up to us with a sincere form of apology in his eyes as he slammed his fists together. He had another bracelet on the other hand with a separate digivice, and the two began to glow when his fists were brought together.

When I looked to the battling digimon I saw that Gatomon and Patamon were backing down now, and the reason was obvious. His digimon had digivolved. Black armoured versions of Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon stood by the monkey bars that had fallen bravely in a war against Meiyomon the night before. And something told me that they weren't going to be the only broken piece of equipment...

I threw my hand into my pocket and fumbled around for my digivice, shakily bringing it out and pointing it to Patamon.

Hikari must have done the same because both Patamon and Gatomon began to glow, shifting into their humanoid Champion and Ultimate forms.

"Angemon!" I shouted. "You have to win this!"

"Losing isn't on the top of my to-do list Takeru," Angemon said sarcastically. I stuck my tongue out at him but turned to Hikari quickly as she grabbed my wrist sharply. She jerked her head to Hideto and I knew immediately what she was trying to say just by the expression on her face.

Basically, Hideto wasn't going to give in. He was too scared, and frustrated to not fight. We didn't know why, but for now we'd have to fight, until we could find a way to break down whatever wall was holding him so tightly in place.

Angemon shot his Hand of Fate attack a few times, but we both knew it was no use. Metalgarurumon was a mega level digimon, and Angemon stood no chance. I looked down to my digivice and noticed that my hand was actually in quite a lot of pain from punching Hideto, but I shook it off and pointed to Angemon.

"**Angemon digivolve to... MagnaAngemon!**"

MagnaAngemon drew Excalibur from his arm and shot toward Metalgarurumon quickly as Angewomon began firing arrows toward Wargreymon, how deflected them with his arm guards.

"Takeru," Hikari said in a hushed tone, "We're in the middle of a park. Right out in the open. In the middle of the day. What if someone sees us?" She had a point... we couldn't keep this battle going on any longer. It had to end as fast as it could, or else someone would see us.

This wasn't exactly the welcome back I'd hoped for to be honest. I mean, sure I'd been here a while, and I _did_ want a battle, but I wanted a calm one, where we could just throw a few good punches in and then return to normal life. I wasn't a violent person, but violence was most certainly the answer to some problems. And the answer of how to be less frustrated—is punching someone in the face. And it worked. I'd gotten rid of a lot of built up frustration by punching Hideto across the face, so I was more than done with this battle.

"We need to digivolve." Hikari said. I responded by simply nodding.

"**MagnaAngemon digivolve to... Seraphimon!**"

"**Angewomon digivolve to... Ophanimon!**"

And then there were two mega level holy angels standing in the middle of Odaiba. No big deal.

But it was. It was a big deal. We had been dubbed those in need of being protected due to our digimon being in some sort of legend as the Holy Protectors. If Hideto knew of Neo's plans then this could be bad. But he had no real reaction to our new transformation. Perhaps he was telling the truth... Neo really didn't tell him anything...

"_He won't tell me. I know... A little bit."_ Hideto's voice rang through my mind. He knew something... just a bit—maybe it would help us, I didn't have time to act upon that though.

"Takeru!" Hikari screamed as Metalgarurumon bound across the grass toward us. I threw myself toward Hikari, guarding her with my back, my arms wrapped around her, and I was frozen. Something in Metalgarurumon's eyes had caught my attention. Guilt? Sadness? Longing?

Something...

Hikari screamed as a loud crash was heard behind us. I looked back quickly to see that Ophanimon had thrown Metalgarurumon off course, sending him straight into the jungle gym, leaving an oddly shape dent in it.

"You two need to get out of here." Ophanimon said. We both shook our heads stubbornly but she didn't see that as she'd already flown after Metalgarurumon.

"Hikari, I have to talk to him." I said quietly.

"Be careful..." She said with a nod, "I'm going to go cheer on our digimon."

"Be careful," I winked at her.

"Always am!" She said with a grin before running off.

I slowly moved toward Hideto, which was rather suspenseful, I must say, and put my hand on his shoulder. He jumped around and looked at me a mix of fire and fear in his eyes. I swallowed the lump in my throat and said as calmly as I could, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I do what I'm told." He said with an equal amount of calmness.

"But you know it's wrong." I said, "I know you do. I can see it in your eyes." He glared at me and tried to hide his emotions but he failed. I'd been trained my whole life to read emotions, it was something my mother was very proud of. "Why do it if you know it's wrong?"

"Because it's all _my_ fault..." He said quietly.

"What's your fault?" I asked, but he didn't answer. "Hideto? What did you do?" He slowly looked back to the battling. I did the same, seeing I wasn't making any progress with him.

Seraphimon spun through the air and punched Wargreymon in the side of the head, sending him flying across the park where he dug his feet into the ground, creating two long gouges.

This couldn't be good. What would everyone think when they saw this? What would the children think? We needed to end this without too much more of a fight...

"Sephirot Crystal!" Ophanimon shouted in her smooth magical voice as ten turquoise crystals appeared out of thin air. She shot them and I immediately winced. The crystals shot toward Metalgarurumon who was on the other side of the swing set. The crystals cut through the chains on one of the swings, causing it to drop to the ground, leaving two half-chains hanging there. The other swing was pushed with the force of the attack, causing it to swing around the top bar multiple times until it was out of reach from the children who could arrive at any moment.

"Hikari!" I called out, "We have to stop destroying the playground equipment!" She nodded, but said nothing to me. She did however whisper something to Ophanimon who leapt into the air and shot through the sky, her lance held at length as she shot toward Metalgarurumon. He jumped out of the way as she got close, but she expected that, as she was already swinging her lance around, hitting him in the side and sending him flying toward Wargreymon and Seraphimon who were fighting hand to hand.

Hideto let out a mangled grunt of sorts as he looked around. He shook his head and then slammed his two fists together.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Jogress." He managed to say as his two digivices began to glow.

"Seraphimon!" I screamed, realization washing over me as I feared for his life. "Get back!"

Seraphimon and Ophanimon both flew back toward us as Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon Jogress-digivolved. It happened no differently than it had either of the times I'd seen Taichi and Yamato's digimon become Omnimon, other than the dark shades of his armour.

Why did black always have to mean evil?

Pretty freaking racist if you ask me. I had never thought about that until Catherine brought it up. She was smart like that—but a little too much into equality—but whatever, she was cute when she got all worked up.

I shook Catherine out of my mind. Now was _really_ not the time to be thinking about that while I was in the middle of this life or death battle.

I jumped when Hikari appeared next to me, clutching my arm tight. "We can't win." She was right of course, they had a virus that made them stronger, plus they were a whole level ahead of us...

"We should call for help." I said, "You call Taichi, and..." I faded out as Hikari shook her head sharply.

"We've grown up." Hikari said firmly. "Taichi is probably just waiting for me to call. He probably wants to help. But I won't let him. We have to do this."

"Well that was sudden." I said as she changed her entire perspective on the battle itself.

"Yeah, well." She winked at me, but any humour or happiness that was in that conversation ran dry pretty quickly as we turned back to the battle to see Omnimon running directly toward our digimon.

"Hallowed Ascension!" Seraphimon called out, raising his hands to the sky as Ophanimon readied her shield. Bolts of lightning shot from the sky, smashing into the ground, sending chunks of dirt flying through the air, but not phasing Omnimon in the slightest.

As Omnimon grew closer Hikari's grip on my arm tightened until finally she let go and screamed, "MOVE!"

Both of our digimon shot into the sky, dancing around each other in a way until they took a place in the sky and stayed still, aiming their respective weapons toward Omnimon who raised his sword toward them.

The three digimon stayed very still for a moment until Omnimon dropped his sword. Did he give up? I knew not to get my hopes up though. And I was right. He quickly raised his other arm, equipped with a large cannon and fired toward Ophanimon. She dodged quickly, but he kept shooting.

"Hideto!" Hikari said sharply, running toward him. I stayed back and watched the cannon fire into the sky. What would the humans think that was? Would they see something different? How well did that Queen's spell work? Would they think of it as just light? Even so, they were bound to come check it out... fighting on earth was not a good idea. "Hideto, do you remember what you said to me?" Hikari asked him. "Remember how you said that you love the idea of peace? And how you want everyone to be happy? This isn't making everyone happy. This isn't peace. You have to listen to me!" I didn't look, but from the corner of my eye I could see Hideto moving away from her slowly only to have her follow him.

Omnimon's cannon nearly hit Seraphimon this time around... they couldn't dodge forever—his aim was getting better. They had to fight! They had to win! But if they fought then we'd be the cause of the destruction. But was it better to ruin a park than to lose my best friend? Well, yes. But would the police see it that way?

"Hallowed Knuckle!" Seraphimon called, throwing a ball of light through the air toward Omnimon who jumped out of the way and shot his cannon once more. This time it hit Ophanimon, but she had time to raise her shield which cracked under the pressure. She looked toward Seraphimon and then looked back toward Omnimon and pointed her javelin at him.

"Eden's Javelin." She said calmly, sending a beam of pink light toward Omnimon. He let out a scream and fell to his knees. The attack was meant to purify the opponent... but was it supposed to hurt?

I watched as Omnimon winced in the pain that the light was causing him. Was it working? Was this really all we needed to do? Ophanimon was the best! Next to Seraphimon of course...

"Just Kidding." Omnimon said in his unified voice. I gasped as he raised his cannon once more, and shot, hitting Ophanimon directly. The light from her javelin stopped as she fell through the sky, crashing into the ground.

"No!" Hikari yelled, "Ophanimon!" I looked to her and saw that she was biting her lip, her fists clenched. She turned back to Hideto and grabbed his arm. "Tell me why you're doing this!" She yelled, "This isn't the peace we talked about! _Tell _me!"

"Because it's my fault." He whispered again.

I looked back to the battle in time to see Seraphimon's one of Seraphimon's wings to be hit directly by the blue light of the Garuru cannon.

I resisted the urge to yell in anguish as he fell through the air, and instead stayed quiet so I could hear Hideto and Hikari.

"What is your fault?" She asked him. "What did you do?"

I looked back to Omnimon and saw that he was looking directly at me. I was scared for a moment, but the look in his eyes made that disappear quickly. He was staring at me with a strange, knowing look in his eyes. He knew what he was doing was wrong... he was just obeying his master. His master was obeying someone else because it was his fault... but what was Hideto's fault?

Suddenly I wasn't standing in the park anymore. I was on the sidewalk. I tried to look around, but I had no control over myself. I was just walking down the street listening to someone tell me about some really cool comic book. I knew that comic book—it had come out eight years ago.

Was this some kind of memory?

"Hideto?" The girl's voice said, "Are you even listening to me?"

I looked over and saw Rei Saiba walking next to me. Rei was _walking_ and I as Hideto. I was in Hideto's memory... The two of us walked as Rei talked, which was actually quite interesting since I really liked that comic as well, though her predictions for the next one were way off, not that she could have predicted that General Poppy would betray the other Floral Knights.

Finally we came to a stop at a street corner and I handed Rei a poster and a black marker. "Here..." I said in a voice that wasn't my own.

And then Rei smiled. "Be back in a jiffy." She waited for the traffic lights to tell her to cross and then she did as I turned to look at my reflection in the shop mirror. Hideto looked pretty much the same just much shorter. I could tell he... or me, was trying to busy himself, but in the reflection I could see a crowd of people cluster around a blonde boy... Yamato? But he looked younger obviously. He was signing autographs.

And after a few minutes Rei emerged from the crowd, waving to me. I waved back without thought and turned to face her. The light still said for her to cross and so she did, looking both ways anyway, she was always so safe.

She ran onto the street, coming toward me. "I got you the autograph!" She said, "I still don't see why you couldn't have done it yourself though—he's a really under—" Her voice was cut off with a scream escaping her lips as a loud horn blasted, and a truck sped around the corner.

"REI!" I screamed loudly—but it was too late. The truck had hit her.

Then I was in the park again, chills running down my spine. I swallowed the lump that was in my throat and looked to Omnimon who nodded. He had sent me that vision... it was a memory. Hideto's memory.

"Hideto!" I said sharply. "It's not your fault."

Hikari and Hideto looked to me. I put my hand on the back of the bench I was standing behind and used it to steady myself as I jumped over it and ran toward the two of them standing near the broken swing set.

"It was no one's fault." I told him calmly. He looked to me with fear in his eyes, I knew his secret, and he wasn't proud of it, "It was an accident."

"No." He said firmly. "Omnimon. You have to kill their digimon." I reacted quickly and grabbed the collar of Hideto's sweater. He locked eyes with me and shook his head, "If I don't do this, then Neo will kill all of them. All the digimon. And he won't stop there. He'll kill you human's too."

I dropped Hideto. He was doing this because he thought it was right... he honestly thought he was saving us.

"We can take Neo." Hikari said.

"No." Hideto shook his head, "You can't even beat me—how can you beat Neo?"

"Watch me." I said, looking back to the battle where Omnimon was advancing upon our digimon.

"How can you be so confident?" Hideto asked, "Don't you feel fear? Any of you digidestined?"

"Of course we do." Hikari told him, "But fear means to lose hope." She took my hand, "And hope is very important."

"Without hope we'd be surrounded in darkness." I finished for her, "With no path back to the light. And without light, we'd never get anywhere." I looked down at Hikari who winked at me.

"Hope and light together keep the world from falling into darkness." Hikari said.

"It's something we could teach you." I told Hideto.

Suddenly something in my hand began to vibrate. I looked down to my clenched fist and saw that Hikari's digivice was glowing in my hand.

But why hers?

I looked to her and she was staring at my digivice—no... her digivice was glowing with the crest of hope, and mine with the crest of light...

"**Ophanimon digivolve to...**"

"**Seraphimon digivolve to...**" The two of them rose into the air, leaving behind a trail of light as they danced around one another again. I looked to Hikari hoping she had some idea of what was going on, but she was staring in awe at our digimon who had collided in mid flight.

"**Shakamon!**" They shouted together as a flash of light surrounded them. When the light faded there was only one digimon. Shakamon was tall and had long, flowing grey hair with black tips. He wore a golden robe, and a matching helmet that looked like it was from some sort of magical version of medieval times. A large spinning golden disk floated behind him, and surrounding him were sixteen balls of golden light.

"Did... they just jogress?" Hideto asked.

"You didn't think you were the only one with fusing digimon, did you?" Hikari asked.

"Well, I did." I admitted which caused Hikari to laugh and punch my arm playfully. Hideto stared at us, hid mouth hanging open a bit. I slowly looked away from him and toward the battle at hand.

"GO SHAKAMON!" Hikari screamed suddenly as our digimon landed smoothly, his bare feet in the grass. Omnimon had stopped his advance.

"This fight is meaningless." Shakamon said using both Ophanimon's voice, and Seraphimon's. "We do not have to quarrel. End this now while you still can."

Omnimon swung his sword without thought. Shakamon spun out of the way and held his hand out in the air, sending a ball of golden flames toward Omnimon. Omnimon held his sword up as a shield, but the flames were too strong, and still burned him. He let out a cry of pain to which Hikari winced at.

"I told you not to fight me." Shakamon said, but Omnimon raised his cannon once more. Shakamon shook his head and shot one of the balls of light toward the cannon, lodging it inside the barrel, so if he were to fire it would only injure himself.

Omnimon dropped the cannon and raised his sword again, running toward Shakamon.

Shakamon raised his foot so quickly that it seemed almost as if Omnimon had just decided to fly across the park and destroy the metal slide for no good reason.

As Omnimon was pulling himself to his feet and away from the mangled slide, Shakamon ran across the park and summoned a shining, golden sword out of thin air. He ran toward his opponent, his sword held straight ahead. I clenched my fists, ready to look away when the sword hit.

"STOP!"

Everything froze suddenly as we looked toward Hideto. His eyes were clamped shut, his fists held so tight they were shaking.

"Please." He said, suddenly relaxing. "I'm sorry... You can't hurt him. I won't let you. We'll stop fighting you. I get it. We lost."

"You didn't lose." Hikari said, "You definitely won. You came to your senses before it was too late." She started walking toward him but he raised his hands to stop her.

"Neo will kill you. He'll kill _me_ if he finds out I didn't at least let my digimon fight to the end." Hideto said quietly.

"No he will not." Hikari said.

"We're not going to let him." I reassured him. "We're going to stop Neo."

"And you're going to help." Hikari grinned.

Both Hideto and I stared at her in confusion.

"The others were starting to trust you guys anyway, we'll just not tell them we had this battle since you didn't want to, and it doesn't change your stand point in my eyes... we'll just ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen." Hikari explained. "And with your help, Neo will go down. There'll be sixteen of us—eighteen if Mari and that other boy want to help."

"Neo wouldn't stand a chance..." I said in understanding.

"I don't know..." Hideto said. "I have to help him... I think he blames me... I have to help."

"It doesn't matter what Neo thinks of you." I told him, "Neo also thinks that deleting an entire world is a normal Tuesday evening."

Hideto chuckled, "He is my best friend though."

"Well then we'll get him to see reason." Hikari said, holding out her hand. "What do you say?"

Hideto looked unsure, but the moment sirens started sounding off he took her hand. "I'm in." He said, "But we should leave. If this battle never happened we shouldn't be seen here."

"Good point." I said, "We should also revert Shakamon—he can't have jogressed if there was nothing to fight against."

We turned to the digimon who seemed to have heard our conversation. Patamon and Gatomon were standing by Omnimon waiting for us. We all hurried toward them.

"I uh... like your hair by the way," I said.

"Thanks?" Hikari said questioningly as we rushed toward our digimon.

Soon enough Omnimon was flying straight up to the sky carrying Hideto, Hikari, Patamon, Gatomon and myself. Hideto had joined our side, we destroyed a park, and Hikari didn't seem too awkward around me. Pretty good day.

_**Yoshie:**_

It was actually quite relaxing, to be working in the restaurant. Digitamamon was hard to please, but that wasn't so much of an issue for me as it was for Satoe. She was a horrible woman. I tried to keep my opinion to myself, but it was difficult. She had so many negative things to say about my son and said a lot about her daughter that wasn't much better.

I couldn't understand why she was so harsh with Mimi.

It was true that—and lately especially—she was louder than I was used to, and she was always honest with her opinions. I had a hard time getting along with her now. I wasn't sure though, it that was due to her new and difficult attitude, or because I was still getting used to the idea that she was dating my son.

Koushiro really had blindsided me with that news. Quite a few events in the past couple of years made a bit more sense when I thought about it, but I was still surprised. I hadn't expected _Mimi_ to be the kind of girl he was interested in. I'd been rooting for him and Sora to be honest, before I knew about Mimi. Now though, I supported his decision. She made him happy. And what I wanted most for my son was for him to be happy.

It didn't seem like a very hard concept to me.

Satoe on the other hand…

She dried the dishes, while I washed them ranting about the flaws in my son with each dish I passed her. She would hold the plate while I pulled the food out of the oven—after slaving over the hot stove to make it too—and then give me the plate to bring out to the customers. All the while, she would point out problems that had arisen in her daughter, all thanks to my son's influence.

I would have though a desire to learn would be a plus, not a flaw, but to each their own.

"And her recipes!" Satoe continued. "They are atrocious. And she claims he likes them. He's lying to her about her food. Food that she then goes around and serves to other people!"

"No," I said firmly. "He's got…an acquired taste. But he's not lying. He wouldn't do that."

"He runs around with another girl though," Satoe added quickly, not letting me keep her from adding another 'flaw' to her master list. "That Takenouchi girl. The one who's never been able to keep a boyfriend, because she's always too busy sinking her claws into her next catch to bother with the one she currently has."

"Sora is a very nice girl," I said weakly. I was running out of the patience and energy I needed to deal with her.

"She wants to make an impression on the parents, but she's a bit of a floozy," Satoe informed me, as if I cared about the mean spirited gossip. I knew Sora. I knew her far better than I knew Mimi. And yes, she had bad luck sometimes, but she always put herself back out there, even after having her heart broken. And she cared about my son. They were great friends.

"Sora helped get our children together," I commented without thinking. I winced as her eye got a vicious gleam to it. I hadn't meant to say it aloud.

"That just proves it. She's a menace," Satoe growled. "That boy isn't right for my daughter."

"According to you, your daughter isn't good enough to be your daughter," I shouted. "Now kindly remove yourself from my presence. You are hindering my work. I remember Digitamamon mentioning that the washrooms need scrubbing. Now, as the volunteer here, I've decided that _that_ particular job is to be yours. Now go."

She stared at me, demonstrating her particularly accurate impression of a fish.

"I can't do that," she hissed, when she got her wits about her. "I hire someone for that."

"Well, you shouldn't have broken the vase then," I said simply. "Go on."

"I can't touch other peoples…no not even people. They're an entirely different species. I'm not touching their waste!" she shrieked.

"Then shut up," I snapped, turning back to the soup I was working on.

"Be quiet back there," Digitamamon yelled from the doorway. "The customers are complaining."

"Then maybe you should fire us," Satoe said snippily. "You wouldn't have a problem anymore."

"You're paying for that vase," he growled. "And you'll do it quietly."

"Yes sir," I said promptly, feeling as though I'd joined the army rather than the cooking staff.

I went back to stirring the soup, and waited for Satoe to make another comment. But she didn't. I turned to her and saw that she was staring at the ground. Her eyes were watering. I didn't think she _could_ cry. She'd hidden behind her snarky mask for so long, that I thought she truly couldn't behave any different way. But she was clearly overwhelmed with the situation.

"I'll…" I said grudgingly. I was such a sap. "I'll clean the bathroom later. Just don't cry. Alright? Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" she growled angrily through her tears. "I'm a mess. I broke three nails today!"

I wondered how she'd managed that—she hadn't actually _done_ anything!—but wisely didn't voice my thoughts this time.

"I'm doing _servant_ work," she continued hysterically. "And I just want to go home. But home isn't any better. My daughter is a disappointment, and my husband can't see that I'm just trying to steer her in the right direction. He can't see anything _wrong_ with her! Everyone is against me, but I know I'm right. And…and I don't even know where I am!"

"The Digital World," I whispered, afraid to interrupt her rant. "It's the Digital World. Mimi's been here before."

"Great," she snapped, sounding like she meant anything but. "I hate it here. I want to go home. How do I get home?"

"I don't know," I admitted. I'd been wondering about it myself. My husband was at home alone now, and he couldn't cook at all, though I was willing to bet he had a bit more experience than Satoe did. And I'd been gone for ages. Where was my son? Shouldn't he realize that I was stuck in the Digital World? Shouldn't he have come by now?

"I need one of you to take the register. Things are about to get interesting," Digitamamon shouted.

I thought, for one shining moment, that Satoe was actually going to go and man the cash register, but she just stared at me, raising her eyebrow.

"I already broke three nails. _Three_," she insisted. I sighed, and turned the soup down to a lower hear. It could handle simmering for a few minutes. I headed out to the counter, and saw a man wearing what appeared to be tan robes, with a belt around his middle. His brown hair was spiked on his head, but also included what appeared to be the longest rat tail I'd ever seen in my life. Or perhaps it was a sort of ponytail? It didn't matter. It was his eyes and his henchman that caught my attention. His eyes were dark, and glowering. They didn't fit with his friendly appearance. And the man beside him frightened me. There was something about him that made me think he wasn't fully aware of himself. Something in his mind was twisted. He was shorter than the first man, but the fiery red hair on his head was lank and lifeless. His eyes burned beneath the dangling bangs. He was wearing the same clothing, but it didn't suit him at all.

And the orb around the first man's neck glimmered in the diner's light. I was captivated by it.

"Good," Digitamamon said to me. "Keep watch here, I need to talk to these men."

"Alright," I said. There weren't many customers today. Just a few digimon in the far corner booth, and a Meramon—a digimon I could actually recognize—beside the door. And none of them were ready to pay for their meals. I had nothing to do but to listen to the rather loud argument that Digitamamon and those men were having.

"Who do you think you are, coming in here and demanding my time?" Digitamamon growled.

"I am Marrow," the first man informed him. "And this is Erif. We are members of the Digital Council. The very council that is in charge of overseeing the entirety of the Digital World, and we've come bearing grave news."

He didn't look too disappointed. If anything, he looked positively giddy.

"What news?" Digitamamon wanted to know.

"It is my duty to inform you that this restaurant is no longer fit for the public and needs to be shut down," Marrow said, struggling to keep the smile off his face.

"On what grounds!" Digitamamon demanded.

"There's quite a list of reasons actually," Marrow said, not sounding nearly interested enough. He wasn't good at hiding his pleasure. "So many, that I don't have time to possibly go over them all. But I will mention the state of the place. The floors are never clean, there are cobwebs in the corners, the air is fowl, and the food is mediocre at best. Your use of your feet is unsanitary—"

"I have no hands!" Digitamamon interrupted.

"—and then there is the roach problem," Marrow continued, ignoring Digitamamon's protests.

"Those are my best customers," Digitamamon growled. The roach like digimon in the far corner looked up offended by Marrow's dismissal.

"As you can see, there are far too many problems to bother with," Marrow declared. "It would be best if you shut down without a fuss."

"Hold on just one minute," I scolded him. Marrow looked at me, first in surprise, before his eyes narrowed into a glare. "This is Digitamamon's life. You can't take that away from him without a warrant or a permit. I need to see some authenticity, mister. And he could clean this place up in no time. There won't be anything wrong by the time you come back."

"Won't there?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"No," I said firmly. "Because we'll help him get it up to standard. And for the record, _I_ do the cooking and serving. And I. Use. My. Hands."

"She washes them too," Digitamamon added hastily.

"Very well," Marrow seethed. "I'll get the contract drawn up. But mark my words. I will be back."

"And we'll be ready for you," I declared.

He and Erif stormed out of the diner, slamming the door behind them.

"Thank you," Digitamamon told me earnestly. "This is my home. I couldn't lose it."

"It's not a problem. Just a bit of sweeping, some dusting, and the place will look like new," I said with a smile.

"Why did you offer my help," Satoe demanded. "I didn't offer. And I _don't_ plan to help. You can't make me do things I don't want to do!"

"Yet you can make your _grown_ daughter do the very same?" I questioned.

"That's different!" she screamed, stalking over to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Digitamamon yelled at her.

"I'm leaving," she announced. "And you won't be stopping me. She made me break that stupid vase anyway. You can keep her."

"Get back here!" Digitamamon shouted. But she didn't stop. She threw the door open and walked purposely away from the building, faltering only once at the sight that met her at the door. The Digital World didn't look nearly as beautiful to me as Koushiro insisted it was. There was just darkness, and green gridlines. I could see a few digimon heading towards the diner, ready to have their dinner, but other than that, nothing. She didn't let that deter her though. She continued across the darkness in a rush.

I couldn't let her go though. Not alone, not into endless darkness.

"Satoe!" I screamed after her. "Satoe Tachikawa, act your age. You're a grown woman. You're nearly fifty I bet."

"I'm twenty nine," she insisted. "I stopped getting older at twenty nine!"

I snorted. Of course she'd be one of those women. She wasn't proud of each year she added to her total. She was desperate to hold onto her youth.

"Twenty nine is still old enough to know when you're acting like a brat!" I shouted at her.

"Oh, go to he—" she called back. But she was cut off by the presence of a digimon. It flew down and stopped directly in front of her. It appeared to be the upper half of a skeleton, except the bones were pitch black, and the end of the spine was attached to a floating, crystal ball, that seemed to have pink lightning enclosed in it, desperate to get out. There was a staff in its hands, and it wore a large, black cloak. The kind of cloak you imagine death itself to wear.

Satoe started to scream. It was a bloodcurdling kind of scream. She was really good at it. But she stopped mid scream. The digimon looked down at her, and its staff started glowing.

"MetalPhantomon," Digitamamon informed me. "This is not good."

"Why?" I asked.

But I got my answer when Satoe's arms fell to her side—they'd been raised, as if she could fight the digimon off. She stopped screaming. She stopped doing anything. The digimon had done something to her! But what?

I couldn't hear what it was saying. It was too far away.

Satoe had become a puppet for the digimon to control. Then it turned its sights on me.

"Perhaps you should get inside," Digitamamon said. I hesitated. I should help Satoe. But it was a digimon. And I couldn't fight. I needed time to plan something. Time I didn't have. So I did what Digitamamon told me to. I didn't want to get in his way if he had a plan.

"Nightmare Syndrome!" Digitamamon shouted, unleashing a shadow from the crack in his egg shell. The shadow flew at the MetalPhantomon, and Digitamamon flew after it, surprising MetalPhantomon when it got rid of the shadow. "Get out of here!"

I was a little disappointed in the battle. Digitamamon seemed more interested in saving his restaurant than he was in saving Satoe. He proved this when he let MetalPhantomon take her into its arms and fly away with her.

"Satoe!" I screamed. "We have to save her."

"We have to save my restaurant. MetalPhantomon is too powerful anyway," Digitamamon decided. "She is long gone, and you have no power. And you promised to help me."

"And I will," I said, knowing it was true. "Once I do though, I'm going to find her. And I'm going to get her back."

"So long as you help me first, I don't care," Digitamamon said, pushing me inside, making sure I couldn't run away, even if I wanted to.

I needed to come up with a plan.

_**Yuuko:**_

I cracked an egg open into the bowl on the counter where I was making a cake. I knew no one would eat it. It would go mouldy just like the last one had, and I'd throw it out. Kamemon hated cake, and anything sweet, and Susumu was watching his weight as he grew older.

That list should have been longer. It should have included Hikari, and Taichi, and even Daisuke, along with each of their respected digimon partners. I hadn't had much time to get to know Veemon but I still missed him.

Maybe I just missed the presence of life. My house had always been home to so many, I had practically run a rescue service for strays. Like Miko... I knew I was going to start crying if I thought of that cat any longer. I missed her. I even went to the little grave Hikari had made for her. She had a long happy life though... I suppose that was good.

I missed everyone though. Taichi at least came around every now and then. But I hadn't seen Agumon, or Gatomon, or Veemon since that battle all across Japan. The battle no one seemed to remember. Hikari said something about a queen changing everyone's memory. I would have thought that I was insane, or had imagined the whole thing if it weren't for Kamemon.

He was my anchor. The only piece that was left to link me to anything that had happened in the past. Well, that and the drawings that I had pinned on the refrigerator that Hikari had done. Up until the day she'd left she would draw them for me. There was one of Parrotmon. He was one of the only ones that I recognized.

Yoshie refused to talk about anything that happened, almost pretending that it never had. I suppose she didn't have much to talk about though, so I understood her. It just hurt sometimes to have no one to talk to about the mess. Of course there was Susumu—but he had a completely different experience, and he didn't even understand it.

I just missed normality.

Normality? Large evil creatures wreaking havoc? That is what normality has come to?

I shook my head. "It's just not fair." I said.

"What's not fair?" Kamemon asked, pulling himself onto the countertop. He straightened his helmet and looked up at me.

"I just don't want to be alone anymore." I told him, motioning for him to hand me the whisk.

"Can I do it?" He asked. I nodded and he smiled, rushing toward the bowl and began mixing it. "You're not alone though. You have me!"

"You're not even my partner." I said with a small laugh. "You're Susumu's."

"Yeah and he's never home." Kamemon said. "Plus he can't bake really funny cookies like you can."

"That's true." I said, still smiling as I took some of the utensils I had used to the sink. I placed them in the partially full sink and looked out the window to where the snow was melting into large gaudy puddles all over the street.

"You miss your daughter don't you?" Kamemon asked, "The pretty one."

"I only have one." I told him, "But yes, she is pretty."

"_And_ you miss her." Kamemon added. "So much. I can tell. Where did she go to?" I turned to look at Kamemon and I saw, in his eyes, so much knowing. It was strange that he could be so childish and carefree, and yet still know so much.

"She is living in America. A very long way away." I told him. "She's back right now though... even if she hadn't come to see me."

"Well why don't you go see her?" Kamemon asked. "You can't always wait for things to happen. Especially if you're not going to put in the effort to have it happen."

How old was this turtle thing? He was so wise... and right. "Well I don't even know where she is. Probably saving the Digital World, or something equally dangerous. I think God wants me to lose them."

"He does not." Kamemon assured me.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked him.

"Because he's dead." Kamemon said with a bright grin.

"Your God is. That's different though." I said, "He was evil."

"Well—that's not the point." Kamemon said. "If Hikari is in the Digital World saving it and stuff, then you just have to go there."

"I don't know how." I said.

"But you would if you knew how?"

"Absolutely." I nodded as firmly as I could.

"You're really brave." Kamemon smiled. "I don't know how to get there though. If I did know, then I'd already be there. Love you and all, but I miss home."

"Well... I'll help you get back then." I said, confirming the fact that I really wanted to go. I wanted to know it was still real. I wanted to know what my children went through... I want to know their life. I wanted to find them, and be a family again. And to do that, I'd have to go to the Digital World.

I grabbed the leftover ingredients off of the counter and turned to the refrigerator where Hikari's drawings still hung, and as I pulled it open, I dropped everything that was in my arms.

"What is it?" Kamemon asked loudly as the ingredients smashed and cascaded all over the floor. He leapt through the air and landed at my feet as I stared into the darkness through the door.

"I don't know." I told him.

"That's the Digital World that is." Kamemon grinned, completely sure of himself. How could he be so sure that the endless blackness was the world he grew up in? "It smells like it anyway..."

I reached for the door to shut it again, but Kamemon grabbed it and pushed it open as hard as he could. "What happened to your courageous spark?" He growled. "Let's go into the Digital World!"

"We're not going in!" I gasped. "We can't! We have to stay here!" But I wasn't sure... I had literally _just_ wished for this, and now here it was. As if the world was ready to give me anything I wanted... Maybe God didn't hate me after all? "Alright, let's go."

And without hesitation, to avoid changing my own mind, I grabbed Kamemon's hand and dragged him with me as I crawled into my refrigerator.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Rawwwwr! Next chapter is pretty long. Like if we were in a fantasy land, the chapter would be the giant, we would be the beanstalk, guiding you to said giant, and you'd be Jack. Yep. I just went there. I think it's pretty obvious where this chapter is leading. It's the end of the first arc which was like two arcs—so epicness, and it's also the start of the real action, which should happen gradually more and more. Yeahhh. Can you feel it baby? I can. It's such a gooood Vibratiooon, it's such a sweeeet sensatiooooon.


	20. Chaos

**Y/N:** Finally, right? We made it to the end of the most difficult arc we've ever written. I think it was the lack of actual planning and the fact that we've written 135 other chapters (including the two six chapter interludes) and 26 short stories (including the Christmas themed three-shot)…and close to a million words for the Digimon Adventure series. It's getting harder to keep the writing fresh, for me at least. And this chapter is big on battling, which is the hardest for me to write… Anyway, it's here, and written and I hope you enjoy it. It's taken awhile. Review if you can! Thanks. :)

**Go to the last chapter, as Yoshie's part was omitted in the last update by accident. Sorry. I wasn't here to do it, so it was done for me...incorrectly. So, yeah. Go back to read it.**

**U/N:** This is one of the most extreme chapters we've ever written. And it's really long. So if you like length, yay for you :D If not, I'm sorry. This is the end of an arc, and as we know arcs end largely, especially when we combined two arcs into one making it a double arc ending. So... expect a lot of reading here. We're doing things we really haven't done much in this chapter and it is pretty intense. I wouldn't say it's the best chapter, especially since a lot of times you guys seem to comment on a lot happening at once. But we all knew this was coming, let's be real.

We edited this on my sister's computer but since it's such a mess she can't seem to find the edited version. And since she's too stubborn to clean her computer out, I'm too stubborn to fix the errors. They're just spelling and grammatical ones, but I'm sorry for them nonetheless.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 1: Targets Unknown**

**Chapter 20: Chaos**

**Yoshie's was added to last chapter, in case you don't read author's notes...please read it, though I don't think it's necessary to read it before this chapter at all... Sorry for the inconvenience.**

_**S**__**ora:**_

"I still think you're both being stupid." Yamato said quietly as he left the room. It annoyed me of course. Taichi and I hanging out was merely a platonic relationship that occasionally fell into a pond of romance. Sure it wasn't the healthiest of relationships, especially since, on most occasions we'd choose to be at Yamato's home... but he needed to get over it. Taichi was possibly my best friend, and to be honest, I missed Yamato, and if he kept walking away from me every time I tried to talk to him, I would _always_ miss him.

I looked slowly to Katsue who was sitting on the couch opposite my place on the floor. She tried to smile at me, but instead just jumped to her feet.

"I'm leaving now." She said loudly before walking out the door.

Yamato came in a second later and looked around. Taichi pointed to the door, so he nodded and flew outside, slamming the door behind him.

"She could have at least waited for him." I said. "I mean, they're dating shouldn't she be a little more considerate?"

"Katsue is her own person." Taichi said, "A very funny, and occasionally selfish and rude person. But she's smart, and she's pretty and she's really cool."

"Sounds like you want her back." I said with a grin, "Do you always go back and forth with your girlfriends?"

"What?" He asked.

"Remember Misa?" I asked, "When we were younger? Even before the Digital World came about. You dated her on and off, and even when you switched to someone else, you were always drawn back to her."

"You're right..." Taichi said, "Maybe I should call her—"

"You're not seeing the point." I laughed as he released the phone that was already laying in his hand, and relaxed in the fluffy brown reclining chair. "The point is, there was me. Back and forth, you want me, you don't. Then there was Katsue, then you came back to me, and now you're telling me how great Katsue is... sounds to me like you're actually more confused than I am."

"You can't be confused Sora, you're like the goddess of love." He said, "Cupid or whatever."

"Cupid is a baby boy in a diaper..."

"Well I'm sure you could rock that look." Taichi laughed.

"You're thinking of Aphrodite." I said, "But you're not listening! You're pushing aside your feelings for someone else, confused as to where they should lie because you don't want to risk putting those feelings where they belong."

Taichi was completely silent, so I continued, unsure how to read his reaction.

"Are you in love with Mimi?" I asked, "Or... Kurayami? Oh! Is it Yamato?"

"Sora!" Taichi said sharply as I started laughing. "It's not them. It's no one. You're wrong." He was pouting though so I knew he was at least pondering the thought. That was all I could ask. He couldn't turn me into his next Misa. I wouldn't allow it, and as much as I resented Katsue because she was a terrible girlfriend to Yamato, I didn't want Taichi messing with her either.

The door flew open again and Yamato walked in with a grin. "She's so pretty." Was all he said before striding directly toward the computer. "Katsue's gone, so I'm bringing Gabumon and the others back."

Within a couple seconds, Biyomon had flown across the room and tackled me into a hug.

"Sora, I wish you had less friends who didn't know about me." She said.

"Why is that?" I asked her.

"I don't like hiding. It makes me think you're ashamed of me." She said.

"You know it's not that." I insisted, "We just can't risk the humans finding out about you all. Last time they all freaked out. Literally."

"But that was because they were attacking them and trees were popping up out of the ground." Biyomon whined.

"She has a point..." Taichi said, "Maybe I should bring this up at my next meeting..."

"Since my digimon thought of it, maybe I should do it." I grinned.

"Sora, you can't be in the meetings. I'm sorry." He said.

"Fine," I groaned, "Just mention me at least."

"Will do," He winked at me, which I couldn't read correctly, but I didn't have a chance to question it because the door opened again.

"Knock much Hikari," Taichi said rolling his eyes, as Hikari stepped into the apartment, her hair was a mess.

"You never knocked before coming into my room." She said, her arms crossed, "Anyway, come on."

"Where?" Taichi asked, not moving an inch.

"Just come!" She insisted. Agumon was the first to obey her, running toward her and slipping his claws into her hand. He motioned for the rest of us to follow, so we willingly did so—except Taichi—who didn't want to go unless someone told him what was going on, but we dragged him along anyway.

Hikari led us across the road, and down through a ditch, toward a set of trees where Takeru was waiting for us, with Patamon, Gatomon and Hideto.

"So you needed our protection after all?" Taichi asked, "Called it."

I punched his arm as hard as I could and then turned to Hikari, "What's up?"

"Hideto doesn't know where Neo is." She said, "But he's going to help us find, and destroy him."

"How kind." Taichi said sarcastically, "And how can we trust he's not going to betray us like he apparently has to Neo?"

"Because we have more faith in our sibling's judgement." Yamato said, placing a hand on Taichi's shoulder. Takeru grinned at Yamato, which rightfully contrasted the glare Hikari was giving Taichi.

"Fine." Taichi said almost inaudibly. "What's the plan then?"

"Well Jou called me." Takeru said, "He... said his antidote is ready." My heart fluttered with excitement. The affected digimon could finally be returned to their original state! Jou was more amazing than I had thought. "He just checked his formula over with Koushiro, and is headed here where we're going to make the plan."

"Shouldn't we call the others?" I asked.

"One step ahead of you." Hikari said with a smile, "Jou has Iori, Miyako with him, and since they've stopped at your house, Mimi and Koushiro are likely with him too, and if not, they know they're supposed to meet us here."

"Ken is with Michael," Takeru said, "But they're coming anyway, they're just going to call Willis. And Daisuke and Kurayami were almost here, but they called saying that Daisuke wanted to stop and get something to eat."

"Naturally," Taichi laughed, before letting his face fall to a very solemn glare, "What made you change your mind?" He asked. Hideto stayed very calm under the pressure of Taichi's gaze.

"Your sister actually." He said, "She's rather talented and intelligent and can do things on her own."

"She paid you to say that." Taichi barked.

"She asked me to actually," Hideto said, "I'm just awesome enough to do things for free." Hikari elbowed him and let her face turn bright red, as she tried to hide it and look away from Taichi. Hideto cleared his throat and continued, "Honestly, there wasn't much changing necessary. All of us... well... sure, all of us—we knew Neo was wrong from the start."

"Why did you follow him then?" I asked. I bit my bottom lip to avoid from crying. I was such a baby.

_Sora, get over it. He was evil. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Neo is wrong. Neo is bad. Neo needs to be eaten by a lion._

I thought for a moment. That was too harsh.

_Neo needs to not be eaten by a lion—but instead needs to be punched in the face by one._

"I followed him because he was my best friend. It started out fine. It was just a mindless plan to help his sister to walk." Taichi looked down and bit his own lip at this news, "But then he... the world wasn't right. He wanted to change some things. And then... it got out of hand."

"You think?" Yamato asked sarcastically.

"Sora's always taught me that I should stand up for myself." Biyomon said, "Maybe you should do the same."

"I am." Hideto said, "Now, anyway."

There was silence after that. I don't think anyone doubted him anymore. I wasn't even sure if I ever had, but I certainly didn't now. "Guys!" The silence was broken by Mimi's excited yell. We all spun around to see her, Palmon, Tentomon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon, running toward us all. Behind her Jou was carrying a large silver case of something, likely the antidote, with Koushiro, Miyako and Iori walking alongside him.

"Tentomon!" Biyomon cried out happily, flying away from me and toward her best friend. Mimi's face dropped instantly, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She was so immature.

Palmon took her place next to Agumon and Gabumon, as Hawkmon and Armadillomon did the same with Gatomon and Patamon.

Soon enough, after a rather awkward silence with Mimi, Jou and the others were standing around us.

"Where's Gomamon?" Takeru asked Jou.

"He's on a mission." Jou said, "Watching over a certain digimon." He then rounded on Hideto "Where's _your_ digimon?" He asked Hideto almost immediately, anxious to try out his formula.

"In the trees..." Hideto said, "Come on, I'll take you there."

"I'll stay and wait for the others." Takeru said.

"Me too." Mimi said quickly. "We'll keep the digimon out here where they can plan in the open. And Koushiro can play too."

"I'll stay too." He assured her, as he gave me an apologetic look. It didn't bother me that he was staying, it only bothered me that Mimi was being dumb. But he knew that.

So the rest of us, and Gabumon who wanted to come along, headed into the trees, where not too far in, Omnimon was kneeling on the dirt path. It felt weird seeing Omnimon with Gabumon being right beside me—and even weirder seeing him with such dark armour. He looked very dramatic though. A dark knight, kneeling in the darkness of the woods... he certainly knew how to make an entrance.

Only he didn't enter anywhere. He certainly knew how to pose while others made an entrance.

Jou handed the silver case to Iori who gasped under the sudden weight Jou had thrust upon him. He opened the case and pulled out a large needle and turned toward Omnimon. "You okay with this?" He asked. Omnimon merely nodded, but he looked away after sizing up the needle. Hideto, pushed through us and stood next to his digimon for comfort.

"It'll be okay." Gabumon said, running over and putting his clawed hand on Omnimon's arm. Omnimon looked to Gabumon, a confused look in his eyes.

"Why are you so kind?" He asked quietly.

"Because everyone deserves a second chance." Gabumon smiled. Omnimon looked away and toward the ground, as Jou readied his needle.

"I'm going to count to ten before putting it in." Jou said, "Ready? One... Two..." Omnimon winced as Jou stuck the needle into his side, having lied about counting to ten. I would probably have held a grudge against him had he done that to me. I hated needles, and that thing was _huge_.

Jou pushed down on the end of the needle, ejecting some greenish liquid into Omnimon. Instantly the effects began as his black armour melted into shining white metal. His dark eyes lit up, and his shoulders lightened, his posture increasing. Omnimon gasped as Jou pulled the needle out.

"And that's how I roll." Jou laughed as Miyako grinned at him.

"You're a really good doctor." She said, rubbing her arms. It was pretty cold out here, I couldn't blame her. But she winced. And I couldn't help but do the same. I felt so bad for her... what was wrong? Though she seemed to lighten up a bit when she found out that the mask didn't belong to her, so maybe things were getting better...

"Omnimon?" Hideto said quietly, "You alright?"

Omnimon turned his head to Hideto and he nodded, "Better than ever." Hideto's face broke out into a smile, as he rounded on Jou.

"Thank you." He said happily, "Do you mind... if I take some of that?"

"For...?" Jou asked cautiously.

"For Rosemon and Piedmon." He said without hesitation.

"Absolutely." Jou said, handing two needles from his case to Hideto. "Now that I know this works, I'm going to the Digital World to spread it around.

"We're going into the Coliseum." Iori said excitedly. "We're going to save the digimon!" After all these years it was hard to see him as an adult when he said adorable things like that.

"That's not a good idea." Hideto said. "It's dangerous."

"We can handle ourselves." Iori said sharply.

Hideto raised his eyebrows, and moved on. "I should get to Mari and Sigma. They'll definitely be wanting this." He waved the needles in the air.

"Good luck." Hikari said to him. He nodded and smiled at her.

"Thank you..." he said in a whisper before jumping onto Omnimon's back. Omnimon shared a look with Gabumon and flew off, through the sky to save his friends from the fate my evil ex-boyfriend had caused.

We stood silently for a moment before returning to the others. Willis, Michael, Ken, Daisuke and Kurayami were all there now, along with Terriermon, Lopmon, Veemon and Wormmon.

"All together!" Hikari grinned. Iori and Kurayami rolled their eyes at her, but I wasn't sure what that meant exactly. Miyako was instantly in Ken's arms, hugging him, but no one else really moved.

"We have to beat Neo." Taichi said, a grin spread across the faces of half of the people standing in the group. Such sadistic friends I had.

"I have stuff to do." Miyako said quietly. "Like... away from danger."

"What kind of things?" Daisuke asked, completely missing the point. Kurayami elbowed him and shook her head.

"I'll help." Ken said, staring into her eyes and nodding. Miyako smiled at him gently and then rested her head on his shoulder. Adorable.

"Speaking of things to do," Kurayami said, "I have to babysit."

"_Who_?" Taichi asked, "Unless it's royalty, I think we're more important right now."

"Well Labramon is already there," Kurayami said, "Without him I'm helpless. I should really go back to him anyway. Trusting a digimon with a child isn't the smartest thing ever."

"I'm going to the Digital World." Jou said, "Like I just told you."

"Me too." Iori said.

"I'll come," Mimi said, "Sounds like fun. Koushiro will be coming too of course."

"Why is everyone backing out of this?" Taichi asked.

"Well," Yamato said, clearing his throat, "No offense to Neo or anything, but even with all of them not coming, we'll still win." He counted those of us still willing to fight. Taichi, Yamato, Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Michael, though he had no partner, Willis, with two to make up for Michael's lack thereof, and myself. "Eight of us against one of him. It'll be a cinch."

"He's got a point you know." Hikari said.

"You guys won't even need to do anything." Veemon said, his fist held determined in front of him, "I'll wipe the floor with him."

"Yeah, we'll see." Agumon said. "If anyone is taking the lead, It'll be me."

"You wish." Veemon barked.

"Guys." Taichi sighed, "We're a team."

"Right..." They said together.

"Well..." Daisuke said, "We're all set to defeat Neo."

"There's actually one problem still." Takeru said.

"What's that?" Willis asked.

"We have no idea where he is." Hikari answered for him.

_**Rei:**_

"Don't think of it as a prison," Neo told me as he dragged me by the arm through an elaborate coliseum. From what I gathered, it was his base here in the Digital World. "It's more like a holding cell really. You might even like it."

I doubted it, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I wasn't actually speaking to him at all. I was kind of furious after all, and being dragged through a depressing hallway filled with the screams of digimon. Screams of pain. Screams of digimon desperate to get out of their cells. Screams of laughter as the stronger digimon demonstrated their strength on small, defenceless digimon. It was enough to terrify anyone. Goosebumps covered my arms, and I jumped with each new scream.

What kind of brother declares that he's doing everything for you, and then locks you up in one of the most terrifying places you've ever seen? Not a good one, that's for sure.

Not that he was _always_ a bad brother. I loved him. And still did, despite his current behaviour. But my anger was making it hard for me to remember that. And the fact that I wasn't speaking to him made his anger flare up as well.

"Come on," he prodded. "Say something. Anything. Call me a bastard if you want. But say something!"

I refused, and he let out an infuriated sigh.

"Fine," he said stiffly. "I was going to bring you an excellent dinner, but now you can starve. You can have food when you ask for it."

He stopped at a cage, and opened the door with the key he had around his neck. Once the door was open, he unceremoniously threw me in.

"Don't be like this, Rei. I'm doing this for you. _Everything_ is for you. Everything will be better now," he said softly, before locking the door again and stalks away. I still didn't speak to him. How could I? I didn't have anything to say to that. I couldn't handle this. I didn't want to be the reason that the Digital World was falling apart.

And I didn't want to be as useless as I was.

Hiroaki and Toshiko were here now, in the Digital World. Maybe they'd find somebody and let them know that Neo was holding me captive. I couldn't help that my mind immediately went to Taichi. I really wished he'd come and get me. I almost didn't even care that he never seemed to notice me in that special way.

_Almost_ anyway.

I was a little disappointed. But I could have always told him how I felt instead of waiting around for him to guess. I thought it had been a sign that he just couldn't find any of the female friends I'd set him up with interesting.

But maybe it was always because of someone else. Not me. There were times when he'd say something, or do something that made me think that _just maybe_ he finally realized. But then he'd go and say something about Sora or some other girl in the exact same way, and then I'd realize what a fool I'd been.

There was a small part of my brain that told me it was because of my chair. He didn't want to be with someone with a disability. And no matter how hard I tried to shake the thought away, it stayed firmly implanted in my mind.

But I wasn't going to risk the fate of the Digital World just so I could walk. There was no guarantee that Taichi would like me any better if I could anyway. And I could never justify such a decision. So I had to stop Neo, even if that small part of me wanted the same thing he wanted.

The screams of the tortured digimon made my skin crawl, and the fact that I was in a damp and depressing gray cell made me want to cry. The fact that _Neo_ put me in here made it worse. I sank to my knees and let the tears fall. Unless Hiroaki and Toshiko _did_ find somebody, no one would know I was even stuck in here. I could only hope that they remembered to tell someone if they did find them. Or else I'd be stuck here forever.

And I really didn't want that.

"Don't cry," someone said from behind me. It was male. I could tell that much. But it was behind me after all. I didn't know if it was a big digimon, a small digimon, a digimon that might want to eat and or maim and or destroy me. Then again, it mightn't have been a digimon at all. Maybe there were other people that Neo decided were only useful to him whilst locked in a cage.

"Everything will be okay," a different voice said. Female this time. It was a bubbly voice though, so it made me feel safe enough to assume that this one at least was small.

"He's just a big bully," the boy continued. His voice was a little bubbly too, now that I heard it again. I felt safe enough to brave a peek at them.

They were floating in the air, at the level of my head from my seated position. They looked distinct enough to tell which the male was and which was the female, though they were dressed as little devils, with their black costumes. Their bodies though, surprised me. They were small, and completely round, with arms, legs and wings poking out.

"Who are you?" the girl bat-digimon asked.

"I could ask you the same," I said hesitantly.

"Yeah, she could, she really could," the boy said. "You didn't think of that, huh Pal."

"I did too," the girl huffed. "Maybe I wanted her to. Did _you_ think of that, Pul? Did ya? Did ya?"

"No," he said sadly. "I didn't."

"I didn't think so," she said proudly.

"Pal," I said looking to the girl before turning to the boy. "And Pul. I don't think I've heard of digimon with names before."

"We're special like that," Pul said happily, no longer disappointed at losing his little challenge. "I'm Pul, yup. And Pal is my big sister. We're digimon."

"We're PetitMamon," Pal said with superiority.

"Little devils, huh?" I said. They were adorable, but I couldn't let that deceive me. There was a reason they were here after all. Though I didn't think they could be too bad, or Neo wouldn't have put me in with them. He was pretty adamant about doing stuff _for_ me. And to do that, he needed me alive.

"Yup, yup," Pul said with a grin. "Who're you?"

"Oh, sneaky, sneaky," Pal said. "You thought I'd forget!"

"You did forget, _I_ remembered," Pul reminded his sister. She glared at him but turned to me expectantly.

"I'm Rei Saiba," I said. "Neo's sister."

In retrospect, I should've kept that part to myself. Luckily, they didn't seem too angry with their captor.

"He's mean," Pul told me.

"Yeah," Pal agreed. "He wouldn't give us his autograph."

"You wanted one?" I asked in disbelief. If Neo thought rooming me with fans of his was going to change my mind, then he had another thing coming.

"Yes!" Pal and Pul shouted together.

"He's super cool," Pal said.

"Well…he _was_ super cool," Pul corrected.

"Yeah," Pal agreed. "But now he's a big meanie. He locked us up and we didn't get no autograph."

"None!" Pul agreed.

"Is that the only reason?" I asked in shock. There was just no way.

"Oh, well, he destroyed our home," Pal added half-heartedly.

"All of the Digital World really," Pul expanded.

"And he kept asking for Digimentals," Pal told me. "But we don't know where none are."

"Uh uh," Pul said excitedly.

"A…a Digimental…" I murmured, fingering the necklace around my neck.

"What's that?" Pal asked.

"I wanna see too!" Pul said.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I said nervously.

"Is it a…?" Pul asked Pal.

"I think it is," she agreed.

"You can't let the meanie get it," the ordered me together.

"I don't plan on it," I said honestly.

"You can't have it here," Pal told me. "It's too dangerous."

"Much too dangerous," Pul assured me.

"Well, I can't do anything about it, can I?" I said exasperated. "I'm stuck in a cell. With you two. What am I supposed to do about it?"

Another sound started up, and I tensed my shoulders, waiting for the scream, but it wasn't screaming. Or scary. It was just sad. And close. I looked through the bars on the far side of the cage, and saw a shadow curled up in the corner.

"Who's that?" I whispered.

"That's just Dracomon," Pul told me.

"He cries all the time," Pal complained.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, crawling closer to the bars—but not too close. Dracomon could still be dangerous.

"Don't know," Pal said shrugging.

"I think he's sad," Pul told me seriously. I could see that though. Dracomon was trying to make himself smaller. I must've been making him uncomfortable, both with my inquiry and my staring.

"Are you alright," I asked softly.

He jerked away from me, and continued to sniffle.

"I won't hurt you. I want to help," I insisted.

"Are," he started. But then he shook his head, deciding against it. I waited patiently for him to look at me once more. I gave him what I hoped was an encouraging smile. He sighed. "Are you really his sister?"

I knew that would come back to bite me.

"I am," I told him truthfully.

"Why doesn't he like me?" he asked tearfully. "Why doesn't he let me do my job?"

"I don't know. He claims he likes me, but he threw me in jail," I told him, reaching my hand through the bars to rest it on his shoulder. "He's a bit of a jerk."

"But he's _my_ jerk," Dracomon insisted. "I've been waiting for him forever, and he doesn't like me."

"You're his…partner?" I asked confused. Dracomon nodded sullenly. "What an ass. No, sorry. Not you. Neo."

"You want to destroy our home?" Pal asked him.

"No," he said quickly. "I want to help him. He's a digidestined. I'm his partner."

"Then you can help the digidestined," I told him. "But helping them might mean going against Neo. Could you handle that?"

"I'm sure I could," Dracomon said. "I'll prove he was wrong, locking me up. I'm strong you know."

"How strong?" Pul asked. "Because we need to get her out of here."

"And us," Pal added.

"And you," I told him.

"There's this one thing I could do…" he said nervously. "But I'd need your help."

"Just tell me what to do," I said. He grabbed two of the bars between us—I quickly retracted my hand—and pulled on them, creating a big enough hole for me to climb through. I did so. But I was still in a cage. I just moved to a different one. Pal and Pul followed after me.

"Now what?" I asked him.

"Now, I do it again," he said with a smile, moving to the gate of his cage. He pulled the bars apart there too. "I know how to get out. I just wanted him to want me."

"We'll show him what he's missing," I assured him. "Now let's get out of here. Taichi and the others need us. They need to know it's Neo that's behind everything."

"Follow me," Dracomon said, leading us slowly, but surely out of the coliseum. I hoped that Neo didn't have us under surveillance. But by the time we'd reached outside, it didn't matter anymore. We were free. And even if Neo tried to catch us again, we wouldn't go without a fight. We had a mission, and we had to succeed.

_**Hideto:**_

"What we need," I said as I burst into our apartment. "Is a plan."

"We had a plan," Mari commented. "What happened to our plan?"

"Yeah, that… well that got derailed completely," I said casually, as if it would lessen her anger in the slightest. Even Sigma took a step away from her, waiting for her to blow her top.

"What!" she shrieked. "What the hell did you do?"

"I tried to fight them, really I did," I pleaded, hiding behind Sigma so she couldn't get me. Sigma sent me the dirtiest glare too. It was like they were ganging up on me.

"But?" she said with her voice dangerously low.

"I couldn't do it," I admitted. "It's like The Teenage Wolves. I can say they suck all I want, but I still buy every album."

"You're the president of their hate club!" Mari shouted.

"And…? I'm all talk. I can't follow through," I complained. "I wanted to fight them so I could save them from Neo, but one look at Hikari's pleading eyes and I was a goner. I couldn't help it."

"Great, Hikari," Mari growled. Sigma seemed to finally agree with her on something. That was new. I also didn't really appreciate it much. They were insisting on ganging up on me. It wasn't fair.

"My cousin's life is at risk because of a pretty face," Sigma sneered.

"I didn't think you cared," Mari told him, surprised by his anger.

"I do," he said, and I was tempted to believe that this was actually the nicer of his two personalities. He was usually really nice to me, it said a lot that he was just as angry as his meaner self would've been.

"Okay, so, I kind of screwed up," I said sheepishly. "But if you would've seen her, you would've given in too. Besides, it doesn't matter. I told them all about our plan."

"This whole being-a-part-of-an-evil-organization thing is lost on you isn't it?" Mari groaned.

"He's a moron," Sigma declared. I was a little miffed. Yeah, I could be a bit rash, but I swear, my heart was in the right place.

"Great, it's so good to see you care," I said sarcastically. "I'll just let your friends and family know that you're there for them."

"We are," Mari whined. "But Neo is going to kill us. He is. And it's all your fault. How can we help them if we're not alive to do so?"

"We'll think of something," I insisted. "That's the point of this planning session. You know I really thought you two were smart."

"We are," Sigma hissed at me. Then his face softened. "I didn't mean that! I didn't. I don't want to die though."

"So we won't. How do we keep Neo from killing us though…?" I pondered aloud. "He's probably on his way here now. He always knows when we mess up. Instantly. It's actually really creepy."

"Great," Mari moaned. "Alright. We need our digimon."

"That won't work," Sigma—the meaner version I noticed—practically purred. It was like he found our problems amusing. "Neo is our leader. And he's in control of our digimon."

"What?" Mari shrieked.

"The serum. Did you really forget?" Sigma smirked.

"I've actually got a solution for that," I said with a grin. Take that Mean-Sigma.

Sigma shook his head and his bright eyes shone at me. He was starting to worry me. I'd really have to look into his personality thing after we got rid of Neo. If we didn't, there wouldn't be a personality to analyse. "You could help Piedmon?"

"I don't even care how you got this," Mari said, smiling and staring at the giant syringes in awe. The glowing green goop that was inside them kind of freaked me out, but I'd seen firsthand that it could work. "If Rosemon can actually fight against Neo, then I'm all for it."

"Me too," Sigma forced out. His nicer side seemed to be winning the fight for dominance, though it was a tough race.

Just as I was about to distribute the antidote, the phone rang. Yeah, I realize it's not the most ominous of things, but when Neo could show up at any moment, we were a little wired. I got to the phone first, and psyched myself up before grabbing the receiver.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly.

"Nervous?" the unmistakable voice of Neo said from the other end. "You should be. I warned you not to fail me. Now…put me on speaker."

"I don't—"

"I said now!"

I quickly did as he ordered.

"I'm going to say this once. I'm giving you an address, and you will meet me there. We're going to have a little talk. Don't think about running. Arkadimon will hunt you down if you do. And we wouldn't want that now would we? No. It's best if _I_ am the one to deal with you."

He spouted off an address almost faster than I could jot it down.

"You have half an hour."

And then he hung up.

"Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God," Mari said hysterically. "We're going to die. And Willis isn't even happy. I could've done so much to fix that. I could've helped them both to be happy. And Miyako! She needs me. She's so alone."

"Shut up," Sigma snapped. "Your incessant rambling is distracting my focus."

"Sorry," she said. It was strange to hear her sound so helpless. She usually had a lot more fight in her than that.

"We need a plan," he continued. "We'll have our digimon, and they'll be ours to command, but that won't be enough. Megas though they be, Arkadimon is too strong for them."

"Then we'll get help," I suggested. "Hikari said she'd help us. That we didn't need to do this alone."

"But we do," Mari said. "We brought this on them, and it's our job to clean it up. God. I doubt it's going to work, but I'm going to give it my all anyway. We have to fix our mistakes."

"Repent our sins," Sigma said wryly. "Now. We don't stand a chance based on power alone. But we do have three minds working for us, seven if you include the digimon, and eight if you include Hideto."

"Hey," I protested.

"Your math is wrong," Mari hinted helpfully. He ignored her.

"With my insight to Arkadimon's abilities and some strategic planning, we'll have a slightly better chance," he said.

"Great!" I cheered.

"Oh, we'll still lose," he said. "We just won't die…maybe."

"I'll take it," I said with a grin.

"Omnimon is our strongest asset, though I loath to admit it, while Piedmon and Rosemon have more strategic attacks. We'll use Omnimon to distract him, letting him think we're brainless, determined to fight head on as we've done in the past," Sigma instructed. He continued to plan our battle for us. I was surprised to see him acting so confident. Rude I could understand. Skittish? I was used to it. But Sigma wasn't usually so focussed. He wasn't ordering us to do something out of spite. He was trying to keep us alive.

And his affinity with strategy was quite the bonus.

I didn't wait long to get to the antidote to their digimon. The minute Sigma finished the plan, I practically stabbed Rosemon with one of the needles. Mari's shrieking and Sigma's cold glare put me off of doing the same to Piedmon. So I gently did it for him instead, which was safer anyway I was sure. It was amazing, to watch the evil be consumed by the antidote, watching their natural colours come back in its place.

"When is he going to get here?" Mari asked in a whisper. We'd been waiting at the agreed upon location—the parking lot behind an abandoned factory—for ten minutes. Omnimon kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. He felt out of place. Rosemon and Piedmon were smaller than he was. They could pass as really eccentric humans, while Omnimon couldn't. Every time a car drove by on the road, he flinched and tried to hide himself. He was nervous about our upcoming fight. Well, we all were. But he didn't hide it nearly as well as the rest of us.

"He's never late," I muttered.

"Any second now," Sigma decided. His eyes flitted from one place to the next, searching for any sign o our white haired leader…or…ex-leader I supposed. Enemy was more like it.

"Or perhaps," came an amused voice from behind us. We turned immediately as saw Neo standing there, in a yellow jacket. His white hair styled in the same windswept way. But his eyes looked more than a little deranged. If he noticed the difference in our digimon, a lack of his evil serum, he didn't show it. "A few seconds ago?"

"Neo," Mari growled. But she didn't sound tough. She sounded terrified.

"Hello my inexplicable wastes of space," he said contentedly.

"What do you want from us?" Sigma demanded.

"I wanted for you to be able to follow even the simplest of instructions, but I'm afraid that was too much for your pitiful brains to handle! I asked one thing of you. One. Simple. Thing. Destroy the digidestined. Why was that so difficult?"

"There were too many of them," I told him simply. "You try to take on more than one person at a time. It's pretty hard."

"Yes, well the limitation didn't help Mari now, did it?"

Mari flinched.

He was right though. Mari had only been against Mimi and her Rosemon. Sigma at least had the excuse of fighting two digidestined before his defeat, one of which was his own cousin.

"Of course, you gave up, didn't you?" Neo said, his eyes pinning me in place. I couldn't move. It wasn't that I was scared or anything—not at _all_—but I didn't like the attention. I could see Omnimon shifting, readying himself for the attack. I forced myself to hold up a hand to stop him.

"I know why you came today," Neo continued. "All of you. You think that you can defeat me. But you can't. The odds are against you."

"It's three against one," Mari insisted, though her voice was wavering.

"You poor girl," Neo said, shaking his head sadly. "Three ants against one boot. No matter how many fighters you gather on your side, Arkadimon won't be defeated. And nor will I."

"You're wrong," Sigma said firmly. I couldn't understand how he could be so calm in the situation, but put it down as a part of his strange dual personality. Nice-Sigma clearly hadn't come out to play.

"You will lose," Neo ground out.

"So be it," I said with a lot of bravado. "But I won't give up without a fight. Hikari and Mimi are depending on me."

"And Koushiro," Sigma added softly.

Everyone turned to Mari, who was looking at the ground as if it were the single most interesting thing on the planet. She sighed. "Willis and Miyako need me too."

"How cute," Neo said with a laugh. "You think you can defeat me because you have something to fight for?" He snorted. "I will very much enjoy telling them that you've failed."

The ground shook. The trees on the edge of the parking lot fell over. The concrete split just before exploding. Omnimon rushed to block me from the flying debris. But he didn't have to. I was too busy staring in horror at the creature that came crawling out of the hole it had created.

"Arkadimon," Sigma said.

We'd never seen him before. And if I was honest, I was imagining a medieval sort of knight, not the twisted digimon that was standing before me. He was top heavy, really, with how large his chest and arm muscles were. His arms were long and thick, with red claws on each hand, in place of fingers. His legs, too, were thick with muscle, and his feet were adorned with the same red claws. He was a giant, a giant with a really small waist. The only thing smaller than his waist was his head. It was a pure white with red markings—that I thought was his face—and elongated. Red tufts of hair stood on end behind his head.

He was looking down on us, and I could feel the power rolling off of him in waves. I wondered hesitantly, if there was a level beyond mega. If there was, I was sure Arkadimon had found it.

"Powerful isn't he?" Neo purred. "Such a shame your digimon are so weak. They're megas, while Arkadimon has surpassed their strength as a mere ultimate."

We were screwed.

"Focus," Sigma insisted. "Be ready. It's about to start."

"You don't have to do this Neo," I told him. "Rei won't appreciate it. I can see how wrong it is now. Just open your damn eyes, Neo. You're going to lose her."

"I won't," Neo declared. "She's going to like this even if I have to _make_ her like it."

"What you're doing is wrong," Mari said. "You're wrong, and we're going to prove it to you."

"I'd like to see you try," he said with a smirk.

"Rosemon!" Mari shouted. Rosemon leapt into the air.

"Piedmon," Sigma said simply. Said digimon fell into a fighting stance in front of his partner.

"Omnimon," I called out. Omnimon nodded, and brandished his sword.

"Do your worst," Neo goaded us.

"Attack!" I screamed.

"Beauty Shock!" Rosemon raised her arm and with a flick of her whip, Arkadimon was engulfed in a shocking burst of lightning.

"Final Spell!" Piedmon threw his hands out in front of him, and tossed a large blast of energy at the electrocuted digimon.

"Double Shot!" Omnimon shot a ball of fire out of his now orange left hand, before firing a blast of ice from his blue right hand.

There was smoke, but that didn't mean we actually hit him. It also meant that we had to wait until the smoke cleared before we could risk attacking again.

"Boo," Arkadimon said from behind us. I screamed before falling to the ground. He nearly gave me a heart attack, and that was without taking his power into account. I placed a hand over my heart and tried to steady my breathing.

"Don't do that," Mari scolded before she noticed who it was. She too had screamed. Sigma just stood there, glaring at Arkadimon through what was left of his mask.

"Is that the best you've got?" Neo taunted with a laugh.

"No," I insisted. But it was Piedmon that went on the offensive next.

"Final Spell!" he shouted, but Arkadimon didn't give him time to use it. He flung his giant hand out and crushed Piedmon into the ground with little effort.

"Piedmon!" Sigma yelled.

Arkadimon chuckled. Neo cackled. No, really. He literally cackled.

When Arkadimon removed his hand, Piedmon was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a small masked ant-eater on a cloud.

"Tapirmon," Sigma whispered in anger.

"That's just great," I said a little hysterically. "We're down to a damn rookie. Two megas and a freaking rookie!"

"It's not his fault," Mari tried, but I waved her off.

"Omnimon," I called. "We're going to need you to fight harder."

"Will do," Omnimon agreed, before turning to Arkadimon. "Double Shot!"

The ball of fire hit Arkadimon right in the chest…but he didn't even flinch. The ice seemed to slide right off of him too.

"Beauty Shock!" Rosemon growled. But the lightning didn't hit him either. Why couldn't we land even one decent hit? We were megas! He was just an ultimate.

While Arkadimon was distracted by our useless attacking, Sigma snuck over to collect his now practically useless digimon. Granted, all our digimon weren't doing any damage, so it didn't really make a difference.

Except that they'd taken out Piedmon, who was supposed to try and turn him into a keychain if we couldn't beat him with Plan A.

"You have to digivolve," Sigma told his rookie. Tapirmon nodded, and tried. Really tried. But nothing happened. He didn't even make it to champion.

"What's going on?" Mari wanted to know. She pulled her gaze away from our still attacking digimon. They weren't going to give up. I had to give them that.

"We've never digivolved without the serum," Sigma said without hesitation. "We can't do so now, because the serum isn't there to alter with his digital composition. We have to start from scratch now."

"We don't have time!" Mari shrieked.

"I realized," Sigma snapped at her.

"No fighting," I told them. "Not with each other at least. We're a team. We need to keep working together. Sig, how to we hit him?"

He didn't seem to appreciate the nick-name, but shook it off.

"My initial hypothesis was incorrect. His power is nearly twice what I estimated. And he seems to have a sort of shield. He's blocking energy based attacks. You can't hit him from afar."

"So we make this up close and personal," I said. "I like it."

"Mari, immobilize Arkadimon," Sigma ordered. "That leaves Omnimon a clear attack. We might actually damage him."

"Right," she said. "Rosemon!"

The elegant flower digimon didn't need to be told twice. She immediately flew in closer to Arkadimon. She had to dodge his arms as he attempted to crush her, but once she was close enough, she raised her whip. "Thorn Whipping!"

It worked. Kind of. I was under the impression that particular attack was meant to leave those entangled in it under Rosemon's control. At best, I'd say that Arkadimon was at least partially paralyzed. He couldn't seem to move his arms, but he _could_ move his feet, and was doing just that, trying to shake Rosemon off.

"Now!" Rosemon called out. Omnimon didn't hesitate. He got his blade ready, and flew at Arkadimon as fast as he could.

Too bad it wasn't fast enough.

Arkadimon slowly, but surely, brought one of his hands to his throat. He wrapped his claws around Rosemon's vine whip, and snapped it in two, freeing himself. He pulled on the whip though, dragging Rosemon closer.

"No!" Mari screamed. "Fight back, please fight back."

But she didn't have time, because Arkadimon threw her in the path of Omnimon's blade, just as he yelled, "Transcendent Sword!"

Rosemon didn't stand a chance.

The sword slashed through her, and she started glowing. The bright lights dimmed to reveal the pink and green flower that was Lalamon.

"My my," Neo said with a laugh. "Look at how the resistance crumbles. If you're any indication of the digidestined's power, then victory is in my grasp."

"Not if I can help it," I growled.

"Hideto," Mari pleaded. "You have to win. You _need_ to win."

But I knew it was hopeless. I couldn't win on my own if I couldn't win with the other two. I was too weak, too powerless.

"I can't on my own," I told her, a new plan solidifying in my mind.

"Rookies won't be of much help," she warned me cautiously.

"No, not rookies. Megas," I said nodding. It was going to work. "You go call Willis, meet with him, explain things."

"I thought we weren't going to—" she protested.

"Now," Sigma growled. "But bring them to the Digital World."

"Okay," she said. But she shook her head. She didn't need to know. She just needed to get out of here.

"Going so soon?" Neo asked. "I don't think so. Arkadimon!"

Omnimon, however, was proving to be a good distraction at the very least. Mari was able to get Lalamon, and get to the road where she waved down a taxi. I couldn't relax until the car was gone though.

"Right," I said, when I could no longer see the taxi. "How are we going to convince him to go to the Digital World."

"We aren't," Sigma decided. Before I could protest, he continued. "We're going to _make_ him go there."

"How?" I asked hesitantly.

"Electronic mail," Sigma said as if it were obvious. But really? E-mail? He was going to send a psychopath and a monster to the Digital World in an e-mail?

He really was insane.

"Keep them distracted," Sigma ordered. He pulled his tiny computer out of his jacket pocket.

"She won't get here on time," Neo said. Having missed his chance at stopping Mari, he seemed to be trying to convince himself more than us. "You'll be defeated long before she gets back."

"Tell us that again," I said. It sounded stupid, but how else was I supposed to distract him. The game of keep away that Omnimon and Arkadimon were playing wasn't holding his attention.

"What?" Neo asked. "No. I don't repeat myself. You're going to die."

My breath caught. He'd always just said destroyed before. I figured that meant he was going to try and kill our digimon, not us. We were his friends. _I _was his friend. Just how far did Neo fall? He used to be so level headed, so calm, so smart.

Where did the real Neo go?

I shook my head. I didn't have time to ponder over it. I had to focus.

"Enough," Sigma called.

"Enough?" Neo snapped. "I decide things around here."

"You've got a ticket to Mask Square. Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times if you don't wish to be mutilated beyond repair."

"Wait, what?" Neo said. But it was too late, he and Arkadimon and Omnimon were all encompassed in a blinding light. It spread though, until I was stuck in its bright embrace. When the light dimmed, we were in a strange place. Sigma's own personal world on his computer. I'd heard him mention it before, but I'd never been allowed to see it.

"What did you do?" Neo shouted, demanding answers.

"One moment please," Sigma said distracted as he continued typing on his computer. "And transferring the data…" He smiled. A really creepy smile that was kind of twisted, but a smile nonetheless. "Welcome to the Digital World."

"A waste of time," Neo decided. "Arkadimon can destroy you just as easily here. You won't gain any strength here."

"No," Sigma agreed. "But we'll buy some time."

"How do you intend to do that?" Neo wanted to know.

"By fighting," I decided. I turned to watch Omnimon fight. He was losing. I could tell, but he was doing it in style.

"Me too," Tapirmon decided. I looked to Sigma who just nodded. The little digimon rode his cloud into the battle. "Nightmare Sindrom!"

"He will die, surely," Neo pointed out. Even though his mind was twisted and he lacked understanding on just about every emotion, he seemed to be upset at his confusion.

"Not here," Sigma said quietly. "Digimon never really die here. They are just reborn from their previous data."

Right. He was going to help me hold Arkadimon off, even though his digimon didn't stand a chance. Great. Now I felt the need to push Omnimon even further. I had to make sure Tapirmon made it at least. Sigma wouldn't handle it well if he died. Sigma didn't handle anything well.

"Come on Mari," I muttered, watching the digimon fight. "Hurry up. We need you now…"

_**Sora:**_

"We can't just sit around doing nothing." Taichi muttered, sitting in his favourite brown chair.

"I agree." Daisuke said as he paced back and forth behind the couch. Behind him, standing in the doorway to the kitchen stood Yamato and Takeru, the latter holding a bag of potato chips that he'd helped himself to. I wondered for a moment how he managed to stay so slim, but I pushed the thought away, because it really wasn't too important right then.

"Well what _can_ we do?" Willis asked, moving closer to Lopmon and Hikari to give Michael some room on the couch. Hikari had Patamon and Lopmon on her lap, and Willis had Terriermon, but next to them was Agumon and then Michael who had Gabumon sitting on top of him.

"We can look." I suggested, standing in front of them all, next to the television, with Biyomon right next to me.

"But we wouldn't know _where_ to look." Hikari said.

"She's right," Takeru said, "It'd be a wild goose chase. We need a lead."

There was silence for a moment, as Taichi leaned forward and grabbed the laptop computer that was sitting on the table in the center of the room.

"I think we could split up." Veemon said, jumping up from behind the couch, his head overtop of Agumon's and next to Gatomon who was resting on the back of the couch. "That way we could cover lots more space?"

"I think splitting up is a great idea!" Agumon cheered.

"You're dumb." Gatomon said flatly. "We can't fight on our own. What would we do if we found him?"

"Die." Patamon answered for them after a moment's silence.

"I'd rather live." Terriermon said with a laugh.

"Me too!" Lopmon said. "I've grown rather fond of living."

"As most digimon do," Patamon giggled.

"Rei says that Neo isn't planning anything today." Taichi said casually, running his finger horizontally across his computer.

"Oh?" I asked, my eyebrows raised. "When did she say that?"

"A few hours ago, she emailed me." Taichi turned the computer toward me, so I could read the message.

_Hey Taichi, Neo isn't planning anything evil today. So sit back and relax, I'll let you know when anything exciting is about to happen –Rei_

"Taichi..." I said slowly, "You do remember Rei is imprisoned by Neo right?"

"In the Digital World," He said, "She likely has internet access. Besides, we've been emailing each other for a while, it seems pretty legit to me."

"When did you start emailing her?" I asked.

"Right before she decided she didn't want to see people in person anymore." Taichi said.

"Uh-huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, and right before Takeru's mother was taken into the digital world." Taichi said, "So like a month ago."

"A month?" Takeru gasped.

Yamato waved him off, "We're ignoring them for now."

Takeru waved his hand around frantically, but settled on grumbling to himself as he ate the chips in his hands.

"So you don't see anything suspicious about all of this?" I asked him.

"No, why would I?" Taichi asked.

"Wait for it..." Patamon giggled, "He'll get it."

"Because it's Neo who's emailing you, stupid." Daisuke shot.

"Hey now," Hikari said sharply, "Boys, no fighting." They both stuck their tongues out at her as Taichi closed his laptop.

"Okay... so if that's Neo... then he's been emailing me this whole time." Taichi said slowly, "Which means Rei has been in danger for longer than I'd thought." Everyone nodded, "Dammit! We need to do something!"

Michael stood up, causing Gabumon to slide off of his legs. "We can't very well do anything if we don't know what to do. The fact is, we need to wait until someone or something has a plan."

"Well Willis is a genius." Terriermon said, "Let him make a plan."

"Well," Willis said, "Neo must have a digivice, right? We could track him with our own if he were just in the Digital World..."

Just then the door was kicked open and a dishevelled blonde girl came inside, dragging a rather beat up looking digimon behind her.

"Mari?" Willis gasped, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Neo..." She panted, "He's... he's in the Digital World... Hideto... Sigma... they're in trouble."

No one moved or said anything for a moment, but as one we all seemed to move. Takeru hurried back into the kitchen and came back without his chips, Taichi opened his laptop again and set it on the table in front of the couch, and Hikari slipped off the couch to open the Portal to the Digital World. I grabbed Biyomon's arm and rushed around to the other side of the computer as Daisuke lifted his digivice, preparing to open the portal.

"Wait!" It was Yamato, we all turned to him, waiting in the kitchen doorway, biting his lip, "I want to beat up Neo as much as the rest of you, but... can we trust her? What if we're being led into a trap?"

"We can trust her." Hikari said turning toward Mari and smiling with an outstretched hand. Mari looked a little confused, but took her hand and tried to return her smile.

"That's good enough for me." Taichi said, "I've got to save Rei."

And then the room filled with the familiar bright light, dragging us into the Digital World. I'd almost forgotten that the land had no... land anymore. But it really just made it easier for us in the long run.

Even though it was difficult to get a grip on the ground and start moving, making it feel like a dream where you try to run but go nowhere, we could see Neo and whoever else there was fighting already. Through the endless open space we could see the sparks and explosions.

"Biyomon, digivolve." I said quickly.

She nodded and shifted straight to Garudamon, holding her hand out for us all to climb onto. Mari, Lalamon, Gatomon, Lopmon, Hikari and I sat on one hand while the guys sat on the other. It seemed childish to split the girls from the boys but it was just how it had happened.

Garudamon flew through the blackness until we were passing over a large stone building that seemed to give off the sense of danger and darkness.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's the Coliseum!" Michael shouted from the other hand. "It's where Neo was keeping all of his evil digimon." I could hardly tear my eyes away from the building that seemed to hold so much darkness, but Hikari's hand being placed on my shoulder drew my attention to the nearby battle. I could see a strange white digimon fighting with Omnimon. As Garudamon lowered toward the ground the forms of Neo, Hideto and Sigma became clearer, and finally, a small Tapirmon, wrapped in Sigma's arms.

Everything seemed to happen so fast the moment Garudamon had set us on the should-be-ground. Neo and I locked eyes for just a moment, but I turned to greet Hideto's look of relief with a smile, but the smile was short lived. Omnimon's attention had been caught by us, but Neo's digimon hadn't. He lunged forward and stuck Omnimon with such force that he was reverted into his two rookie forms in mere seconds. Hideto let out a loud scream in frustration and fear as Neo's digimon turned to the group of us.

"Digivolve!" I heard someone call in the screams and havoc. A blast was shot to Garudamon first, and she was flown backwards through the emptiness. Someone grabbed my hand and I was being dragged through the rushing people, and then I heard a loud scream. I turned my head to see Hikari's scream fade as Patamon, Terriermon and Lopmon were hit head-on by Neo's digimon's fist. The hand that had been holding mine released and I turned to see Takeru rushing back toward the heart of the battle toward Patamon.

My shaking hand moved to my mouth slowly. Just half an hour ago the three of them had been joking with each other, and now...

Someone grabbed me from behind and started pulling me further from the battle, I couldn't make sense of who it was though, I could only keep my eyes trained on Willis and Takeru who were being defended by a wounded Garudamon as they held their digimon. They'd be okay. They had to. I saw the familiar golden dust, and looked away instantly, that wasn't real. It couldn't be.

I found my eyes locked with the bright blue eyes of Neo Saiba as he dragged me away from the others.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, my voice croaking as I held back tears. "What are you doing?" I wiggled free of his grasp and fell to my hands and knees.

"I'm saving you." Neo said. "It's not safe for you here Sora."

"I can fight my own battles Neo." I said as I pulled myself to my feet.

"Sora, you don't understand." Neo said, "Everyone here has a very good chance of dying."

"I'll take those chances." I told him, looking toward my feet, my back turned to him. "I'll take those chances because I'd rather die defending those I love, and the peace we've been fighting for all these years than to run away like a coward."

"You'd be a fool to stay." Neo said, his voice growing deeper.

"Then call me crazy." I said, looking up to the battle where Metalgarurumon and Metalgreymon were now fighting alongside Garudamon. "But I'll let you in on a little secret. All the best people are."

"Sora!" Neo growled, putting his hand on my shoulder. I spun around and punched him square in the jaw. "That's for Patamon and the others." I turned and set off, running toward the battle, but I could hear Neo behind me. Not his footsteps, just his breathing. I could hear him coming closer and closer. Then I could feel his fingers wrapped around my wrist. "Sora!"

"Back off!" It was a soft voice that had come to my rescue, and Neo's grip vanished instantly, replaced by another, softer set of hands. And then Sigma rushed ahead of me, dragging me with him. He looked back at me with a smile, his eyes practically glowing through the holes in his mask. "We came to save you! Koushiro wouldn't want his best friend in danger now would he?" I noticed Tapirmon laying with Agumon and Gabumon next to Hideto who was on his knees caring for them. So who was 'we'? I shrugged it off, my voice echoing in my head, _"Then call me crazy, but I'll let you in on a little secret. All the best people are,"_

"Thank you!" I gasped. He shrugged off my thank you as we hurried back to the others. I looked back over my shoulder just once, but Neo wasn't there.

Sigma stopped running when we'd reached Hideto, and he fell to his knees next to Tapirmon. "Saved her!" Sigma grinned.

"Good job, Bud," Hideto managed to say. He sounded confident but there was a pretty strong sense of fear in his voice. Sigma blushed as Hideto turned to me. "I'm glad you came... but we all need to leave Sora. He's going to kill us all."

"We'll find a way to win." I told him softly. "I promise you. We will defeat him."

He shook his head but smiled anyway. "Good thing Sigma thought to bring him to the Digital World though, without his quick thinking so many innocent people would have died. Arkadimon's pretty strong." So his name was Arkadimon?

I nodded and risked a glance to Willis where Terriermon was laying still, but breathing. He was alive. The others must have been okay too then.

I looked to the battle, where I could see Neo standing behind the battle, through Arkadimon's legs. Arkadimon was strong, that was for sure. He was fighting perfectly fine against Garudamon, Metalgarurumon, and the newly digivolved Wargreymon, Ulforceveedramon and Angewomon.

"He can't be hurt by indirect attacks." Sigma said quietly. "He needs to be hit with fists. Swords. Something like that."

Garudamon swung a punch as Metalgarurumon lunged forward and bit Arkadimon's leg, but although it could visibly be seen to affect him, he shrugged them off and kept his stance.

Soon Mari was sitting next to Hideto, hugging him. "I'm so sorry I couldn't come faster."

"No, you were perfect," Hideto said, "I just wasn't paying enough attention. My fault. Not yours."

I took another glance back at them and wondered vaguely if their digimon could fight still, but each of them was laying virtually still, unmoving. I shot another smile to Sigma and then ran off toward Taichi and Yamato. I heard Yamato ranting about how we needed the others badly. Wasn't it he who had said that we'd be fine without the others. That Neo didn't stand a chance against us so long as we had eight digimon on our side? Well we had more than eight. We had Allias III on our side, and still we were losing.

There was no nicer way to say that. We, the Digidestined, had conquered the evils of Devimon, The Dark Masters, Apocalymon, Myotismon, the Digimon Sovereign, Dragomon and the self-proclaimed God Fanglongmon, but we were not winning against Arkadimon. Neo was winning. Not only had he deleted the Digital World from under our noses, but he'd also be able to sleep that night knowing that he'd won. The Digidestined were no more.

We needed Koushiro and the others. Then Garudamon could digivolve with Herculeskabuterimon and we'd be able to have the upper hand. We'd be even stronger. Then again... It wasn't Garudamon who did that... It was Phoenixmon.

"Garudamon..." I said slowly, pulling out my digivice. "Digivolve again!"

Garudamon nodded but made no further notion to show she'd heard me. I held out my digivice that lay still in my hand.

"It's not working." Taichi pointed out. I ignored him, and squeezed it tighter.

_Come on... work... you can do it! WORK!_

My eyes fell on Neo and my stomach seized up.

"Sora," Yamato started, but I shot a glare at him. I fell to my knees, dropping my digivice, and Yamato and Taichi were on either side of me instantly. I pushed them both away quickly and grabbed bunches of my hair, tears streaming down my face.

"Why does this always happen?" I said, "Why me? How can I help with all of these serious problems if I can't even learn my crest? Thirteen years and I still haven't learned the most basic of the crests."

"Sora—" Yamato tried again, but I cut him off.

"God... I SUCK!" I shrieked.

"SORA!" It was Taichi this time. Apparently my scream had drawn Arkadimon's attention. I looked up and my eyes popped open as two hands grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. We were all running again and then I couldn't hear anything, only explosions. I threw my hand over my ears as I flew through the air, slowing to a halt near Hideto and the others. I pulled myself together, my ears ringing, loud and high pitched as my eyes flicked through the smoke. What had happened? Where was everyone?

"Taichi?" I whispered slowly, "Yamato?"

And then a dark figure shot from the smoke. My heart was relieved to see Angewomon, but only for a moment. Arkadimon lunged through the smoke, emerging looking more proud than ever, chasing her. She caught sight of us and decided to stand her ground. She turned sharply and drew an arrow, firing directly at Arkadimon. Though the energy based arrow did nothing in terms of harming him it exploded in sparkling dust, distracting him.

I turned and grabbed Mari's elbow and pulled her into a run, she was clutching Lalamon tightly. I looked back and saw that Hideto was holding both of his digimon, following us as Sigma and Tapirmon took up the rear.

I heard Angewomon's clear voice start her attack once more, "Celestial Arr—" only to be cut off by a mangled cry for help. I didn't dare to look back, sure Arkadimon was following us now that Angewomon was out of the picture, but I could hardly hear anything besides the buzzing in my ears. I couldn't tell if he was coming or not.

But he was.

With another scream escaping my lips, I landed smoothly after flying once more through the air. Mari, Lalamon, Agumon, Gabumon, Hideto, Sigma and Tapirmon were all laying around me on different levels of the anti gravity world. Arkadimon, coming for us again, took long strides. He was enormous after all.

But he didn't make it to us. Wargreymon emerged with the others in a cloud of smoke. Garudamon obscured the view of the battle, but it didn't matter. I had to wake the others. I started by slapping Mari who came around instantly. She looked frustrated by my slap, but understood and began rousing Sigma as I hurried to Hideto. Finally, with the four of us ready to run the worst thing that could have possibly happened to me at that time, happened.

"Sora!" I heard the gasp before my brain could register what I was seeing. Garudamon had four long red claws through her torso. Arkadimon pulled them out, and she began to glow, reverting to Biyomon. "Run..." I heard her say quietly.

And then I was screaming, trying desperately to get to Biyomon, but Sigma and Hideto were pulling me away from her.

"You heard what she said!" Hideto hissed.

"We have to go! Sora please!" Sigma pleaded, but I couldn't stop myself. My screaming was loud, and echoing, causing the splitting pain of a headache I already had to intensify. I tried desperately to stop myself, but I couldn't, the screams were inevitable, and unstoppable.

But once we'd gotten far enough away, they, along with my struggling stopped at once. Screaming was helping nothing. Taking this out on Alias III was helping no one. It wasn't their fault. It was Neo's.

I slipped easily from their unprepared grasp and set off at a run, straight through the smoke to where I knew Neo would be. My eyes were squinted most of the time, and shut the rest of the time, but I did emerge from the smoke, and Neo was standing in the exact place he had been.

"Neo!" I screamed, running directly toward him. "You ass!" I jumped through the air and tackled him, wrapping my arms around his waist. We rolled through the air a bit before I was securely on top of him, punching him in the face as hard as I could. He easily threw me off of him, but I ran at him again, this time he jumped out of the way. "You coward!" I screamed, my vision obscured my tears.

"A coward for avoiding your punches?" He asked.

"For not fighting for what I know you believe in." I managed to say, "I know you're not like this... I know you're better. You want peace as much as everyone else. Why are you doing this?"

Neo stepped toward me slowly until he was right in front of me. He leaned over and whispered into my ear, "I'm creating... peace."

And then I was gone. I was so confused for a moment, until I registered the secure grip on my hands. I followed the arm up to the mess of blonde hair who had saved me, pulling me from Neo.

Yamato...

He turned his head and I gasped.

"Michael?"

"I thought you might want some help." He tried to smile, "I can't have anyone else die now,"

Anyone _else_.

Who had died?

"ARKADIMON!" I looked back, realizing the ringing in my ears had died down quite a lot as I saw Neo, his arms raised, summoning his digimon.

"Oh balls." Michael muttered as Arkadimon emerged through the fading clouds of dust and destruction.

"Run!" I hissed, trying to keep a grip on the reality and not the burning need to punch Neo again.

Through the almost faded clouds I could see Hikari, Willis and Takeru not too far from where we were. We couldn't lead Arkadimon toward them though. That would only cause more issues and that wasn't what I was looking for.

"Freeze Tentacle!" Arkadimon shouted.

I bit my tongue to avoid screaming yet again and instead heard the sound of clanging metal. I looked over my shoulder to see Wargreymon, his shield raised in defense.

"No!" I screamed, remembering what happened to everyone else who tried to face off with Arkadimon alone. "You have to come! Hurry!"

"No Sora," He said, "You go." His voice was so urgent, but I couldn't. I needed to stay and convince him to come with me. Nothing else seemed to matter, not even the complete mortality of myself. Michael grabbed my wrist even tighter, pulling me along, but I couldn't go.

"Terra Force!" Wargreymon shouted, firing a giant ball of fire toward Arkadimon.

"NO!" I screamed, "You have to use direct attacks or they won't work!" Wargreymon turned to me and nodded, but then froze, his eyes shrinking in fear. "What?" I gasped, "What's happening?" He didn't need to tell me though. I could see it happening. His body was fading and peeling apart. He was dying.

"No!" I screamed loudly. "WARGREYMON!" I wasn't allowing this to happen. Not now, not ever. Not to another one of us.

I pulled as hard as I could on Michael's grip causing him to fall down, face first, releasing my arm. I hurried toward Wargreymon and grabbed his arm and tried to pull. "Come!" I screamed. "Hurry! You have to!"

"Go Sora!" Wargreymon growled, "GO!"

And then he was gone in a burst of golden dust. My mouth was hanging open as the dust began to swirl and head toward Arkadimon.

"He's absorbing him..." Michael said nearly inaudibly.

"No." I gasped, reaching up and grabbing at the dust. At Taichi's partner's data. "You can't have him!" I screamed, my hands wrapping around something. I pulled it down and hugged it tight. It was an egg.

"How—?" Michael started but I didn't know. And I didn't care. I had Agumon in my arms and we needed to escape with him or he wasn't going to be around much longer.

I looked around for any help that we might find, but all I could see was Ulforceveedramon fighting a large, dark shadow.

"What is that?" I asked quietly.

"No clue." Michael said, "It arrived just before the explosions though. Veemon's been holding him off pretty well though. Neo summoned him though. He called for Darkness and it came."

I shook my head. That didn't make sense. What was it? Who was it? What did it want? To kill us? Like Arkadimon?

I practically screamed when I noticed that we'd inadvertently led him straight to Hikari, Takeru and Willis, and then again when I saw the egg in Takeru's arms. He looked up to me, holding in tears and gasped when he saw the egg in my hands.

"Sora..." He said.

"It's Agumon." I said quietly which caused them all to take another look of shock. I knew why. Agumon and Taichi had always been the strongest of us all. Without their strength and safety we all felt hopeless. Even Takeru.

And then Arkadimon had found us.

Within seconds Ulforceveedramon had elbowed the shadow sharply in what seemed to be his face, causing it to fall over, and then had jumped in the way of Arkadimon's attacks fending him off, and then a scream.

I looked back to see Hikari, Willis and Takeru being dragged across the sky by the shadow.

"The Holy Three..." Michael whispered. "Neo knows about them because Mari, Sigma and Hideto were all at that meeting..."

I nodded but knew I could do nothing to help them with only an egg, but then with a flash of light from the group being taken away, Terriermon jumped to his feet. He looked beaten up, but he was clearly not giving up just yet.

"**Terriermon digivolve to... Gargomon!**" And with a flash of light, he had digivolved and shot off after Willis and the others, ready to save his friends.

I looked back to Arkadimon where Ulforceveedramon was... winning. He was fighting strong and pushing Arkadimon back, and then Metalgarurumon had joined the fight.

Ulforceveedramon was stronger than I had anticipated, and by the looks of it, Michael thought the same. Michael leaned down and picked up the seemingly lifeless form of Lopmon and grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the group of gathered digidestined as Neo's voice rang out loud and clear.

"Arkadimon!" He shouted, "Digivolve!"

_**Taichi:**_

Damn.

That was all I could think as I watched the horrible digimon light up. He was already too powerful for us. I couldn't understand why Neo would even _think_ he needed to make him stronger.

I looked around frantically. Where was Sora? Where was _Hikari_? I needed to find them, to know they were alright.

I needed to find Rei.

I needed to survive long enough to look for any of them.

"We're screwed," Hideto said staring in awe at Arkadimon's new body. "He's bigger than he was before."

I made myself look at the monster, instead of scanning the surrounding area like I wanted to. Hideto was right. Arkadimon was bigger. And tougher looking. Before, he looked like one of those displays you find in the biology room, one that depicted the muscles of the human body. Now he looked armored…in what looked like bone. It was white, and thick, and looked pretty solid. He still had the red claw-like fingers, and the small, white face. But now he had wings. If I'd thought he was tough to fight before… He could fly now. Our aerial attacks were our one advantage.

"No," Sigma said, though he didn't sound convincing. "We can still do this, if we want it bad enough. You can do anything you want if you put enough effort into it."

"We've got rookies, Sigma," Mari told him condescendingly. She'd practically lost it. I doubted she'd ever been in a battle like this one before. Come to think of it, _I'd_ never been in a battle like this before. Not one that left me so off guard. I didn't know where anyone was. I couldn't find my digimon. I had Sora's Yokomon in my arms, but that didn't help if I couldn't find Sora. My little sister was out there somewhere, and was a pretty substantial target. Everyone wanted to get their hands on the Holy Three or whatever they were. Iori's "Aunt" had warned us about that much. But it didn't help if we didn't know what they were needed for.

Yamato was at my left. He looked pretty down about the situation too. He was searching for his brother, but was coming up just as empty as I was.

"There they are!" Hideto shouted, pointing to our left. The smoke had cleared enough to see that Sora and Michael were together and alive. That was the most important part. Sora's back was to me, and Michael was talking to her. They didn't have a single digimon with them.

Damn it. We had to get over to them. UlforceVeedramon was still trying to keep Arkadimon occupied. He'd grown a lot stronger than I'd expected when Agumon started training the Knights. I was almost positive that he'd only revert to rookie instead of infant if he was hit, with the strength he'd gained, maybe even champion.

But if Daisuke didn't get his ass in gear and help him, he was just as screwed as the rest of us.

"Quietly," Sigma said. "We don't want them to think we're up to something."

"Right," Mari said in a shaky voice. She reached out and patted her Lalamon, trying to comfort her.

So we walked as quickly as we could without drawing attention to ourselves. I caught sight of Neo momentarily on the other side of the fight. He was thankfully too interested in his new partner to notice us. We had to have made some noise though, because Sora whipped around to face us, an angry look on her face. Her glare turned into a smile when she saw it was only us.

"Taichi," Sora exclaimed. Her smile melted off her face.

Mine did too.

She was holding an egg. We'd lost a member of our team. I took a mental count, trying to figure out who it was. I had Yokomon, MetalGarurumon was at UlforceVeedramon's side, trying his best to help in the fight. Hideto was flanked by Agumon and Gabumon, and Sigma was holding his Tapirmon close to his chest. Lalamon was next to Mari, not looking comforted in the slightest by Mari's latest attempts. And Lopmon was unconscious in Michael's arms.

I swallowed thickly.

Patamon was missing, so was Terriermon.

And my sister's Gatomon…

And Agumon.

"Here," I said, holding Yokomon out in front of me. "Who is that?"

She looked down at her feet, before forcing herself to meet my gaze. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears. "Agumon."

I instantly looked to the Agumon at Hideto's side. A part of me—a rather large part if I'm honest—wanted it to be his so badly. I wanted my Agumon to be there, but there were differences in the two. I knew that the Agumon I was looking at wasn't my own.

I exchanged the egg for Yokomon and looked at it forlornly.

"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Yamato wanted to know. "We need Agumon."

"We need the others," Sora corrected. "Yokomon could fuse with Tentomon if he were here."

"But he's not. Because Mimi's a jealous moron," Yamato argued. "And Jou's with her doing something that's probably really important, but it doesn't seem that way okay? And where the hell is Takeru?"

"Gone," Michael said quietly. "A shadow came and took him, and his egg."

"Egg?" Yamato said his voice cracking.

We'd lost two then. No. We'd lost _at least_ two.

"And Hikari?" I said. I needed to know.

"With Willis," Michael said. "And Salamon…and Takeru."

I took a second to be thankful that Salamon was at least alive. But only a second, because Terriermon wasn't listed and because my sister was taken by a freaking shadow. Again.

"Which way did they go?" I demanded.

"Tacihi," Sora said hesitantly.

"Tell me Sora," I said fiercely. "My sister is gone. And she needs help, and they're the freaking Holy Three or something. They could be dying right now!"

"She's a big girl," Hideto had the gall to say. "She can take care of herself."

"It doesn't look that way, does it," I argued.

"She's going to be mad if you go after her," he continued. "Because she'll know that you abandoned the battle."

"What use am I here?" I said. "My digimon is in a freaking egg, and I don't even know how he got there, because I was stupid enough to run the other way. We got separated, and I'm sure it's my fault he's gone. But I can't fight Arkadimon without him. It's not like those shadows from a few years ago. I could fight against those, with my own two hands. If I go out there on my own with Arkadimon, I'm dead. I won't last even a second."

"But we need you," Sora insisted. "We can't do it on our own. You're a leader Taichi."

"We voted for Daisuke, remember," I pointed out.

"You appointed Daisuke," Yamato argued. "We voted for you."

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Because you have him. Wherever the hell he is."

"He's down for the count," Mari said, pointing to a spot not too far from us. Daisuke was sprawled out, eyes closed, his goggles crooked and in a very uncomfortable looking position.

My heart stopped.

"He's not dead," Sigma was quick to assure me. I breathed a sigh of relief and let him continue. "He was as good as, but that digimon saved him. The Patamon. He gave his life instead."

"Which is good," Hideo said, wincing at Yamato's growl. "_Because_, he'll be back. Daisuke wouldn't be."

"Fine," Yamato snarled.

Okay, I thought. Yamato didn't trust Hideto's motives. He probably didn't trust Sigma or Mari either. I didn't overly care to trust them, but I knew that at the moment, we didn't have a choice. Sora didn't seem to mind them, if the way she gravitated towards Sigma was any indication. Granted the girl dated Neo and was _reluctant_ to break up with him even though he was a crazy psychopath.

And Hideto was the apparent president of a club that literally just ranted about how horrible Yamato's music was. That probably didn't help any…

"I can get two champions," Hideto commented. "That's as far as I can go without the serum. We don't have crests to fuel our digimon."

"Just the two champions?" I questioned, looking at his pals. It seemed I didn't have a choice in the matter. I'd have to pray that Hikari would be able to save herself. Or at least stay alive long enough for me to get out of this battle to get to her.

"I-I can't," Sigma said miserably. So he'd given the serum to his digimon before it ever had to digivolve to champion? Not the best news in the world. Would've been nice to know if he was still our enemy though.

"Me either," Mari said. "We'd never fought before Neo made us. Lalamon never needed anything more."

"Great," Yamato groaned. "You drag us into the fight, and then you can't do anything to help?"

"Stop it Yamato," Sora snapped at him. "We were going to fight him anyway. You know that. It's not their fault. And I'm _glad_ they called us for help instead of trying to do this alone. I couldn't handle it if any of them died because we didn't try to help."

"My _brother_ might have," he shouted. "I don't know where he is. And he doesn't have a digimon. There's a good chance he will die."

"They have Gargomon," Michael informed us. Good. Terriermon was still alive too. Two losses. Not good by any means, horrible really, but not as bad as it could've been. "And I might be able to help with the digivolving problem. Keep in mind that it's not a guarantee. It might not work at all really, but there happen to be three of you…and I happen to have three of these…so maybe…?"

"What are you even talking about?" Hideto demanded.

"Crests," Sigma gasped, looking at the little colourful pieces resting on Michael's palm. A pale green one, that looked similar to Mimi's, only it was upside down, and had a triangle inside the circle, rather than another circle. Three triangles rested around the rounded end. Tenacity, I remembered from the Digi-Eggs that were in the Temple. One of the crests that had been tainted, turned evil.

There was a light blue one, with a triangle in the centre at the bottom and a series of spikes forming around it. Boastfulness, I thought it was. Or maybe pride?

The third was purple, very light and very pale. I was sure Sora would say something about it being _lavender_ or some other very specific colour. It too started with a triangle, with smaller triangle within it, and a circle within that one. There was another circle at the top point of the triangle and two swooping lines down the sides of it. Desire, I was sure of it.

"They'll glow if they're yours," Michael said. "Meiyomon wants them to be safe though, so you have to promise you won't use them for evil."

"Really Michael?" Yamato said sardonically. "You think they can handle it?"

"Yamato!" Sora snapped.

He glared at each of the three members of Neo's old team. He was mad, not at them, but at the way Sora was treating them. She'd ignored him for the better part of a year when he'd turned evil, only briefly, thanks to Fanglongmon's control. Now she was acting buddy-buddy with these new guys, who'd until _very_ recently had been intending to kill us. He clearly didn't think it was fair.

Well, that and the stress from his brother anyway.

"I promise," Hideto and Mari chorused. Sigma looked hesitant. His eyes seemed to shift from confidence to worry.

"I…I can try…" he said, looking very unsure of himself.

"That's the best we have time for," Sora announced. "Try them. We need help _now._ Yokomon, do you think you're up for joining in?"

"I don't know…" Yokomon said hesitantly.

"No," I told her. "She's not. She's probably the worst off other than Patamon and…Agumon. Let her rest. If we absolutely need her, then fine, but until then… She needs her strength."

"Right," Sora said, looking to the battle with fear in her eyes. She didn't think we'd win.

I'd just have to prove her wrong then.

"Woah," Hideto said. I turned back to Michael and the crests, only to find the three of them lit up in his palm. They lifted into the air and headed for their rightful digidestined.

"Tenacity," I told Mari, as she looked at her new crest. She nodded with a smile. "Hideto, yours is Pride. And yours," I said to Sigma, but he cut me off.

"It's Desire," he said. "I know."

I didn't ask him how he knew. We didn't have time.

"Try them," Michael said.

"They can't," Yamato told him. "They don't even have freaking champions. How are they going to get to ultimate, or even mega if they can't do that."

"And then they have to learn their crests, and use them…" Sora remembered.

"I know mine," Sigma said. "I just have to want it. But you are right about the champion. Tapirmon doesn't have the energy anyway. He tried to fight him as a rookie after all."

That seemed to earn a small portion of respect from Yamato, because he shut up.

"So they're useless?" Mari whined.

"No," I said. "Not entirely."

"What are you thinking?" Yamato asked.

"I'll tell you if it works," I said. The idea was forming in the back of my mind. It might work. I'd need someone to fight with though. I looked out to the battle, and saw UlforceVeedramon was tiring, and MetalGarurumon was on the ground, panting.

"UlforceVeedramon!" I shouted loudly. So loudly the others had to cover their ears. He tilted his head but didn't take his eyes off of his opponent. Good. "You're working with me now buddy."

"What about Daisuke?" he wanted to know.

"Out cold," I said. "And I lost Agumon. We're going to have to support each other."

"Right," he said firmly, dodging an attack that Arkadimon threw at him. Arkadimon's one hand looked like it had been narrowed into a spear. Not good.

"How cute," Neo said with a laugh. "We've got them grasping at straws."

I ignored him and walked over to Daisuke, fully aware of the questioning eyes on my back. I ducked down to him and rolled him over. I can't even explain how comforting it was to see his chest rise and deflate with each breath. I took the goggles off of his forehead and snapped them to my own.

We could do this.

"No!" Yamato shouted, horrified.

"Damn it," I growled. I'd taken my eyes off of the battle for a second, just one second and already Arkadimon had changed targets. He was after MetalGarurumon now…who was too exhausted to dodge fast enough.

"Dot Matrix," Arkadimon said almost lazily.

"That's the thing that got Agumon," I heard Sora gasp. I rushed back to the others. I wished Koushiro was there, he would've told us what to do.

"It's an attack," Sigma muttered. "It's not part of his glitch…"

I had to assume that he meant Arkadimon himself was a glitch, since he didn't spare us an explanation.

"Can you do anything about it?" Hideto asked.

Interesting, I thought. Sigma was Alias III's Koushiro. It was fitting. They were related after all. I watched, almost amused—I would have been if the situation wasn't so dire—as he pulled out his small computer.

"I should be able to erect a barrier of sorts. Call MetalGarurumon back, blonde man," Sigma ordered Yamato. He looked affronted, but shook it off quickly.

"Get back, MetalGarurumon!" he shouted.

MetalGarurumon did as he asked, narrowly escaping a wave of what just looked like data to me. I growled at the sight of it. That was what took my partner from me. It kept coming though. I looked to Sigma, concerned. He said he could do something about it!

"There," he said, relaxing the fingers that had been flying across the keyboard. "That should do it."

I looked up, and sure enough, the attack was stopped at an invisible wall.

"How?" I asked. Koushiro had never done anything like that.

"The Digital World has many opportunities," he said, bringing his hand up to fix his mask, similar to the way Jou fixed his glasses. "I simply programmed it into existence. Not a complicated process."

"Good," Yamato said. MetalGarurumon was safe, not strong though, he started glowing almost immediately, and Gabumon was soon standing in his place.

"You might wish to call him back. The barrier will only work for energy based attacks. We are now on even ground," Sigma informed him. So Yamato called him back.

"What's your plan, oh great leader," Sora asked me.

"We give UlforceVeedramon as much energy as we can spare," I said. "They've got new crests, that'll be a big boost, Gabumon can give friendship, Yokomon has love. We can try and give the same. It's all of us or none of us really."

They looked hesitant, but found their resolve. I put my hand to my chest, my heart, and tried to channel my crest of courage to UlforceVeedramon. Sora and Yamato followed suit, and Michael soon after. Gabumon and Yokomon started glowing immediately, lending their power to our friend. Hideto looked at us, then at the battle and sighed. He held his crest in his hand and raised it to the sky—or what would have been a sky if it weren't erased. It started glowing, and then split itself in two, lighting his two digimon with its power. Sigma followed Hideto's lead, and after he sent a glare Mari's way, she did too. Lalamon and Tapirmon were lit with their new crests, and then all at once it seemed, our energy was flying at UlforceVeedramon.

"It's no use," Neo sneered at us, glaring at the wave of energy. "You're wasting your breath. He'll still be defeated, and then you'll have nothing in reserve!"

And he was right. But if we couldn't beat him with everything we had, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

"Neo!" a voice shouted at him angrily. I looked at Sora and Mari, but it wasn't them. I watched, surprised and horrified, as a familiar young woman came barrelling into the scene, followed by three digimon. One that looked like a small dragon, and the other two looked like floating balls in devil costumes. "I've got a bone to pick with you."

"How did you get out?" Neo asked. "You were safe there. Go back."

"No," she insisted. She put her hands on her hips, and I couldn't help the smile that made its way onto my face. It was Rei. She was safe. Wherever Neo had kept her, she'd escaped. The smile of course turned to a grimace as I realized she'd left wherever Neo had kept her only to come to the single most dangerous battle going on in the Digital World...

"Rei!" I shouted.

"Taichi?" she questioned, turning to look at me. "Taichi! You came for me?"

"I was going to, after the battle," I said sheepishly.

"I told you he didn't care," Neo told her bitterly. "You can only depend on me."

"The only man a girl can depend on is her daddy," Rei told him angrily. "And I'm sorry to inform you, but you're not him!"

"Rei," he insisted. "You have to leave."

"If I'm leaving, it'll be with Taichi and the others," she growled, slapping him across the face.

The battle between the digimon stopped.

Arkadimon turned to Neo and Rei, and started moving towards them.

"No!" I screamed. UlforceVeedramon understood what was happening too, and he flew at Arkadimon, launching a Ray of Victory at his enemy. Arkadimon's knees buckled at the hit, but it didn't stop him. UlforceVeedramon pulled out his Ulforce Saber and slashed at the digimon. Arkadimon stopped in his place, and I relaxed my shoulders. It was going to be okay. Rei was going to be okay.

"How is he doing that?" Yamato wanted to know. "We didn't have all that much energy to give him. And UlforceVeedramon has enough power to hold him off now, to win maybe?"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Michael told him, clasping his shoulder.

"Neo," Rei shouted. "Neo, stop!"

I turned back to them; he was fighting her, trying to get at something. I saw a flash of white. She had something tied around her neck, and Neo wanted it.

"Give it to me," he snarled.

"I promised I wouldn't," Rei snapped back, trying to get out of his reach.

"I need it," he told her.

"You need to get a grip on reality," she shouted at him, and she swung her hand back for a second time, slapping him across the face. She hit him hard enough for me to hear it from the other side of the battle field. He stumbled back, but his grip was still firm on the device around her neck. The chain snapped, and he held it up in victory.

"Yes," Neo said triumphantly. "Arkadimon, use this digimental to digivolve again!"

"No!" she screamed at him, readying herself to attack him to get it back.

It was a mistake.

Arkadimon saw it, and he was ready to defend his master.

"Exile Spear!" Arkadimon called. He was serious now at least. That was both a blessing and a curse. A curse because he was still so powerful, and a blessing because UlforceVeedramon was powerful enough for Arkadimon to need to put effort into it.

The attack hit UlforceVeedramon in the shoulder, and he went flying, spinning in circles until he finally came to a stop. But it was too late to do anything about it. Arkadimon was already at Rei's side, and using his giant hand, hit her and her three digimon companions for daring to hit his master.

I didn't even remember starting to run, I just was. I flew across the battlefield, and slid under Arkadimon's legs before Sora or Yamato even thought to yell at me to stop. I just had to get to Rei. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed seeing her face. And learning that it wasn't even Rei I'd been talking with all month… It hit me hard. She was my only real friend outside of the digidestined, and she was always trying to set me up with someone, because everyone needs a little love in their life…and because I never seemed interested…

But I knew now, watching her get hit by Arkadimon, that I _was_ interested, she just never suggested the right girl. Sora might've been a big "What if?" in my life, but Rei didn't have to be. And I didn't want her to.

I didn't stop until I was at her side, flinging myself down beside her.

"Rei?" I asked frantically. "You're alive right? You have to be alive."

"Tai-Taichi?" she asked in a hoarse voice.

"Rei!" I shouted, right before I did something stupid. I crashed my lips against hers without thinking about it, without checking her for other injuries. And I didn't regret it.

"Rei?" I asked when I pulled back. She hadn't exactly kissed me back, and suddenly I was very sure I'd managed to hurt her more.

"Oh, Taichi," she said. She had tears in her eyes, and I cursed myself for hurting her. I checked her over, looking for blood, or twisted limbs that would indicate a break. I flicked her leg, and she pulled it away. She wasn't paralyzed here too. That was good. "I'm not hurt, you moron. I've just wanted you to do that for a long time."

"But you didn't kiss me back," I pointed out dumbly.

"What about _Sora_?" she wanted to know.

"She's not for me," I said. "But she is up there, waiting for us to come back. Are you up for it?"

"You bet we are!" one of the balls shouted. The other cheered along with him, and the dragon said silently, debating.

"Let's go," Rei said, grabbing my hand and pressing a quick kiss to my lips. "We'll have time to discuss this later. I hope."

I really hoped so too.

_**Hikari:**_

It was loud, everything was rushing around me and tears were streaming down my face despite how hard I was trying to ignore the pain of the claws digging into my side.

I couldn't even be sure what was happening. I heard screams, I heard loud smashing sounds and even an explosion or two. Someone was gripping my arm for dear life as Salamon rested, seemingly unconscious in my arms.

And suddenly with a quick swish the hand that was holding my arm released. I heard someone scream and then there was only darkness as the shadow creature wrapped itself around me.

I knew Salamon was still in my arms. I could feel her. But it was as if she wasn't. It felt like a cold stone had replaced her. I was alone. I was all alone...

I needed help. I wanted to cry, but I was too shocked. My body wouldn't allow it.

I needed Taichi.

I told him I didn't need help. I told him I was a big girl. Well even big girls are susceptible to giant dark shadows. Where did this one even come from? It seemed illogical. A shadow erupting in the middle of nowhere. Was it really under Neo's control as it had seemed? How could he control something of pure evil? It wasn't possible, and I didn't believe it.

Now wasn't the time for stubborn theorizing though. There had to be someone out there who still wanted to save me.

Why would they though?

I'd been getting really good at pushing people away. Taichi vowed to protect me forever... and I told him I didn't want his help. Takeru had claimed to love me and the best I could do was smile and nod. Willis, my boyfriend, we hadn't broken up in over four months. We were finally getting into the swing of things, and I was honestly happy with him... but we'd not spoken about anything serious. Would he feel the same? Would he want me alive?

Probably not.

I wondered for a moment if there was anyone else who might save me. Kurayami... Iori... they'd been moving on with their own lives... besides they weren't here. And Daisuke... He didn't care anymore. He loved me once... but I ruined that, just like everything else.

So there I was. Alone in the darkness. Was I to be there forever? Was this the end of my life?

Being a Holy One wasn't so bad though... I felt like Snow White all the time. Sure there was an evil being trying to get me all the time, but I always knew what was the right thing to do... that was fun. I only wished the shadow would kill me and end the suffering.

What suffering? I'd been here for only three minutes at the very most. It felt like forever though. It felt like this was to be the end...

Why did it always come to this? Always me, the damsel in distress, always sick, always being hunted by some shadow? Was that fair? No. It wasn't. Why did I always need help? It was just the darkness.

'_There's nothing in the darkness that can scare you.'_ My father had told me when I was a child.

'_The darkness is a terrifying place.'_ I countered my thoughts with that of a quote from Kurayami.

What was I to believe? Well of course there was more to the darkness than my father knew. But Kurayami was affected by more darkness than anyone ever should. They were both wrong on opposite ends of the scale.

There's nothing to fear in the dark so long as one could turn on the light... But if I was too scared to make it to the light then there was no saving anyone else let alone myself...

Fear is darkness, and darkness is fear.

'_Fear means to lose hope' _My own voice echoed in my head. _'And hope is very important.'_

And then Takeru's voice found my ears. It had been so long since I'd heard him... _'Without hope we'd be surrounded in darkness. With no path to the light. And without light, we'd never get anywhere.'_

'_Hope and light together keep the world from falling into darkness.'_

Hope.

Light.

To turn on the light, I had to vanquish fear. To work through the fear I needed to hope. And that was easy. Because we'd never lost before. We'd always come back and won. Someone always saved me, but I didn't need that this time. I could save myself. I finally understood how to defeat the darkness. It was all inside my heart...

And with a flash of light, bursting around me I was falling. The cold rock in my arms returned to Salamon, and the darkness around me shifted into the separate darkness that was the Digital World.

I looked around and saw the shadow dispersing. Not gone, just retreating, and then I slowed to a stop and rolled until my feet were toward the ground. Takeru and Willis were practically huddled together.

I could see Patamon's egg clutched in Takeru's arm, and Terriermon's ear hanging from Willis' hold.

Willis looked up to me and looked like he'd walked into a brick wall. He was so shocked.

"You made it!" His smile broadened across his face and he hurried toward me, Terriermon weakly climbing onto his shoulder. I threw my arm around him and hugged him tightly, careful to protect Salamon who was still held close to my chest. I looked up to Willis whose blue eyes were practically sparkling with happiness, and then he kissed me.

I knew I shouldn't have been shocked, but it had been so long since either of us had even mentioned being intimate with one another. I found myself kissing him back, and then when he pulled away I was biting my lip.

"How did you do it?" He asked, still smiling.

"I just turned on the light." I told him.

"Huh," He said, nodding his head lightly.

"Always the tone of surprise." I laughed, punching him playfully on his arm. I looked to Takeru who was smiling at us. That was no surprise. He always smiled when I was with Willis, but for the first time, I actually believed it, which was saying something since Patamon was wrapped in an egg shell in his arms at that moment.

He noticed I was staring at it, and his face fell as the memories washed over him again. It was so much to lose him twice... but both times Patamon had acted braver than any digimon I'd ever seen. First to save Takeru, and now, risking his life for a partner that wasn't even his own.

"Let's get back to the others." Willis said quietly. I nodded and the three of us turned to see that Arkadimon had changed. He was a giant. He was so powerful seeming. How were we supposed to win now?

Fanglongmon had been the utmost strongest of all of our enemies, and even he was defeated by only half of us... now we were supposed to win against a stronger opponent with no one to fight him. We'd been cocky. We'd been arrogant, and we'd assumed since we'd been through so much that we'd be stronger. It made sense. The Dark Masters had been so strong, experienced, and we weren't, but we made ourselves experienced and we won. But how could this enemy be even more experienced than we were?

Well... perhaps it wasn't.

Perhaps it was just overloading with power. Perhaps it didn't really know how to use it. And to top that off, the size of that creature was unbelievable. He had to be a slow mover. So even if his power was great we'd be able to defeat him so long as we could avoid his attacks...

If only we had a digimon to fight with.

We had one though. Just one. Ulforceveedramon, fighting with all his might, blocking each attack with his sword.

We were running from behind the others. I could see them all, crowded in one place, all except for Taichi... I shook my head, he had to be okay. But I didn't want to startle the others into an attack upon us.

"Hideto!" I shouted, "Yamato!"

Everyone spun around and I could see the look of relief on each of their faces. Except Sigma's, he gave a deadly glare to the three of us. Hideto was by my side in a second, hugging me as Yamato and Mari did the same for Takeru and Willis.

"Okay!" I laughed, pushing Hideto away, then my face was serious. "Where is Taichi?"

"Making out with my evil best friend's little sister." Hideto said, his eyebrows raised.

I looked to Sora, "Called it!" The two of us had a bet going on. I knew it was going to happen. I just knew it! I clapped my hands together as Sora rolled her eyes with a smile on her face.

"Why are you so happy?" Mari asked me, "You realize this battle is still happening, right?"

"Right, yeah." I said with a nod, "I'm just energized. I'm proud of myself, and I feel like I can do anything."

"How about giving Ulforceveedramon some of your strength then?" I turned sharply at the sound of the voice. I ran toward Taichi and threw my arms around him. "I'm serious."

"I missed seeing the goggles on you." I said, with a roll of my eyes. Of course he'd pay no mind to me being safe. I could see that he cared though. He was just too stubborn to show that he was wrong.

I held my hand to my heart, the same way I had multiple times before. Salamon looked up at me, finally awake and nodded, sensing what I was doing. I looked over to Willis and Takeru to see they were doing the same. I closed my eyes, but flung them open only a second later at the surge of power.

Four beams of light shot from us, straight toward Ulforceveedramon who began to glow brightly.

Two spikes shot from his shoulders, and strange golden designs appeared all over his blue armour.

"Did he just... digivolve?" Willis asked.

"He changed forms." Sigma said simply, "He's had an overbearing surge of energy and he's shifted into his Future Mode, duh."

Yamato stuck his tongue out and mocked Sigma but we all turned to watch the battle.

Arkadimon was quick to react to the new development, swinging his large island sized arms to punch Ulforceveedramon.

"Block it!" Taichi ordered flatly.

"No!" I shouted, "He's too slow—attack!"

"Let's have the big boys call the shots here," Taichi elbowed me lightly.

"Hikari's right." Gabumon said from Yamato's side. He was clutching Agumon's digi-egg close to him. "He's so slow. Blocking his attacks still caused me damage. He should dodge and use the recoil time to attack."

Taichi glared at me and then laughed a little, "You always were the smart one." Then to Ulforceveedramon, "Dodge!"

Ulforceveedramon jumped out of the way, and shot through the sky, his sword outstretched. Arkadimon moved his head just in time, sending Ulforceveedramon flying toward Neo.

My eyes froze on Neo as Ulforceveedramon got up and continued moving. He was scared. His face said it all. I didn't know why, but I knew I'd missed something.

My eyes flicked back to the battle as Uflorceveedramon's elbow hit Arkadimon in the forehead with such force that he began to topple backwards.

"Neo!" Rei called, slipping her hand from Taichi's, "Neo move!"

Arkadimon turned on Rei, suddenly gathering his balance and shooting through the open space toward the group of us. I heard a few screams of terror, but Ulforceveedramon stopped the attack, bashing Arkadimon away.

"Stop!" Neo said, his eyes directly on the greenish dinosaur digimon who was shyly standing away from the rest of us. "STOP! ARKADIMON! YOU HAVE TO STOP!"

"Finally, he's said something that makes sense." Hideto said under his breath.

Arkadimon froze, and then spun around, turning to face Neo. He cocked his head to the side for a moment. I squeezed the closest hand to me and heard Hideto gasp under the force of my grip as Arkadimon stared at his partner.

Suddenly he was heading for Neo just as he had been for Rei a moment ago.

"He's not in control anymore." I said quickly. "Neo never did have control of him did he?"

"You can't control a glitch." Sigma said clearly.

"That's it." Yamato said, pushing away from the group and pulling his digivice from his pocket frantically. "Hey ugly!" He shouted, whipping his digivice through the air.

"Yamato!" Takeru and Sora screamed as Yamato ran out into the open, his digivice bouncing off of Arkadimon's head.

"Come pick on someone who isn't mentally unstable!" Yamato shouted.

"Now isn't the time to be making fun of Neo," Taichi said, gripping Takeru tightly as he tried to get to his brother.

No one really expected her to go, but there she was, running out into the battle, her tiny pink digmion held under her arm as she ran toward Yamato. "Don't you dare die!" She screamed as both she and Arkadimon hurtled toward Yamato.

"GET HIM!" A groggy scream came from behind us.

And then there was a loud scream of terror escaping Arkadimon's mouth as the sword pierced through his skull, right in the center of his forehead.

So much had been going on in those few seconds I'd forgotten about our only real defense. But there he was. Saving the day.

I looked behind me to see Daisuke, standing shakily, holding his glowing digivice in his hands.

I turned back to the battle to see Arkadimon fading away. Soon he was mostly transparent, and then completely gone.

"Bingo!" Daisuke laughed uneasily as Hideto's face turned red, pulling his hand away from mine.

_**Rei:**_

Wow. So a lot had happened since escaping that little cell. I mean, I spent a lot of time walking in the endless darkness that had once been the Digital World, and by the time I'd seen anything it had been this giant battle that I secretly didn't want to interrupt, but knew that I didn't have a choice.

And boy was I glad I didn't chicken out.

I got to slap Neo across the face. Twice. And I'm not going to lie, it felt absolutely fantastic. And having Taichi come running after me and plant a kiss or two on me, well, that felt even better. Granted, I wasn't a fan of being hit by gigantic digital monster and flung way down past where the ground ought to be. Oh, and having my brother steal the digimental I was supposed to keep protected…

That put a big stopper on the happiness I was still reeling from when Taichi kissed me.

I'd let that poor digimon down. I'd promised Neo wouldn't get his hands on that digimental. I'd promised Pal and Pul too.

"Yay, they did it!" Pul cheered.

"No, _he_ did it," Pal corrected, but she was cheering too.

I couldn't help but smile with them. They were right after all. Arkadimon was gone. The digimental would probably be around here somewhere, and it wouldn't matter that I'd broken my promise. Because he was gone. Taichi laughed at their enthusiasm.

"Hey, Daisuke," Taichi called, still chuckling. "C'mere."

I looked to see Daisuke, unstable on his feet. His cheeks were rough, with scratches and scrapes.

"Yeah, Taichi," he said. He looked wary, and his eyes never left the goggles that were resting on Taichi's head.

"I'm sorry," Taichi told him softly.

"For what?" Daisuke asked. It sounded like he hoped to hear something specific. Having been absent for a long while, I didn't know exactly what was up with these guys.

"Here," Taichi said, handing him the goggles. "These are yours. And they mean something. But I haven't been letting you do the job that they represent. I've been taking control, and look where it got me. Sure, we might have won the fight, but I wasn't diligent enough. We almost died. _You_ almost died, because I wouldn't give you the chance. And if you hadn't woken up when you did, we probably wouldn't have won. UlforceVeedramon isn't my partner. We worked okay together, but it wasn't right. We don't understand one another the way you two do."

"I was dead to the world, Taichi," Daisuke said, though he seemed pleased. "I'm glad you worked with my partner. Even if you needed my awesomeness to deal the final blow."

"Now now," Hikari said with a laugh. "Can't let your head get too big."

"Whatever," Daisuke said, letting out a few chuckles of his own.

"I'm going to go get my digivice," Yamato announced. "Figure out what we're doing next."

"We should find Mom next, that's what we should do," Takeru declared, nudging his brother in the shoulder. Yamato put his arm around Takeru and dragged him along with him.

"Congratulations," Sora murmured from beside me. "I should've seen it coming really. I don't know how I didn't."

"Me either," I said softly. "Since I mentioned my intentions almost every time we spoke…"

She winced, but put on a smile, however forced it was.

"I'm sorry about Neo," I offered. That didn't make her much happier. "For what it's worth, Neo's evil because of me, not you. He wants make the Digital World a paradise for me, since my accident took away so much of what made my life up before."

"It's fine," Sora said. "I've got bigger fish to fry these days." She held up a broken digivice that I realized belonged to her. "I've got see if Koushiro can fix this."

"I bet he can," Taichi told her, nudging my shoulder. I smiled to myself. He looked so happy right then, and I knew that I was a part of that happiness. It was something I'd kind of wanted for like forever.

I looked over all of the people and digimon gathered. They were warriors, I realized. Taichi was at my side, and Sora had wandered off. Yamato and Takeru were searching for Yamato's missing digivice, Takeru holding an egg, and Yamato was being followed by his Gabumon. Hideto, my brothers oldest—and probably only—friend, was looking between his digimon and chatting excitedly about some sort of crest. Michael was talking to Mari, Lalamon asleep at their feet. Little Sigma—though I knew enough not to call him that to his face—was alternating between glaring (at anything and everything) and looking at Sora's digivice. Maybe he wanted to offer his own services. Or maybe he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to work with the good guys. I didn't know. His digimon was also asleep. Hikari was with Willis, holding hands and sneaking looks at one another. Terriermon and Salamon were tending to an unconscious Lopmon. And Daisuke was talking animatedly with his digimon partner, getting the play-by-play of the battle that he'd missed most of.

Pal and Pul floated by my head, and Dracomon…

"I've got to e-mail Ken and the others," Taichi announced quite suddenly. "Miyako will want to know right away."

"Okay," I agreed, letting go of his hand, so he could do as he suggested. I had a dragon to talk to. I wandered over to Dracomon, who was looking over at Neo, who'd I'd been surprised to see hadn't left already. "Go talk to him."

"He won't talk back. It'd be too depressing," he said sadly.

"Well, he doesn't have Arkadimon anymore to distract him from what a great digimon you are," I told him. "C'mon. I'll go with you."

"Us too," Pal said.

"Well, okay…" Dracomon decided, letting me drag him over to my brother.

"I was so sure it would work," he was muttering to himself. "I had control. What did I do wrong…?"

"You tried to control a force of pure evil, that's what," I told him, trying to keep a glare on my face. He'd almost gotten everyone killed after all. I couldn't be too nice to him yet.

"Rei," he sighed in relief. "You're okay? He didn't hurt you?"

"No thanks to you," I told him harshly, but then I felt horrible, because he flinched at the words.

"I didn't mean to," he told me. "I thought I had it under control."

"You would've been fine if you'd been using your own partner," I told him, gesturing to Dracomon at my side. "Instead you decided to reign in a monster."

"The serum had a better effect on Arkadimon," Neo said, defending his choices. "I needed strength, not a meaningless bond."

"The bond is what gives the strength, moron," I told him. "Look at the digidestined. They always conquer the odds. No matter how strong their enemy is their friendships and the love they share between human and digimon helps them win."

"You're saying that if I worked with Dracomon I'd be better off?" he asked wryly.

"I'm telling you to get to know your digimon," I told him. "And I'm telling you that you have no choice anymore."

"Is it my punishment?" he asked sounding amused.

"No," I told him. "It's a privilege you don't deserve for what you did to the digidestined, the digimon and the entire Digital World. But you did it for me, so there must be some of the old Neo left inside you. And Dracomon will be able to help that part of you get back to the surface. And now that Arkadimon is destroyed, you'll have all the time in the world to work on it."

"He's not," Neo told me.

"Yes, he is," I said quietly, hardly believing what he was implying.

"You're wrong. He's not destroyed, he's just not _here_," Neo said.

"What're you talking about, Neo?" Taichi demanded. I hadn't realized that everyone had migrated towards us. They probably didn't trust Neo to be alone with me, or anyone really.

"He's a glitch," Neo said. "He's not a normal digimon. He's much too powerful to have been destroyed by one digimon, no matter how many lent their strength to him."

"And he had a digimental," Sigma said, the smirk was evident in his voice. Everyone turned to look at him at once. I gulped. _I_ had practically given him the digimetal, his insurmountable strength was my fault. "He's just biding his time. He has no master now, no one's will to follow. He's a ticking time bomb without an agenda."

"Great," Taichi groaned. "I really thought it finally over."

"Over?" Neo said with a short, harsh laugh. "Arkadimon and I, we were just step one. There's so much more in store for you."

_**Jou:**_

"I don't know why Hideto said this was going to be so dangerous." Iori said as he walked in front of us, with a little skip to his step. Armadillomon was stumbling along behind him, trying to keep up. Mimi and Koushiro had gone a separate way with half of the serum.

It wasn't hard to find the Coliseum. Well, for Iori anyway. It had some weird enchantment on it. Until then I hadn't been aware that Digimon could use magic. But Mimi reminded me of Wizardmon, and all the other digimon who lived in his realm. It was a really cool, and interesting place. Of course I'd never been, but I'd learned an awful lot about it. Apparently Daemon was from there too. I couldn't remember him well enough to figure out who had defeated him though.

We'd already given the antidote to so many digimon, and I was running out, but as we walked along the poorly lit hallways we found that most of the cages were void of any prisoners. We'd already cleared out most of them, and judging by the curve in the hallway itself it looked like we'd be meeting up with Koushiro and Mimi pretty soon.

It was a success too. All the digimon, just faded back to normal, and then thanked us before running off. It felt good to finally be done all this nonsense. The Digital World really needed to just stay safe. We wouldn't be around forever. We couldn't keep saving it...

But it was over now. Well... not really. But Neo wasn't going to be too difficult without his army of infected digimon. And for all I knew, Neo could already have been defeated.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a loud scream. I jumped and ran, my heart panicking, but I calmed down quickly upon realizing it was just Mimi, screaming upon coming around the corner and finding Iori.

Iori and Mimi laughed, as Koushiro, Armadillomon and I took deep breathes to calm down.

"Did you have enough?" Koushiro asked.

I nodded. "Barely."

"Good." He nodded, "Looks like we're done here."

"Not necessarily." Armadillomon said, staring down a dark hallway.

"That looks pretty scary." Palmon said, "You guys have fun. I'll keep watch."

"I'll help!" Tentomon and Armadillomon said together.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be our brave protectors?" Mimi asked.

They looked to one another and shook their heads. It wouldn't matter if they came or not. We hadn't run into trouble yet anyway, so why would we find trouble down that hallway?

I set off down the hallway, and Iori, Mimi and Koushiro followed. It was fine. Maybe it was just a way out. I heard a faint buzz and looked back to see that Tentomon had caught up with us.

Then we could go find Syakomon. Well... maybe that could wait for another day. But he was still out there and I was going to fix him. Unfortunately I wasn't sure if he was the only one out there who was fighting the disease. If he wasn't, then we had to spread the word about the antidote and save everyone...

"Did you hear that?" Iori asked quietly.

"No," I said, "You're imagining it."

"No, I heard it too." Mimi said.

"It's probably just an imprisoned digimon." Koushiro said, "They can still make noise you know."

He had a point. They could. And he was right. As we walked on I heard the noise they had been referring to, and it was coming from a prison cell at the end of the hallway. The only one down the hallway at all.

Inside I could hear a faint sobbing noise, and a shaking figure in the shadows.

"Tentomon, break the door." Koushiro said.

"Roger!" He buzzed, kicking off of the cold, stone ground and floating into the air. "Super shocker!" He sent a bolt of electricity toward the latch that was holding the cell closed. It exploded loudly, and the cage door flew open. The sobbing stopped causing a prolonged silence.

Finally the shape inside the cage began to move. I couldn't lie, I was pretty scared at this point. The shape was tall, and as it came closer I could make out a rope, hung loose around his form, the hood pulled over its head.

The digimon stood in the open doorway of the cage for a moment.

"Uhm... Hi?" Mimi tried, breaking the silence.

Suddenly the figure lunged forward, pushing Mimi to the ground, and rounding on Iori. The digimon raised his arm and suddenly, with a strong force of wind, Iori was flying into the darkness.

"Iori!" I called out. I started to run toward him, but stopped myself upon hearing Koushiro gasp in pain.

I spun around and saw the Digimon had him pinned to the ground. Koushiro's hand was raising with a needle full of glowing green liquid inside. He was trying to inject the digimon with the antidote—that was probably a good idea. I began fumbling with the case in my hand as Tentomon shot through the air and hit the digimon away from Koushiro. The digimon wrapped his fingers around Tentomon's head and slammed him against the stone wall. In a flash of light Tentomon had shifted into Motimon, and fell to a heap on the ground.

Finally I had the case open, but just as I pulled out one of the needles, the digimon had hit me hard the stomach and my back slammed against the opposite wall. I was gasping for breath as the remaining needles flew through the air, falling out of the case. Each one of them hit the paved floor and smashed, sending green goop all over the floor.

Mimi was up again, slapping the digimon across the side of his head, but all it did was anger him. He picked her up and threw her into the cell he had come from with such ease.

"Mimi!" I gasped, still unable to gather enough air.

Koushiro was on his feet now, running up to the digimon from behind. He slammed the needle into is back and slammed down on the plunger and sending all of the antidote from the barrel into the digimon itself.

The digimon froze as Koushiro took the needle from its back, and then, in one swift movement, had spun around, and punched Koushiro in the chest, sending him flying across the hallway where he landed on the floor and rolled to a stop.

"Poison Ivy!"

"Diamond Shell!"

Armadillomon shot past me in a rolling ball, and slammed into the digimon as Palmon's vines held it in place. Armadillomon did little more than bounce off of him as he grabbed the vines that surrounded him and pulled sharply. The digimon swung the vines around his head, dragging Palmon with them, and then slammed her down onto Armadillomon where both lay helpless.

Finally the digimon stopped his attack. Why hadn't the antidote worked on him? The only answer to that question was that he was not affected by the virus at all.

The digimon rounded on me, seemingly the only one conscious. He lowered his hood and stepped toward me.

"You come into my temple, and try to change me?" The digimon asked in a very low voice. "You dare try to challenge me?"

"Who are you?" I asked shakily.

"Where is Ken Ichijouji?" He countered with another question.

"Who are you?" I asked him, ignoring his question.

"You won't tell me?" He asked, "Fine. I will find him myself. But I must thank you for freeing me from the hold that foolish boy had put me under."

"Neo?" I asked.

"That's the one." The digimon said, "Finally I'll be free to seek my revenge on the sad, pathetic boy known as Ken Ichijouji."

Suddenly a wave washed over me. I knew who this was. And the reason this temple was enchanted, and the reason I couldn't remember how Daemon had been defeated... it was all right in front of me now. Daemon was alive, living in the Coliseum, plotting his revenge on Ken, and we'd just freed him.

Daemon flashed a grin at me through the dark and then two je black wings shot from his back as he took flight, flying through the air.

I swallowed the lump in my throat now. I could only hope Ken was well protected...

_**Miyako:**_

The suspense was killing me. Ken was murmuring away, our green telephone pressed up against his ear as he eagerly awaited the news. I was desperate to know whether or not our friends succeeded.

When it appeared Ken wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to hear any time soon, I shifted my eyes away from my dark haired husband. His black and gray sweater and his blue jeans were covered in flour, and I just knew that meant the kitchen was an absolute mess. And I was right. My eyes flitted to the kitchen's open door, and it was in a state of disarray. Wormmon and Hawkmon were attempting to clean before I'd noticed and both froze under my stare.

They panicked, trying to decide whether they should try to explain themselves, before they ran and hid behind the couch. I rolled my eyes. They weren't in trouble. _Ken_ would be, if he expected me to clean it up. They'd been making cookies though, trying to cheer me up.

Only one thing could cheer me up though.

I needed to know that my stalker—that Arkadimon—was gone.

And it had to be him. It just _had_ to be. Nothing else made sense. At first I thought it was just me, and then I freaked out over that mask, but after a lot of careful thinking, it had to be Arkadimon. It was the only other explanation I could come up with. I was desperate to finally know it was over.

"Okay," Ken said, louder now. "I'll let her know."

My breath caught in my throat.

This was it. The moment of truth. I turned back to my husband with wide eyes. My heart was hammering away, while my chest struggled to contain it. I absentmindedly ran my fingers over my left sleeve, tracing the scar tissue. Ken slowly put the phone back in the cradle. Or maybe he didn't do it slowly and it just felt that way.

"That was Kurayami. Apparently Taichi sent out an e-mail," he said conversationally. I made a strangled, impatient noise, informing him that under no circumstances was he to delay the answer. He sighed, a little disappointed that he couldn't be dramatic, but resigned himself to it. "They won. Even Neo helped fight against him. Not that they explained why, but you're safe now. He's gone."

"Hopefully for good," I whispered in awe.

They did it. They saved me.

Those cookies actually sounded good at that moment. I needed something to celebrate with. Once my arms healed, it would all be behind me. I couldn't wait!

"Um, well," Ken continued. "Wormmon and Hawkmon wanted to go to the park, and I wouldn't let them, you know, because we had to be here, just in case, and I knew you wouldn't want to go out there and be an open target. But since he's gone…?"

"Go," I said. I felt freer than I could ever remember feeling. "I don't need to be protected anymore. Have fun."

"We will," Hawkmon assured, rushing past me with Wormmon scuttling behind.

"Of course," Wormmon agreed.

I smiled at them as they raced toward the door. They were still scared of getting in trouble for the flour. Couldn't they tell that I didn't care anymore? I was free! I could clean the kitchen a hundred times over and it wouldn't affect the mood I was in.

"Bye," Ken said with a smile and a quick kiss to my cheek. "Call if you need anything."

"I will," I promised. I watched as he closed the door behind him and—once he was gone—I did a little happy dance and started singing to myself. "He is gone! I don't have to worry anymore. I can do anything I want to now. Like go to school, or get a better job, or even babysit Emiko without fear of her getting attacked!"

Okay. So my singing was horribly off-key. It was the emotion behind it that mattered though, and I was so, _so_ happy.

The apartment was quiet. Too quiet. Before, when I was worried about being attacked all the time, it would be terrifying. But now, it was just sad. I was used to so much noise. My siblings had all lived at home, and there was always so much fighting. Mom and Dad would even yell at each other from opposite sides of the house instead of walking over and simply asking for something to be done. I'd craved this silence most of my life…but I didn't really want it anymore. There weren't enough people in Ken's and my apartment to make the noise I needed.

"Maybe I should get Wormmon and Hawkmon to move in permanently," I mused, as I started washing the cookie-dough stained bowls and spoons. "Or maybe we should get a dog…"

I cut myself off at the sounds of footsteps. I hadn't heard the door open, but I couldn't hear much over the sound of my screeching—or _singing_.

It was only one set of footsteps though.

"Shouldn't there be three?" I whispered. Ken's strong footsteps, followed by the pitter-pattering of Wormmon and the tapping of Hawkmon's clawed feet.

But it didn't sound like any of them.

I set down the wooden spoon I was scrapping dough off of, and tip-toed to the window. Peering out of it, I saw Ken being chased around by our two digimon.

Someone was in our house.

I slipped over to the kitchen door, and closed it as quietly as I could. I felt safer having the door between me and whoever it was. And the drawer full of knives to my right helped too.

I was shaking. This wasn't supposed to happen. Arkadimon was defeated. He was supposed to leave me alone now. A traitorous part of my mind whispered to me.

_Maybe it wasn't Arkadimon. It was someone…something else._

I pressed my back against the door and slid to the floor. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. I had been so happy. So free. Why was the world always trying to take that away from me?

There was a soft squeaking, and my eyes rushed up.

The doorknob was turning. Whatever it was, it wanted in.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Arc 2 officially starts, and things are still heating up, Neo might've been taken care of, but things are far from over!


	21. Healing Wounds

**Y/N:** This chapter serves as the gap between story arcs. Well…that didn't really make sense, did it? What I mean is that time passes during this chapter, each part doesn't immediately follow the last one. It's either one or two weeks that pass during it, kind of… I think Taichi's part at the end gives the exact date or something. Anyway, review if you feel inclined, and happy reading!

**U/N:** This chapter takes place over the next week or so, each part taking place later than the one... before.

Ob...viously (if you didn't read that in Snape's voice, go back and do it again.)

Uhm... it was kind of fun, and Hiroaki's part seems a little out of place, with Takeru-I know, I know. But yeah It's a cool chapter, much more mellow than the one before anyway :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 21: Healing Wounds**

_**Hiroaki:**_

I felt Haruhiko's hand firmly around my own as he pulled me up over the edge of the invisible cliff. That was a weird though I realized, but the cliff was indeed invisible—though I was starting to wonder if it was really there at all. But, with the help of Mushroomon and Haruhiko, I was standing level with the strange hut not too far away on the ground that wasn't there.

There was something strange going on and I didn't need to have been in this world before now to realize that. This was _not_ how Takeru's book had described the world. Then again, he'd taken creative liberty on his own character making it such a hero, that perhaps he'd reworked the Digital World into something more... interesting.

"I'm too old for this." I mumbled, trying to crack my back, realizing suddenly that it didn't actually hurt at all.

"Well that's just not true." Toshiko said, leaning forward to stare at my face. I felt my face turn red as Haruhiko did the same. They then turned to each other and gasped.

It took a moment for it to set in, but their faces had re-winded themselves some twenty odd years.

"Me too?" Was all I managed to say.

"Yes!" Toshiko said through a laugh as she nodded. "My my, I really like the Digital World." She said, feeling her face. "I feel so beautiful!"

"You're always beautiful," Haruhiko said his eyes wide. Toshiko turned to him and kissed him with a weird amount of excitement. I turned awkwardly to Mushroomon and waved.

"Hey," I said.

"'Sup?" Mushroomon said equally as awkward.

"Whoo!" Haruhiko gasped suddenly, signalling the end of their embrace.

"Alright let's go find Natsuko." I said simply.

"You wanna try that too, huh?" Haruhiko asked.

"What?" I gasped, "No—I didn't—just—let's go." I said grabbing him by the arm and pulling him.

Toshiko, who was normally so well put together, so mature was actually doing cartwheels as we set off. Haruhiko was jumping up and down every now and then, both of them excited to be so young again. I was also excited of course, but I wasn't going to show that. I needed to keep focused on finding Natsuko. She was important, and potentially in a great deal of danger. And the fact that, if the rewinding effect happened to her, both of us were roughly the same age we were when we fell in love the first time... well that helped. I just wanted to see her even more now.

But I did make a mental note reminding me to come back to the Digital World so I could try one of those cartwheels without my back breaking.

We didn't get very far when my cell phone beeped. I pulled it out of my pocket quickly and read the new text message over.

_Dad, where the hell are you?—Takeru_

I wrote out a reply quickly, _I'm in the Digital World. Don't worry son, I'm going to find your mother._ Before I realized that I actually had no signal. At all. How had I gotten that text?

I turned quickly and ran back a bit to see if the signal would come back. I saw the bars flash quickly and then disappear, so I took a step backwards and then there they were. I hit 'send' quickly but shook my head. This world was already confusing me, and if the rest of it was worse than this... I didn't even want to think about what else might be out there.

But I figured we were having better luck than Takeru did on his first trip. According to the second draft of his book he, Yamato and the others had come across a giant red bug only moments after entering the world. Then Takeru used a berry and grew very large, squished it and they were on their way. That part I didn't believe. I just... I just didn't.

But there weren't any berries around even if it was true, so I had to admit, I was a little frightened to what might be hiding out there. Not that there really was anywhere to hide.

But I had to snap out of it. I had to stay strong and brave and focused, and I had to save Natsuko.

_**Daisuke:**_

It was over. Thankfully. But I was still nervous to go home. I didn't know what I could do for Takeru to make him feel better. I doubted there was anything I could say. He'd lost his partner for the second time in that battle. And while I didn't _actually_ know what was going on during most of it—having been knocked unconscious and whatnot—I knew that it was playing over and over again in his mind.

Also, my entire body was in pain. I didn't enjoy being knocked unconscious. It wasn't nearly as graceful as they made it seem in movies. It hurt a lot when I woke up, my head was pounding, and I couldn't remember where I was, or what we were doing. Which wasn't that great, since it was a battle for our very lives. I was just thankful I'd woken up when I did. UlforceVeedramon might not have won the fight if I didn't.

If we could call it a win.

Arkadimon got away. We thought we'd won, but Neo told us otherwise. The jerk wasn't pleased about it though, so it wasn't like he was bragging about his digimon's power or anything. I might've punched him if he did. From what I understood, Arkadimon wasn't even his digimon, just some glitch in the Digital World that he decided to try and harness for himself. That's what Sigma said anyway…not that I was sure I could trust him. He was a former enemy, not that I tended to hold such things against people that were potential friends. Ken and Kurayami were proof of that. Maybe Hideto, Sigma and Mari would join their ranks. I wasn't too sure about Neo though…

"Do you think there's food?" DemiVeemon asked from my arms. The battle had tuckered him out. He was so small, wrapped in my arms. It was hard to believe that he was the one that scared Arkadimon off. Digimon were crazy hard to understand, but they were also fantastic.

"Kurayami was going to make all of our favourites, to celebrate the victory," I assured him.

"How could she know we'd win?" he asked.

"I don't think losing ever crossed her mind," Takeru said. His voice was empty sounding. I didn't need to look back at him to know that he was staring longingly at the egg he was holding. I winced. It hadn't really occurred to me that Patamon wouldn't be there to eat his meal.

"How long does it take for an egg to hatch?" I asked, before I could stop myself.

"It changes, I think," Takeru told me. "It took a little while last time… but maybe it'll be different this time, since he's already done it before…"

I just couldn't keep my foot out of my mouth.

"Yay!" DemiVeemon cheered as he caught sight of our apartment's door. I had to hold myself back from doing the same. I was afraid I'd say another thing that would make me seem stupid and insensitive. I pushed the door open eagerly.

"Kurayami?" I called loudly. Then I caught sight of Norn, sitting on our couch, looking impossibly small and lost. "Hey Norn."

"Hello, Daisuke," she said softly. "Kurayami is in the kitchen."

"Thanks," I told her.

"You go ahead," Takeru decided. "I'm going to find a lamp I can put him under. I read somewhere that eggs need heat…"

I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't a terrible joke to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut.

"You won!" Labramon shouted excitedly from the kitchen doorway. "Kurayami, call Ken. They won!"

"I already am," I heard Kurayami answer.

"We didn't actually defeat him," I tried to tell her, but she'd already hung up the phone. It was fine, I thought. They deserved a moment of excitement before everything crashed down around them again.

"You didn't?" Kurayami questioned concernedly.

"He fled," I admitted, before telling her the whole story. Well, the story that Taichi had told me, since, again, I wasn't conscious for it.

"So it's not over," Kurayami sighed. "When are we going to have to hunt him down?"

We? Hadn't she declared that she could not and _would_ not fight against him? She was worried about Norn, sure, but there had to be something more to it…

"I don't know," I said slowly.

"Not for awhile," Takeru announced. DemiVeemon ditched me for the aromas coming from the kitchen. He'd had enough of talking.

"But we can't just let him keep tearing the worlds apart," Kurayami insisted.

"He killed Patamon and Agumon, Kurayami," Takeru told her. I watched her and Takeru both flinch at the facts. "We can't beat him yet. So we have to wait."

"You will let him destroy the world because you are sad?" Norn asked. "With no care for the digimon that get in his way in the mean time?"

"We can't do anything else," Kurayami said with a sigh.

Norn didn't seem to like that idea. She stared at each of us, moving slowly from person to person, and shook her head. I really wished I knew what she wanted from us…

_**Michael:**_

"This is ridiculous." I said under my breath, but apparently not as quiet as I'd thought it would be. Ken Wormmon, Meyiomon and Gomamon all turned their heads sharply toward me. "I just mean that we have to be lost." I supplied.

"We're not lost." Gomamon argued. "I know where we are."

"I'm not insulting your geographical knowledge," I said, "I'm just kindly pointing out that there is no land to geograph..."

"That's not a word." Ken said simply, but I ignored him.

"I see what you're saying, but trust me, I know where we're going." Gomamon said. I decided to trust him, or at least follow him until he decided he actually _was _lost. I had nothing better to do today. Tatum was spending a girls day with Jenna and Hikari and Willis had been doing things in secret lately. I had no idea where they were, so what better way to spend my time was there? Finding these crests was very important. Only according to Jou they were absorbed by some water digimon, and according to Meiyomon if we didn't get them back soon he was going to blow us up.

So...

Yeah.

It was pretty scary having him in Ken's arms only a few feet away...

"Besides, if we're lost it's totally your fault." Gomamon said. "You were the one who lost the crests in the first place."

"Firstly," I said, rushing to walk next to him instead of behind. "That was Ken." I ignored Ken's 'hey!' "Second, are you implying that you actually might be lost?"

"No!" Gomamon said, shaking his head. "Well, maybe..."

I groaned, and fell back in step with Ken and Wormmon.

"You know," Meiyomon said quietly, "Just because it was Ken who lost the crests doesn't mean that I forgive _you._" He practically whispered the last word, sending a shiver down my spine. I took a side step to get away from him.

"Shouldn't all of this be cancelled out since I found the right people to hold the other three?" I asked, nervous. I could honestly say that I'd never been intimidated by something with such a small body before.

"No." He said simply. "Because the recipients of the crests kidnapped digimon. Tortured them, infected them with viruses, lied, cheated, spied, stole... you know, I'm thinking you should go get them back."

"Can't do that." I told him. "The wand chooses the wizard."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Meiyomon said, a little angry now.

"It's a saying!" I defended, "It means that the crests chose the right people. The crests are used for good, to defend against the darkness, which is funny to me if you factor in Kurayami's crest's usefulness in that situation. Mari's a good girl, Hideto is trusted by most of us, what's the problem?"

"The other one." Meiyomon said, "The quiet one."

"Right..." I said quietly. He had a point. That Sigma fellow was pretty sketchy. "Well he hasn't done anything wrong yet."

"It's been like three days." Meiyomon growled. He had another point... unfortunately it seemed I was being outsmarted by an eight year old.

"Ken, could we take a break?" Wormmon said. We were coming up to a village, and so, with a little convincing on Meiyomon's part, we all headed over toward the small floating straw huts where we knew we would find digimon living their normal everyday lives. Well, as normal as life could get with your house floating...

Koromon were surrounding us pretty soon bombarding us with questions. It never occurred to me that the Digimon might want updates...

So we told them about how Arkadimon is gone, but supposedly still alive, according to Neo, and that the Digital World is currently in a state that none of us can really understand. But we did promise them that their home would be back to normal before too long.

Neo claimed to not be the cause of the deleted world, which made me even more frustrated with him because who else would delete the world? But there was nothing we could do except assume he was telling the truth...

Which he wasn't. He just... couldn't be.

"How is Miyako...?" I asked as casually as I could as we all sat down on the outskirts of the village eating whatever sort of bean-like substance the Koromon had decided to feed to us. It seemed like a pretty normal question, but we both knew what I was really inquiring about.

"She's terrified." He said quietly. The amount of emotion in his voice was tragically beautiful. Truly it was. Wormmon, Meiyomon and Gomamon slowed their eating a little to listen more carefully to Ken. "The other day Momoe and Chiziru came to visit with Emiko and Masa. I'd told them to just let themselves in... but... she screamed. She cried for an hour. She was so shaken up... over her sisters and two small children. I'm scared for her..."

"Well we'll just have to protect her." I said with a nod. "If it really is Arkadimon hurting her, we'll stop him, and if it isn't, we'll find out who it is."

"That's not why I'm scared for her." Ken said, "It's... If what Jou said is true, then Daemon is back, and he's after me. If I get hurt then I won't be there anymore to keep her safe."

"Ken—"

"I know Daisuke would take a bullet for her. I know that." He said, "I know Hikai and Sora and Iori... they all care for her. But when I'm protecting her I know that she'll be safe because no matter what, I would _never_ let her get hurt. I can't control the others... and I just need her... to be safe."

"Ken," I said more firmly this time. "Do you trust me?" Ken nodded, "Then listen here, Daemon will _not_ kill you. He can't. You have way too many friends. You've got me, and then fourteen friends and their digimon. I didn't include Sigma since he's nuts, or Koushiro since he hates you. Or Betamon since he's never around." Ken rolled his eyes at the sound of Koushiro's name, "We'll all keep you safe. And we'll all help keep Miyako safe. It'll all be okay."

Ken nodded, "If you say so..."

"I do." I said.

There was a while of silence as we ate the food and then finally Meiyomon spoke up.

"Gomamon, why are you not currently watching Pukumon?"

"What?" Gomamon asked nervously, "Well you see..."

"Jou asked you to keep an eye on him, no?" Meiyomon asked as he delicately scooped the beans into his mouth.

"He did yeah, but Pukumon is always in the same spot." Gomamon said. "He's found a home. It's somewhere near Infinity mountain. I don't think it's important for me to always be there..."

The Koromon began to chatter excitedly behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw them all crowding in the center of their village.

"Well, honestly, I have no idea how we're going to get the crests from him anyway." Wormmon said. "We had to destroy Hiandromon to get them back last time. Will we have to destroy Pukumon too?"

"I guess so," Ken nodded.

"No!" Gomamon said sharply. "You can't!"

"Gomamon, what if there isn't any other way?" Ken asked.

"Well there has to be." Gomamon said. "You're not killing him. Syakomon has been through a _lot_. We're not punishing him for the virus getting to him. It's not his fault. Killing him is completely unnecessary."

"What if we give him the antidote?" Meiyomon suggested, "Jou made one didn't he?"

"But Hiandromon seemed pretty out of control when he took them," Wormmon said, "I think the crests were too powerful for him, so maybe they are too much power for Pukumon too?"

"Well it's worth a try." Gomamon said.

"Alright, well we don't have the antidote with us." Ken said as he placed his now empty bowl on the not-really-a-ground next to him. "We'll have to go get some and come back later."

I jumped to my feet. "Sounds like a plan." I said, pulling Ken to his feet. "Not a well thought out one—but a plan nonetheless." Meiyomon and Wormmon quickly readied to go as Ken collected the bowls. I took them from him telling him I'd take them back. He nodded and let me go.

I was running through plans of action, ways to get in close enough to a Pukumon to inject him with the antidote. I had never seen a Pukumon up close, but I'd certainly seen Tatum's book of Digimon knowledge that she'd made with Monodramon enough times to know that he was mostly covered with a thick metal armour.

How would a simple needle pierce that? It seemed the only option would end up being to destroy him, but we'd promised Gomamon we'd at least try.

"Thank you!" A Koromon said happily as I handed him the empty bowls.

"No, thank _you_." I said with a smile, spinning around and letting my eyes fall on the red shape sticking out from the crowd of Koromon's.

I didn't need to see any more to know that it was Betamon. I'd know his fin anywhere. At that moment the Koromon's parted and let me have a good view at him. His eyes fell on me and I could see the instant panic in his eyes.

What the heck was going on with him. I smiled feebly and waved at him. He moved slowly toward me.

"Hey," I said awkwardly.

"Hiya!" Betamon said. There was a few seconds of silence and then, "Well... it's been fun, gotta go."

"Betamon!" I said sharply, "What are you doing here?"

"Well these chumps feed me in return for saving the Digital World." Betamon said before he could stop himself, he looked to me with fear in his eyes.

"Excuse me?" I snapped, "You haven't done anything." I knew I was out of line, but... there was a big part of me that had wanted to yell at him for a while, "I went in to fight the battle, to help save the world without you. I risked my life and you didn't even care to come along. You're being really rude to these nice people."

"Look bud," Betamon said, "I don't think it's really up to you what I do or say to the Koromon."

"I think it is." I said. "I think it's up to me to make sure you grow into the proper digimon that you were meant to be. And this isn't that."

"Lay off." Betamon said. "I'm going to do what I'm going to do."

"What you're going to do is come live with me." I said sharply. "I'll feed you. And I'll teach you manners. You're going to help out in the fight against evil to make it up to these Koromon." I leaned down and scooped him into my arms.

Not a moment later had he used his sharp fangs to bite my arm. I cried out in pain and jerked my arm back, but held him tightly with the other, further down his body so he couldn't bite me.

"What's... going on?" Ken asked.

"I'm digi-napping my own digimon." I said flatly. "I'm taking him home, I'll see you guys later. Thanks for your help Gomamon."

Gomamon nodded in awknowledgement but all four of my companions were giving me the weirdest look. And no wonder. But I knew I was doing what was right. Betamon was being really selfish and awful lately. And he had formed four large cuts in my arm that were now bleeding... and if he wasn't going to make up for what he did to the Koromon's—and something told me that wasn't all he'd done—then I'd have to.

_**Kurayami:**_

"She's really creepy..." Takeru said in almost a whisper as the girl skipped out of the room claiming that she needed to find something really important.

"She's cute." I shot back, afraid that maybe if she heard us talking bad about her she would do something awful to us. She really was creepy. It was true. She scared me more than she should have. She knew random bits of information that she shouldn't know, and yet knew nothing about herself. She refused to tell me even her name. Or maybe it was just that she didn't know it.

Norn...

Daisuke had come up with it. Where had it come from? Either way, that's what we called her. Takeru just called her Lucy, which he had shortened from Lucifer since he considers her a demon half the time. In my opinion he just watched too many movies.

He raised his hands in defence and silence fell over the room. Well, as silent as it could be with that baby sleeping on the arm chair on the other side of the room. Poyomon, I thought his name was. He was cute, but I certainly preferred Patamon. Partly because when Patamon slept he didn't make weird gurgling noises, and partly because I didn't feel bad for not going to help out at the battle when Poyomon wasn't here. I should have gone. I know that now... if only I knew that then. Would I have been of any use? Would I have gotten in the way? Would Patamon not have... died? It's hard to say. But it all ended up okay since that Sigma guy had brought them to the Digital World Patamon came back in an egg, and Koushiro assured us all that both he and Agumon would retain their strength and memories from their past life. They were just sleeping...

Though that didn't explain why he was so confused with the results of Agumon's egg...

I shook my head as Norn came running back in with a crayon and a piece of paper in her hands.

"I want to draw!" She smiled at us, her eyes never blinking, as usual. "Your first kiss!" She cheered as she fell to the floor and slid her legs under the table. I had sent Takeru out to buy her new clothing and he came back with frilly dresses. I felt pretty bad for the girl, but she seemed pretty happy with them.

What she had said took a while to register with me, but finally I froze.

My first kiss. I had been possessed by a giant evil dragon digimon who was trying to use my body to kill the love of my life, and then finally, he kissed me and we saved the world.

"How about you draw Takeru's first kiss?" I suggested. We both turned to Takeru who smiled nervously.

"It was super romantic." He said, nodding his head quickly. "We were... in a cave?"

"A cave isn't romantic." Norn shot quickly.

"In a field— watching the sunset." He laughed, "How could I have screwed that one up? Anyway—"

"You're making this up." Norn said very seriously, her eyes darting toward Takeru. "You're lying. Lying is bad..."

"I'm sorry," Takeru said, "You're right. Lying is bad. Very bad. I'm just... I've never... actually—"

"_Really_?" I cut across his words and his face turned red instantly.

"It's just never happened." He said quietly. "I thought it... could happen, a couple times. But I chickened out."

"You've never had a girlfriend before Catherine?" I asked him.

"One." He corrected, "But that was only one date, and it was more of a friend thing."

It seemed odd to me but I didn't question it. Norn had turned back to me, hoping for a kiss that I could explain to her, but I decided to change the subject.

"Are you hungry?" I asked her.

"No,"

Takeru laughed a little, but helped me out. "Where's Daisuke?" He asked. He knew the answer already, well, he knew the lie I'd told him. Daisuke didn't want anyone to know...

"He's looking for someone very important." Norn said before putting her finger to her lips, sealing the secret between the two of them. The only problem, was that we hadn't told her about it.

"Norn, have you been eavesdropping on us?" I asked as Takeru looked to me confused.

"You said he was taking Labramon for a walk..." Takeru said, "Which I must admit, I did question since I keep hearing noises upstairs and Veemon is training, so there could be no one else." He stopped for a moment, turning toward Norn but she just sat there colouring a flower. We'd never kept the Digimon a secret from her since Labramon was with us when we found her. She never found them odd, and when he noticed this he turned back to me.

"I lied." I admitted, "But I had to. Daisuke wants no one to know."

"So just tell me." Takeru said, "I can keep a secret you know. I haven't told anyone about Norn." He had a point. He'd been pretty noble about his vow to keep quiet. "And besides, I live with you, how long did you guys think you could keep it up."

"Well our plan was that you would stay in France..." I said quietly. He tilted his head slightly so I cleared my throat, "Just listen okay? There isn't much information. Daisuke keeps getting messages from someone, who needs his help. He just can't find them. Whoever they are. We thought they were Norn, but the messages didn't stop."

"So why are you helping her?" Takeru asked, receiving the dirtiest of glares from Norn, "That's not what I meant!" He defended himself.

"Because we promised we would, and besides, we couldn't leave a little girl all alone." I told him. "It's immoral. The only problem is that she literally has no home. I mean, she must, but we can't find it. No missing children in the papers—no one is looking for her."

"Did you try the orphanages?" Takeru asked.

"No," I admitted quietly. That would have been a good place to start. A little girl in rags, having run away from home. Why didn't I think about that?

"Or asking her?" He asked.

"That one I did try." I said, the corners of my lips curling into a smile I reserved for Hikari, Daisuke, and lately Takeru who was actually quite funny.

There was silence after that as we watched Norn colour, and then Takeru cleared his throat, "So... You never asked me if I was hungry..."

I smiled again, "Are you hungry?"

"Famished." Takeru laughed.

"I'll make you something then." I said, jumping to my feet as Labramon stomped around upstairs. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but he clearly didn't understand when I said 'lay low for a bit'. "Not going to lie though," I said, "There's mostly just pasta. Daisuke has been experimenting for his kart." He had a job! Why didn't I tell them that's what he was doing? Wow I was really bad at this lying thing.

Takeru laughed but told me it was okay.

I slid into the kitchen, pushing the swinging door that Daisuke had installed himself for effect. I stepped over a fort that Norn had made with Labramon, almost stepping on the latter of the two in the process as I headed for the cupboard.

"What kind of sauce?" I called to him.

"Peanut Butter." He said fairly clearly, but I was just hoping that the noises Labramon was making upstairs were the reason I had heard what I thought I did. "You could probably tell Labramon to come play with us now that we know he's here." Takeru laughed.

I froze, dropping the jar of peanut butter onto the counter where it bounced off and landed on the floor, rolling through the open doorway of the fort in the middle of the room where Labramon helpfully pushed it back out.

I slowly looked toward the set of stairs and swallowed the lump in my throat. If Labramon was here, then who was upstairs.

"Thanks..." I said quietly as I picked up the peanut butter and placed it on the counter. No need to worry him if it was just a stray cat.

I moved swiftly to the stairs and crept up them as quickly as I could where I stood in the hallway listening to the sounds coming from Daisuke's room. The room I shared with him.

Slowly I moved toward the door and pushed it open. As it swung open I saw more and more of the mess that had been created. The mattress of the bed was on the other side of the room, propped up against the wall, every drawer in the dresser was hanging open, and the clothes lay strewn about the room.

And there, standing by the shelves Daisuke and I built was a boy with black hair, staring at a picture of me when I was younger, my hair in two messy pigtails. "Who are you?" I asked. The boy jumped and spun around to face me, his skin was paler than the last time I'd seen him. It hadn't been too long ago.

"It's me." He said. But he said nothing else. It was only Hikari and me who could see him, and since he realized that he'd been following us around religiously. "This is you?" He pointed to the picture and I nodded, "You were really cute..."

"Thanks..." I said. "You need to go though."

He placed the picture down and nodded. "I know." He looked toward me, and then leapt over an overturned desk chair, startling me as he landed in front of me. He stared down at me and then reached out his hand to stroke my cheek, but he refrained from making contact. "You look the same."

Finally his icy skin made contact with my cheek and his mouth dropped open in an ear piercingly high scream, he insides of his mouth complete blackness as he vanished, draining me of all energy. I fell to my knees as a flash of a dark haired woman walking slowly through the hallway outside my childhood bedroom shot through my mind. I had gotten very hot suddenly and I could hardly breathe now, feeling as if I had been plunged under hot water.

I was gasping for breath when Takeru pushed the door open and grabbed my arm, hoisting me to my feet.

"You alright?" He asked quickly. I took many deep breaths as he held me in his arms, and finally I shook my head, ready to tell him about what had just happened, but I decided against it as I looked down to Norn who was staring, shocked at the mess of the bedroom.

"Fine." I lied.

_**Jou:**_

"These ones are really pretty though." Palmon whispered to me as we strolled through the flower shop together.

Sora had let us in since her parents were busy searching the Digital World for Natsuko Takaishi. It was definitely a good thing they'd done that though since no one else seemed to be even trying—except for Ken. He was certainly in the Digital World searching enough between those missing crests and his missing mother. I just figured someone else would care more. I did even and they weren't my parents. Mind, if it _was_ my dad I'd probably care about the same amount they do now... perhaps they too had been arguing with their parents often?

Probably not though, Takeru was so happy about the whole arrangement of his parents being together, Ken and his mother had been on perfect terms since the day he stopped working so hard to destroy every digimon and their brother. Mimi's dad called her and told her that her own mother was missing, but that he'd found a note saying she had come to Japan. I guess it was a different story in her case—having your mother being in a five star hotel wasn't nearly as ominous as her strolling through the Digital World.

I was pretty sure that there were others in the Digital World too though. Why were they all being taken?

Never mind that.

I had more important issues to account for, the others could account for their own parents.

I had to pick out the perfect floral arrangement.

"They're not her favourite though." I said, finally responding to Palmon. "She likes lilies. I need to find them..." Palmon closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pointing down the next aisle.

"They're over there." She said, grabbing my hand and taking off at a run, dragging me toward where she'd apparently smelled the lilies. Palmon had agreed to help me out. It was important and no one else wanted to help me. Iori was too busy pretending he wasn't dating Natsuni, Sora was scribbling down designs that were to be due soon, sitting outside the greenhouse, waiting for us to finish, Mimi was working, Taichi was doing nothing, but lied and said he'd had a really important something-or-other, and Gomamon was watching Pukumon—not that I'd asked him, but I didn't think he'd want to help out with flowers anyway.

But really, Palmon was the right choice anyway. Who knew flowers like her? No one. Well, maybe other plant digimon—or Sora's mom. But still.

This was a pretty awful experience for me though since I was actually allergic to pollen. I was sneezing over and over again. Finally though, I found a pot of planted lilies, and Palmon and I readied a bouquet of different colours.

And then we were locking the greenhouse door.

"How much for them?" I asked Sora.

"Huh?" She asked, looking up to me from her place on the ground, "No free—that's fine. My mom won't mind. Or even notice." I reached down and pulled her to her feet and handed her the keys.

"Thanks Sora." I said with a smile.

"Well I have no choice Jou," She said with a sudden grin, "Remember at soccer camp when Taichi was trying to teach Koushiro to play?" I felt the blood rush to my face, I knew where this was going. "I promised to help you out when it came time." I bit my lip but she just laughed, "Don't be embarrassed! I'm so happy to be here to help! At the time I thought we'd drift apart after the summer was over, but we never really lost contact did we?"

"No... no we didn't." I said with a smile. Suddenly she hugged me and then looked to Palmon and motioned for her to go with her. "We'll be at the restaurant. Tell me how it goes." Sora winked and then, with Palmon's hand linked with hers, walked off toward her own car.

My mind was whirring and buzzing as I headed toward my car. My heart was pounding so much that I was pretty sure it was going to pop. And although I wasn't allergic to my heart exploding—I knew through enough years of medical training that it wasn't a very desired experience.

I was focusing so much on what I would say, and the amount of sweat my body was producing that I didn't even notice the trip to the coffee shop where I knew she'd be.

I was panicking now as I pulled the door open, clutching the bouquet of lilies in the other hand.

The cafe was packed with people, but it took me only a minute to spot them. Momoe always sat closest to the bathroom so, if she didn't like what she was eating she could go spit it out. Which happened a lot to be honest. And it was a weird trait, but an adorable one nonetheless.

Jun was the first to spot me, smiling at me and waving. As I came closer to her, her smile fell as I took in who all was there. Otamamon was sitting on the table, pretending to be a toy as Jun fed him berries. Momoe and Emiko were sitting across from her.

"Jou?" Momoe said, taken aback. "I thought you were working."

"You okay bro?" Jun asked, worried. I nodded feebly and turned to Momoe, biting my lip again. "Should I give you some space?"

"You might want to stay actually." I told her. And then I wasn't paying attention anymore. I was pretty sure the coffee shop silenced the second I got down on one knee, but it was hard to tell over the obvious screaming Jun was doing. But none of that mattered. I was staring into Momoe's eyes.

"Yes!" She said quickly.

"I'm not done," I said as a tugging of my arm made me look toward Emiko.

"Mommy says 'don't play on the floor; it is dirty'." I laughed as she tried to do her best Momoe impression but Momoe just scooped her into her arms.

"I prepared a speech." I told her.

"Oh okay," Momoe said, unable to stop smiling.

"Kay... right. Well I lied." I said with a chuckle, "I tried to prepare one, but I kept failing so I'm just going to go for it." Before I'd not been paying attention, but now the exact opposite seemed to have happened. The silence in the crowd was eerie and I could feel each of their eyes boring into the back of my head as Jun hummed excitedly, and annoyingly. The air smelled like a mixture between a pumpkin stew and stew which was weird because it was a coffee shop. I could see a small spider on the wall ten feet away, and looking very closely at the table I could tell it was made of oak. Everything seemed to be pushing at me making it all very hard to speak, my hands getting even more sweaty, my throat jammed and it became very hard to swallow...

And then I looked back to Momoe's eyes and words practically poured out of my mouth. "I know I should have done this so long ago. And I know I've made mistakes—but I guess we know there's blame to share. And—anyway, I couldn't place why we weren't married yet, and I realized it was all because of me. I was putting up some wall. And with a little help from Iori and a slap from your best friend I found out what that wall was. I wasn't ready to marry you because I was being a child—immature. I couldn't do it because I didn't want to give my father the satisfaction of getting what he wanted. But this has nothing to do with him. I'm doing this for you, and I'm doing this for me. Because I love you." My hand shot out nervously as I shoved the flowers into her hands and fumbled around in my pocket, and pulling out the small black box.

I popped it open, and sitting in the scarlet silk lining was the most expensive ring I could afford. It wasn't the best ring ever—but I was going to go without internet for a couple months to pay for it.

Momoe shoved Jun's nosey head out of the way as I pulled the ring out.

"Now—" I started.

"Yes!" Momoe clapped her hands together as the coffee shop began to clap.

"No!" I snapped at them, waving them off. "I haven't asked yet! Everything has to go perfectly."

"It is going perfectly Jou, because we're going to be together forever." Momoe smiled.

I smiled back, but my OCD was still kicking in so I quickly added, "Will you marry me?" She laughed and nodded. The applause returned and I tried to slip the ring onto her finger as she leaned down and kissed me, but then I couldn't see what I was doing, and the ring fell.

My face, if possible grew even more red as I picked it back up and put it quickly on her finger.

"I love you." She giggled, her face also red, setting my mind at ease a bit.

"Me too." I nodded, "I mean you though. I love you too." She laughed loudly again.

Emiko grabbed at the ring and looked to me as if expecting one as well, and I couldn't help but smile. I stood up and took a deep breath. "Well that wasn't so bad," I looked to where Jun had been sitting, but there was just an empty seat. "Where the heck did she go?"

"I imagine she left to go tell Shuu they can get married now." Momoe said and we all laughed, even Emiko who didn't know what was going on, and Otamamon who Jun must have forgotten.

Suddenly Jun was back though, reaching across the table and pulling Otamamon into her arms before running off without a word.

"What's happening?" Emiko asked as she reached for Otamamon's leftover berries.

"Mommy and Daddy are getting married." Momoe said, and I couldn't help but smile.

_**Mimi:**_

I couldn't help but be proud of myself as I surveyed the dining area of my very own restaurant. I'd been really worried for a long time that things wouldn't work out, and that my mother was right, I couldn't handle it. And then I would have been miserable, not only because I'd be a failed chef and entrepreneur, but because Sora would be successful and I wouldn't. It wouldn't have been fair. So I was really glad I did it before she got the chance to have her own spring line or something equally as exciting.

I was seated at one of the booths by the west wall, stirring my tea and just being generally proud of myself, while Gomamon rambled on and on about how Jou had been ignoring him. I was happy about that too—not that Jou was ignoring him, but that Gomamon thought to come to _me_. Over all, it was shaping up to be a great day.

"He just wants me to watch Pukumon. I don't like watching Pukumon. And he's stronger than me anyway. He's got _two_ crests, and without Jou, I can't even digivolve once," Gomamon continued. "But Jou doesn't care. I think he wants Pukumon to see me and kill me. Do you think so?"

"No," I said quickly. "He couldn't want that. He cares about you, deeply. He's just busy is all."

"Yeah," Gomamon said sulkily. "Busy being a dad and a doctor and a veterinarian and saving all the digimon without my help at all. He doesn't need me anymore, does he?"

"I'm sure he does," I said sympathetically, ignoring the wide eyes of my customers. They'd been staring at me for ages. I mean, come on! Have they never seen a beautiful girl having a conversation with a seal digimon before? Honestly.

"He doesn't spend a lot of time goofing off," I said. It would have been a great argument too, if Jou hadn't come walking through the door right then, laughing and joking with Palmon. With _my_ digimon. Did she like him more than me? I shook my head. Jou wasn't like Sora. He wouldn't try and steel Palmon from me. Would he?

"Palmon," I said loudly. "So nice to see you here…with _Jou_…"

"Mimi!" Palmon said happily. "You should have been there. I helped him pick out flowers, and he has no colour sense at all. He tried to mix an orange flower with a pink one and a blue one. It just wouldn't have looked right. And then the foliage. He didn't think he needed any greenery."

"He didn't?" Momoe asked, having come in with Emiko right being Jou and Palmon.

"No," Palmon gasped dramatically.

I couldn't help but feel like Gomamon and I were intruding on a family dinner. One that we apparently weren't included in.

"You couldn't have asked me, Jou?" I asked letting hurt colour my voice.

"You were working," Jou said, tugging on his collar. "Yet you have time to spend time with Gomamon?"

He didn't like that Gomamon chose me over him! It was so very exciting. Or it would have been, had my own digimon not decided she liked Jou more than me.

"She _always_ has time for me Jou," Gomamon declared. I was so very proud of him. He wasn't letting his hurt feelings show. He wanted to make Jou jealous, just as Jou had made him jealous of everything else.

"You're supposed to be watching Pukumon," he said confused.

"That's not all I'm good for Jou," Gomamon complained. "I can help with flowers."

"And he's really great when it comes to deciding what should be on my menu," I added. "He's irreplaceable."

"I know," Jou said. "He's _my_ digimon. I know things like this."

"And Palmon is mine," I said angrily.

"You could have come to me if you had problems," Jou said, turning to Gomamon and ignoring me. Now I knew how Gomamon felt. And I didn't like it. Jou should be paying attention to me too.

"I did, lots of times," Gomamon whined. "But you always ignore me!"

"Shush," Jou told him. "You're being too loud. People are staring."

"He can be as loud as he wants Jou," I told him pointedly. "It's my restaurant and I give him permission."

"Hello," Sora said. Popping up out of nowhere and ruining my day like she always did, though she wasn't with Koushiro this time, so there was a small silver lining.

"Hey Sora," Jou said, ignoring his digimon who'd been trying to quietly convey his issues to his partner. "How have you been?"

He hadn't asked me that…

"I'm great really," Sora said with a bright smile. "I mean, my boss doesn't like me all that much, but she did point me in the right direction. She suggested I try applying for a really promising school. It's about design and production, with some courses on the business side of things. I just finished my application earlier today. I'm really excited about it. Of course there _is_ a downfall. It's pretty far away. I'll still be able to help in the Digital World, naturally, but I don't know about the commute…"

To be honest, I stopped paying attention to her. With her it was always "Me, me, me." And she always had some story that kept everyone interested. Why couldn't _I _have those stories? Maybe then everyone would pay more attention to me…

"That's great Sora!" Momoe congratulated her. She'd never congratulated me.

It was getting really hard to hold on to my good mood.

"What're you doing here?" Jou asked. I wanted to know that too. "Do you want to join us?"

"Thanks," Sora said. "I've been waiting by the hostess's podium for almost an hour now."

Jou made a big show about looking around the restaurant.

"There's next to nobody here," he commented.

"I know, right?" Sora said with a laugh. "But every time I try to catch the hostess's eye, she remembers something else that she's forgotten to do. And no one else will talk to me."

"That's because they've been warned that we don't serve soulless life forms that like to steal boyfriends in this restaurant," I murmured.

Unfortunately there'd been a lull in conversation throughout the restaurant and everybody heard me.

Sora's breath caught in her throat, and she wiped non-existent dirt from her lap. "Oh," she said. "Well then. I guess I'd better get going. Wouldn't want to break the rules of your restaurant, would I?" She let out a shaky laugh, and stood up, heading towards the door quickly. Momoe grabbed Emiko and raced after her. Probably to find out if she was okay. She probably was, she was _Sora_. Why didn't they care if _I_ was okay? She'd pretty much stolen my boyfriend. Why couldn't anyone realize that?

"Mimi," Jou scolded, like I was his three year old daughter and not his best friend. "You can't do stuff like that. It's not who you really are."

"How would you know?" I asked him. "No one cares about me anymore. They all care about Sora way more than they should."

"You are pushing people away," he tried to reason with me. "They aren't choosing Sora over you. You're making them go to Sora, because you're letting all your anger and frustrations out on her. You're not very pleasant to be around Mimi. You're complaining all the time, and you're so painfully jealous of Sora. It doesn't make sense."

"Everyone is ignoring me," I told him. Why couldn't he understand? "Koushiro hardly spends any time with me. He's always with _her_. And then, when he is at home and I happen to be there too, he's too busy with his computer, trying to figure out how to fix the Digital World. When did I become so unimportant?"

"You're jealous of the Digital World now?" Jou asked confused. "Mimi, there's a reason that jealously is called the "Ugly" green monster."

"God, you think Sora's prettier than me too, don't you!" I whined, slamming my head on the table. It could've left a bruise, but I didn't care. I was ugly anyway. Maybe it would add character.

"Mimi," Jou snapped. "Sora's your friend, and you have to start acting like it. She's taken all of your complaining and blatantly disgusting attacks without retaliation, because she cares about you. She's probably worried about you."

"I know," I said sardonically. "She's a freaking martyr and I'm an ugly harpy. Everyone says so. They all think she's nicer and prettier than me."

And I hated her for it.

"Mimi, friends don't treat each other like this!" Jou chastised.

"You're right Jou. I can't handle this right now. There're just too many problems in my life right now, and friends _don't_ do things like this to one another. It might get worked out if I try harder, but it might not… It's Koushiro's choice. If he keeps being her best friend, and letting her steal him from me, then I can't be her friend anymore. It's not my fault," I told him excitedly. He'd shown me the light. I didn't have to be around Sora at all. It was brilliant.

"Mimi!" Palmon gasped. I'd forgotten she was there really, what with the way she wasn't jumping in to defend me. Gomamon was still there too, he was looking between Jou and I with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"You know what? I'm done," Jou said, wandering over to a table, and pulling out his phone. He might've been texting Momoe, but he was probably telling Sora how much better she was than me, and that he was always going to be on her side. I scowled. Who needed a best friend anyway? Not me.

"I don't think I can be around you when you're like this Mimi," Palmon said quietly.

"Me either," Gomamon muttered.

"Wait," I told him. "You were telling me all of your problems. Don't you want me to help you anymore?"

"You've got a boatload of your own problems," Gomamon said. "You don't need mine added to it."

"You hate me now too?" I whined.

"Grow up, Mimi," Palmon told me harshly. I winced, but refused to cry. She was mad at me. She must've liked Sora better than me all along. She was _my_ digimon partner! How dare she choose that horrible excuse for a female over me?

Didn't they realize that they were just adding fuel to the flame? I forced a smile on my face. I had more reasons to add to my anti-Sora list. Matt was going to be so mad that he didn't think of them himself!

"Sora gets everything I always wanted," I grumbled to myself. "It's not fair. She gets Koushiro, who's supposed to love me. But he doesn't. Sora keeps tempting him away from me. And now she has Jou, my _ex-_best friend. Who needs him anyway? And Palmon, well, she was an ugly plant to start with so it's not _that_ big of a loss… And she dresses better, and she's got better hair, and she's taller, and thinner, and can pull off anything, and she makes her own clothing…It's just not fair!"

"Is this a bad time?" a male voice asked me. I looked up, hoping to find an extremely attractive young man who wanted to flirt with me or something, and who would hate Sora too. I wouldn't have let him get away with anything though. I was still Koushiro's girlfriend. But it would've felt nice to have someone think I was pretty.

He wasn't that bad looking, attractive in a strange way. He looked like a sailor though. Someone that liked to go out to see for fun. He was older than me too, but not excessively so. So far so good…

"No," I said, giving him my best smile. "It's great actually."

"Thanks Mimi," he said. Did I know him? Where did I know him from? Shouldn't I be able to remember a face like his?

"I'm sorry," I said sheepishly. "I can't quite remember who you are."

"That's okay," he said with a laugh. "We've never met. Don't feel bad. I uh, just brought something that you're going to need. Here."

He pulled a large, flat square out of his pocket and handed it to me. It looked kind of like a coaster, but a geeky version of one maybe?

"Er, thanks," I said. Did I look like a geek in need of a coaster? Why didn't he want to flirt with me? He probably would've flirted with Sora. He walked away before I could ask him. Even a complete stranger liked Sora better than me! I groaned in frustration and set my teacup on my new coaster. It wasn't very level though. I noticed Jou stand up and head over to me.

"Mimi," he said with a sigh. "We're gonna go. Momoe doesn't want to come back tonight."

Damn. I thought he was planning on apologizing.

"That's fine," I said stonily. "I don't care."

"Sweetie," he said, looking at me confused. "That's not a coaster. That's a floppy disk."

"A what now?" I asked, momentarily forgetting to be angry with him.

"It's for computers," he said. "Where did you get it?"

"Some guy told me I needed it," I said. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Do you need anything else?"

"No," he said after some thought. "I have some news, but I think I'll wait until you're a little less crazy to tell you about it."

"I don't care," I said forcing my voice to stay strong, but inside I was desperate to know what it was. "I was just leaving anyway. It's a slow night, so I'm not really needed her."

He shook his head, and headed back to the table where our two digimon were seated, before leading them out of the restaurant.

I told Hideto that he was in charge of the kitchen and walked home. I would've asked for a cab, but I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody. When I got back to the house, all the lights were off.

Good, I thought. That meant I was alone. I didn't want to see Sora.

I headed right for the living room, ready to turn on some mindless reality shows to take my mind off of my own life. But I noticed just how cluttered the desk was. We had a rule about that, since all three of us used that desk. We were supposed to clean it off when we finished. I threw the stupid floppy disk into my drawer, and looked at all of the papers, my eyes coming to rest on a large, sealed envelope.

Sora's application.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I broke the seal without thinking. Inside was the application sheet and several dress designs. They were good. Too good. I could never do anything that good. I growled, and pulled out some of her special paper, and made some terrible attempts at designing similar dresses. Mine were a complete mess.

Angrily, I pulled out another envelope and sealed Sora's application in it with my sketches, and then buried hers at the very bottom of my drawer where she'd never find them. And then I put the sealed envelope exactly where I'd found the other one.

I grinned to myself. Sora wouldn't get _everything_ after all. And the best part was that Sora wouldn't even know the difference.

_**Willis:**_

"Now don't get me wrong," Mom was saying as I got back from the washroom. "You're very pretty, I just think you're not exactly rich, you know? I think Willis deserves someone rich."

"Mom!" I growled as Hikari gaped at my mother who was attempting to cook some form of soup.

"And besides," She said as if I hadn't said anything, "You're too accepting of those digimon creatures. I'm not very keen on them myself. I was really hoping for someone a little more... logical for my son."

"Mom," I said, louder this time. She turned to me, her eyebrows raised. She was wearing a chef hat that had fallen over on her head, and an apron that read 'best mom ever' which was just wrong. Her hair was pulled back into a bun as she cooked. I turned to Hikari after glaring at her. "Come on," I said, "I knew this was a mistake."

"What was a mistake?" Mom asked, but we both ignored her.

"No," Hikari said, "I promised Lopmon I'd do everything I could Willis—so did you. And besides this is important to you. I want to see you be happy again." I smiled at her and moved to sit beside her at the island in the kitchen.

Michael's father was out currently doing whatever famous people did. I didn't really pay too much attention to his life—not because I didn't like him, but because that would involve me paying attention to my mother, and it was just so hard to do that without getting ticked off. I thought about inviting mom over to my house, but Jenna, Tatum and Michael decided they'd rather she just... didn't come, and Terriermon and Lopmon had threatened to actually run away. So I was at her house, and I couldn't do anything too rash or she'd kick me out.

"What's so important?" She asked.

That was a good question really. I mean, I knew what it was, but was it really as important to me as I thought it was? Why had it taken me so long to come to her? I wished so badly that I could say I had been trying to figure it out, but since I'd not even come to the most obvious place yet, I clearly wasn't trying too hard. But it _was_ important to me, I wanted to know so bad, I guess I was just too scared to find out the truth...

Hikari pulled out a binder from the backpack at her feet, and spread it out on the countertop. She flipped through the protective sheets covering many different photographs of her youth. I noticed she lingered on every page where one of the digimon was featured, glancing up at my Mom with a little grin on her face and I had to bite my bottom lip to avoid laughing out loud.

I saw that the majority of the pictures were of herself, Taichi, Gatomon, Takeru and Miyako, but that Daisuke enjoyed photo-bombing. Probably my favourite one was of Iori being held down by Takeru and Daisuke as he screamed, wanting to badly to not have his picture taken. I couldn't really explain why it was my favourite but it captured Iori so well I thought.

And then finally on the very last page—which made me think that she could have just opened it from the other way—was the picture we'd found in the attic of my house. I looked up to Mom and her eyes widened as she spun around quickly.

"Mom." I said as firmly as I could. "You told me that I had a sister. But you told me it was a miscarriage."

"I don't remember saying anything of the sort." She lied.

"Okay, whatever." I said, "Just tell me who this is." I said quietly. "On the back it says _'Keith and my precious twins' _'Keith' was dad's name... right? That's what you said wasn't it?"

"Your father's name was Keith, yes," Mom said as the soup ladle slipped from her shaky hands. She grabbed it again and held it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"And one of these is me." I said, "I'm hoping it's the cuter one."

"You're identical." Mom said quietly.

I smiled, "I know. I was kidding." She turned around after turning the heat down on the soup and then pulled a chair out and sat down. "Willis... when you were born, you were born with a twin." She said as if it were some shocking revelation.

"Yep, got that much." I said, pointing to the picture, "I need you to tell me the rest of the story."

"Wait right here." Mom said, "I'll be right back." She pushed back, the chair scraping against the stone floor as she hurried off to find something.

I looked to Hikari who smiled nervously but I ignored that and looked into her worried eyes.

"You still scared about Agumon?" I asked her. She nodded. "He'll be okay. More than that—he _is_ okay. Didn't he digivolve to Koromon the other day?" She nodded again.

"Just... what Koushiro said." She said quietly, "I'm just worried he'll be weird. What if he digivolves into Skullgreymon or something." I thought back briefly to the moment I knew Hikari would be thinking about.

_Koushiro walked from his bedroom to where we were all recuperating from the battle with Arkadimon, in Mimi's living room. Lopmon and Terriermon were weakly arguing with one another over what channel to watch on the television and Hikari was wrapped in my arms._

"_I scanned the two eggs." He said, handing each egg to its respective owner. "Patamon's egg is pretty good. Healthy—normal actually. He should hatch with all memories of his past life. He's just sleeping really."_

"_And Agumon?" Taichi asked as if daring Koushiro to speak bad news._

"_Well he is also sleeping." Koushiro said, "He'll... he _should_ have the memories of his past life. But... there's something weird with the scan. I don't know what. I don't know why. I have never seen anything like it. But other than that his data is the same as Patamon's."_

"_Well what is it?" Taichi asked, "What's the weird thing?"_

"_It's almost like a—" He stopped himself. "Honestly Taichi, I don't know. But he seems really healthy."_

"I think Koushiro did something wrong with the scan or whatever." I told her, putting my arm around her. "I'm sure he'll be fine. And even if he does turn into Skullgreymon we'll be able to get him back." She stared at me for a moment and then smiled, resting her head on my shoulder.

And then my Mom came back into the room holding a long, thin box. She sat down on the chair and scooted it closer to the countertop, scraping it against the floor again. "All right." She said with a nod. "I think it's time I told you this story."

"That would be lovely, yes." I said with a nod.

And so she did. She was young when she had us both, but I knew that. She had to quit her job during the pregnancy, and she and Dad were really happy together, and then they named us together, and then the two of them needed to get a divorce, though she didn't say why, it was her own personal issues that I didn't ever want to inquire upon. And so each of them got one of us, and she had to get a job as a waitress, and we had to move to a smaller apartment. 'Apartment fourteen' is what I'd dubbed it over the years. That was the number on the door—it was also where I'd met Terriermon and Lopmon. I remembered the rest of the story so she began to speak in much less detail about how I was certified as a genius and got lots of money. She started listing all of her boyfriends but I stopped her because I really didn't care. And she finished by telling me that Dad had stopped contacting her one day, and she hadn't seen them since.

When she finished the story I realized that Hikari was squeezing my shoulder tight.

"And what's that?" I said, my voice choked up a little bit from the jumble of emotions, pointing to the box she'd gone to get.

"This," She said, sliding it across the table. "This is what your father left you when we split. I left your sister a necklace I'd gotten from my mother that had been passed down through generations, and... he left you that. I don't know what it's for, but you like some weird things, so I think you'll like it." She tried to smile as I slid the top off of the black box.

Inside was a rusted key. It looked like it had once been a very fancy, intricate piece of work, but now was coated in crumbling rust. It was a very large key though, and judging by the sudden jerk of Hikari's grip on my shoulder she was relating it to the same thing I was.

Three years ago we'd found five keys. Kurayami and Hikari had the two that led to and from the Dark Ocean, Iori had one that led to the Land of the Dreams, and Koushiro and Sora had the pair to the Digital World and then back to Earth. Five keys to four different worlds, and yet we'd been told that there were nine worlds. Nine worlds meant five more keys. Could this have been one of them?

Hikari and I exchanged nervous looks and then turned back to my mother.

"You know what it is, don't you?" She asked. I nodded. "I thought you might. You were always your father's son." She said with a sigh.

"Thank you Mom." I said, putting the lid back on the box and handing it to Hikari to put in my backpack.

As she was gathering up our things I looked to my Mom and bit my lip, trying to find the way to say what I wanted to know the answer to.

"What is it sweetheart?" Mom asked, and for a moment I was reminded of the independent woman who had raised the small infant, but I knew she was gone...

"Mom, what's her name?" I asked, "What's my sister's name?"

She smiled at me kindly and said simply, "Alice."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. I liked that name. It was pretty. And maybe it would help me find her.

"Thank you." I said again and she smiled, hugged me and then sent me off. Walking to the car I thought maybe, if she could just accept the digimon then she'd actually be an okay human being. She'd be back to the woman she used to be. Well a little bigger—but she was on a strict diet, so maybe that would change too—not that I really cared too much about that.

I clicked the seatbelt and started the car before Hikari said anything.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Absolutely." I said with a quick nod, pulling out of the driveway and setting off down the road to my own home. "Better than okay. I can't wait to tell Lopmon what we know."

Hikari smiled. "She'll be so pleased." Then, "What are you going to do with the key?"

"Well I'm going to use it of course." I said, but as I said it I knew I was lying. There was a part of me that was scared of it. I didn't know why, but for some reason I didn't want to risk using it only to find out my Dad had forgotten about me. And what if it had nothing to do with him—maybe he just knew I'd need it one day.

Whatever the case, I was sure the key would come in handy whenever I was ready to use it.

_**Hideto:**_

I had to set the table again. It wasn't _that_ big of a deal, but the fact that I'd been setting tables all day at work, and it wasn't my turn—and hadn't been for six days now—was really irking me something terrible. It could've been worse though. I could've had to cook.

"This is stupid," I decided, looking to Mari who was tossing fresh herbs into her almost finished pasta dish.

"I'm not cooking _and_ setting the table, if that's what you're getting at," she told me.

"No," I said. "Where the hell is Sigma? It's his turn."

"How should I know," she said, throwing her hand into the air in exasperation. "I work too, you know. I spend a lot of time at the library, and with Miyako. It's not my job to know where he is. I'm not his keeper."

"But we're his friends," I protested.

"_You_ are his friend," she clarified. "I'm the girl he'd like to see roasting on a spit."

"He shouldn't be on his own," I insisted. He'd been gone far too long for my tastes. He'd disappeared in the past, usually when he was working in the Digital World for Neo, but he always turned up for a home cooked meal and a soft bed to sleep in. The longest he'd been away before was three days. "He's just so—"

"Unstable," Mari suggested.

"I was going to say small," I said, furrowing my brows.

"He's taller than I am," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're a freaking giant. He's eighteen, isn't he? And it's not like he pays rent. He might've just decided to leave. You never know."

"I should know," I said. "It's dangerous for him to be wandering around alone."

"For himself or for others," she wanted to know.

"Both, I guess," I sighed.

"Well, I'm glad he's gone," she said. "I can finally walk around our apartment without tiptoeing, afraid I'm going to set him off or something."

"You're just sore that he figured his crest out before you could," I told her. And I knew it was true, because I felt the same way. Pride. What a stupid crest. I had to try and figure out a meaning for that, without it being really negative. It wasn't that easy. Mari was having trouble with hers too. Tenacity, while easier to figure out than pride, wasn't exactly a walk in the park either.

"Sigma had it easy," she insisted. "I haven't even tried to learn it yet. I'm just so busy."

"I've tried, and I still haven't gotten anywhere," I admitted. "Do you think that he's off practicing?"

"Probably," she said. "Well he might be off somewhere terrorizing the village folk, and plotting our demise."

"Hey, now. We all turned over a new leaf, didn't we?" I joked.

"He only said he'd _try_. That's not a guarantee," she pointed out. "Have you ever thought about what we're going to do now?"

"Hopefully eat?" I suggested.

"I meant with our futures," she said, rolling her eyes. She dumped the pasta onto a serving dish and brought it over to the table. "We don't work for Neo anymore. Technically, you don't need to work at the restaurant, and I don't need to be at the library. Neo expected that of us. We can do whatever we want to now."

"Are you trying to tell me that you want to move out?" I guessed.

"No," she said quickly. "I guess I'm used to sharing an apartment with two boys that are practically strangers…but I feel like we could be doing more."

"I don't know," I said. "I've never really thought about it. I don't really want to be anything in particular. And with the digidestined claiming that we're their friends now, I feel like there's too much pressure to be something worthwhile. They've got a doctor-veterinarian, a chef, a fashion designer, a rock star, a freaking ambassador, a researcher, an actor, a future cop and a lawyer in training. What if what I want to do doesn't live up to all of that?"

"They've also got a noodle-cart owner," she added with a little smile. "And Hikari just wants to be a teacher. And Takeru wants to be an author, but he's not really doing anything right now. You don't have to live up to them anyway. Just yourself. I was thinking I might go back to school or something go through for business and maybe get an office job, like a secretary or something. Nothing too fancy, but something _more_, you know?"

"Maybe," I agreed. But I couldn't see myself doing that. And I couldn't fathom leaving Sigma all alone. Mari was right about him. He _was_ a danger to himself. He couldn't take care of himself, and he wasn't good with people. Without Mari and me, he'd be alone.

Where was he? And when was he going to come home?

_**Taichi:**_

God these muffins were delicious. I'd eaten so many of them in the last half hour. It was all I could do. Tinkermon was gossiping to Babamon—who wasn't even listening—about something or other that I didn't deem important. MetalifeKuwagamon was sitting in absolute silence. He was either meditating, or hardening his shell into a cocoon. Neither option was particularly interesting to watch. Poor Divermon was seated between Leomon and Ogremon, who were having a very intense 'discussion' about who the better digimon was. Andromon and Centarumon were talking about stuff that I didn't understand. I was sure Koushiro would, had he been there. He didn't even call me to tell me he'd be absent. It wasn't like him. But then, I was sure he was doing some sort of vital research that would help more than the council would in the long run, so it was fine. More muffins for me then.

I needed to get Sora to make me more of these things. They were absolutely perfect… well… they were a tad on the small side really. Maybe I could get her to make me a bigger batch? Yeah, double the size maybe.

I'd have to be really convincing though. She had only made them because she was trying to bribe me into letting her in on the council meetings. She'd only made two dozen muffins. That wasn't enough of an incentive to contemplate adding her, but she didn't have to know that. Besides, Marrow would never let another human join our ranks. Two was two too many.

Not that he was present to keep me from adding her. He was late. Erif managed to make it on time, but his boss couldn't. I didn't understand that. Erif looked like he'd lose his head if it wasn't attached. He wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean. He was sitting there, with his eyes flitting between each and every digimon that was present. His eyes landed on Agumon the most. It was as if he knew Agumon had been killed not even two weeks ago. It had been a pain to excuse his absence to Marrow. I couldn't let him know Agumon had been killed while taking care of the Alias III. I wasn't supposed to do anything about them. The council declared it an improper use of my time or some such stupidity.

I grabbed another muffin and ate almost half of it in one bite.

I was getting impatient. If Marrow didn't show up soon, I was going to cancel the meeting.

"I'm glad you could all make it," Marrow said. Of course, he took that moment to actually arrive. I was actually quite disappointed that he came. I was looking forward to spending more time with Rei. She spent so much of her time with her brother, and I was always working. We were trying to figure ourselves out, so that we'd make a stable couple. And I really wanted to bring her home to meet my parents…

"Everyone is here?" Marrow asked, clearly not noticing—or not caring about—Koushiro's absence. "Good. I've brought our newest member. Babamon, Centarumon and myself felt that D'Arcmon was a perfect addition to our numbers."

"Darkmon?" I asked warily. Did he really think bringing another dark digimon was a good idea. He'd chosen Devimon after all.

"No, you half-wit, D'Arcmon," Marrow said with a smirk. "Come on in."

She kind of reminded me of Salamon. She was an angel, and a dog. I couldn't help but think that maybe, had Gatomon had a better life before meeting Hikari, Salamon would have digivolved into a D'Arcmon. I supposed, with such similarities to my sister's digimon, this D'Arcmon character couldn't be too bad. And hadn't Jou mentioned something about a D'Arcmon at some point… I wished Koushiro were here. He would have known the answer no problem. I finished off my muffin and grabbed for another one. One of only two left.

The rest of the council seemed to welcome her warmly. Not that they had the greatest judgement anyway, I mean they let Marrow get away with so much crap.

"Yes, yes," Marrow said loudly. The council stopped their excited chatter. "I have another guest or two waiting just outside. I have to wonder, of course how they managed to get here. I wasn't aware that the Digital World was a popular vacation spot."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He went over to the door, and pulled a young woman in by the arm. A Kamemon—who looked distinctly familiar—followed after her.

"I was under the impression that you were to give us a detailed list of all those from Earth that had digimon partners," Marrow told me, challenging me with his smile.

"Yes, well, as you are no doubt aware," I told him, while munching on my muffin.

"Taichi," the girl scolded. I swallowed before continuing. Girls could be so touchy.

"There are billions of people on Earth. There is simply no way for one person, or small group, to keep track of every single one of them.

"Yet you know this one?" Marrow said with a victorious smile.

"I don't recognize her," I said, giving her a look. There was something really familiar about her though. Her eyes. I'd looked into those eyes before, and she kind of reminded me of Hikari… No. She looked more like my…

"Mom?" I asked hesitantly.

"Of course it's me. What did you think? You haven't visited in awhile, but it hasn't been _that_ long Taichi," she scolded. "You don't recognize your own mother?"

"You're so young," I tried.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere young man," she snapped.

"So that's dad's Kamemon," I realized. "Okay. Wow. What're you doing here? No. We don't have time for this. We've got a meeting to finish. Tell me later."

"Good," Marrow said. "Now that we aren't wasting our valuable time." I noticed no one pointed out he'd wasted thirty minutes of that 'valuable time'. I took a bite, rather viciously, out of the remains of my muffin. No one ever complained about him! "We ought to continue. I've heard word that the Alias III has ceased all attacks upon our world. Would you like to comment, oh great and esteemed leader?"

His sarcasm was duly noted.

"Yes, actually, through no involvement of my own, the digidestined identified each of their members and got rid of the threat. It was quite genius really. I was very disappointed that I couldn't participate," I told him with a cheeky grin. He didn't need to know that I was front and centre in the final battle. Not that we'd actually beat Arkadimon, unfortunately. But it was better than nothing. We'd gained three new allies, and Neo was no longer a direct enemy.

"And was Gabumon involved?" he asked, desperate to find fault in us. "Or Koushiro?"

"No, actually," I said quickly, before he could interrogate Gabumon. He wanted to catch one of us disobeying the council's decisions. But only if their votes were in my favour. If Babamon or MetalifeKuwagamon had been involved, he wouldn't have cared, because he could always sway them to his whim. But Gabumon, Agumon or Koushiro, well, they _always_ voted for me.

I looked to Agumon. I was so glad to have him back. He'd been acting like nothing had happened, like he hadn't died. Sometimes though, I wish he wouldn't. I think I'd be able accept it better if he didn't pretend that it didn't happen. I knew it did.

"Taichi?" Agumon questioned softly. He'd caught me staring. He was holding up the last muffin.

"Thanks buddy," I said, taking the muffin. He looked at me strangely, but shrugged it off. I didn't want him to know I'd been worrying about him.

"Is there anything in particular that we, as a council, need to discuss?" I asked. "Perhaps one of you discovered a way for us to restore the Digital World to its former self?"

I noticed D'Arcmon looked like she wanted to say something, but she scanned her eyes over the members of the council, and decided to keep her mouth shut. I sighed. No one else seemed interested in suggesting anything. For a council that was so adamant about keeping the digidestined out of the loop, they sure didn't want to do anything for themselves. And I couldn't do anything about it. Marrow was always stopping everything I tried.

"No? Okay then… Is there anything else anyone wants to talk about?" I asked. When had the meetings started being so repetitive? There was never anything new, no one ever had any suggestions. We were able to deal with everything in a couple of minutes, rather than the hours it took when we first started. But, I guessed that with most of the Digital World missing, the trivial worrying the other members complained about stopped mattering.

"I do have one, concern," Marrow commented.

Of course he did.

"I have here a document; I simply need your signature. It's standard procedure, no need to worry," he said, holding the page so I couldn't see what it was about. Did he really think I was that stupid? I stuffed the final muffin in my mouth, and took the page from his hand. It was a contract, saying that Digitamamon's restaurant was a health violation, and that the council voted to shut it down. I glared at him, and he had the decency to look sheepish. I swallowed.

"The answer is still no," I told him firmly. "Do not bring it up again."

I ripped the page into tiny pieces, to prove my point. He was not going to ruin a digimon's life. Especially with the Digital World the way it was. That restaurant was one of the few places left. A lot of the digimon looked at it as their one tie to the way things used to be. It was a symbol of comfort.

"If there's nothing else?" I asked. Everyone shook their head. I guessed the display of animosity towards Marrow scared them off. "Then meeting adjourned."

I stalked over to my mother, who was waiting in the corner, aware of Agumon and Gabumon following after me. Leomon decided to tag along too. His battle of wits with Ogremon forgotten. I grabbed Mom's arm and dragged her out of the council chamber. Kamemon had to run to keep up.

"How'd you get here Mom?" I asked as soon as the chamber's door was closed.

"I just walked right through the refrigerator," she said with a smile. "Isn't it exciting?"

"Not really," I said. "You have to go home. It's too dangerous to be in the Digital World right now."

"No," she said firmly.

"Mom," I tried to protest, but she held her hand up to stop me.

"I'm still the mother in this relationship, thank you very much. I can, and _will_, decide what to do with my own life. I let you gallivant around this place when you were just a child, Taichi. I was brought here for a reason. I'm sure of it."

"But there's so much that could go wrong Mom, please," I whined. "Just wait until we can get the Digital World back up and running. Then I'll bring you here myself, and you can go nuts. Just please let us figure it out."

"I can help you with that," a soft, feminine voice said from behind me. I turned to see D'Arcmon. She seemed nervous, with her eyes flitting all around. "I know what happened."

"How?" Leomon asked.

"You cannot tell the council," she insisted. "I didn't like the feel of that room. You want what is best for our world, so I shall tell you. But I do not trust everyone that makes up our council. They are meant to represent the Digital World, but they are not doing what is best."

"We're trying," Agumon told her. "But they won't listen to Taichi."

"I know," she said. "There are Knights, no, not _your_ knights. They call themselves the Death Knights. I do not know where they got their orders from, but they have taken the Digital World into their own hands. They demolished the code, and took it, they hid it somewhere. Each of these Death Knights must be defeated."

"I've never even heard of these guys," I said slowly.

"They are good at evading the digidestined. It is not as hard as you think," D'Arcmon told me. "You are strong, and your digimon are capable of great digivolutions. But the Death Knights are smart."

"So instead of sending my friends after them, I should send my knights?" I asked.

"They aren't strong enough Taichi," Agumon insisted.

"Are they training right now?" I wanted to know.

"Yes," he said, already walking down the hall to the doorway that hid the training grounds. He pulled it open, and the array of fighting digimon stopped, mid swing, to look at us. They all scrambled to stand in a line. Agumon had seriously seen _way_ too many war movies. He was acting like a drill sergeant.

"How long do you think it'll take to get them ready for the fight?" I asked Agumon.

"I'm not sure," he said honestly. "They're all at different levels."

"Perhaps," Leomon suggested. "You could add to your numbers? Andromon and Centarumon might be interested."

I nodded, accepting the idea. We'd need more to work with. I looked from Wormmon to Veemon to Agumon and Gabumon, knowing they wouldn't be able to participate. They were partners to digidestined after all. Kotemon was standing tall next to Mr Ishida's Wizardmon. I hadn't even realized he'd started training. And the little dragon fox, Dorumon was bouncing in excitement.

"I'm ready now!" Dorumon exclaimed. "I'm so ready. I can take on anything, even all of the bad guys at one time. I just need a partner. If I had a partner, I'd be so much stronger than I am already."

"You'll get your chance to fight," I started. "You just need to train more."

"I'd love to be your partner," Mom said, speaking at the same time as me.

"Really?" Dorumon asked. Of course he'd ignore me in favour of my mother.

"Of course," she said happily. "I was brought here for a reason, and I'm starting to think that reason was you."

There was a small flash of light in front of her, and then there was a digivice, floating there in front of her face. She smiled and snatched it out of the air, much to my dismay. She was going to think that having a digivice meant she was allowed to stay here, despite the dangers. And I couldn't let that happen.

"Sora's waiting for us, Mom. So we kind of have to go," I said. She might even have more muffins. I really hoped she did. I was still kind of hungry.

"Go ahead sweetie," Mom told me. "I'm going to go with Dorumon to fight those evil knights."

"No you're not," I said. "It's not going to happen. A rookie is still a rookie, Mom, no matter how you look at it. He needs more training. Just, leave it to the professionals, okay?"

She looks so darn disappointed at that. It almost made me want to let her go. Only almost though. It was still way too dangerous for her to go on an evil digimon hunt with her new rookie partner, and my dad's turtle.

"C'mon," I said. "Sora's waiting this way."

Agumon, Gabumon and Leomon decided to stay in the training room, getting a jump start on training Kotemon and Wizardmon. They were really going to need it.

Mom didn't say a word to me the entire time we were walking. It was starting to get annoying.

"Seriously Mom," I said. "Are you giving me the silent treatment? I thought you _just_ said that _I_ was the child in this relationship."

I turned to see if that would get her to talk, but when I did. I realized I was walking alone.

_**Yoshie:**_

It was lonelier than I expected, to work for Digitamamon without Satoe there to make rude comments or stir up a fuss. I missed her more than I should have. But I cleaned diligently, whilst also doing the cooking and the serving. Digitamamon took time to talk with each of the customers, and always made sure that the Roachmon brothers were appeased. They hadn't taken Marrow's insults very well.

And without telling Digitamamon, I gave them a little bit extra with each meal they ordered.

But with the cleaning taken care of and with me running almost everything so Marrow couldn't complain about Digitamamon's feet, we were just waiting for Marrow to come back. It seemed like ages since he'd first shown up. I needed for him to come soon. The restaurant was important, but Satoe's life was on the line. A digimon had taken her, and it was up to me to ensure she got out alright. And if there was one thing I learned in all of her complaining, it was that she was terrified of digimon. They were the reason she fled from Japan. She didn't want to encounter any of them ever again.

The ticking of the clock on the wall twisted my nerves tighter each second.

How could I tell my son's girlfriend that I'd let her mother be killed because I had to do some dishes? I couldn't. And I couldn't tell my son either, even though he'd made it very clear that he hated the woman. There was a big part of him that secretly wanted to prove to Satoe that he was good enough for Mimi. And he couldn't do that if she was dead.

"Yoshie, Yoshie," Digitamamon said hastily, as he ran into the kitchen from the front counter. "He's here. And he's got a paper."

"Oh no," I said. If he had permission to get rid of the restaurant all of our hard work would have gone to waste. I quickly took the soup of the day off of the burner, and turned off the stove. I didn't want the kitchen to burn down while I was pleading for the restaurant after all. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, and then marched out to meet Marrow with my head held high.

"Ah, and there she is," he sneered. "The one who thinks she can save this dump."

"I'll have you know that this place is far from a dump," I told him. "I should know. I've cleaned every square inch of it."

"If only that were enough," he told me with a vicious laugh. "But I have here the answer to my problems. A document signed by Earth's very own Taichi Yagami declaring that the restaurant is to be shut down no ifs, ands or buts."

When I tried to get a better look at the document, he pulled it away. But I'd seen it long enough to know that was a forgery. Taichi had spent many nights at my home getting Koushiro to help him with assignments, and that elegant signature looked nothing like Taichi's own scrawling mess.

"You can't do this," I told him.

"I think you'll find that I actually can," he said happily. He touched the icy blue orb on his necklace and let out a joyous laugh. "Everything is coming together quite nicely."

"I won't let you get away with this," Digitamamon snarled.

"Be my guest," he said. "I'm sure my companion would love to fight it out with you. He's waiting just outside."

"You're bluffing," Digitamamon accused.

"Now, now," Marrow told him. "I couldn't possibly say such things without being able to back them up. I am quite determined to shut this place down after all. Let's take a step outside."

Digitamamon didn't look like he wanted to comply, but I needed to know. I wasn't a digimon. If there really was some digimon that Marrow hired to help destroy the restaurant, I wouldn't really be able to do anything about it. I would just get in the way.

And Marrow hadn't been playing around. There was a very large, very dangerous looking dragon digimon waiting in the air just above the restaurant. Digitamamon uttered a few very colourful words under his breath. Had I not been terrified by the dragon's presence I might've scolded him.

It was scary big, and had wings like medieval axe heads. His body was long and serpent like, except for his arms which possessed talons. There was a sword clutched in one of his hands, and his tail was tipped with a frightening blade. He was scaled, and his neck held many golden spikes. He wore a sharp mask, and had a purple tuft of hair. Clouds seemed to follow him—I realized he must've been creating them, as the Digital World lacked a sky, or water to create them itself—and he was constantly surrounded by lightning.

He was a golden thunder dragon.

"Oh dear," I whimpered.

"I'm not going to let you destroy my life," Digitamamon declared. "I'll go down with my ship if I must."

"By all means, do," Marrow said, nonchalantly.

"Nightmare Syndrome," Digitamamon shouted, before flinging himself into the air towards the floating dragon.

"Why are you doing this," I pleaded to Marrow. "What purpose does it serve?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he sneered.

"I _would_ actually," I told him.

"Because this is not fit to represent the Digital World," he said. "We need to work to better our world, especially in times such as these."

"But digimon love this place! It's best to keep things the way they were. Digimon want familiarity," I told him.

"The decision has been made," he said firmly.

"The decision is wrong!" I shouted at him.

He took a step toward me, and for a second I thought he was going to hit me. But he stopped himself, and looked up to the sky with a scowl. I turned to see what was upsetting him and saw a man. No. He must've been a digimon. He sort of looked as if he belonged at a circus.

"A Piedmon?" Marrow grumbled. "What is _he_ doing here."

The dragon and Digitamamon both stopped what their fighting to look at the Piedmon. Piedmon drew a sword, and the dragon's eyes widened. Piedmon lunged at the dragon, and the dragon moved back quickly. Apparently, the dragon didn't like being challenged. It treated Digitamamon like a joke, letting him attack as many times as he wanted, without gaining any damage. But this Piedmon was stronger than Digitamamon. I was sure of it.

The nerves proved to be too much for the dragon, and it flew away.

"Damn him," Marrow snarled.

"I think he had the right idea," a voice that was both familiar and new said. I turned to see a blonde boy walking towards us. He was wearing a white, flared jacket and jeans with boots that reached half-way up his calf. There was a mask covering the top half of his face, but he looked dangerous. "Perhaps you too should leave this place."

Marrow looked from the boy to Digitamamon and then to Piedmon and nodded, taking his leave.

"Thank you," I said to the boy.

"It wasn't a problem," he said, smiling at me. The smile was enough for me to place him. "Gansuko?"

"They call me Sigma," he told me, but he nodded.

"Thank you," Digitamamon said brightly. "All of you. You've saved my restaurant."

"For now," Gansuko warned him—I refused to refer to him as Sigma. "Be careful though. He _might_ come back."

"Not for some time," Digitamamon said, sure of himself. He turned to me and nodded. "Go, on. You're friend is in trouble, and you've honoured your part of our deal."

"Where is she?" Gansuko asked. "We'll give you a hand."

"Are you sure?" I questioned.

"We've got nothing better to do," Piedmon assured me.

"Then follow me," I said. "The digimon took her this way."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Strange things are happening in the next chapter, or at least the wheels are being set in motion. Ken has a mysterious meeting with an old foe, and Iori reaches his limit…


	22. Displeasure

**Y/N:** I really had fun writing this chapter, even though Ken is a part of it. I thought I would have to suffer through his part, but I actually enjoyed it. It helped that his part introduced something kind of major for this arc… Well, I also wrote all of the other parts in this chapter…so yeah…I hope you enjoy them! And review if you can!

**U/N:** Ken... Cody, Natsuni... Kae, and Rei. Noooot me-but it's pree good. Anyway, I hope you like it-these next like... five or six chapters were really fun to write, so I hope you like them :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 22: Displeasure**

_**Rei:**_

Taichi was sitting across the table from me. It shouldn't have felt so important. We had gone out for lunch together countless times in the past. But it was different now. Back then it was just as friends. Now we were together. I was nervous. What if we ruined our friendship because we rushed into this? Did relationships formed in the heat of a life-or-death battle typically end in success or failure? I didn't have enough information.

My palms were sweaty, and the server seemed to be taking ages with our beverages. My throat seemed to be closing in on itself, that's how dry it was. I really needed my water. If he actually got the nerve to talk to me, I'd be helpless. I didn't think I could force words out even if I had to.

The only thing that made this better for me was that Taichi was fiddling with a spoon. He was feeling the pressure too.

"Here you are," our waiter said, _finally _setting our glasses down. Thank God. I smiled at him and proceeded to drink at least half of the water he'd provided.

Taichi let out a relieved laugh. "Thirsty?"

"Yes," I said loudly. Then laughed. We were acting like we were in high school, going on a first date that our friends had set us up on. "We know each other already," I said. "This shouldn't be so difficult."

"Thank you," Taichi said with a smile. "I've been freaking out. You were just sitting there. You wouldn't even look at me. I thought I'd done something horribly wrong."

"Other than eating all of the breadsticks they gave us?" I asked wryly. The server had brought us a basket of breadsticks when he'd given us our menus, and they were gone in less than two minutes.

"Sorry," Taichi said sheepishly. "I'm just starving. I'm always so hungry. I don't even know why. I ate before I came even. But it didn't seem to help. I just want to keep eating. All. The. Time."

"Maybe we should have gone to an all you can eat buffet?" I suggested.

"Next time," he promised. The weight that had been pressing down on me seemed to lift. He wanted a second date already. I didn't need to be so scared. He wasn't going to ditch me. It was still different than it used to be, but I was revelling in the difference rather than dreading it.

That was a good step.

"How's your brother?" Taichi asked. "We haven't seen hide or tail of him in ages."

"I think he's still licking his wounds," I said sadly. "But I don't think he has any plans for the Digital World at the moment."

"And he hasn't heard anything from Arkadimon?" he asked. Then he shook his head. "Sorry. This isn't date talk is it?"

"I don't mind," I said immediately. "It's more important at the moment anyway."

"I don't want you to think you're going to be second fiddle to the Digital World," he said seriously.

"Won't I be though?" I said confused. "You guys are expected to drop everything at a moment's notice. I won't be offended. You take care of an entire world. I just ask that you be careful. I don't want you to die on me."

"You aren't second place," he insisted. "You're just as important, probably more, sorry that sounded rude. Definitely more. I just thought maybe you'd like to come to the Digital World too. You know?"

"You want me to take part?" I asked. It didn't seem like much, but it was really big to me.

"Not always," he specified. "The big battles…well, you don't have a digimon, so it would be far too dangerous for you, but sometimes, yeah. Maybe we'll take trips there just for fun. I know you love it there."

"I love walking," I said bluntly. "Not the Digital World. Well, right now anyway. It was nicer the last time, it's just too empty now."

"Then we'll go for walks in the Digital World," he said. "Or we can go to the movies or dinner. I really like dinner. Food really…"

"We'll do both," I said with a laugh. "Dinner and a movie. And isn't there a restaurant in the Digital World?"

"There is, yes. Marrow keeps asking me to let him destroy it, but he's a moron," he said.

"Taichi," I scolded, but it was only half-hearted.

"Yes!" he cheered. "The food's coming."

I laughed. Yes. Taichi was still Taichi, and I loved that about him. This wasn't going to be so scary after all.

_**Ken:**_

I wasn't getting anywhere. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't ever find my mother. I was ticked off about it too. I'd been searching endlessly, and I still hadn't found her. And I didn't even know if she was still alive. My dad kept asking if I'd made any progress, and I hated seeing the way his face fell when I had to tell him that no, I hadn't.

What made it all worse is that no one else seemed even remotely interested in finding them. I'd thought that _maybe_ Takeru or Yamato might take the initiative and help me track them down. But I was proven wrong constantly by their lack of motivation. It wasn't that they weren't interested in saving them, they just kept passing off opportunities, and I didn't understand why.

I pulled out the map and sat down on the ground that wasn't there next to Wormmon. I opened my old school bag and pulled out a clipboard with a map on it. I knew where we were on the map even without any actual landmarks to guide me. I was getting pretty good at the Digital World's geography. I took out a red marker and crossed out the section we'd just been in.

Without having trees or mountains to obscure my sight I'd thought that finding them would be easy, but for some reason they were just nowhere to be found.

"How long are we going to spend looking today, Ken?" Wormmon asked me from my side as I put the map and marker away again.

"I'd like to say until we find them, but I know that might not be possible," I told him.

"It's getting scarier to be out here too," Wormmon said, nodding. "We know Arkadimon could be plotting just about anything."

"That's what's making me look harder," I admitted. "I don't want to lose my mom."

"We won't let that happen," he decided, as if one declaration could make it so. I wished it could.

"You won't have a choice."

I started. That wasn't Wormmon and it sure wasn't me.

"Oh, now. Don't tell me you've forgotten me already, Ken Ichijouji."

I froze. I knew that voice and it didn't bode well for me. I could only hope that Michael would be able to take care of Miyako.

"Daemon."

I knew it would come down to me and Daemon. Just us. Michael couldn't help me, even though he thought he could.

"Good," Daemon purred. "It's so nice to see how deeply I've managed to plant the seeds of fear."

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to force my voice to be steady. I failed.

"I want a number of things," Daemon said. "One of my greatest desires is to see you dead."

"Ken," Wormmon whispered. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to get him to digivolve. But could I really bring myself to do that? Daemon was going to kill me. I knew that. But he didn't have to kill Wormmon too. I might be able to save him.

I shook my head, but Wormmon nudged my leg, insisting. I looked away from him.

"But," Daemon said, continuing. "First I must thank you. You're pitiful attempts at catching and dismissing the Alias III has provided me with exactly what I needed. I am no longer alone in my quest, and as such have expanded my goal. Why kill just one when I can get rid of the whole set?"

Miyako was included in that. I started rethinking my plan of saving Wormmon. Yes, he had a better chance of surviving if he didn't fight, but it wasn't just me anymore. I couldn't go down without a fight. A real one. I'd give this my all.

I pulled my digivice out of my pocket.

"We can't have that," Daemon said. I could hear the smirk in his voice. He appeared at my side, and took my digivice from me his ice cold claws touching my skin briefly. "You must let me pass on my thanks to the Alias III as well. While Neo's army of infected digimon was relatively useless, I've used it to my advantage. I collected the necessary digimon, and fused them into powerful allies. While I left many behind to die, your meddlesome friends managed to save their worthless lives. But it was for not, as I secreted away many of the more powerful digimon for an army of my own."

"What do you need an army for?" I asked. "Do you doubt your own strength? We're just humans."

"That always was your downfall, even as the Kaiser," Daemon told me. "You think too small. You humans will be easy to dispatch. I'm going to enjoy watching you destroy yourselves from the inside out."

"What?" I asked, hesitantly. I couldn't keep my mind from flashing to my wife. Could they be behind Miyako's problems, not Arkadimon?

"It's the perfect plan," Daemon bragged. "We won't need to lift so much as a finger. The digidestined, such helpful young humans, will do it for us."

"Why are you warning me," I asked. "Your plan won't work if we know what's coming."

"Because you won't lift a finger to stop us," he said cryptically. He lifted one of his red, robe clad arms, and signaled with his fingers. His eyes seemed to glow as red as his robe, under his hood. His wings flexed. And then he wasn't alone. There was a black, muscled dog digimon, standing on two feet with red, demonic markings on his chest and curled sheep horns on his head. The dog had a giant set of wings, and what looked like brass knuckles wrapped around his fingers.

The dog took a step towards me. Wormmon tried to get in front of me, to protect me, but I pushed him behind me. But it didn't matter. The dog only let out a long, slow breath at me. It was cool and didn't smell nearly as bad as I thought it would.

"Enough," Daemon commanded. "He won't interfere."

The dog nodded and disappeared once more into the darkness.

"Where did he go?" Wormmon wanted to know.

"It matters not," Daemon said. I didn't really _need_ to know anyway. What I did know was that Daemon could travel between worlds without needing a gateway. Maybe his friends could do the same?

It didn't matter.

"I hope your death is drawn out and painful," Daemon told me. "I can almost taste it. Revenge is near."

"Yeah," Wormmon muttered. "You only took like ten years to prepare it."

Daemon's eyes flashed red once more, as he glared at Wormmon, but he shook his head and disappeared into the nothingness that made up the Digital World.

"Are we going to keep looking for your mother?" Wormmon wanted to know.

"No," I said. We'd been searching for over an hour already. That suddenly seemed like a really long time to spend doing something.

"You're right," Wormmon said. "We should go warn the others."

Ugh. There was always so much that needed to be done.

"Fine," I sighed. "Let's go."

We exited the Digital World, and landed in the office of Miyako and my apartment.

"Ken?" Miyako questioned, as I stepped into the living room. She glanced up at the clock. So she'd realized just how much time I'd spent looking today. It was exhausting just thinking about it. "You're already back?"

"Already? I've been gone for ages," I said.

"Not really, you just left," she said, looking at me strangely. I _could_ have spent time and energy deciphering what that look was supposed to mean, but I decided that didn't matter either. She could be mad or confused if she wanted to. I personally didn't see the draw of putting energy into such things.

"We met Daemon," Wormmon told her. "He told us lots of stuff. I don't know why he did though…"

"He wanted to," I said. I couldn't see why. It was a waste of time to warn people about an evil plan. They'd figure it out when it was happening. There was no need to figure it out for yourself when it was going to happen anyway. You'd figure it out twice that way.

"Why don't you go tell the others? Wormmon can tell me. This might be important," Miyako said, looking at me worriedly.

"Fine," I sighed. So I had to walk down the stairs that I'd _just_ walked up, and then get a cab to Mimi's house, because there was no way I was going to walk all the way there. And _then_ I had to stand outside while I waited for someone to answer the door. I stood there for five minutes. _Five_.

I knocked again. I realized it wasn't very loud, but I didn't have the energy to pound on the door. I didn't even really want to be there. I kind of just wanted to take a nap, or lounge about for once. When was the last time I'd done that? I couldn't even remember, that's how long ago it was.

"The door's open!" Koushiro yelled.

I opened the door and slumped into the house. "Where are you?"

"The living room," Koushiro said. He didn't seem too angry that I was there. That was good. I didn't want to try and scrounge up the energy to hate him at the moment. I walked down the hall and turned into the living room, and saw Koushiro resting on the couch, his feet propped up on the ottoman, and staring mindlessly at the television. He wasn't even holding his laptop.

He really was a genius.

"I've got some sort of important information to tell you," I said.

He didn't even seem to care about why I came. Perfect. I wouldn't have to bother to tell him then. I didn't want to put that much energy into anything at that moment. I sunk into the other side of his couch and looked at the movie. I'd seen it already. Great! I didn't have to try and figure out what was going on. That would've been too much too.

"I'll just tell you later," I said.

"Sounds good," Koushiro said.

_**Iori:**_

Did this movie even have a plot? There were so many characters that I couldn't be sure. I didn't even recognize that one guy, although he kept talking like he'd been there for the entire story so far. God this movie sucked. And if one more person showed up in a random costume I was going to scream. The costumes served no purpose. The movie was set in June. Not October. And the characters weren't in a play or anything that might warrant the costumes.

It wasn't even a comedy. I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a serious drama.

I looked to the clock. Damn. It had only been an hour. Who knew how much longer this torture would last? Natsuni was seated next to me. She was as close as we could dare without unleashing my mother's wrath. Mother was in the kitchen, having decided—once Natsuni arrived of course—that rather than go for a walk like she'd planned, she would prepare a rather intricate dinner, and wash the three dishes that had been waiting in the sink. I was sure that she'd be breaking out the duster if Natsuni was still present when she finished that.

Speak of the devil…

"Are you sure you don't need a drink, or a snack?" she asked me, having just come back into the room. As usual, she only asked me.

"I'm fine," I said through gritted teeth. She'd only asked me four times already. "What about you, Natsuni?"

"Oh, no," she said. "I couldn't impose."

Rather than do the polite thing, and say that "It's not a bother," my mom nodded sharply and left the room. At that point, I couldn't be sure which was bothering me more, the movie or my mother. Or maybe it was the fact that Natsuni had leaned in about ten minutes before, as if the movie was getting exciting. How could she have actually liked this crap?

I spent the next forty-three agonizing minutes alternating between watching the second hand count down to the glorious end of the movie, and telling my mother that no, I did not need anything, and would not need anything the next time she came, so she shouldn't bother asking.

"Well," Natsuni said as the credits finally started playing. "That was _not_ the greatest thing I've ever seen."

"That's an understatement," I muttered. "That movie was the worst thing we've ever watched. And we've seen plenty of bad movies. This movie sucks."

"I didn't think it was _that_ bad," she said softly. "But it could have been better."

"Yeah, my mom could have not been here," I suggested.

"Yeah," she said giving me a flirty smile. "We could have given it the bad movie treatment."

Oh how I would have preferred the bad movie treatment. Before we'd started dating, we'd had to suffer through every minute of bad movies—if we'd paid for a ticket or to rent it, we watched it, regardless of quality—but when we became a couple, we found there were a lot more interesting things you could do instead, mainly making out. I didn't think I'd like it, but I did. And this movie was the perfect movie for that treatment.

But my mother had to be annoying and watch over us like a hawk.

"Oh well," Natsuni sighed. "I'm sure there're plenty of other bad movies we could find."

"Hopefully none quite as bad as this," I complained and sent a glare towards the kitchen.

"Hey," Natsuni scolded. "She's trying."

"Trying my patience maybe," I grumbled.

"Oh," Mother said, barging in once again. "Is the movie over already? It looked like a good one."

I almost groaned. Now she was going to act like she was a cool mother and try to be a part of our discussion. _And_ she thought that it was a good movie.

"Kill me now," I said under my breath. Natsuni gasped, and elbowed me while she held back a laugh.

"Well, I'm finished in the kitchen," Mother continued. "Do you mind if I stay and chat?"

"Yes," I muttered.

"Not at all," Natsuni said. I glared at the floor. I really didn't want her here. Why couldn't she just see that?

"From what I saw anyway, I'd say it was quite a colourful movie," Mother added.

"It really was," Natsuni said. "There was a lot of very…_interesting_ outfits, and diverse characters and every type of relationship known to man, right down to the friendship between a man and his pet pig."

"Oh my," Mother said, her eyes widening dramatically. "I don't think all movies need to be about relationships, do you?"

"I think that's the most interesting part in a lot of lesser known movies," Natsuni argued. "And especially so in most romantic comedies. It's typically a universally relatable theme."

"Dating can be so messy though," Mother said. "It's much more reasonable to wait until you're absolutely ready than to rush into things like characters tend to do."

"You can't be sure," Natsuni argued. "That's what makes it a big decision. You have to take a risk to get the gain."

"That's nonsense," Mother said, shaking her head sadly at Natsuni's ignorance. "Does your mother feel the same way?"

"Well," Natsuni stalled. "Not exactly."

"You must not be ready," Mother said sympathetically. "It's alright though. It takes time."

"That's just it though," Natsuni said. "Mom isn't interested in me being ready. She's interested in marrying me off to some well off stranger that can take care of me, while I hang around to be his doting housewife."

"That sounds lovely," Mother said.

"Sounds horrible to me," I told her dryly. "If you attempt something like that, you'll have one fewer sons."

"You're too young to worry about that anyway," Mother placated me. She was just feeding the flames now.

"I'm not too young," I told her. "You're just possessive of me."

"No I'm not," she insisted. I rolled my eyes. "But now that I think of it, you and Natsuni should have more movie days _here_. In fact you should just have them all here, or not at all. That would be fine too. It's just that you're so busy with all of your other friends, and you're hardly ever home these days. I need to be sure you're alright, don't I?"

Natsuni put her hand on my shaking fist, trying to calm me, but it wasn't working.

"Actually, could you maybe quit your job too? Then you'll spend more time where I can keep an eye on you," Mother continued.

"That's enough," I said loudly, instantly furious. "You actually have _no_ say whatsoever what I do with my time. I live under your roof, yes, but _only_ because you won't let me leave. And Grandpa's gone now, so I thought I should stay to make sure you're okay. But you're not. You're actually crazy. And I can't take it anymore."

"Iori," Mother said, her eyes wide. Natsuni was gapping at me.

"I'm eighteen. I'm not six. I'm an adult, and I will go out with my girlfriend whenever I want to, thank you very much. And I'm not 'hanging out' with my other friends. I'm trying to save the Digital World, and maybe Earth too. I don't have time to 'hang out'. I'm going to school to ensure that I have a career worth having in the future, and I go to work to help pay for it, so I'm not buried in debt for the rest of my life. I'm dealing with grown up problems, but you can't see that I've gotten older! Grandpa would never have treated me like this. I don't know what your problem is, but you have to get over it because you're quickly climbing your way up the list of people I literally despise. You passed Michael ages ago, and you've made it past Neo, who tried to kill my friends three weeks ago. There's just the big bad guys left. Are you trying to pass them too?"

"Iori," Natsuni pleaded, looking at my mother's crumpling face.

"I can't help it," I snapped. "I can't hold things in forever. And there's just too much to even try."

Before Natsuni could try and make me feel bad about it, and before my mother could actually start crying, I stormed out of the room, towards my bedroom. I slammed the door closed behind me and looked for something I could throw. I really wanted to throw something. But there was nothing to throw. Well, nothing that was lying around. I couldn't bring myself to take things out of their place. My room had to be in perfect order, or else I couldn't focus on my homework.

Damn it.

I needed to hit something. Maybe I should've gone to the dojo and thrown myself into some exercises. Instead, I pulled out my key to the Land of Dreams. It would've been so easy to just go there, to remove myself from the situation until I was able to reign myself in.

But I couldn't. Jou wanted me to be there for his wedding. I'd have to wait until after that before I could allow myself to just disappear.

I threw myself onto my bed, wondering if I'd be able to hold back this all consuming anger until then.

_**Kae:**_

It had been a long while since we'd seen Volcanusmon or Merukimon, and I was glad for it. I was pleased that I was fitter, but I wasn't prepared to run forever. And we still had a small digimon to find. I didn't know what Coronamon looked like, though I assumed he would look similar to Lunamon, or at least to an extent. They were apparently linked in some way, allowing Lunamon to lead us towards her brother's signal.

The white and blue bunny digimon kept her hand tucked away in Natsuko's, refusing to let go of her. Natsuko didn't seem to mind though, and it was absolutely adorable. I followed after the two of them, letting Lunamon drag Natsuko towards our destination.

"This must be it," Lunamon announced. But she didn't seem too certain. And I could understand why. I looked around us, but found nothing. I took a closer look, and realized that there was a large gap in the gridlines. It was as if there were a hole in the code, but I knew that couldn't be right. There was nothing left in the Digital World after all. There couldn't be a hole in the nonexistent ground.

"What is it, exactly?" Natsuko asked. She bent down to touch it, pulling her hand away. "Stone. It must be the remains of a building from before everything was destroyed."

"It wasn't destroyed," Lunamon corrected. "It was just taken away. I think though, that I've heard of this. Marsmon wouldn't let me out to play some time ago. He said it was far too dangerous and that we weren't to interfere. Fanglongmon…"

"Our sons fought and defeated him," I realized. "Do you think this is his?"

"So it's an abandoned, secret lair," Natsuko surmised.

"It's not abandoned anymore though," I pointed out. "Not if Coronamon is hidden somewhere down there."

"We'll have to be quiet then," Lunamon decided. "We don't want to get caught."

"Right," Natsuko and I agreed.

We allowed Lunamon to lead us to an opening that was small and hidden. It opened to a rickety old ladder, that I feared for my life as I climbed down, and then we were met with a series of tunnels. If it wasn't for Lunamon's connection, I didn't think we'd ever see the end of the twists and turns.

"He's close," Lunamon whispered excitedly. "I can feel him stronger now."

"That's great news," Natsuko told her with a smile.

We made three more turns, before I saw a red figure. A digimon I decided. Its tail was on fire, and the red plumage around his head reminded me of a lion. He was small, and was curled up in a cell. A cell that didn't have any bars to keep him inside.

"Coronamon," Lunamon cheered. "We found you!"

"Lunamon?" Coronamon questioned with a scratchy voice, turning to squint into the darkness. "You shouldn't have come. It's too dangerous."

"Then it's too scary for you too," she insisted. "We have to go home now."

"No, no. We can't have that."

All of us froze where we were. The voice was low and silky, but held a great deal of power. I swallowed thickly, and gathered my wits about me, before turning to face our mysterious guest. He was a dragon, a long thin one, with two arms and two legs. In each hand, he held an orb. One was orange, the other was green. After the fiasco with Wisemon years ago, I knew not to trust those orbs. He'd be able to use them to attack us. His scales were black and shiny, but his underbelly was bright red. His face, however, was mostly a cream colour, with spikes pointing out like solid whiskers. It was the leafy green orb that caught my attention though, as it was lodged between the two spikes on his forehead, and looked out of place.

"You have trespassed," he told us. "I can't simply let you go. And I especially can't do so if you insist on taking my little pet with you."

"And who's going to stop us?" I asked, sounding far braver than I felt.

"I will," he promised. "For I am Hisyarumon, the Death Knight of Wood and you have just signed your death certificate."

_**Natsuni:**_

There is nothing more awkward then sitting in the same room as a crying woman and not feeling comfortable enough to comfort her. And I didn't particularly feel like I _should_. She didn't like me, and her son just shouted at her because of her near obsession with him.

And he told her I was his girlfriend.

Ms Hida didn't want her son to have a girlfriend. So not only was I friend of her son that was taking his attention away from her, I was also something he was forbidden from having. And then he decided he would leave me there, with his crying mother while he ran off to his room—and quite possibly the Digital World. I hadn't heard a sound from him since he disappeared.

I _could_ have just left, but my mom wouldn't have liked that. She was quite adamant that a young girl such as myself should not travel anywhere on her own. She could get mugged or something. It was much more proper for me to be escorted home by a trustworthy gentleman. Iori wasn't what Mom would consider an appropriate choice, but he was far better than walking home alone. And if I did go alone, whatever respect Mom might've held for Iori would've shattered, because she'd think he let me. So I had to sit with Ms Hida as she cried, and watch as she pulled herself together, and go to check on the dinner she'd prepared.

Iori and I would be having words whenever he got out of his room.

I checked the clock, praying that Mom would show up soon. I didn't think I could handle actually eating with Ms Hida, and that was assuming she would offer for me to. She didn't exactly hide her distaste for me.

Four minutes left.

And it would be only those four minutes. My mother was nothing if not punctual. And she wouldn't dare let me spend even a minute extra with a bad influence like Iori.

"Where's Meiyomon?" I questioned when I could no longer bear the silence.

"He's off with one of Iori's friends," Ms Hida said frostily. "You can't get to him, if that's what you're after."

"I didn't do anything wrong," I told her. "You just aren't giving him enough room to grow. You don't want him to."

"I don't need a child to tell me what I'm doing wrong," she said, softer now.

That's when Mom decided to knock. I almost cheered with how relieved I felt. Ms Hida was quick to open the door and let her inside.

"Hello Fumiko, dear," Mom said. "Hello, sweetheart."

"Hello Mother," I said formally. She made a big show of looking around the room. "And where is the little scoundrel."

She made it seem like it was a pet name. It wasn't.

"He's not feeling too well at the moment," Ms Hida said. "He's stressed, I think."

"I won't have to worry about that," Mom bragged. "My Natsuni isn't stretching herself too thin. A good thing too. She wouldn't want to get wrinkles prematurely. She has to do everything she can to be as beautiful as she's able."

"She's a very pretty girl," Ms Hida complimented. It was the nicest thing she'd ever said about me. I was beyond excited.

"She's alright," Mom allowed. "But she needs all the help she can get. She won't get a well off man if she doesn't try."

"Natsuni has enough personality to off-set anything," Ms Hida said. This time I wasn't so sure it was a compliment.

"Personality won't draw in anything more than rift raft," Mom told Ms Hida seriously.

"Like my son?" Ms Hida guessed coldly.

"Oh don't take it so personally, darling," Mom told her. "It's not your fault. It's that grandfather of his."

I gasped at Mom's gall.

"My father-in-law was a wonderful influence on my Iori, God rest his soul," Ms Hida said to my mother with a glare. Mom's eyes widened as she realized what a faux pas she had committed. One of the rules she instilled in me, even though it was common sense: never speak ill of the dead.

"I think it would be best if you left," Ms Hida said stonily.

"Yes, it might," Mom said, appalled that Ms Hida had thought to throw her out at all. "Natsuni, get ready to leave."

I looked down the hall to Iori's room. He still hadn't come out. I was starting to worry about him. But it wasn't like I could go and check on him. Being alone with a boy in his bedroom? There was no way my mother would allow that, especially when she was actually here to stop it.

It was while I was walking to the door that the room shifted violently, and I was thrown to the floor. I saw a flash of light from the other side of the door and pulled myself to my feet. Mom acted as if the jolt was of Ms Hida's doing and sent a nasty look her way, before pulling open the door. Instead of the beige walls and brown carpet of the hallway, we were met by never ending space. Everything looked black, with green gridlines.

"Oh no," I whispered.

Mom didn't seem to notice that the world was so different and stalked into the darkness. I looked at Ms Hida met her wide eyes.

"Ah!" Mom shrieked. Ms Hida and I ran into the darkness to find out what the problem was, but the door closed behind us. I tried to open it, but it was locked. We were trapped. I was about to start banging on the door when it vanished completely. "What _is_ that thing?"

"I'm not a thing," a very familiar and very welcome voice said. I smiled as I caught sight of my digimon partner, Goblimon. "I'm a digimon. Who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

"The Digital World must have called us here, Goblimon," I told him with a smile. "I'm going to need your help to protect my mom and Ms Hida. Can you help me out?"

"For you?" he questioned, ignoring my mother's blatant disgust, and horror that I knew this creature. "Anything."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Yamato carries the majority of the next chapter, with Rei and Yoshie pitching in with short (ish) parts of their own!


	23. Redemption?

**Y/N:** Not a long note from me this time. Just me wishing that you enjoy what you're about to read, and that you review if you can!

**U/N:** I think I only wrote Yamato here, I'm not totally sure though, since my computer is still gone and I have no way to actually tell. But I hope you like it. I like Yamato so... yeah xD

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 23: Redemption?**

_**Rei Saiba:**_

I sighed. Neo hadn't moved from the window bench in hours. He just kept staring out the window at the spring rain. The glass was covered in water droplets; I wasn't sure how he could see past them. I wondered if he was even trying. He'd retreated into himself over the last couple of days. Sora's dismissal of him during the battle seemed to have taken a toll on him. His digimon turning on me, and consequently ignoring his every command took second place to it, and my abandoning him for the enemy fell even further down on the list. Nothing seemed to go right for him. And while I was glad for that—he was trying to take over the Digital World and kill my friends!—I couldn't help but feel bad for him too.

"How's Dracomon?" I asked.

"Stronger than I thought," he said. "But still weak."

I sighed. I knew he didn't plan on elaborating. It was the most I'd gotten out of him in days.

"Stop sulking Neo," I ordered.

"I'm not sulking," he whined. I rolled my eyes and rolled myself closer to him.

"So you lost a fight, big deal," I told him. "And yes, you lost your girlfriend too, but that's your own fault. Instead of whining and complaining and sulking about it, you should be out there trying to fix it. I don't blame Sora for dumping you the way she did. You were out of control Neo. You kind of deserved it."

"I just wanted things to be better for you," Neo insisted. "You can walk there. I was going to recreate your happiness using the Digital World as a canvas."

"But Neo," I tried. "I've already redesigned what makes me happy. I know I can't go for a walk in the rain anymore, twirling around and jumping in puddles. But I can do other things that make me just as happy. I've adjusted. It's time you did too."

I was met by silence once again. I let out another sigh, and wheeled myself towards the door.

"For what it's worth Neo," I said softly. "I forgive you."

I heard him gasp, and knew he'd turned to look at me. But until he got out of his slump, I didn't really want to let him drag me in. I didn't want to hear him complain anymore about how things should have gone his way. Because I knew that the way things went down was the way they were supposed to happen.

"Just…" I added. "Promise me that you'll try to help out in the fight for good from now on? I don't want to lose sight of the real you again. It was scary."

I pushed myself out of the doorway when he didn't answer. I hadn't really expected him to, but there had been a small amount of hope.

"I can't promise that," he called out after me, making me stop in my tracks. "But I can promise to give it a go."

I smiled. It looked like I was going to get my brother back!

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"This is by far the most adorable thing I've ever seen." Katsue said as she stepped into the living room. "Look at you!" I turned to look at her, standing in the doorway of my bedroom holding a photograph. It was of me during our first trip to the Digital World. My hair was all spiked up at odd angles, and I was wearing that weird turtle neck sleeveless shirt, sitting off with Gabumon playing my harmonica. "You took your... dog thing with you to camp too? That's even cuter."

"It's not a dog." I said flatly, jumping over the back of the couch to steal the photograph away from her. I slipped behind her and into my bedroom to put the picture down.

As I turned back to the door she practically pounced on me, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me, pushing me back, falling down onto the bed. I didn't have a chance to kiss her back though because there was a knock on the door.

Katsue groaned and rolled off of me. "God does _not_ ship our relationship." I laughed at her as I jumped to my feet, and hurried toward the door. I straightened my jacket out and fixed my hair briefly in the mirror before pulling the door open.

"Neo?" I asked, shocked. Taichi had told me how he was sulking and how Rei was pretty sure he wasn't going to be leaving their house any time soon. And yet here he was, his hair was a mess, he had ridiculous bags under his eyes, and his clothes were very wrinkled, but he was here.

"May I... come in?" He asked quietly. I nodded quickly even though I wanted to slam the door in his face. I stepped back and let him in. He slipped past me and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. He seemed feeble—almost weak or sick.

"Sit down." I said, and so he did. He sat on the couch and bit his lip.

"You invited your grandmother to come play?" Katuse asked as she moved from the bedroom toward the kitchen, "Oh my bad, your greying hair confused me. You're actually just the abominable snowman."

"Katsue," I said cautiously, trying not to laugh, "Could you make me a sandwich?" I asked.

"A BLT?" She asked.

"Sure," I said. She turned to leave, "But hold the tomato."

"Hmkay," She said as she left.

"And the lettuce!" I called after her.

"Will do." She said.

I turned to Neo who was sitting quietly, his hands folded in his lap. He looked up to me and tried to smile, but I could see how much he didn't want to in his eyes.

"Why are you here Neo?" I asked.

"Because I need to talk to you." Neo said. I debated telling him to leave, but there was a reason he was here. He was in a state of weakness, and he didn't have Arkadimon, and so he was not a threat. And if he did something stupid it would be a great pleasure to punch him in the face.

I sat down next to him and waited for him to say something.

It took a while as we listened to Katsue move around the cramped kitchen. "Rei told me that I should be good."

"Well Rei's a smart girl." I said quickly.

"Yes... she is." He said. "I was doing it all for her you know." I did know, but I decided to let him tell his story. "I wanted her to be able to walk. I wanted her to be happy..." He trailed off, and in the kitchen I heard Katsue curse as she burned herself. "But I was also doing it for you."

I turned toward him, "What?" I said airily.

"I was trying to get back at you..." Neo said, closing his eyes. "Gennai... came to me on my first trip to the Digital World. That was a long time ago. You were there too. He told me how you were fighting Digimon who were impersonating your crests. And it was... Rei's accident had just happened. I discovered Arkadimon a bit later and knew I needed him. I needed to use him to get back at you."

"What did _I_ do?" I asked.

"You were there." He said quietly. "I wanted you to do something. You should have tried to save her."

"For the record Neo," I said, "I did." He looked to me shocked. "I saw the truck coming and I tried to save her. I was surrounded by a bunch of girls though, and I couldn't get to her in time. I called out her name... and..." Neo looked as if I'd just told him I had strapped a bomb to his chest. "And then I called the ambulance, and stayed with her and that boy. It was Hideto wasn't it? I can't remember that. I was more focused on making sure Rei was okay. We used to play together. You remember that don't you?"

Neo laughed a little, suddenly changing the whole feel of the room. It wasn't his usual sadistic laugh either. He nodded, "You two kept playing pranks on me. I always saw them coming but I thought it would be fun to see you laugh."

"I do care about Rei you know." I said. "She's my oldest friend. I mean we lived next to each other our whole life."

"You really made her sad though." Neo said, "When you stopped visiting."

"I know..." I said, "I know I should apologize to her, but I don't know how. I was just feeling sorry for myself, because my parents had just split up. I wanted to be alone because I wanted to feel the pain. I wanted to grow from it, and having a friend to help me through meant that I wasn't doing it on my own." I realized what I was saying, and stopped myself too late. I'd never told anyone that. I'd never told anyone anything serious about myself before. Not Katsue, not Sora, or Taichi, or Takeru or Rei. No one. And here I was... telling _Neo_ of all people. I cleared my throat. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Huh?" He asked.

"You were seeking revenge?" I prompted, "On me?"

"Right," Neo said, "Well during my research I read about Arkadimon's prison. He was surrounded by layers of the elements so no one alone could save him. He was under ground, protected so well. I needed a way to get him... and so I kept researching. I read about Millenniummon, and how he was defeated—but not his subordinates. Apparently there was a league of crazy evil beings... I don't know anymore because Gennai and the others didn't. But Millenniummon was working with Fanglongmon, Dragomon and Arkadimon himself—though it wasn't clear who the leader was, I can only assume it was Arkadimon. He was stronger than them all. Millenniummon had ten minions who were still unaccounted for. I set out to find them—though I was soon kicked out of the Digital World, just like you. I waited until my chance to go back, and when I saw you running through the streets three years ago like a lunatic I knew my time was coming near."

"I wasn't running around like a lunatic." I defended myself.

"You were running around yelling at the sky saying 'Come and get me!'" Neo said, raising one eyebrow. I started laughing as I remembered that day.

Katsue returned to the room with toasted bread and what I assumed was bacon, but actually looked like burned tree bark. "Thank you," I said with a smile. The look on her face told me she knew it was pretty bad, "Can you make me... something else now?" I asked her, "Hold the tree bark."

She laughed and swatted the back of my head. "I'll just go have a bath." She said, "All alone. I'll just wait for you guys to be done then."

I just stared at her as she walked away as seductively as she could. She was kidding of course. If I actually _did _go join her in the bath she'd have a fit. But it was pretty funny to watch.

When she was gone I turned to Neo and told him to continue. "Anyway... finally I was back in the Digital World, just after the worlds split apart again, and I found the 'Death Knights'. It took me almost three years to find them all though. And then they did their job. They took the world away. But it was clear to me soon after that they weren't obeying me. They were obeying Arkadimon. He was controlling them, and apparently... also controlling me."

"Are you telling me it wasn't your fault?" I asked sheepishly.

"No it was." He said, "It was my fault and I'm an awful person. I know. Arkadimon had made me think I'd had control, when I really hadn't. And I found out the same time you did that Arkadimon had been using me. I'm such a fool..."

"And why are you telling me all of this?" I asked.

"Because..." He paused and then took a deep breath before continuing, "Firstly, I want you to know that the Death Knights still have the Digital World's code. They can't just destroy it so easily. And that means the Digital World can be restored once the orbs containing the data are destroyed."

"And...?" I asked. I could tell there was more judging by the tone of his voice.

"And I wanted to apologize for trying to seek revenge on you, and for tearing the world apart, and for killing your friend's digimon, and your brother's digimon, and for going crazy, and stealing Sora from you." He said quickly.

That was quite a list piling up, but I could tell he was trying to change... "I forgive you..." I lied.

"No you don't." He said. "Being honest all the time works in my favour. It means I can tell when you're lying too. But that's okay. I didn't expect you to forgive me. I just wanted to apologize."

I nodded, unsure of exactly what to say. I was saved though when Neo jumped to his feet and headed for the door.

"Neo," I said through gritted teeth, "Have you talked to Sora?"

"No," He said quietly.

"You should do that." I said. It hurt me to say it, but Sora had strong feelings for Neo. I had feelings for Katsue—really I did, so I wasn't sure why it bugged me so much. Possibly because Neo was evil and all, but Sora was hurting so much after their breakup. They hadn't talked apparently, and I knew she'd like that.

"Do you think she'd listen?" He asked, his hand on the doorknob.

"Only one way to find out." I told him. "You should sleep first though. You look crazy." I could see him smirk as he left the apartment, the door slamming behind him.

I needed to tell someone about this instantly... there was so much I wanted to say, but I couldn't tell Taichi because he was angrier at Neo than I'd been. Gabumon was in the Digital World, Takeru was busy with his own problems, and would be pretty angry that I didn't punch Neo to get revenge for Patamon.

Before I knew it I was clicking an unfamiliar number in my phone's address book.

"Hello?" Hikari's voice came, "Yamato?"

"Yeah," I said, "Do you have time?"

"Well I'm about to take a test," She said, "What's up?"

"Well it can wait." I said, "Never mind."

"How about we meet up for lunch or something." She said, "If you have something to say it might go a bit better than the last time." We both laughed at that. The last time we'd hung out it had been so boring and awkward, neither of us knowing what to say. "And besides, I still want to be friends with you. Did you know that you, Jou and Mimi are the only ones I haven't had any bonding moments with? Yeah. That's the truth."

"Well I'd like to be your friend too Hikari," I said, running through all the people I'd still not bonded with. Koushiro, Mimi, Hikari, Daisuke, Iori, Ken, Willis, Kurayami... and Miyako unless I was to count her doing the editing for my albums... my list was so much bigger than hers. I'd have to change that.

"Well see you tomorrow at Mimi's then." She said, "For lunch."

"Actually," I said, "Can I come to you? You're always having to run back and forth between countries, and I haven't been to America in a while."

"You have no idea how happy you just made me." She said quickly, "You're the only one who has even mentioned it!" I wanted to say thank you but she continued quickly, "Listen, let's make it for dinner because Willis, Jenna, Michael and Tatum are all going to see a movie, and the Digimon are having a secret picnic that isn't so secret, and I'll be all alone anyway. It's pretty scary being in Willis' house all alone."

"Okay," I smiled, "See you then."

"Bye!" She said.

"Good luck on your test!" I said quickly.

"Thanks," She said, and then we both hung up.

"Who was that?"

I looked over my shoulder quickly to see Katsue wearing only a towel. I looked away and bit my tongue, staring awkwardly at the television.

"That was Hikari," I said.

"Taichi's sister?" She asked, "You're having dinner with her?"

"Yeah," I told her, "Is that bad?"

"No I think it's adorable." Katsue said, "Most guys I know don't bother to get to know their friends siblings. I think that knowing the family of your friend really helps you get closer with the friend in question."

"You're awesome." I said with a grin.

"You didn't eat your sandwich." She said, ignoring my compliment. "Can you promise to always be honest with me?" She asked.

"If you _honestly_ want me to." I said with a wink.

"I see what you did there," She winked back to me. "I just want you to be honest Yamato. As in, if this is a romantic dinner, you'd tell me."

"It's not." I said, "I promise." She nodded and turned to my bedroom where she kept a drawer of her clothes. She closed the door and I heard her open the drawer itself.

"Katsue..." I said, speaking without thinking. Something that I often had trouble with.

"Yes Yamato?" She asked.

I moved toward the computer. "I _do _have something to say though. You want me to be honest with you right?"

"That's what we just agreed upon, yes." She said, and I could tell she was rolling her eyes sarcastically. I knew her pretty well, I must admit.

I pressed a few buttons on the computer and pulled out my digivice. I hesitated. Was this a good idea? No. The answer was obvious, but she wanted me to be honest, and I couldn't come out and tell her later, that would be too awkward... My heart started beating quickly.

A few moments later Katsue was walking out of my bedroom wearing a light dress, her dark hair wet and wavy, hanging from her head. "What were you saying?" She asked turning toward me and freezing.

I gestured to Gabumon who was now standing next to me.

"This is Gabumon." I told her, "He is my best friend. He lives inside my computer... and we fight the forces of evil together."

Stupid me. I could have done that better.

"That's adorable." She said, "You came up with a story for your toy?"

"Not a toy." Gabumon said quickly resulting in Katsue letting out a loud scream.__

_**Yoshie Izumi:**_

Now that I'd left, I couldn't keep myself from worrying over Digitamamon and his restaurant. Did he have anyone else that could take over for me? No. I knew he didn't. He just had himself, and that was why he'd needed so much help in the first place. He was a little brash, and a tad bit selfish, but his heart was in the right place, and he could be very kind if he wanted. I didn't like to think that Marrow could come back at any moment while Digitamamon was there alone.

No.

I didn't have time to worry over such things. The quicker I found Satoe, the faster I could return to Digitamamon, if he'd have me. I couldn't just leave the Digital World. I didn't know how. I'd just have to wait for my son to realize I was missing and come to find me. Granted, I had no way of knowing if he was looking already or not. I supposed I could ask Gansuko, but I didn't want to bother him. I had to focus on saving Satoe first, before I could even contemplate escaping this world anyway.

"How far in this direction do you think she was taken?" Gansuko asked, after walking for some time.

"I'm not sure. I lost sight of her in the darkness that is this world," I told him. "But I feel like it was pretty far, you know?"

"Perhaps I could go ahead," Piedmon suggested. "I could scout the area; see if I could find her?"

"That sounds dangerous," I commented.

"Not for him," Gansuko assured me. "He's strong. Stronger, I think, now that I'm using a crest, rather than a serum."

"Oh, Koushiro has a crest," I remembered. "Knowledge I think."

"Uh huh," Gansuko said. "Mine is desire."

"That's a tricky one," I guessed. Desire could be good, but it could also be negative, especially when it's out of control. "Do you have a handle on it?"

"I think so," he said softly. "So long as I try really hard to stay in control, it won't get messed up, and I won't hurt Piedmon."

For some reason, I didn't think he was talking about being in control of his crest. But I didn't question him. He'd tell me when he was ready. And I knew he _would_ tell me eventually. He needed to. From what I understood, he didn't have anyone that could take care of him, like a parent should. No one to talk to, and get advice from. While I didn't think I was necessarily qualified, nor did I want to sound presumptuous, but I was sure I was the closest he had to such a thing, and I didn't want to press my luck by pestering him.

"Mine isn't a hard crest," he continued, ignorant to my internal musings. "So it makes it easier to fight against him."

Definitely not the crest then, I decided.

"That's good," I said. "And Piedmon, does he handle the crest well?"

"His attacks all work properly now," Gansuko said proudly. "Or I'm sure they do. He couldn't bring himself to transform a digimon into a keychain, so I'm not sure about that one."

Digimon were strange creatures. Their attacks and forms varied so much. There was Digitamamon, a dinosaur digimon who'd yet to crack out of his egg entirely, and could plague your dreams with horrible nightmares and Pidemon, a clown digimon that could turn you into a keychain. I wasn't so sure the Digital World was a safe place, even when it _wasn't_ in imminent danger.

"Mrs Izumi," Gansuko called quietly. I almost didn't hear him, and he sounded so indecisive.

"You can call me Yoshie, Gansuko," I offered. "You're practically my family. You're the cousin of my son. I suppose I could be your Aunt. If you wanted."

"I do," he said quickly. "Want that, I mean. It's just…how did you know that it was me?"

"With your mask, you mean?" I clarified. I couldn't fathom that anyone could miss it. From the way he held himself, shifting from proper posture to slouching, the way he could seem overconfident one second, and meek the next, with no warning of change. "I suppose I could tell because it's obvious, dear."

"No one else has ever been able to tell," he admitted.

"You're just wearing a mask," I pointed out. "The rest of you is the same. The mask doesn't change who you are. This "Sigma" that people call you, he's the mask. You take off the mask, and he's gone."

"You're wrong," he countered. "Sigma is more than the mask. He's almost more than me sometimes. He's so strong and I'm not."

"Gansuko," I said softly. "You are strong. You're fighting for the Digital World, and that takes courage. I'm sure I couldn't do it nearly as often as you do."

"I'm not a good person," he warned me. "I've only fought _for_ the Digital World one time."

"That still counts," I told him.

"Not if you factor in all the times I tried to destroy it," he hissed. His hand flew to his mouth immediately. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Sigma just—"

"It's fine," I told him. Now I had another thing to worry about, and it was far more delicate than Digitamamon's restaurant. While Digitamamon could fight for himself, I'd just realized that Gansuko couldn't. There was something wrong with him, and he needed help to fix the problem, hopefully _before_ it could escalate any further. Of course I first had to decide whether the problem was a matter of the mind, or if some digital creature played a part. How I longed for the days before the Digital World, when problems were easier to understand. But then I thought about my son, and how different he would've been without the Digital World and Tentomon to help him grow and flourish, and I change my mind. I wouldn't change anything about any of it. I would just have to expand my horizons, try to understand what I could, and have Koushiro explain the rest.

"Sir," Piedmon called. He too, I noticed, refused to call Gansuko 'Sigma'. I was pleased to learn this. It made my quest that much easier to know I had an ally.

"Yes?" Gansuko asked.

"I found her," Piedmon said excitedly.

"How can you be sure?" I questioned quickly. I couldn't believe it.

"Well…it's probably the most suspicious thing I've ever seen, ever," he said. "C'mon. I'll show you."

He ran off again, and Gansuko followed after him. I was nearly sprinting, trying to keep up with those two. I wasn't made for exercise, even if my bones were younger and didn't protest nearly as much as usual. Eventually though, we came across a tower made of black bricks. It was quite ominous, and I was sure that had the Digital World been more than basic code and gridlines, there would be a dark sky plagued with lighting surrounding the tower, like in old cartoons.

"Let's find her," I said, starting towards the tower. She had to be in there, and it didn't look like her captor was anywhere near.

"Wait," Gansuko called, grabbing my hand. I smiled at that. I hadn't thought he liked physical interactions.

"Why? She could be in trouble," I told him.

"Let me check the place over first," Piedmon offered. "There's probably traps set up."

"How would you know?" I asked.

"We've been evil and back again," Gansuko reminded me jokingly. I had to smile at that too. "I think we understand the mindset of a villain."

"Okay," I said. "Do what you need to do."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Mimi, Sora, Satoe and Isao take turns next chapter.


	24. Truths

**Y/N:** I am seriously running out of names for chapters…which is not a good thing. But anyway, I barely remember writing this due to our crazy last couple of days, where we wrote non-stop for like fifteen hours in a row, both days. We've got a schedule we want to see if we can keep when it comes to writing, and wow…I'm already exhausted after day two. Let's see how I fair when I'm writing like mad and working, since I'm off right now. We're calling it Crazy-Writing-Month-April(and also May). Anyway, you guys don't care about that. You care about the chapter, which I hope you enjoy, and review if you can! Thanks.

**U/N:** So I'm not sure this applies in this chapter, but it does to the one I'm writing. The parent/friend parts (at least in my case) are going to be a little more rushed, and shorter due to the fact that this was the initial goal with them, and there are so many plots going on that you're probably all confused...

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, whatever it is. Still don't have my computer back, and my sister is sleeping, but whatever it is I hope you like it and review :D

So I wrote Sora twice here, Isao and Satoe once... there's a lot of Sora in this arc. Like-A LOT. Like almost every chapter. Sora somehow managed to be involved with everything...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 24: Truths**

_**Mimi:**_

I was really glad that Yamato kept attending these meetings. Taichi wouldn't unless I provided him with an ungodly amount of food—which I couldn't keep doing, since I needed said food for my paying customers. Everyone else that knew about them got mad at me instantly. It wasn't fair! If Sora was having an event like this everyone would drop everything to be there. But just because it was ugly little me, they thought it was mean and stupid.

"So, that's why I decided to add that little one about her optimism," I told Yamato.

"Okay…" he drawled. "How many more could you possibly have? You've added three already today, and last week you added six."

"I live with Sora," I pointed out. "It really helps when coming up with new reasons to hate her, you know? She mostly just gives them right to me. Which reminds me…" I started writing another one on the chalk board. "What are you going to do about your girlfriend?"

"Nothing…?" he said slowly.

"If you _want_ to get arrested, that's your business," I muttered.

"Oh," he said. "I thought you were telling me to break up with her. Yeah, I'm working on getting her a digimon I guess. It's not going so well. She's kind of afraid of them and all…"

He trailed off, craning his neck to see over my shoulder at the latest addition to the list.

"Happy about Jou's wedding?" Yamato questioned. "That's not really even about Sora…"

"I know," I said. "But I'm not happy about it. Well. I mean I _am_. Just not happy about the date they chose, you know?"

"Why not? It's a little soon, I realize, but it's not anything too crazy, like tomorrow," he wondered.

"It's just so close to my birthday," I whined. "And I'm just so mad at Jou for forgetting that. Anniversaries trump birthdays, Yamato. And it's always going to be right there, so close to _my_ special day. No one's even going to remember it."

"You're worried that we'll care more about an anniversary than we do about you? You're actually jealous of a day," he said in amazement.

"No," I said quickly. "I'm not jealous of a day. I'm not."

"Whatever you say Mimi," he said with a laugh. "But anniversaries are typically private events, while birthdays can be shared. Keep that in mind."

"I will," I said, sighing as he stood up to leave. There were four more, really good reasons to hate Sora on my list for the day. I supposed I'd have to keep them until our next meeting. "But I'm not jealous of a day! Remember that." He was laughing when he left.

_**Sora:**_

"I don't know any more though." I told Taichi as he stood nervously by the council door. "That's all Ken told me."

"Why won't he tell you more?" Taichi growled.

"You're lashing out at me is completely inappropriate." I said. "Look, something weird is happening to Ken and Koushiro. Both of them are being super lazy lately, like you don't even understand. They're too exhausted to even hate each other. And Ken won't leave my house."

"That's pretty bad." Taichi admitted. We all knew of the hate that formed between the two of them, but they kept it under control most days so there was nothing we could really do. We couldn't force them to like each other. "Well what am I supposed to say about Koushiro?"

"Just say he's sick." I said, opening the door and ushering him inside. "Look Taichi, Marrow won't care if Koushiro is there or not."

"But the others will." He said.

"Can I fill in?" I asked suddenly.

For a moment I thought he'd say yes. For a moment I'd thought that I'd be allowed into the meetings I so badly wanted to take part in. They needed more females anyway. But he shook his head, and I sighed, pushing him through the door.

"Fine." I said, "Just make stuff up."

I closed the door behind him and heard Marrow instantly. His cold drawling voice was the easiest to make out from the outside of the door. I sat down on the waiting-bench right outside their meeting and pulled the scarf I was knitting out of my bag.

"Finally decided to join us huh?" Marrow asked.

"Cut it out." Taichi scolded, "I'm not in the mood."

"Should we wait for Koushiro?" Babamon asked with her cracking voice.

"He's sick." Taichi said quietly. "He's got the flu." There was a silence before he added, "Like he's throwing up—whatever. He's sick."

"This is the second consecutive meeting he's missed." Marrow said disappointed, "Perhaps we should replace him? All in favour?"

"Shut up." Taichi said, "He'll be here next week."

"And if not we can vote him out?" Marrow asked.

"I think that seems fair." Tinkermon said.

I personally didn't find that very fair at all, but as I wasn't in on the meetings I'd just have to keep quiet about it. I was getting to a particularly complicated part in my knitting pattern, but wanted to keep listening so I set it down so I didn't lose focus.

"So what issues have you guys come across?" Taichi asked.

Divermon was the first to speak, he usually didn't talk much in the meetings so I knew it would be important. "We're having trouble keeping the water digimon confined. They're growing more and more impatient. We can't keep them waiting for water forever."

I hadn't thought about it like that. How were they coping without water? Apparently not well. Who was keeping them confined?

"Well..." Taichi said, "We can send more reinforcement. But until we can locate a way to get the oceans back you're just going to have to hold tight."

"You don't seem to have any answers anymore Taichi," Marrow said, "Perhaps we should elect a new leader."

"Alright Marrow," Taichi snapped, "What do you suggest?" Marrow stuttered a little, and Taichi growled, "That's what I thought. Anyone else have anything?"

"Neverland is getting harder and harder to keep hidden." Tinkermon said, "We don't want anyone else getting in!"

"Well I'm sorry Tinkermon, that might be the least of our troubles right now." Taichi said, "We can deal with the evacuation of those who don't belong _after_ we have somewhere to evacuate them to."

This did not sit well with her and she began to yell loudly, and soon she and Babamon were in a heated argument.

"Back in my day—" "You're just an old bat!" "I used to be the prettiest girl out there—" "Stop undermining me!" "It's so hard since everything you say is stupid!"

"STOP!" It was Taichi who had yelled. "Someone bring me something to eat!"

I heard the scraping of a chair and a moment later Leomon was waving at me as we walked by. I smiled up at him and listened closer.

"Devimon tried to recruit me." Ogremon said finally. "I think the Dark digimon are creating an army."

"Who else was there?" Taichi wanted to know.

"Just some lesser digimon." Ogremon said. "Devimon, some Evilmon..."

"They don't seem too threatening yet..." Metalifekuwagamon buzzed.

"But wouldn't it be better to stop them now?" Taichi asked, "Before they get out of hand?"

"Well as they haven't actually done anything," Marrow said coldly, "We cannot legally do _anything_." Taichi groaned. He wasn't having a very good day. I heard some rattling and turned to see Leomon returning carrying a large tray with a stack of tea cups and a large bowl of biscuits.

"Here, I'll help you." I said, jumping to my feet. I took half of the teacups so he could walk easier.

"Thank you Sora," He said as I held the door to the council open for him.

"SPY!" Erif cackled as I stepped through the door. I shot him a glare and stuck my tongue out but Marrow silenced him, apparently I wasn't a threat to him like Taichi or Koushiro was.

"What about you Taichi?" Andromon asked, "What have you discovered?"

"Nothing." Taichi said quickly. I glared at him and cleared my throat. He sighed, "Fine." He said as I set a tea cup in front of Tinkermon and started moving my way around the table. To Babamon, then Leomon's empty seat, then Centarumon... "It has come to my attention that Daemon has returned."

"Who?" Tinkermon asked as Leomon filled her cup with tea after setting the tray of biscuits in front of Taichi.

"He tried to kill us Digidestined a few times, but he kept disappearing whenever things looked ugly for him." Taichi explained.

"Has he done anything?" Marrow asked.

"What do you mean?" Taichi asked.

"Has he done anything to physically harm anyone?" Marrow pushed further.

"I don't know." Taichi admitted. "I don't think so. Not this time."

"Then the same fact goes." Marrow said. "If we act upon this it would be illegal." As he said this I set my final tea cup in front of him, my eyes falling on his necklace. It felt weird to admit it, but I kind of wanted it.

I picked up the rest of the teacups on the tray in front of Taichi and continued placing the cups in front of the remaining council members.

The rest of the meeting dragged on with boring legal work, like Taichi and the others signing a form for Divermon to get more recruits, and a document saying that certain areas were forbidden because of Devimon's potential uprising.

By the end of the meeting Taichi had eaten everything in the bowl and was doing his best to ignore his growling stomach.

Finally everyone fled the room. Erif and Marrow were the last to leave, but soon they did too, leaving Gabumon, Agumon Taichi and I all alone.

"That was the worst meeting yet." Taichi said, his head falling down and smashing against the table. "Ow." He groaned, but he didn't move.

"It wasn't so bad." Agumon said, patting Taichi's shoulders. "Next time will be better."

"Only if Koushiro shows up." Taichi said into the table. "If he doesn't then he'll be kicked out of the council."

"No," Agumon said, "Not necessarily. Us three will vote for him, and so will Centarumon, and Leomon and if Andromon doesn't he'll be kicked out of their family or something."

"Agumon is right." I said, "That's six votes for sure."

"But that leaves eight more votes." Taichi said.

"And only _one_ of them has to vote for him for there to be a tie, and then it'll come down to the last remaining member. Koushiro." I explained. "He won't kick himself out." I decided to not remind Taichi of Koushiro's odd behaviour and exhaustion... he might actually vote for himself to not be part of the council so he didn't have to do anything.

"Taichi," Gabumon said quietly, "I do have something to say..."

"Why didn't you say it in front of the council?" I asked.

"Because I'm afraid he'll get in trouble." Gabumon said.

"Why?" Taichi asked, assuming, like I was, that he was talking about Yamato, I was sure. "What did he do?"

"The other day... Yamato..." Gabumon trailed off, "He showed me to a human."

"Katsue." Taichi and I said together.

"How did it go?" Taichi asked. "What did she say?"

"At first she was scared." Gabumon explained, and I couldn't help but picture Katsue screaming in fear at the sight of Gabumon, and it almost made me want to laugh. "And then she started to understand as Yamato explained the whole story to her. She asked if she could do a report on it, and they had a big argument... but they ended up being okay... but I think she's scared of me."

"Well why is that a problem then?" Agumon asked, missing the point as usual.

"Because it isn't legal to let out the digimon's secret." Taichi said, "Not to someone who isn't Chosen—so literally no one, since those chosen likely already know about them."

"I shouldn't have said anything!" Gabumon said, throwing his hands in the air, "Now Yamato is going to be arrested!"

"No he's not," I said, trying to comfort Gabumon, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"There's no prisons to keep him in anyway." Taichi said, lazily sitting up and resting his head in his hands, "They'd probably just execute him."

"Taichi!" Agumon gasped.

"I'm kidding!" Taichi defended himself, "Though seriously, we just won't tell anyone."

"Well what if they find out?" Agumon asked.

"They won't." Taichi said firmly. "And if they do, then it won't matter because by that point we'll have already found a partner for Katsue."

"We're going to play matchmaker?" I asked excitedly to which Taichi nodded at. "You can. You're good at it. I'm going to go to some burger joint and eat until I puke."

"So attractive." I said sarcastically, "I can't believe I let you go." He glared at me but then smiled and then ultimately laughed.

"How are things going with Rei anyway?" I asked him as he finally stood up allowing the two of us to lead the digimon out of the room. "Great." He said. I could tell he wasn't going into further detail because he was afraid of hurting my feelings, but that wasn't possible. I was over boys. Not literally, like I hadn't formed a crush on Mimi or anything, not that she'd be my first choice...

I was just over Taichi, I was over Neo, and I was over Yamato. I was a new person now. Completely free and ready to move on with my life. But he didn't know that, so I didn't press further.

Taichi, Gabumon, Agumon and I stepped through the portal I opened with the key to Earth and found ourselves in Taichi and Yamato's apartment.

I rushed through kitchen door and into the living room where Yamato sat alone.

"Yamato!" I said sharply causing him to fall off of the couch in surprise. I laughed as I pulled him to his feet. "Where is Katsue?"

"I don't know—home I imagine." Yamato said, "I don't keep a tracking device on her..." He looked upset that we'd embarrassed him but it was pretty funny so I ignored it.

"Well we have to find her a digimon partner." I said.

"What?" He asked, shocked.

"Come on my dear fugitive friend, we have some matchmaking to do." I grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door, Gabumon rushing behind us. "Bye Taichi!" I called as Gabumon closed the door behind us.

_**Satoe:**_

I woke up slowly, and shakily. My eyelids were so heavy that I had to force them to open, and my body was stiff as if I'd been sleeping for a very long time. Only, I don't remember going to sleep… It was strange actually. I could remember storming away from Yoshie… and then there was a creature… but that was it.

And now here I was. In a… dungeon? No, there was a window, it felt more like a tower. A tall, dark tower in the middle of the world my daughter liked to save as a hobby. Perhaps I could climb down the tower… But I knew that wasn't a good idea, it was so high up. Plus there were tightly woven bars across the window itself.

There was a doorway though. A door that likely led out of this strange room… I didn't like it in there. It smelled of wet dog, it was dark, it was wet, it was made of stone, and I felt as if something was lurking in the heavily shadowed areas in the corners of the room. I ignored that feeling though, and slowly sat up from my laying position on the ground. I instinctively reached for my purse which held a mirror for me to adjust my hair, but I couldn't find it… now where had I left that?

"You look familiar."

I let out a shriek as my heart began pounding. I shot into the corner opposite the voice and pressed myself against the grotesquely slimy wall.

"W-who are you?" I said as bravely as I could, though I sounded like a child in fear of a monster under her bed. "Step out where I can see you."

The voice did as I instructed. First a long slender leg shot from the darkness, and soon the body of a woman had followed suit. She was wearing black clothing with skulls on it, and her hair was long and silver.

"My name is Ladydevimon." The woman said. "You look familiar. Who are you?"

"I-I-I…" I trailed off before shaking my head and gaining some strength. "My name is Satoe Tachikawa... you may know my daughter…?" I knew I shouldn't have said anything, Ladydevimon's eyes flared up. She seemed to have a bone to pick with my daughter. "Mimi…?"

"Oh we've met." Ladydevimon said with a strange amount of calm. "Is she coming to save you?"

What was I to say? If I told her no one was coming to save me then she might kill me, but if someone was coming then she'd have no choice but to keep me alive or taste sweet revenge. "Oh yes. Her and all of her hooligan friends."

"Wonderful." Ladydevimon said with a strong sense of sarcasm. She slammed her back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position on the stone floor. "What're you in for?"

"Pardon me?" I asked, shocked. What was I in for? I'd done absolutely nothing wrong! I was a prime visitor and to even suggest otherwise was ludicrous. Or was it? But what really shocked me was that it now appeared that Ladydevimon was also a prisoner, and not working with my captor at all.

"What did you do to piss off the big guy?" Ladydevimon asked.

"I just walked outside and he snatched me up!" I said animatedly, already warming up to Ladydevimon's presence. "Like a beautiful plum off of a perfectly trimmed tree!"

"You're annoyingly vain." Ladydevimon said harshly. Suddenly I wasn't a very big fan of hers. At all. She was quite mean.

I slid even further away from her at this point and scowled at her. "Well it's easy to be vain when you look this good." I flicked my hair and turned to the she-devil across the room from me. "You probably wouldn't understand. You sort of look like a mean little cookie who hasn't been baked properly."

I was instantly reminded of Mimi as a child… she had helped me bake cookies, and they tasted awful, and so I was going to throw them out when she said to me _"Just because they don't taste the way you like them to doesn't mean they're not good. It just means there a different kind of good. Let's feed them to a dog! Let's get a dog!"___The last part didn't apply, that girl really wanted a dog… but maybe she was right… not about the cookies, because they tasted awful, and not about the dog… but about the concept in which she was speaking.

Ladydevimon's eyes flared up again, but with another deep breath she calmed herself. "I think I want to kill you." She said bluntly, "But if I do that, then I'll have no one to talk to, and I don't want that again…"

"How long have you been in here?" I asked timidly.

"I don't know…" She responded quietly, but with much force to her voice, "A long time. I lost track. I lost the will to fight back… I can't win… he's too strong."

"You seem like a tough little devil though." I told her as encouragingly as I could. If I could befriend her I could maybe use her to escape… "Break the wall?"

"Tried that. It doesn't work." Ladydevimon said. "It's got some sort of enchantment on it or something. It's too strong."

That was unfortunate… maybe she just needed a pep talk. "You look like you've done some terrible things in the past." Well that went well. Ladydevimon glared at me as if I'd offended her, so I continued quickly, "Why don't you channel that energy into fighting for us. Fight to get us out."

"I have no more of that energy left." Ladydevimon said with a sigh, pulling herself to her feet and looking through the gaps in the window bars. I wasn't pleased that she didn't have energy but I did appreciate the dramatic effects. "When I was a young digimon the elder of my village told me… 'what is meant to happen, will happen. What is right, will always prevail.'"

"That was a wise elder…" I said quietly.

"Yes, well he was killed." Ladydevimon said, "Reborn of course, but I don't know where. I was dragged away to work for Piedmon. An evil digimon who showed me that what he was doing was right. And so I knew we'd win against those kids. But we didn't. We lost. I was reborn not long after. I thought the reason I'd lost was because I was too cocky. And then Daemon recruited me. We fought again and again against those children, and twice I was defeated. And that was it. When your daughter and her two friends defeated me I knew I was doing something wrong."

"Well trying to fight my daughter was a start." I said, rolling my eyes, "She's got so much spunk. Mimi wins everything. Always. I don't know why, she's just good at it."

"It's because what she's doing it right." Ladydevimon said, turning toward me. "Mimi is always fighting for what is good. For what is pure. Why can't everyone be like that?"

"No, she's not always fighting for what's right." I shook my head. "She thinks that dating the smart boy is a good idea."

"Koushiro." Ladydevimon said. "That's more than just a good idea. It's the right idea. You weren't there when he confessed his love for her. I was."

"Creep—"

She ignored me, "He let his laptop fall because of her. He loved that laptop. I'd honestly never seen him without his face in that stupid computer. But he let it fall because he needed to save her. Because he loves her."

I bit my bottom lip. That sounded awfully romantic for something I didn't agree with… why was I so happy? I mean, I was pleased he'd saved her life… but what else? Why was I happy with this news? This romantic news between my daughter and that non-movie-star was not good news… but it did prove that he loved her. And that she loved him… and that they were happy with one another…

"What happened next?" I asked quickly, desperate to hear more.

Ladydevimon looked up and thought for a second before looking to me with a blank face. "They killed me."

"How sweet." I said sarcastically. But if Ladydevimon wasn't going to tell me more then I'd need Mimi to. "I need to see Mimi."

"Well she's coming to save you, right?" Ladydevimon asked. I tried to smile at her, but she saw through it. "She's not coming is she?" I shook my head. "Is anyone coming?"

"No…" I told her quietly, "Yoshie Izumi is the only one that knows I'm taken, and she's weak, and fragile and not brave enough to save me."

"Isn't that how you describe Mimi?"

"Yes." I admitted, thinking it over quickly.

"Well, if Yoshie is anything like Mimi we'll be out of her in no time." Ladydevimon said, practically smiling.

"We?" I asked her, sure she was wrong. Yoshie couldn't save us.

"I mean you." Ladydevimon said quietly.

"That's what I thought you said."

_**Sora:**_

"That went well..." Yamato grumbled as we stepped into Mimi's restaurant. We'd just waved Katsue off, after scouring an empty digital world with her. We'd had to be careful though, not to tip any of the digimon we auditioned for her, as to what we were doing. We couldn't have a rumour spreading that Yamato had committed a Digital Crime.

It had been a long day and we'd gone through the Primary Village, the factories which were mostly made of steel which seemed to be gone due to the elements disappearing. We didn't stay long there though since Katsue hated it and we figured her partner wouldn't be somewhere she hated.

According to Gennai a long time ago there is one digimon for every human. Which meant fully that Katsue had a partner somewhere in the Digital World. We thought about heading into Neverland, or the oceans to try them out, but it would be too risky with Tinkermon and Divermon being so close.

"Oh well." I said, "Another day."

"Why are you being so helpful?" Yamato asked as we sat down at the counter. "I've been nothing but awful to you lately."

"You were a little possessive." I corrected. "And mean and blunt about Neo, but you turned out to be right."

"No..." He said under his breath, but I ignored it. He was right. Neo had recently tried to kill us all and actually succeeded in two cases. Had he forgotten?

"Besides, we're friends Yamato." I told him with a smile. "We haven't been acting like friends since our... well, break up." I found it weird to talk about the breakup even so long after it had happened. "But I think being friends is a totally suitable next step for us."

"Alright," He said with a grin, "Sora, will you be my friend?"

"Absolutely Yamato," I winked at him.

Hideto came toward us and took our orders wearing the required pink apron that Mimi had issued. Hideto set two large fruity drinks in front of us. I'd made Yamato try it, it was really good. He'd argued about it deflating his manliness but it was total nonsense.

"It's got such refined flavours." I told him, "You can tell each fruit that's in there!"

"No guy can do that." He scoffed.

"Are you two making up?" Hideto asked us.

"Not in the way you're thinking." Yamato said with his eyes forming a glare at Hideto. Had he not forgiven the Allias lll yet?

"I just mean..." Hideto said, leaning in closer as if it were some big secret, "Will your next album be less awful?"

Yamato swatted at Hideto but he ducked away and laughed as he headed off, back into the kitchen.

"Don't listen to him." I said as we picked up our drinks to find somewhere to sit. "I think your last album was beautiful and creative and intelligent and talented..."

"Are you talking about the album or yourself?" He asked with a smirk.

"Well it's about me isn't it?" I asked. So joking about our breakup had instantly become easier. Maybe we were friends. I seemed so easy to be around him even after so much awkward space between the last time we'd been out together.

We were about to sit down when we spotted Takeru sitting with Mimi. I thought about just ignoring them, but Takeru waved us over to him, so we sat with them. I made sure to sit by Takeru so Yamato could sit beside Mimi.

"Hey guys," Takeru said. Mimi raised her eyebrows, pretending to be excited to see us, but I knew she wasn't. "What are you two doing?"

"We were trying to find a partner for Katsue." Yamato said as if it were a common occurrence. Which it wasn't.

"Why...?" Takeru asked slowly.

"Because he thought it would be a good idea to show her that Digimon exist." I answered for him. Takeru gasped but Mimi clearly already knew this had happened. When had Yamato and Mimi been talking?

"Anyway, since its illegal," I said, "We have to find her a partner really fast."

"Well I told Hideto about the digimon." Mimi said, "Mind he already knew... Koushiro told Sigma—but he already knew too."

"Pretty sure Willis told Mari a while ago..." Takeru said, "She didn't know at the time."

"Well," I said, after sipping from the swirly straw in my drink, "Fortunately the laws weren't set up at that time. Unfortunately, they are now, and we have a very unpleasant man working against the digidestined due to a rivalry with Taichi and Koushiro."

"Don't blame Koushiro." Mimi said, though she really didn't seem to care, she was resting her head in her hand and staring at the table. "It's not his fault." It was true, but I didn't say anything. "Well, I'd better get back to work. Bye guys," She said, and then she was gone.

"Strange girl..." Takeru said taking my drink and drinking out of it. "Is this pineapple? With banana and grape? And... is that kiwi?"

I smiled at Yamato who just rolled his eyes.

"I'm peeing." Yamato said simply, standing up and heading to the bathroom.

"So how has your day been?" Takeru asked.

"Well Yamato and I became friends again." I said, unable to not smile.

"I see that," He said cautiously. "He has a girlfriend though."

"Not in that way!" I said quickly. He nodded in understanding and I sighed. "You don't believe me. That's fine... I don't expect you to. I mean, ever since you met me I've been so confused about love. I even thought that love at first sight exists, but I guess it doesn't—whatever—the point is that I think I finally understand my crest. Love has more to do with yourself than it does with the other person, and yet it's a mutual thing... you know?"

Takeru smiled and stole Yamato's drink.

"What?" I asked him.

"I just think it's funny that it took you so long to learn your crest." He said with a smile, "You were probably the last to figure it out. But I'm proud of you sis."

It felt weird having him call me his sister, but I went with it.

"When did you figure it out?" I asked.

"A while ago." He admitted. "I don't have an exact date for you though."

"And what does it mean?" I asked him.

"Love is who you are." He said.

"And so I couldn't truly be open to love until I stepped back and took a look at myself, and who I really was." I finished for him. He nodded and smiled. He went to ruffle my hair affectionately, but I glared at him so he dropped his hand.

"Sora...?" I turned and saw a mess of white hair sitting atop the man standing next to me now.

"Neo?" I gasped.

"I should go." Takeru said quickly, sliding down the bench.

"No, you stay." I shot to him. "I need a witness."

"I'm not going to hurt you." Neo said. "I promise." I didn't say anything, but instead turned to my drink. "May I sit down?"

I nodded "if you must."

"Have you come to apologize?" Takeru asked.

Neo nodded, "I have." He said, "Takeru... I'm so... _so_ sorry for what Arkadimon did to Patamon... he... I told him to avoid hurting anyone badly if he could... I'm sorry that I lost control... I'm sorry."

"I forgive you." Takeru said. Neo looked shocked though, he actually believed him, and Neo was like a freakish lie detector.

"You do?" Neo asked.

"I do." Takeru nodded. "Because I can tell you're actually sorry."

Neo didn't know what to say, so he settled with nothing. He slowly turned to me and I was almost scared. The last time I'd seen him I'd tried my hardest to beat him up, and here he was, with a faded bruise on his left cheek from where I'd punched him. But he had tried to protect me at first... perhaps he really was telling the truth. "Sora..." He said, "I'm sorry to you as well. For the same things—but also more. I thought that keeping a secret from you... was different than lying, when in all actuality it wasn't. I was still being dishonest even if I wasn't flat out lying to you."

Takeru forgave him... perhaps I should too. But I wasn't sure if I did or not, and he was trying to be honest with me and so I'd have to be honest with him as well, so I'd tell him just that.

"Neo..." I said slowly. "I'm not sure if I forgive you. But I'm a new person now. I feel so open and free... and I'm willing to move on. Because I see what this has done to you, and I see that you honestly are sorry. And so we can move on from this."

"Moving on... together?" He asked hopefully.

"Neo, no." I said shaking my head. "We are officially one hundred percent broken up. But... perhaps... we could go to Jou's wedding together."

"Uhm...?" Takeru said, but I ignored him.

"As friends." I clarified.

"I'd like that." Neo said. We all turned to see Yamato returning. He'd stopped to talk to Taichi who was sitting at the counter stuffing his face full of food. "I'd better go, Rei is probably hungry... it was nice talking to the two of you."

"Goodbye Neo." I said, waving to him. When he stood up he came face to face with Yamato. The two nodded courteously to each other and then moved on.

"What was that about?" Takeru asked Yamato who tried to steal his drink back from his brother. I knew he'd like it. I tried to keep from making eye contact with anyone. I didn't want to know how they felt about what had happened, because what I felt was already confusing enough.

"We had a talk the other day." Yamato said.

"Before, or _after_ you had dinner with Hikari?" Takeru asked, clearly annoyed.

"I don't see what the problem is." Yamato said. "You're dating Catherine aren't you? I'm dating Katsue. Neither of us has any feelings for Hikari."

"Sure, but she's my best friend." Takeru defended. "Get your own."

"I seem to recall you taking a trip to France with my best friend thank you very much." Yamato said sharply, "I just wanted someone to talk to." Yamato said, "Hikari was there, and I went to visit her. Do you know how many times she's had to come back and forth between Japan and America for us?"

"A lot..." Takeru admitted. I could tell that he, along with myself hadn't actually thought about it. Takeru had the excuse of not being here for a couple months, but I'd been here and hadn't once thought about how stressful it might be for her. Wasn't she in school? How were her grades keeping up with all of this travelling?

Speaking of school...

"What happened to school Takeru?" I asked him.

"Oh it's still there." Takeru said.

"Why aren't _you_ there?" Yamato asked, seeing where I was going with this.

"I might..." Takeru trailed off, and then very quietly added "might've dropped out..."

"Takeru..." Yamato said, disappointed. "Why?"

"I was failing anyway!" Takeru defended. "I spent so much time with Catherine—and besides I don't need school, I'm going to become a bestselling author. Just you wait and see."

I trusted him, and I was more interested in Catherine, so I asked, "How is she?"

"She's coming up here actually." Takeru said excitedly, "Next week. And she's staying until after Jou's wedding."

"That's sweet." I said, I wanted to continue, but I was cut off by Mimi who dropped a large envelope on the table in front of me.

"Mail's here," She smiled a fake smile at me and then left as quickly as she'd come.

I opened the envelope quickly.

Today Neo had apologized to me, and attempted to make amends for everything he'd done. I'd actually been allowed _inside_ the meeting room of the council. Today Yamato and I had become friends again. Today I finally got to relax and spend time with my friends, and here... in front of me was an envelope that was surely going to top this day off, making it the best ever.

It was from the college I'd applied to. Takeru and Yamato looked to me with excitement and confusion respectively. I guess I'd never told Yamato my plans...

Finally I pulled the paper out of the envelope and read it over.

_Upon reviewing your application to Tokyo's Fashion and Design Institute, we regret to inform you that we have decided to decline your application._

I stopped reading there and just handed it to Takeru, too heartbroken to read on.

I wasn't accepted... My portfolio was filled with some of my best work—my application was filled with countless fashion shows I'd been a part of, and even my degree at my old school... and I wasn't accepted.

Perhaps... I needed a new dream. But I knew one thing for sure. This quickly turned into the worst day of my life.

_**Isao:**_

Awkward.

Awkward dinner.

Awkward dinner with awkward people.

Awkward, awkward, awkward.

I tried to smile as much as I could. But there was no getting over how awkward it was. There was so much silence in the air around us all, I could practically taste it with every bite of the pork roast that Aimi had prepared.

We'd had to add both extensions to our table to fit everyone, and yet still, no one had anything to say.

On one side of the table sat Shin, Shuu, Jun, Momoe and Emiko who was the only one making sound, noisily eating her peas. On the other side of the table sat Aimi's three daughters Kazue, Cho and Eri, and of course, Jou, who, the last time I'd seen him had walked away from me angrily after finding out that I was dating the woman who sat at the end of the table across from me.

"So what's new with everyone?" Aimi asked with a grin as if she couldn't see the awkward as I could.

Jou cleared his throat and raised his finger as if asking to speak first. "Okay, so I was born a while ago. That's new for you since I've never actually met you."

"We've met," Aimi said with a smile.

"Hardly." Jou muttered. I wanted to scold him for being so rude, but Aimi instructed me specifically not to. She told me to let it be. They were all adults and could say what they wanted. Emiko wasn't though and I found myself practically begging her to do something wrong so I could let out my frustration, but she wouldn't. Other than being a regular three year old with her eating she was well mannered. She thanked me, and said please a lot. I think. It was hard to understand her. She sat up straight, and acted with so much dignity. And she was very good at drawing unicorns. Jou was a good dad… and it almost made me sick to admit it.

"I've got another job interview," Momoe said kindly, trying to spark up a conversation.

"Oh really?" Aimi asked excitedly. "Where at?"

"It's a lab down on the east end of town." Momoe explained, "I don't know if I'll get it, but I thought it was worth a try."

"You think it's wise for the woman to get a job while her daughter is so young?" I asked as calmly as I could, grating my teeth so hard I was surprised they weren't crumbling yet.

"I do." Momoe said with a smile. It looked fake, but at least she was trying. "I think it's important to set an example for my daughter. I'm her mother, and if I do nothing then she'll think that's what women are meant for."

"A woman's duty is to help and to love a man." I told her. Hadn't she learned that? It was rule number one.

"Alright!" Jun said loudly. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a total jerk?"

"Who wants pie?" Aimi asked as if Jun had said nothing.

I had been called a jerk. Many a times, but if I was a jerk for standing up for what I believed in, then so was she. Doing the same thing with a different point of view. But Aimi was clearly headed a different direction with the conversation so I let it slide.

After a quick count of hands Aimi was off to the kitchen to get dessert plates for the pie.

"I was asked to prom yesterday," Eri, Aimi's youngest daughter said.

"Isn't that like three months away?" Shin asked.

"Yeah, but my boyfriend was really romantic about it." Eri defended.

"But what if you break up before that?" Shin asked.

Eri gawked at Shin, who I had to admit was being fairly rude.

"Are you two getting married soon?" Cho, the middle daughter asked Jun and Shuu to avoid any brewing arguments between Eri and Shin.

Jun looked to Shuu and blushed, looking away. Was that a yes? Was my son marrying this eccentric porcupine? Please no…

Thankfully Shuu shook his head. "Not yet, no." The word 'yet' lingered in my head like an irritating echo.

"Kazue!" Aimi called from the kitchen, "Could you come help me dear?" Kazue, Aimi's oldest daughter stood up and hurried toward the kitchen. Shin followed closely behind, excitedly.

"So how has everyone been lately?" I asked, "I don't get to see you much anymore." I thought I'd add that to try and make them feel guilty—why was I being so immature lately?

I looked down to Emiko who was playing with a candle she must've found on the coffee table in the other room. I reached down and took it from her. She looked up to me angrily.

"Hey!" She yelled.

"You can't play with this Emiko," I told her.

"Why…?" She asked.

"You're allergic to candles." I told her, placing the candle on the table.

"No she's not." Jou said, a look of confusion on his face.

"I know," I told him, "But if she's anything like you, then this is the only way to get her to stop doing things."

"By telling her she's allergic to everything?" Jou asked, "Is that what you did with me?" I nodded, what was the problem with that? It had worked well, Jou never did the things I didn't want him to do. "You're joking, right?" I shook my head.

Emiko grabbed my pant leg and pulled on it to get my attention. "Yes?" I asked her. She made sounds come out her mouth but I couldn't understand them. "Oh?" I said enthusiastically, turning to Momoe in hopes of a translation, but she was looking to Jou, as if the two were having a telepathic conversation. He was shaking his head almost vigorously but she was pleading with her eyes. Finally Momoe turned to me.

"She wants to invite you to the wedding." Momoe said, just as Aimi entered the room with Kazue and Shin, all of them carrying plates filled with pie.

"What wedding?" Aimi asked as my jaw dropped.

"Jou and I are getting married." Momoe explained quickly, "Emiko was telling you that she'd like to see you all there."

"Gladly!" Aimi said with a smile, clapping her hands together. "That seems sweet! Isao needs a new suit, and maybe a haircut—when is it?"

"In about a week and a half..." Momoe said quietly.

"That's so soon!" Aimi gasped.

"Well, Jun had it all planned out already, so it wasn't so hard to put all the pieces together." Momoe said.

I didn't know how I felt about it. On one hand I really wanted them to get married, on the other hand, did I want to attend said wedding? Especially since they weren't going to tell me about it?

"We'll be there, right Isao?" Aimi asked. Great, I was in the spotlight. I looked down to Emiko who was trying to climb up onto her chair again and I nodded.

"Absolutely." I said, pushing my chair back and standing up for some fresh air. As I took one step though my socked foot fell into something warm and squishy. Everyone turned to me, clearly expecting me to be angry. I looked down and found a piece of pie, under my foot. I looked around the table to all the concerned faces and then finally my eyes fell upon Emiko. She was smiling that same wicked smile Jou used to before we raised him to stop being such a little prankster.

I smiled back at her. Partly because I was amused that Jou would have to put up with a kid that was so much like himself, but partly because she was so proud of herself. She was adorable.

I couldn't help but laugh, and then she joined in, and soon everyone was laughing.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Mimi, Sora, Satoe and Isao take turns next chapter.


	25. Happy Birthday

**Y/N:** Woo-hoo! Half way through D05! Okay. So…read it, and let us know if you enjoy it with a review!

**U/N:** So this is the halfway point of the story, and although nothing too drastic REALLY happens, this was one of the first plot points we planned for this story, it's pretty cool, well awful really... but we wanted to try a different feel. So you're welcome?

Anyway, I'm Sora here, and also Natsuko and Takeru. Takeru is like my favourite person to write as again which is funny because it just went in a total cycle, excluding Hikari who is so hard for me for some reason.

Anyway, I hope you like it :) Also review -_-

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 25: Happy Birthday**

_**Natsuko:**_

So we'd finally gotten into the prison where Coronamon, Lunamon's friend was being held captive after leaving Merukimon and Volcanusmon behind, and then suddenly the "Death Knight of Wood" had jumped out and threatened to kill us. Hisyarumon he'd called himself.

It didn't take long for the fight to start though. This was my very first battle involving digimon, and it was absolutely terrifying. I was filled with adrenaline, and energy. It was a good thing my body had reverted to its younger years or else I'd have no chance in winning this battle, or even attempting to escape. Not that I seemed to be having any luck anyway. God I missed being alone. I missed the silence, the calmness—oh… Hiroaki's company was nice too… but there was no denying how good it felt to be independent and alone.

Hisyarumon was attacking us with some blade thing, and Lunamon and Coronamon were attacking with all of their might. I was pretty lost in the battle though, what with Lunamon's vortex of bubbles, and Coronamon setting himself on fire.

But they were too weak to fight against this beast. We needed to escape, and not to fight, but he was blocking the entrance and toying with the digimon instead of fighting them. Which was giving me time to think—but it was no use because there really _was_ no other way out.

Kae gripped my arm tightly the moment Hisyarumon used his tail to whip at Coronamon. He was nearly hit, but he avoided it.

There had to be something to help…

And then there was. Completely silently Merukimon had reappeared. I had mixed feelings about seeing him, but I supposed that even if he did send us back to earth now, we'd at least have saved Coronamon. And this way we had someone to help us fight.

"Bomber Art!" Volcanusmon shouted out, running up from behind, and spitting fire all over Hisyarumon. Merukimon slammed the dragon against the ground where it shook violently in pain and attempts to escape. I couldn't help but keep my eyes transfixed on it.

"Come on!" I looked down to see Lunamon tugging on my hand and I nodded. I looked up as she began pulling me along to where Volcanusmon was waiting by the door with Kae and Coronamon.

We were outside the abandoned hideout pretty soon, running down the endless darkness. Volcanusmon motioned for us to wait still as he crafted some weapons out of thin air. Soon he held one with each of his eight hands and then was running back to help Merukimon.

Before he'd even managed to get back to the hideout, Hisyarumon had shot from the mouth of the cave, Merukimon holding tightly to the tail of the beast as he flew through the air.

Both Kae and Lunamon held tightly to me in fear as the dragon came toward us. Volcanusmon leapt into the air and sliced at the beast with two swords and a few axes and hammers. The dragon fell from the sky, and drifted to a stop nearby, Merukimon finally letting go.

Hisyarumon shot a blast out of his mouth directly at Merukimon who fell still the moment he'd been hit.

"Merukimon…" Kae gasped, her nails digging into me.

"We have to help." I said the very moment I'd come up with the idea.

"You're right!" Coronamon nodded, setting off at a run toward the enemy, his body bursting into flames again.

"R-right." Lunamon nodded, running after her friend.

I felt awful, I'd just volunteered two small creatures to fight. I needed to help too. But I didn't have a way to do so. So I'd just have to watch.

Hisyarumon slashed at Volcanusmon, and then reared his giant evil head toward Lunamon.

"Lunamon!" I cried out, "Run!" As the blast was fired from his mouth Volcanusmon and I started running at the same time. The blast hit Volcanusmon instead. He'd protected her… and as he fell limp to the ground his weapons flew off in every which way.

I picked up the nearest one, a heavy metal hammer and then ran toward Lunamon who was crying over Volcanusmon.

"He'll be okay." I said, patting her on the head. "But only if we win. We have to keep them safe, and help Coronamon."

"Okay." Lunamon nodded, looking up to me and wiping her tears. As she did so, one fell from her cheek and stopped falling mid air before it began to glow and change shape.

"A digivice." Lunamon and I said together.

"Ready partner?" Lunamon asked with a grin.

Partner…? We were partners? I didn't do well with partners… "Ready." I said with a nod anyway. I snatched the digivice off of the ground and Lunamon leapt into the air.

"**Lunamon digivolve to… Lekismon!**" When she landed she was a majestic warrior rabbit like creature. Pink with yellow and blue markings and a metal helmet.

Hisyarumon was distracted by her the moment she'd transformed and he turned all of his attention on her. Coronamon ran and hit him from the side and caught him totally off guard. Hisyarumon shook Coronamon off, but it gave me an idea.

He was blinded to the sides. He could only see forward, and his sides were totally defenceless since his arms were occupied holding those stupid orbs.

"Coronamon!" I shouted. He looked to me, confused as I motioned for him to come to me. "Hit him from the side." I told him. "Trust me."

"Mkay…" He said quietly, running around to the other side of him as Lunamon and Hisyarumon battled.

"Corona flame!" Coronamon said as a ball of fire shot from him and hit Hisyarumon directly in the side of the head. He turned toward Coronamon as Lekismon jumped back.

It was my turn though, and I threw the metal hammer as hard as I could, hitting Hisyarumon in the back of the head.

"Yes!" I cheered as he turned on me. "Now Lekismon!"

"Tear Arrow!" She was already saying it, and an arrow made of ice pierced straight through Hisyarumon's head, where Coronamon's fire had hit. And then Hisyarumon had burst into little bits of something. Is that how digimon died? I looked over my shoulder and saw both Volcanusmon and Merukimon waking up, with Kae there to help them stand.

"Oh thank goodness…" I said turning back to Lekismon and Coronamon who were holding a green orb the size of a snow globe.

"This was on his head." Coronamon said. "What do you think it is?"

"I'm not sure." I said, "But it wasn't part of him, which means he was trying to keep it safe."

"So he didn't want us to have it?" Lekismon asked.

"Exactly." I grinned. But he had failed. We did have it. It was now ours… whatever it was.

_**Mimi:**_

Seeing Sora mope about was hard. Mostly because I was seeing her so much more often than I usually did. She was on constant lookout for something that could catch her interest. Since she didn't get into that fashion program she'd been so excited about, she had decided that fashion wasn't for her.

And there was a part of me that actually upset right along with her. It had been her dream for so long, and now, because of my interfering, she lost her desire, the drive that had been pushing her along for so long now. It was almost enough to make me feel guilty. No. Strike that. I _did_ feel guilty.

I hated it.

I hated _her_ for making me feel this way.

And I hated everyone else for being so damn sympathetic about it all. So she didn't get into the college of her choice, so what? I almost didn't get to come to Japan at all, and no one even cared! And when my mother wouldn't let me study the culinary arts, no one batted an eye. Why was Sora so much more important to these people than I was?

But the worst part of it all, was that my plan came back to bite me. I was so determined to keep Sora from taking attention off of my restaurant and achievements that it didn't occur to me that she'd be sticking around now. She didn't have anywhere to go anymore. She would've moved out of my house, and had far less time to spend stealing my boyfriend…but now, I screwed myself over. She still had all the time in the world to spend stealing Koushiro from me.

I sighed, and stared down at my boring pieces of toast, and my lumpy, brown porridge. I felt like they looked. Boring and ugly. My own boyfriend, who loved me—_me_ not Sora!—didn't even want to stick around today. Today of all days. It was my birthday, and I'd had to make my own breakfast, for the first time in a long time as it was a birthday tradition for me to have breakfast delivered to me while I was still in bed. Koushiro knew this. Even _Sora_ knew this, despite my growing aversion to her.

But it didn't matter. I had to make my own breakfast, and worse, I had to eat it alone. There wasn't a note anywhere, saying where Koushiro and Sora had gone. Ken was still lounging, half-asleep on our couch. He hadn't left in ages. I wasn't sure if he cared enough to leave.

He was probably there for Sora. To comfort her. To console her. Perhaps he thought Sora was so beautiful, and wonderful that she outshone his own wife, and was here as a part of a well kept affair. It could happen. And he wouldn't choose me. Who'd want ugly, whiny Mimi, when they could have Sora in all her glory?

Wait.

Was I really jealous that Ken might want to have an affair with Sora, rather than me? That couldn't be right… I didn't want Ken to have an affair at all. Miyako loved him, and he loved her. They were the most stable couple in our whole group. I wanted them to stay together, to be a symbol, proof that stability could exist in a life so plagued by the Digital World's problems.

Besides, I wasn't even attracted to Ken. Neither was Sora I realized.

But it didn't matter, because he _would_ choose Sora over me, if he made the choice. And no matter how little I wanted Ken, I wanted him to want me more than her. I wanted everyone to want me more than her. But especially Koushiro. My boyfriend. My boyfriend who clearly thought it was okay to go out with _Sora_ on my birthday, instead of spending the day with me.

And since he hadn't left a note, I couldn't even be sure he remembered that it _was_ my birthday…

"Mimi!" Ken whined from the couch, ruining my internal despair.

"What is it?" I snapped at him. It wasn't his fault that Koushiro forgot…well, it _could_ be, but I didn't think so. I shouldn't be mean, but I wasn't in the mood for playing nice.

"The telephone is ruining my concentration," he informed me. I hadn't even realized it was ringing.

"What are you even concentrating on?" I asked, though I didn't expect much of an answer.

"I'm trying to think up more ways to save energy," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Isn't that counterproductive then? Just stop thinking about it, you'll save lots of effort," I told him, reaching for the phone, which had rung again.

"You're a genius," he told me, sighing happily as he relaxed into nothing more than a couch potato, staring at the same movie he'd been watching on repeat since he'd shown up at my house. I perked up a bit. I _was_ pretty great, wasn't I?

"Hello," I said pleasantly into the telephone.

"Mimi? Hello darling, it's your father," came Dad's voice.

"Hi, Daddy," I said excitedly. Finally, _something_ was going to go right for me.

"It's nice to hear you dear," Dad told me. "You don't call nearly enough."

"I'll try harder in the future Daddy," I said grinning from ear to ear.

"I was just wondering, if you had heard from your mother," he questioned. And I felt my grin falter.

"Why would I hear from her before you?" I asked him. "She lives with you. You would have seen her…"

"I know I do," he said. "But she went to visit Japan a while back, and she hasn't contacted me since she arrived there. I'm not sure what her mission was this time, but I figured she wanted to break you and your boyfriend up…which means she ought to be wherever _you_ are."

"I haven't seen her since I last came to New York Dad," I said, my grin having melted off my face entirely. I could always count on Mom to ruin my day, even when she wasn't there to do it herself.

"Oh dear…" he muttered worriedly. "I've tried calling her, but she won't answer. I always get a different message. Something about her not being on this plane, and to try again later…"

"I've gotten messages like that before," I said, thinking of the Digital World's phone booths. "Don't worry about it. She's probably just trying to do this 'mission' as you call it, under cover. I'll let you know if I see her."

"Please do. She's already been gone longer than I expected…"

"Don't you have something else you'd like to say?" I asked, realizing that was his way of finishing the phone call.

"Do I?"

"You should," I said growing impatient.

"Okay…then…how are Sora and Koushiro doing?" he asked hesitantly.

"Why'd you say Sora first?" I asked. "And why do you assume they're together?"

"I don't…know?" he offered.

"They're not you know. Together. Koushiro loves me dad. Me. And Sora's just a jerk that's getting in our way. And she's not going to be a designer, because she didn't get accepted into that school, so you can mourn her loss, just like everyone else is!" I shouted.

"I'm sorry I asked," he said honestly. I waited for him to continue, but he just stayed silent.

"You don't remember do you?" I accused him.

"Remember what?" he asked.

"How many daughters do you have?"

"Just one," he said.

"And how many other children do you have?"

"There's just you, Mimi," he said. I could tell he was getting impatient, just like I was.

"So that's just _one_ birthday to remember, isn't it?" I said.

"Yes…" he said.

I waited only to be met with more silence.

"It's my birthday!" I shouted at him.

"Is it?" he asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

I screamed and threw the phone down at the receiver.

This was the worst birthday ever. Hopefully, it could only get better…

_**Koushiro:**_

"Why are we here again?" I asked. I needed the reminder. I kept forgetting her answers. It was as if my mind couldn't be bothered to retain any information. No. Retaining information took trying, it was like work. And working took energy. I didn't have any energy. I didn't want to be out on the streets of Odaiba. I didn't want to be walking anywhere, and I especially didn't want to be dodging passersby, simply because they couldn't be bothered to move out of the way.

Didn't they realize that I didn't want to move either?

I really didn't want to be outside. I thought longingly of our beat up couch, and the ottoman that didn't match. I wished I was Ken. I didn't think I'd ever think such words. But then, I wasn't thinking much these days. Thinking was a waste of energy after all.

"You're girlfriend is pretty high maintenance," Sora insisted. "And she's going to be furious if she realizes that you forgot today was her birthday."

"I didn't forget," I told her, but stopped midway through my excuse, not bothering to tell her that I simply chose not to remember. Remembering, like thinking and retaining information, took energy. Energy that I simply had no desire to use.

"Sure you didn't," she said sarcastically. I would have rolled my eyes at her, but I decided not to. Too much work.

Tentomon and Biyomon were accompanying us on this mystery quest of ours. Both were wearing sweatshirts, once again. It was their standard disguises. Sometimes, when I had the energy to do so, I thought that the people of Earth who were ignorant of our parallel realms just couldn't be bothered with figuring out logical solutions, and were too lazy to do anything other than accept our pitiful excuses as to why a large pink bird and a robotic ladybug were wandering around Odaiba. There was simply no possibly way for the entire population to truly believe that the two digimon were children in Halloween costumes. But that was the only plan we had, and not one person had ever called us on the stupidly simplistic disguises.

Not that I could come up with anything better. Even when I _was_ feeling inclined to try.

"Are we trying to find a present?" Biyomon wanted to know.

"No," Sora said. "Luckily, I had a few things stashed away after Valentine's Day. We just need something that'll push this over the edge. Mimi's kind of clingier than usual these days, and she needs something really special as proof that Koushiro loves her. And I thought, well, she loves sweet things, and you can do a lot with icing, so we're going to make a fantastic cake. What do you think?"

"I'm trying not to," I informed her.

"You're not being even remotely helpful," she complained.

I shrugged mentally, and let her continue dragging me towards the grocery store.

"Maybe we could make a chocolate cake?" Tentomon suggested. "I like chocolate."

"I think Mimi likes red velvet the best, but I have no idea how to make those, and I'm sure I'd fail if I tried," Sora said. "And since I have this strong feeling that Koushiro's going to leave me to make it all, I think chocolate sounds lovely."

Tentomon buzzed out a cheer, and Biyomon and Sora laughed. I didn't. Too much work.

"Come on Lazy Bones," Sora said to me. "I'm not going to let you ruin your girlfriend's birthday."

I was glad she was putting so much effort into this. That left less for me to worry about. Not that I would worry over it. I would've most likely ignored it and let everything fall to shambles, but it was nice of Sora to make sure that didn't happen.

"I'm sure I can download a recipe," Sora assured us, fiddling with her cell phone. "This one sounds good. 'Guaranteed to be perfect'…I don't know about that, but it looks easy to make. We'll need cocoa powder, flour, sugar…you know what. Let's just head to the baking aisle."

"Whatever," I muttered.

"Oh. This is delightful."

"Excuse me?" Sora asked the woman in front of us. Her black hair was tied up at the top of her head, and she was wearing a skin tight ensemble, underneath a set of purple robes. It was the wings on her back though, that had Sora on edge. I wouldn't have noticed they weren't part of a costume—oh the irony, falling for our own trick—had Sora not gasped. "Digimon!"

"Not so loud darling," the woman—no, digimon said. "You worked so hard to ensure these worthless peons were kept in the dark about the real goings on of the worlds that surround them."

"How did you get here!" Sora demanded.

"You keep the doors open, darling," the digimon said. "If you didn't want trespassers, I would suggest you separate the worlds more permanently."

We weren't being quiet by any means, and thus were attracting the eyes of various shoppers. Biyomon and Tentomon started fidgeting with the attention. I looked between Sora and the digimon woman, wondering whether I should remind them that we had an audience… I decided to let Sora figure it out. If she didn't, well, then I wouldn't have to walk all the way back outside, would I?

"You make it all too easy," the digimon purred. "I wonder if you truly have peace in mind, or if you really long for the adventures you had in the past. You cut so many corners with your methods, you let things happen when you could stop them years in advance. You ignore the murmurs of impending doom, and let them fester until they are a real threat."

I wondered momentarily just how long she was going to nitpick our methods. I didn't like that she was making me think. I also didn't like that she was right. We did do those things. We forgot to get rid of Fanglongmon after defeating the sovereigns, resulting in a disastrous event. And we'd been ignoring the threats in the Digital World thus far this time around. Arkadimon hadn't even been defeated in our last confrontation. And Daemon was kicking around somewhere. He had been for ten years now, and we'd done nothing to find him or eliminate his future threat. We just assumed that since he'd waited this long already, he'd wait longer.

We couldn't just assume that. Just because he'd done so in the past did _not_ mean that he was content merely taking turns with the other evil and powerful digimon we'd been faced with. He could attack at any time, while we were hunting down Arkadimon perhaps. While half of us were fighting him, Daemon would be able to eliminate the rest of us with little to no trouble. Especially if he had a team…and let's be honest, when did an evil digimon _not_ have an army, or a small group of minions at least?

My head was hurting, I was thinking too much. I just needed to sit down. Standing and thinking at the same time took twice as much energy. I really wished I was back home on my couch watching that dumb movie for the thirteenth time this week…

"But I suppose," the digimon continued. "I really must thank your lack of foresight. Without it, I wouldn't exist. Bravo. I must commend you. You've allowed the creation of your own doom."

"Like we haven't heard that before," Biyomon countered.

"Perhaps," Tentomon interfered, before the digimon could attack Biyomon for her pertinence. "We should remove ourselves from this public location?"

"Good idea," Sora told him. I was silently cursing him. I didn't want to move. "Get up Koushiro. We can't destroy the grocery store. We already did so much damage to the community centre…"

I groaned and allowed her to pull me to my feet—there was no need to do it myself if she was willing to do it for me.

"Oh. This _is_ precious," the digimon laughed. "I suppose I won't have to deal with him after all. He's already affected. It looks like it's just you and me missy."

"Who are you?" Sora asked fiercely.

"I am Lilithmon," Lilithmon said proudly. "And I'll give you three seconds as a head start."

"What?" Biyomon asked.

"One," Lilithmon said.

Sora grabbed mine and Biyomon's hands.

"Two," Lilithmon continued.

Tentomon flew ahead of us, and Sora was dragging us through the people at the checkout counter, and practically threw me through the door.

"Three!" I heard Lilithmon yell. She flew towards us, jumping over the crowd, and slipping through the doorway behind us. Sora kept yanking me along. This time, we didn't need to weave around the pedestrians on the street. They all jumped out of the way of the crazy girl dragging her friends behind her. Or maybe they were just terrified and confused by the flying robotic ladybug who'd shed his sweater in his hasty retreat?

Then again, it might've been the look on Lilithmon's face as she ran after us that did it.

"I can do this all day, darlings," Lilithmon informed us. "Don't make this hard on yourselves."

"We can…do this…all day too…" Sora panted.

"We both know that's a lie," Lilithmon said, not sounding remotely out of breath. She launched herself in the air, and landed gently on the ground in front of us. "Now that we've gotten the chase out of the way, allow me to infect you, dear."

"No thanks," Sora said with wide eyes.

"It won't hurt a bit. And you won't even notice it," Lilithmon pouted.

"I think I'll notice when I'm dying, thanks," Sora said sardonically.

"That's the beauty of it. You _really _won't notice," Lilithmon assured her. "Now hold still."

Lilithmon didn't really leave much room for Sora to object. She backed her up against the wall of the nearest building. I looked around to see if there was anyone that might be able to save her, so that I wouldn't have to put forth the effort, but my search came up empty. I groaned. This was not what I wanted to do when I woke up this morning. I resigned myself to the role of hero, and took a step towards the two.

"Darkness Love!" Lilithmon called, readying her infection for Sora.

"Not so fast!"

Someone came and tackled Lilithmon out of the way.

"Don't just stand there," a different, shyer voice shouted. "It's a battle. Get your digimon ready!"

"Right," Sora said, grabbing her newly repaired—thanks to me, though I couldn't imagine where I'd found the drive to rebuild it…I couldn't remember a time when I actually wanted to do work—digivice and looked to Biyomon. I on the other hand, looked towards the digimon that had shouted out the order. It was a small dragon, and was quite familiar. Dracomon. Which meant the saviour was…

"Neo," Tentomon said surprised.

"Just digivolve," Neo snapped, while he wrestled with Lilithmon.

"**Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!**"

"Koushiro," Tentomon urged.

"No," I said. "That's a lot of work. We've already got Birdramon. That seems good…don't you think?"

"Oh!" Lilithmon said delightedly, throwing Neo off of her. He rolled along the sidewalk. "He really did a number on you, didn't he?"

I didn't know who she was talking about, and I didn't care enough to figure it out.

"Koushiro," Sora pleaded.

"Screw it," Neo said, pulling himself to his feet. "Just attack her before she infects you."

"Electro Shocker!" Tentomon shouted.

"Baby Breath!" Dracomon called, much to Neo's annoyance. Neo rolled his eyes and scoffed. Apparently he still didn't appreciate his digimon partner.

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon bellowed, shooting large balls of fire towards Lilithmon.

"Now, now," Lilithmon said, batting each attack away. "You didn't think I was weak did you? I'm not. But I can see I've outstayed my welcome. Do not believe we've given up on you though, digidestined of love. You will be infected. All of you will. And then you won't stand in our way."

"You have to explain!" Sora insisted.

"Darling, you don't think I'd spoil everything, do you? No. We're not like those other villains in the past. We're confident, but not cocky," Lilithmon informed us. "If we tell you our plan, you'll derail it…well the few of you that have yet to be infected will _try_. But you've done incredible things in the past. We'll not underestimate you."

And then Lilithmon melted into a shadow on the ground.

"That was a lot of excitement for one day," I pointed out.

"You didn't do anything!" Neo said incredulously.

"I stood there and watched," I said. "And now I'm beat."

"Go home," Sora said with a sigh. "Mimi will be at work by now though… Just relax or something. I'll make the cake for you."

I smiled. That was a plan I could appreciate.

"I'll meet you at the house when I've gotten the ingredients," Sora said. But I didn't really care anymore. She'd already given me permission to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.

"Need any help?" Neo asked awkwardly.

"Actually…yeah," Sora said. "I have to ask you something anyway."

I didn't hear anything else though, I'd already shut my brain off for the day, letting Biyomon and Tentomon lead me back home.

_**Takeru:**_

I smiled as the spring air washed over us. Spring was the best time of year. There was so much life and energy, everything was so clear and clean and, well… wonderful. We were in the park. It was like some sort of exciting idea that some absolute idiot had come up with.

Now I wasn't pointing fingers, but I was pretty sure Hideto did it on purpose.

Most of the digimon, including Lalamon, Gatomon, Terriermon, Lopmon, Agumon, Gabumon and Floramon were at Mimi's restaurant already, waiting for us to get there to join the party, but Patamon was still with me. I couldn't leave him. It was weird, but ever since he'd come back I'd been unable to leave him... I was just scared I'd lose him for good one day.

"_Hey Patamon," I asked the moment he'd digivolved back to his rookie form a few days prior. "Do you... remember everything?"_

"_Yep." Patamon said with a smile as Norn checked him out excitedly. "I remember dying—and everything before. Just like last time silly."_

And yet still it didn't feel right. I just... what if something happened on Earth? He'd never return to an egg. He'd die.

Willis was sitting on the swings between Hikari and Mari, and on Hikari's other side, leaning against the bars, was Hideto himself. Catherine was sitting next to me, holding my hand as we sat on top of the fallen monkey bars, Patamon wrapped in my other hand, in a nearly sleeping state.

I specifically removed myself from all of the awkward to spend time with Catherine who was finally here in Japan. I'd missed her a lot.

The more I talked to her the more I realized how much I really liked her, and how awesome she was.

The sun was beginning to set and the sky was cast with an array of beautiful colours.

"It is beautiful." Catherine said quietly in a breathtaking voice. Not only was she awesome, but she thought very similarly to myself, which was pretty awesome. I looked down at her and smiled. Suddenly she was leaning toward me though. Why was she doing that? What was she doing? Was she going to kiss me?

"You have a bug in your hair!" I lied as if it were the most interesting fact ever.

"Where?" She asked calmly, as she began running her fingers through her long, golden hair. She wasn't panicking. She was so cool. Down to earth, not a girly girl, super pretty and French and talented—well I'm sure she was talented at something, I'd just not seen it yet. She was really good at picking flowers though—oh shoot she was talking to me. "Did I get it?"

"Yeah I guess." I said, putting my arm around her and turning back to the sunset.

"Zen where were we?" She asked with a smile as she leaned closer again.

"We're on the monkey bars." I said, "Duh. Oh hey—maybe you should go home."

_Smooth. Well done._

She looked to me, offended, and could I really blame her?

"I just mean that since it _is_ Mimi's birthday that I really should see her. We're all going to go see her." I said with a smile.

"Can I come?" She asked.

"It's pretty dangerous." I told her, "Your parents specifically told me to keep you safe. Did you know that there were like twelve murders in this park last night alone?"

"Zen why are we still 'ere?" She asked suddenly frightened.

I shook my head, "No, look, I'm lying." She looked to me, again confused. "I'd love for you to come to Mimi's birthday party."

"As long as you walk me home." She said with a wink, "I wouldn't want to be the thirteenth unexpected death in the park."

"That's not a good joke." I said.

"I know, I'm sorry!" We both laughed for a while, about random things until Hideto stepped in front of us.

"C'mon." He said flatly.

I looked up at him. "To Mimi's?"

"The restaurant." He replied. "I have to work and that's where Mimi and the others are."

"Cool." I smiled and jumped to my feet.

After helping Catherine up as well, we set off toward Mimi's restaurant. Willis had gone to get the digimon without me noticing apparently, and sent them all to the digital world to continue playing. It was safer than taking them through down town when the sun was still up. We didn't want to cause any suspicion. Especially with investigations happening about the park, and who destroyed it. They were going to be taken out at Mimi's party later so they could join in on the fun though.

"Takeru," Hikari said, startling me. She was walking beside me, it'd thought it had been Catherine, but she was up with Willis, Hideto and Mari now. "I finished reading your book." She didn't sound overly impressed… "It was well written. You've got a gift, but…"

"But…?" I asked, "You can be honest. Blunt even."

"But it sucks." She said flatly.

"Not that blunt." I groaned, "What's wrong with it?"

"It's just not as interesting as what actually happened." She explained. We were all grouped up at the corner now waiting for the lights to change. "You have it so you win at everything. You're great Takeru, but you're great because of the build up. Because you got to where you are now, and you went through it all."

"But I know how to relate to me really well." I explained. But I did see her point. Perhaps it was time to rethink the plotting of the book. I supposed I could keep it so that Taichi had defeated Metalseadramon… and maybe I could give Palmon back to Mimi instead of giving her the Numamon… and Koushiro and Jou didn't have to be one person…

"Just, think about it." She said. "It's a great book, but I think it'll be better if you kept true to the original." She raised her eyebrows at me, "And for the record, I'm not an ancient reincarnated princess."

"Oh come on!" I laughed, "That was the best part!" She laughed and then patted my shoulder, hurrying off to walk with Willis as Catherine fell in step with me again, as the light had changed.

"It's pretty chilly." She said, rubbing her arms.

She wanted my coat! Damn I was a good boyfriend. Reading all the signs. I slipped my coat off and put it around her shoulders, suddenly realizing that she was right, it was kind of cold. I started rubbing my own arms when she linked her arm through mine.

I looked down at her and smiled again, and just like last time, she was leaning closer.

"Is that a fire hydrant?" I asked, super interestingly.

"Uhm… yes." She said awkwardly.

It wasn't that I didn't want to kiss her—I just maybe… wasn't ready for it. It wasn't the right moment. Being raised by my romantic novel obsessed mother I knew that the first kiss was supposed to be magical. It had to be with the right person, who I was sure had to be Catherine, I really liked her, we were dating—who else could it be? And it had to be special. Unforgettable. Romantic, and unique and beautiful. Walking in a group of people was not romantic.

Finally though, we had made it to Mimi's restaurant, and as if on cue Patamon perked up, waking up fully. I took my own coat and Catherine's from her and hung them overtop of Yamato's just so he would have trouble finding it because I thought it would be kind of funny, and then I took her hand and led her through the others and into the main dining area.

The moment we'd arrived Patamon patted my hand and flew off to the kitchen to where he knew the other digimon would be playing, completely sanitized, of course... but probably not actually.

Yamato was sitting with Rei at the counter, staring disgustedly at Taichi who was shoving food into his mouth like he was literally starving.

"I want that." Willis said, standing next to me suddenly. He was staring at Taichi's food, which honestly didn't look very appetising.

Hikari arrived a moment later only to rush after Willis who was already trying to place an order for the food. Hideto slipped past me and into the kitchen to start his shift which left me with Catherine and Mari.

"I feel so out of place." Mari said quietly, looking around the room.

"It's cool." I told her, "We all like you… just stay away from Iori and you'll probably have a good time."

"Mimi hates me too." She said, "This is _her_ birthday…"

"Sit with us then." I told her with a smile. "We'll go find Miyako and it'll be fine."

She smiled at me and so I led her to where Miyako was sitting, at a table all alone. She was fiddling with a salt shaker nervously.

"Hey," I said cautiously, warning her before going too close. She jumped and spun around, sighing with relief upon seeing it was just us.

"Hi Takeru… Mari." I pulled out a chair for Catherine, but Mari took it with a grin so Catherine and I took the bench against the wall. "I'm Miyako." Miyako said to Catherine.

Catherine smiled, "Catherine." She reached out her hand to shake Miyako's, but all she got was a cold stare. Catherine awkwardly put her hand back to her side. "So how are you?"

"I'm fine." Miyako said flatly.

"Where's Ken?" Mari asked.

"You tell me." Miyako said. "He went to tell Koushiro something and never came home." She was speaking calmly, but I could see the panic in her eyes.

"I'm sure he's fine." I assured her.

"No!"

Willis' voice caught my attention. I looked toward him as he stared at Hikari.

"You can have that chair. I get the whole bench." He said.

"The whole bench?" She said, "How much food did you order? Are you going to inflate? Or do you just no want to sit by me?"

"Neither—I just want the bench. It's mine." He smiled at her and she just laughed, sitting across from him. I shook my head and turned to Catherine.

"I'll introduce you later when the party actually starts." I told her, "People will be happy to meet you I'm sure."

She smiled, but her eyes were transfixed on Jou, Momoe and Emiko. Jou was holding Momoe with her head rested on his shoulder as the two talked and smiled at one another as Emiko pretended her cup was an airplane, spilling water all over herself and the table.

"They're so cute." She said quietly.

I didn't have a chance to respond though because Mimi had entered the room.

"I'm here everyone!" She cheered, "You may applaud!"

I laughed and applauded rather unenthusiastically, like everyone else.

"Alright" She said with a grin, walking past Taichi and running her hands through Yamato's hair. She was at the other side of the room before she talked again. "This is a good time for us all. Mostly me, but you guys are getting some of the splash." She motioned behind her to a blackboard with today's specials written on it.

"Are you giving us all free food?" Taichi asked excitedly.

"Shut it Taichi." Iori growled. I turned my attention to him. He was sitting with Michael, Tatum, Kurayami and Daisuke… so where was Koushiro and Sora…? And Sigma?

"Dibs on all of it." Willis said loudly.

Mimi cleared her throat, "No… No I'm not giving you free food."

"Less interested." Taichi said.

Mimi, once again, cleared her throat, spinning around the blackboard. "I'm welcoming you all to the 'We Hate Sora Club!'"

The entire room was silent.

_What?_

"Mimi…?" My heart stopped for a second as I spun around and saw Sora standing in the doorway with Koushiro, Biyomon and Tentomon.

_**Sora:**_

I stood still. What was going on?

'_Reasons why Sora sucks_:' Was written on the blackboard behind Mimi. I had to force myself not to read the reasons why I sucked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I looked around the room. Taichi, Takeru, Hikari, Yamato… why were any of them here? Did they hate me? Miyako…? All of them? I'd known Jou since I was about seven years old—and here he was in a hate club.

I took a deep breath. Each of them was staring at me. I knew I'd have to be as strong as I could, I couldn't cry, I shouldn't cry—I was going to cry.

_Stay strong Sora_.

I looked to Koushiro for a moment who was staring, wide eyed at Mimi, his mouth hanging open a little, and then down to the cake in my hands.

_Happy 23rd Birthday_ It said amongst the green icing and intricately iced replicas of her crest of purity.

I knew what I had to do. I had to hand her the cake and stay strong. I had to show them all that I didn't care. Which was a lie. I did care. Very much.

I took one step, and instantly felt all the eyes bore even further into me, my knees shaking. I got a hold of myself and finished walking across the room to where Mimi was standing, her lips pursed.

I slowly raised my hands out and offered her the cake. "Happy Birthday," I said, my voice shaky as my eyes began to sting.

_Don't cry._

Mimi took the cake and looked up at me, her eyebrows raised. "You know," She said, her eyes suddenly falling into a glare. "I'm the baker. _I'm _the chef. This cake probably doesn't taste very good you know." Mimi pushed past me, slamming into my shoulder, forcing me to spin around and watch as she strode over, behind the counter. "You know where this belongs, don't you?" I shook my head, unable to say anything. She held the cake at arm's length and then sighed, "In the garbage." She dropped the cake. "Like your fashion career."

I suddenly felt as if I'd been punched in the stomach, and no one was doing anything to help me, and I no longer cared what they thought of me. I turned and I ran toward the door, tears streaming down my face as I pushed past Koushiro and out the door.

_**Koushiro:**_

The room was absolutely silent. Half of the digidestined were staring that the door behind me that Sora had disappeared through, and the others were staring at Mimi in horror.

I didn't know what to think.

I didn't _want_ to think.

But really, I didn't have to.

I knew which path I needed to follow. It wasn't a real choice. The only problem was making sure that I could force my body—in its lethargic state—to follow through and do the right thing. It came down to which would take the most effort. And while I knew that was the wrong way to think about the situation, I could not force my mind off of that one-track way of thinking. There was clearly something wrong with me. But I didn't have the time or energy to spend on figuring out just what it was.

"Koushiro," Mimi said as a warning. She must have seen my hesitance as the internal debate it truly was.

I met her gaze.

"It's my birthday, Koushiro," she said. "And as your girlfriend, I suggest you make your next choice very carefully."

But I didn't see the Mimi I loved staring back at me from those caramel coloured eyes. It was just a stranger in her body.

"You're not my girlfriend," I told her. She gasped, and a few others probably did too, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out just who did. "I don't know who you are. And honestly? I can't be bothered to try and figure it out. I love Mimi. Not this monster she let herself get turned into."

"Koushiro," Mimi growled, as I took a step away from her. The wildness in her eyes took on the look of a wounded animal. "If you walk out that door, we are through. You won't be able to get me back."

"And if I stay, I won't have you, not really," I told her. "And I'd have to sit through countless hours of couple's therapy... It's too much work, and I don't care enough to do anything about it. I can't care. Because you're not Mimi."

"Don't do this," Mimi said, her anger melting into pleading. "It's my birthday. You can't do this on my birthday. It already sucks. Don't make it the worst day ever."

"You made it that way on your own," I told her, and turned to stalk out of the restaurant, glad that I didn't have to spend energy on that anymore.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Sora and Miyako take charge in the next chapter, with Yoshie and Hiroaki back them up…


	26. The Infection Spreads

**Y/N:** Sorry for the short author's note, but my brother literally woke me up just so I could post this…so my mind's a little foggy.

**U/N:** Sorry this is late, the internet was out yesterday and my sister won't put things up when I tell her to. I literally had to wake her up to do it this time around. So I hope you like it and yeahhh. Anyway, this is even more Sora, but that's okay because I'm starting to actually really like her-or at least enjoy torturing her... and we're only getting started MWHAHAHA-I'm actually not sure what happens with-oohhh yes I am! Daaaaaamn gurl be trippin.

Who am I?  
Whatevah! Hope you like the chapter :)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 26: The Infection Spreads**

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

"Seriously though," Hikari said, her hands on my shoulders as she stared directly into my eyes. We were standing in the middle of the mall hallway, the dirty tiled floor beneath us, and the streaked glass windows to our sides. We had gone shopping the day after Mimi's birthday so she could talk to me before heading back to New York. "Sora, we all left right after that."

"I'm not questioning you!" I insisted, though it was hard to hide the fact that I really doubted her.

"Sora," She said, her eyebrows raised, "Look, we had no idea what was going on, and the moment Willis finished his food we left. And the others left even before that. I tried too, but I couldn't, because... well, Willis was oddly possessive about his food..." She trailed off for a moment, but I was starting to think that I believed her. "Anyway, Takeru left with Catherine, Mari, Miyako and Taichi. Iori started yelling angrily and then dragged Daisuke, Kurayami and Michael away, and then finally Jou exploded."

"That seems messy." I said quietly.

"He was furious. He and Mimi just screamed and yelled and it was really scary..." Hikari ignored me, "It got so ugly that Momoe actually took Emiko home before they finished. And I don't know how it ended either because Willis and I were gone after that."

"You didn't mention Yamato." I pointed out, counting my fingers.

"Oh he and Hideto left into the kitchen to write some songs with the digimon... or something." Hikari said, "You know, I actually have no clue what happened to him... I wonder where he went?"

"It doesn't matter," I said quickly. I didn't really care, I actually believed her. My friends didn't hate me. Besides Mimi... my roommate.

"What did Koushiro say when he chased after you?" Hikari asked as she started leading me down the hall. We hadn't bought anything yet, because I'd been more interested in what Hikari was saying, but now I felt better, so I could focus on shopping. I needed a new purse. The old one reminded me too much of Mimi since I'd bought it with her.

What _had_ Koushiro said to me?

"_Sora!" He called, chasing after me. I spun around and looked to him after wiping my face to try and mas the running makeup as best I could. It was dark out, it was raining and it was cold, and it made the experience even worse. Koushiro finally slowed to a halt and stopped in front of me. "Sora, Mimi's a jerk."_

"_What?" I said, "I mean yeah I know."_

"_Are you okay?"_

_I was crying like a baby, tears in a steady stream down my face, and everything I said was hard enough for me to understand and I was the one speaking. One of my absolute best friends was leading a hate group for the rest of my friends about me. They all hated me, and I had nothing left at all. "Yeah, I'm fine."_

"_No, you're not." He said, shaking his head._

"_I am." I insisted, "This is Mimi's birthday Koushiro, go be with her. She's your girlfriend."_

"_Maybe," He said slowly, then he shook his head. "Sora, I came to be with you. You need me right now. I am so sorry for what Mimi did. I'm sorry I didn't say anything before it got out of hand, and I'm sorry I haven't been standing up for you this whole time."_

"_You can't stand up for me against your girlfriend..." I told him, "Relationship rule number one. If your girlfriend hates someone, you can't talk to that person."_

"_You were my friend before she was my girlfriend." He said as I tried to pretend I hadn't made a disgusting sound with my nose as I sobbed. I honestly wasn't really sure what to say to him, and I had to bite my lip to refrain from falling apart. Who was I kidding? I'd already fallen apart. "Sora, I love Mimi... I really do, but I love facts and logic too, and as it stands from my point of view which is correct, as always, Mimi is wrong. You are right. She's being stupid and jealous. We just have a platonic relationship, she knows that but still wants all of my time—and you're doing nothing wrong. But she is. So much wrong. No one should treat you like that. Especially not after you've just broken up with your boyfriend. I mean I've never experienced a breakup but I imagine it's probably pretty bad, and I can't stand to see you cry. So let's go shopping. Or we can draw—or go to the park and look at flowers—I'll even play soccer with you—but not tennis, I really hate that," I started laughing a pretty ugly laugh as I wiped my tears and calmed down a little, "You know what? I'd even do that if that's what you want. I want you to smile and when I said tennis you laughed, so let's do that."_

_I threw my arms around him, unable to hold back any longer. He hugged me back, gripping me tightly, and soaking me in water even more than I already was. _

"_Let's just go rent a movie or something." I said into his shoulder. "It'll be easier for you anyway since you're so lazy lately—" I pulled away suddenly, "You'd play soccer with me? I thought you were too exhausted to think?"_

"_I am." He said, "Soccer's a pretty mindless sport—if it wasn't Taichi and Daisuke wouldn't be so good." I laughed again, "I'd do anything for you Sora. You're my best friend."_

"_You're amazing." _

"Nothing." I told Hikari, unable to hide my smile, "We just talked." I knew that she knew that I was lying, but since it was Hikari I knew she wouldn't push. She was like a loyal little sister. Which was an oxymoron, but still. "So do you like Catherine?"

"Yeah, she's great." Hikari said, beaming. "She makes Takeru really happy. They're one of the cutest couples ever."

"You said that about Neo and I," I pointed out.

"And you were a cute couple until he snapped and turned evil, destroyed the digital world and killed two of our friends." Hikari said as if it wasn't a touchy subject with me. "Sorry that was rude... I guess I have no filter lately."

"You know what?" I said, "It really didn't bother me that much. I feel happier than I have in a long time which is funny after what happened last night."

"I'm happy for you." Hikari smiled at me. "You know I think I have a terrible judge of relationships. I thought Iori and Noriko would work out, and you and Taichi and you and Yamato, and you and that awful boy who cheated on you..."

"Kiyoshi," I said with a smirk as Hikari picked up a pair of boots from the stand outside Mimi's favourite boot shop. I tried to pretend I didn't notice, but Hikari saw the look in my eyes and then caught on.

"Let's go somewhere else." She said with a smile, taking my hand and practically skipping down the hallway.

"Anyway," I said, "You think Jou and Momoe are a good couple right? And Ken and Miyako?"

"Honestly?" She said, suddenly much more restricted than she had been before. Her face fell and she fidgeted nervously. "I always thought Miyako would end up with Daisuke, and I was more than shocked when Jou told me that he'd proposed to Momoe."

I didn't even know what to say, so I just took a deep breath and then said, "But you think they're good now?"

She nodded weakly. "Yes?" I tiled my head in a way that told her I didn't believe her. "Well, I mean... Miyako and Ken keep so many secrets from each other. Jou and Momoe are awesome though. I just always thought we were in for one more twist."

"Maybe it's because the rest of us have so much drama in our relationships." I suggested, "Those two couples never went through any of that. Along with Daisuke and Kurayami."

She nodded but said nothing, and instead dragged me into the store next to us. The walls were lined with books, which was cool and all, but it wasn't purses. Hikari spent a few minutes checking out a few new releases and then finally we were standing by the check-out counter with a pile of books.

"How did they even get together?" Hikari asked, handing over the exact change for the books after counting it out perfectly. "Ken and Miyako?"

"Oh," I looked away, my face turning red, "I might have accidentally..."

"What?" Hikari asked with a grin.

"Well..." It was time. I had to tell _someone_... "I thought they were in a secret relationship, and then forgot it was a secret, and told Ken's mom that they were dating... then she went to them and confronted them about it, and they just went with it forever after that."

"But they weren't in a secret relationship." Hikari said.

"I know! I can make mistakes too!" I laughed along with Hikari as we left the bookstore.

"Well, they're in love, right?" Hikari said, "That's..." She trailed off as she stared directly across the hallway. "Let's go there."

The name of the store was written in bright glowing pink letters "Sexy". That was it. No special puns, or clever wordplay. Just. "Sexy".

Before I could question Hikari, of all people, she had grabbed my arm and dragged me directly into the store. I turned to her, confused, but her smile was so big that I didn't want to say anything until I understood what was going on.

"Look at this!" Hikari said, grabbing the very first thing she saw. It was a flowing red top lined with lace. And it was transparent.

"Hikari...?"

"Should I get this?" She asked.

"No." I said as seriously as I could. "Let's go." It was my turn to drag her around. She dropped the top and soon we were heading down the hallway again. "What's gotten into you?"

"What do you–Neo?"

I turned quickly and saw Neo standing right in front of us.

"Hey," He said with a smile. I could tell the smile was fake though. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see me, it was just awkward. After all of the confusing things going on with our friendship. He'd been the one to help me make Mimi's cake along with Dracomon, Biyomon and Tentomon. Neo seemed to only be pretending to hate Dracomon, but as far as I could tell, the two of them got along fairly well, and he was really adorable. And then after Koushiro and I had talked, and I'd walked him back to his house, and watched a movie... before Mimi got home I sort of... left. "Listen, I can't talk." Neo said, catching my attention again, "Dracomon's waiting outside under a tree. Good to see you again though." He patted my shoulder uncomfortably. "See you at the wedding though?"

"Definitely." I said, just as nervously. He smiled once more and then he was gone.

"What?" Hikari asked. "You're taking him to Jou's wedding?" I tried to pretend I hadn't heard her, but there was no getting around it.

"Yes..."

"Have you told Jou?" She asked. I shook my head. "Taichi?"

"No." I said, realizing just now how bad it could be to bring him.

"Oh well." Hikari said, shaking it off. "It'll be okay."

God! Why was she always so optimistic? I wished I could be more like her, though that was highly unlikely. She was always positive. Always in a good mood, and always knew what was right. Just not in relationships apparently.

"Do you want to get back to my house?" I asked, "We can watch a movie or something while we pack my stuff."

"You're moving out?" She asked.

"Yep," I said. "So what do you say?"

"Sure," She nodded, "Let's go."

"Right after we get me a purse." I winked at her.

"Right," She laughed, as we headed, once again, down the hallway.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

Sometimes, I was sure Ken forgot he was married. Not that he went around flirting with other girls, or going out for wild nights on the town or anything. I could probably live with those, if he actually took me with him. But it wasn't that. It was that he hadn't come home in days. Almost a week…maybe longer. The days were melding together. And while I knew I should be a big bundle of nerves, I wasn't. There'd been loads of times in the past when he'd go and crash at his parent's house, and just forget to call and tell me about it. The first six or so times he'd done that, I'd freaked out on him, but then I grew used to it.

Their house was closer to his school, and after long days there, sometimes he didn't feel up to coming all the way home, only to wake up early and go back to school. That's what he told me anyway. I was pretty sure it had to do with my meatloaf. He never showed up on meatloaf night. He could rant about coincidences all he wanted, but the facts speak for themselves.

And this time, he had the added mission of informing all of the others about the new threat in the Digital World. Daemon and his beings of great displeasure. I'd thought about them a lot, and I'd come to a few conclusions based on what little information I'd been able to extract from Ken and Wormmon before they both disappeared—though I thought Wormmon might've actually entered the Digital World for Knight training and not actually disappeared like Ken had.

Though, to be honest, I really did think he would make an appearance at Mimi's birthday party. What a disaster _that_ turned out to be. He was probably glad he didn't show up, but it would've been nice to see him. And everyone was there, so he didn't have the excuse of warning people. Except for Sigma. He was probably warning that creepy boy while the rest of us expected to have cake and a fun time. We didn't get cake, and it was anything but fun.

And I was a little angry at my husband. He knew just how terrified I was at night, always afraid that whatever it was that had been attacking me—and continued to do so, though thankfully less frequently—would come back. I had thought it was Arkadimon, but after talking with Mari about it, she assured me this couldn't be the case. Arkadimon was apparently gigantic, and anything but subtle. He wouldn't have been able to sneak into our apartment and rip my arms to shreds without me seeing him do it. And he was more likely to just rip my arm _off_ rather than slice it open. This news did little to calm my nerves. Just the opposite really. I was back to square one, for the third time. I'd thought I was doing it myself with the help of that stupid, terrifying mask, but that turned out to be a false lead, since Sigma was totally not me. And now with Arkadimon being wrong too, I was grasping at straws. Was there really someone out there that wanted to kill me? Or were they trying to warn me about something? Or just terrify me to the point that I didn't have enough fight left in me to fight back.

To be fair though, I'd lasted longer than Sora had. Mimi had beaten all the fight out of her. I hadn't even seen her since the party last night. I didn't know where she was staying, or if she was alright. I figured she didn't go home though. I wouldn't, were I in her place. I couldn't believe Mimi. She'd been my idol for so long. I couldn't even see my hero in her now. And to think, she offered to marry me when I was already at the altar.

Not that she was serious about it…

A loud knocking came at the door. I literally screamed.

"Miyako," Mari said calmly from my side. "It's just the door. Whatever's attacking you has never knocked before, right? So it's not the monster."

"Right," I said, trying to slow my racing heart.

"I'll get the door," Hawkmon informed me.

"Not if I get there first," Lalamon argued, and she ran, trying to beat the flying Hawkmon to the door.

"I win!" Lalamon called.

"I actually beat you by a considerable amount," Hawkmon said, but Lalamon wasn't listening. She was opening the door.

"Wait!" Mari called. But it was too late. All we could do now was hope that whoever was waiting on the other side knew about digimon, and weren't traumatized by the large red hawk and the pink and green flower bud.

"Oh, hey Hawkmon," Daisuke said walking in with Jou at his side, and I could relax. I'd have to lecture Hawkmon about safety later though. "And…Lalamon? I didn't think you'd be here. We thought Miyako would be alone actually…"

"Just because my husband ditched me?" I said, raising an eyebrow at them. Perhaps they knew where Ken was hiding...

"Mari's here too?" Jou questioned. He sounded just as shocked as Daisuke. I supposed they didn't think I'd be so friendly with her since she'd been evil and failed to tell me anything about it at all…but I wasn't mad at her. I couldn't be. Not when she was trying so hard to help me with my mystery attacker, and working with me to figure out Daemon's warnings.

"I brought you something," Daisuke announced to me, wrapping a long piece of material around my neck. "I noticed that you're always wearing gloves even though winter's over, so I figured you had to be cold all of the time, so I got you a scarf to match your gloves. Just to be nice, since you're so fragile all the time."

"She doesn't wear them because she's cold," Mari told him rolling her eyes. But it didn't matter to me. It was nice that he cared enough to try and take care of me. That he noticed anything was off at all, since Daisuke wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in our box.

"Whatever," he said, dismissing her. "Can I get you anything? Noodles? Water? A foot massage? Please don't pick the foot massage. I don't really want to do that one."

"What about tea?" I asked.

"I can do tea," he said flashing me a grin.

"Thanks Daisuke," I said, referring to the scarf. "You're the best."

"I am, aren't I," he said. And it was like a light was turned on in his eyes. I didn't have time to question it though, because he ran off to the kitchen, and Jou was looking over the pages Mari had spread out over the coffee table.

"Are you working on something for the Digital World?" Jou asked.

"Yes," Mari said. "You're just in time too. I was just about to share what I think Daemon's warnings are about."

"Hold up," Jou said. "Warnings? Daemon?"

"Yeah," Mari continued. "He said something about creating his own merry band comprised of the beings of great displeasure. That wasn't much to go on. But after listening to Miyako and Wormmon play around with the wording, they said something. They said something about them being sinful."

"Which of course, we didn't think anything of at the time," I pointed out.

"No," Mari agreed. "But then, I had to go to work, at the library, where I had access to all sorts of reference books, and did a little digging. There's always been something to balance things out, right? Your brother studies folk lore, doesn't he Jou?"

"Shuu does, yes," Jou told her. "He did say something about the sovereigns being parallels to the spirits that guard Japan…?"

"I remember when he studied that. It was back when we were fighting against Ken, wasn't it?" I murmured. "During my trip to Kyoko."

"It doesn't really matter too much," Mari assured me. "I was just trying to engage my audience. What it really boils down to, is that Daemon says that he and his minions are going to influence the digidestined into destroying themselves. So, I looked into the most dangerous influences, and once I got past drug and alcohol addictions, I stumbled into something more subtle. Something absolutely _sinful_."

"The seven deadly sins?" Jou guessed.

"Exactly. And it seemed like a really big stretch at first, but then, when I started thinking about it, Mimi has probably already fallen into one of their grasps," Mari said.

"I doubt it was all Daemon's fault," Jou said, scowling as he thought about Mimi.

"I hope it's making her _this_ bad though," I said softly.

"It makes perfect sense. There are seven of the sins, and based on their religious origins, they are meant to destroy a human's spirit, leaving them a one-way ticket for hell," Mari pointed out. "And I have a list of them too. Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath."

"So you think Mimi's being torn apart by Envy?" Jou asked skeptically.

"Why else would she be so irrationally jealous of absolutely everything, especially Sora?" Mari wanted to know. I cast a quick glance at the two digimon, to be sure they weren't breaking anything, but Lalamon was just jumping up and down trying to catch Hawkmon who was flying near the ceiling.

"Because she the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and her mother is freaking crazy?" Jou suggested.

"Whatever," Mari said exasperatedly. "The point is, that the sins are like a plague, one that spreads within a person and affects them like a virus. If Mimi _is_ affected by envy, what can we do to fix it? And how do we keep others from falling into the same trap?"

"We know about it now," I said, nodding. "And Daemon's main point was that Ken wouldn't be able to warn us, for some reason… He's probably affected by one too. But I don't know which. I haven't seen him since his confrontation. No one else will get affected though, because Ken should've warned everyone by now. It won't be an effective plan of attack."

"He didn't though," Jou said slowly. "This is the first I've heard of it…"

It was kind of ominous, to hear that Ken had failed so superbly at his one goal. And then Daisuke came walking out of the kitchen, with his chest puffed out and a bounce in his step. And he was singing to himself.

"I am the best," he sang. "I am number one. And that is awesome but not as awesome as me!"

"Oh," I gasped in horror, and turned to see Jou and Mari wore similar expressions. Jou jumped to his feet and grabbed his hand, causing him to spill my tea all over the linoleum floor.

"Hey!" Daisuke protested. "I wouldn't have spilled it if he didn't do that. I'm too awesome. All faults that seem to be mine from here on out are actually Jou's."

"That's fine," Jou agreed, taking the mug from him and setting it on the table. "We've got to get going, and I can't let you get into any trouble."

"I would never do that," Daisuke informed him. "I'm the best."

"Where are you going?" I asked Jou.

"To warn Sora and Koushiro, and hopefully I'll run into some of the others along the way," Jou told me as he dragged Daisuke out the door, letting it slam closed behind him.

"Well, that was…interesting," Mari commented.

I scoffed. "That's an understatement."

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

I opened the front door of my old home. Well it was still my home, but not for long, not the way I saw it anyway. I needed desperately to leave before Mimi came home from work.

But that failed.

"Mimi!" Hikari gasped so I didn't have to as she walked in behind me. "What are you doing home so early?" Mimi turned to us and her eyes popped and then she shifted them into a glare at Hikari. She was too angry at me to even glare at me. I must have done something really wrong...

No. Sora you didn't. Mimi did.

I tried not to pay Mimi any mind as I strode straight through the living room and toward my bedroom. The second I stepped inside I noticed Hikari enter behind me.

"Why is _everyone_ here?" Hikari asked.

"What?" I asked. I hadn't noticed, but now, thinking back to the living room it was true. Koushiro, and Ken had been joined by Yamato, sitting on the couch watching the same movie they had been the day before. I'd spent the night at... well Neo's house. I wasn't planning on telling anyone that. But I'd had nowhere else to go. I had thought that everyone hated me, and even though I was proven wrong, it wasn't until this morning, after I slept on Neo's couch, and after we'd spent a considerable time talking, eating ice cream, and whatever else we did. I wasn't one to get into specifics.

But Yamato wasn't the only new arrival. Taichi and Iori were there as well...

"Well let's not worry about them right now." Hikari said, looking around the room to distract me, "What's that?" She pointed to a white and black box filled with papers, desk ornaments and picture frames.

"I quit my job." I told her. Her expression was clearly shocked so I explained how, since I hadn't gotten into the fashion school, that I decided fashion wasn't for me, and so I quit my job. I had no idea what job I was going to take though, and without any form of income I didn't know where I was going to move to, but I knew that I certainly couldn't stay here with Mimi. So I'd probably end up going back home to my parents.

"Sora," Hikari said when my story was over as she placed a pile of dresses into a box. "You need to go out there. You can't let Mimi walk all over you. Now, being me, I'm not one for conflict, but don't cause one. Just walk out there, live your life normally. Show everyone how strong you are, and how awesome you've become. Show them that even with everything that you've been through, what with your boyfriend trying to kill you, your dreams being crushed and one of your best friends hating you, you're still that strong. Don't give in."

"You're absolutely right!" I cheered, grabbing her arm, "Come on." I dragged her out of my room and walked into an argument between Willis and the telephone.

I hadn't even noticed he was here. I looked behind him and, sitting on the counter that separated the kitchen and the living room where a whole pizza sat, waiting for him, next to Meiyomon who was sitting on the counter.

"When I said I wanted a pizza, that meant I wanted two pizzas!" He growled through the phone, "Everything comes in two's for me. Duh. So bring me another one. And when I say that—I actually mean bring me _two_. Which is now three, which really means six!"

I looked to Hikari who was staring at Willis, her eyebrows raised. She shook her head and was staring into my room again. "Do you mind if I change?"

"Go ahead." I said. I didn't really want her to though, I didn't want to brave this alone, especially since it looked to me that everyone was a little bit crazy. But she was gone, so it was time to go make conversation.

"Hey Yamato," I said, sitting next to him on the chair I usually sat on. Mimi was sitting on the arm of the couch next to Koushiro as he ignored her in favour of the movie playing in front of him.

"Hi." He said flatly.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm writing a song." He said. "It's time for me to get another album out there pretty soon. My tour is over. Gotta keep working."

He was just sitting perfectly still, watching the television. "You're lying." I said flatly, a little confused.

"Fine." He groaned. "I'm paying Hideto to do it. He says he hates my music, maybe this way it'll be better?"

Something about him was reminding me of Koushiro and Ken, both of whom were lazy beyond compare, but there was only one way to test that... "Hey Yamato...?" I tried, "Can you hand me that magazine?" I pointed to a magazine on the table so close to him that he wouldn't even have to sit up straighter to get it.

"Get it yourself lazy." He snapped.

"Yamato... are you okay?" I asked him.

"I'm no longer responding to you." He said, "You're too demanding. Stop talking to me, and do things on your own."

I raised my eyebrows. I could tell he didn't mean that. He was just lazy... like Koushiro and Ken. Something was definitely going on.

"If you guys want I can change the movie?" I suggested. "I mean you've been watching the same thing for days."

"I can do it faster!"Mimi said snidely. "I'll change it! I'll do it!"

"Mimi stop!" Koushiro ordered, "I like this movie. I'm so familiar with it that I don't have to concentrate."

"That's awesome." Ken nodded, "I like that."

What was going on with them? Well I didn't get much time to think it over because Mimi was glaring at me again. I stood up and slipped over to Meiyomon who was twirling the phone Willis had been using between his fingers.

"Hey," He smiled at me.

"Notice anything weird about everyone lately?" I asked, hoping to find a sane person.

"No." He said, shaking his head, "But they're all a lot funnier if that's what you mean. Watch this." He looked back and reached for Willis' pizza only to have Willis hiss at him and growl.

"Mine!" Willis snapped, "MY PIZZA!" Meiyomon roared with laughter as I started, jumping in surprise. Willis tugged the pizza further away from Meiyomon.

"Mimi!" Taichi yelled, broccoli tumbling out of his mouth. "Is that turkey ready yet?"

"I'll go check." Mimi smiled, pleased that someone was paying attention to her.

"Faster please, or I'll climb in there with it and eat it." Taichi said, insanely. "I'm so hungry—you'll never understand it."

Mimi didn't question it, but I certainly did. He had an entire stick of broccoli in his hand, and surrounding him, on the desk was piles of more vegetables. Taichi couldn't stop eating, and Willis as well, though Willis was more concerned with it all being his, than really eating it. Mimi had snapped, and Yamato Koushiro and Ken were all being extraordinarily lazy...

My eyes fell on Iori who was giving everyone and everything the dirtiest glare ever.

"Meiyomon, what is everyone doing here?" I asked.

"Iori and I went shopping with Taichi because Iori wanted to complain to someone and Taichi was there." Meiyomon explained, "And when we got here Willis barged in with some story about how everything was his. Honestly I don't even know what's going on but it's so hilarious."

I rolled my eyes and cautiously began stepping toward Iori, but Ken stopped me. "Sora, rewind the movie please." He was mumbling and talking fast, but I did hear him. I nodded and turned to the old VCR, but before I could do anything Mimi had dived through the air and pressed the button. From her place on the floor she looked up at me and smirked evilly.

I stepped over her, ignoring her. Hikari was wrong. This was clearly a bad idea, I should have just continued packing and left.

"They're so stupid." Iori growled, and then in the same deep grumbling voice, "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday." He certainly didn't sound it...

"It's okay." I said.

He grunted in response, and then looked to Koushiro and grimaced as Mimi sat down next to him, throwing her arms around him.

"He clearly broke up with her." Iori snapped, "Why is she being so clingy and stupid? God! She makes me want to hurt Daisuke!"

"W-why Daisuke?" I asked timidly.

"He'd be the easiest to punch without feeling guilty." He admitted.

"UGH!" Willis groaned, catching my attention. "I'm stuffed."

"I'll help!" Taichi cheered, running at the pizza with a carrot held in his and like some sort of sword.

"MINE!" Willis bellowed, leaping through the window between the rooms and tackling Taichi to the ground.

"FIGHT!" Iori barked, running toward them, his fists raised. On his way past the front door, it opened and hit him, so he spun angrily. "Daisuke!" He growled with a smirk.

He punched toward the doorway, and then I saw Daisuke slip into the room under his arm. "You see that?" He asked me, "Awesome dodge, I'm awesome."

"Hey Jou," Iori smiled to the doorway before running toward Taichi and Willis who were rolling on the ground.

"Can't hear the movie..." I heard Yamato mumble.

"It's okay, it'll come around again in like two hours." Ken told him to which Yamato smiled and nodded satisfied before lifting his feet up and laying them across Ken and Koushiro who were too lazy to push him away.

"CAN I BLOW YOU ALL UP?" Meiyomon asked with a laughing fit. No one said anything to him, but he couldn't act anyway, he was laughing too hard.

"Don't break anything unless it's Sora's!" Mimi called as Hikari stepped out of my bedroom and Jou stepped into the room. Mimi looked to me and winked. I tried to ignore her, but the feelings from last night started to rise up and I almost cried. Until I saw Hikari.

Her arm was in the air, posing, a smile on her face. She was wearing jean shorts that reached nearly to her knees and a t-shirt.

"Am I too sexy?" She asked, her voice said she was unsure about herself but her face read confidence. I looked over her outfit and then to my own. I was wearing a short skirt and a tank-top... I started to wonder about what Hikari thought of me, but I was pulled from her and toward Jou who stared directly at me, though my attention was on the chaos happening around the room.

"They're all affected by the deadly sins." He said, and suddenly I was focused on him. Deadly sins. From the Bible? As in...

Everything was starting to make sense now.

"Don't let it get to you too." Jou said firmly. "If you know it is happening you might be able to fight it."

"That..." I trailed off. Mimi's jealousy, Iori's anger—Taichi's obsession with food... It was all making sense...

"Let's go." He said flatly. "They need to tire themselves out—well... half of them are already there. Once they are we'll come back and try to set things straight."

"No." I said firmly. "Lilithmon said we could die if it gets out of hand." I explained. I ignored his expression and moved around the room. I grabbed Hikari and Iori and pulled them with me. Iori struggled to get back to the fray, but I didn't let him. With Taichi's turkey almost done, he and Willis' fight would be over soon, and this way everyone would calm down, so long as Iori wasn't there.

"Let's keep them split up as much as we can." I decided.

Jou nodded, and with that, we slammed the door behind us bringing the lust infected Hikari and the wrath induced Iori along with us, away from the insanity that had my friends had become.

_**Yoshie Izumi:**_

I stayed with Gansuko, while Piedmon headed over to the base of the tower to begin his search. I watched my son's cousin out of the corner of my eye, looking to see if anything would change. I was waiting for the moment when he put his walls back up, returned to his usual guarded self. Sigma he called him. But he didn't. He didn't even let go of my hand.

"I'm glad that we could meet Gansuko," I commented. He tensed and I thought for a second that I'd ruined all of his progress, but he calmed down almost instantly.

"Me too," he whispered. "I don't have any family. Just Koushiro…and Sigma."

"You're a part of my family now, Gansuko," I told him gently. He winced, and I wondered why. "If you want to be that is."

"Sigma doesn't like that idea," he said.

"But what does Gansuko think?" I wondered. I watched him flinch again.

"Nothing," he said softly. "Sigma makes the decisions."

"But Gansuko," I protested. "That doesn't sound fair. You can't let one part of you take dominance. Not when it isn't the real you."

He cringed. "But how do you know that he isn't the real me? What if I don't like the real me, or if I get hurt if I try to do something on my own?"

"Sometimes those things happen," I admitted. "But you won't be satisfied with yourself if you let someone else make all of the decisions for you."

"I used to let my dad do that," he told me. "And when I made a decision on my own, he threw me out of the family. I lived alone, with only Sigma to help me for years."

Well, I thought. That was probably the worst possible outcome I could imagine. "Think of it this way," I suggested. "If that didn't happen, you and I wouldn't be where we are today."

"In a dismantled Digital World searching for your friend?"

"No," I corrected. "We wouldn't be the people we have become."

"I'm just a part of a person," he said. "I'm broken. Sigma is all that holds me together. I don't know how to do anything without him. And everyone thinks I'm crazy, Mari especially. She introduces me like that. 'This is Sigma, he's literally insane, better watch him, or he'll slay you in your sleep'. I might too. I wouldn't even know until it happened. Sigma takes over sometimes."

"But it wouldn't be the real you, Gansuko," I said, watching him recoil. Did it really offend him that much to call him by his name, rather than his villainous persona? "Do you not _like_ Gansuko?"

"It's not who I really am," he whispered.

"You're not Sigma either," I insisted.

"No," he said. "But he is my friend. He keeps me safe, and comfortable while he takes on the world."

"Being yourself is its own reward," I said, wondering what he really meant, because I had a feeling I couldn't take his words at face value.

"Gansuko," he said. "That's not me. Not really anyway….What I mean is that…It's not my name."

"It's not?" I asked, really confused now. Gansuko, Sigma? Which was real?

"It was supposed to be Gansaku, but I spelled it wrong in the email I sent to Koushiro," he said sheepishly.

"Gansaku?" I said with a gasp. "Fake? It's a fake name?"

He flushed a bright red. "I'm not creative like Hideto."

"What is your real name then?" I wondered.

"I haven't used my name in years. My mom and dad…when I made my _decision_, they told me that it didn't suit me anymore. That I was the devil's child. Well, the joke's on them," he said with a rather wicked laugh. "I'm practically a demon as it is."

Well, _someone_ doesn't think very highly of themselves.

"That doesn't answer my question," I pointed out. He looked at me, and allowed his smirk to fall from his face.

"Oh…" he muttered. "It's…um…Kiyoko."

"Pure child," I murmured. But I could not for the life of me figure out why his parents could look at this sweet young boy and see the devil's spawn. "Kiyoko fits you quite well."

"You're wrong," he snarled. A strange glint in his eye. Suddenly I realized that Sigma was very literal. He wasn't just a mask that _Kiyoko_ made. He was a very separate part of him, one of two very different people that lived within his mind.

"There's nothing you could have done that could take that away from you," I insisted.

"I could fall in love," Kiyoko muttered. "That's enough, according to my dad at least."

"He wouldn't like her?" I assumed.

"There isn't a girl," he admitted.

"Oh," I said, taking it in as quickly as I could. He looked at me with terror in his eyes. I could see Sigma pushing in on him, the darkness seeping in towards the irises. "That is the most adorable thing I've ever heard." The darkness receded. "Love is love, sweetheart. And you deserve love after your hard life."

He almost smiled at me, but he was interrupted.

"It's safe," Piedmon said, and I jumped at the sight of him, though Kiyoko clearly had. I hadn't noticed his arrival. I had to push my discovery about Sigma out of my mind. We had a mission after all.

Piedmon led us to the base of the tower, and prepared to burst it open, when a voice came from behind us, yelling "Hey you!"

I was absolutely sure that we were going to die now, and my only regret was that Koushiro didn't know where I was. I supposed that was a good thing, to know that I didn't regret anything. But Kiyoko elbowed me, and I looked to him as he rolled his eyes.

"It's that egg," he said, adjusting the mask on his face.

"Digitamamon?" I asked. And he was right. "What are you doing here?"

"I got someone to watch over the diner. You helped me, and now I have to help you. To make sure you're safe, and that you achieve your goals. That's what partners do," he told me.

"Partners?" I questioned.

"Yes," Digitamamon said, and a ball of light appeared between the two of us. When I grabbed it, it turned into a digivice.

"Oh wow," I gasped.

"Yes, yes," Sigma snarled. I could tell it was actually Sigma this time. Kiyoko, the sweet boy that he was, was more timid in nature, scared and deprived of affection. They were so different. Night and day. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed before. "Enough talk. We're on a deadline, and I won't allow myself to be killed for a pitiful, worthless human. Piedmon!"

"Of course, sir," Piedmon said quickly.

"He's sorry," Kiyoko added.

"No I'm not," Sigma argued.

"We do not have time for this," Digitamamon said, preparing to tackle the door.

"You will have time enough for me, though, I'm sure?"

I whipped around and stared at him in terror. It was MetalPhantomon, the digimon that stole Satoe away from the restaurant. I clenched my new digivice in my fist.

"I guess it's time for us to use this," I said.

_**Hiroaki Ishida:**_

"So what are we still doing here?" Toshiko asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked as if it were obvious. Which it was. How could she just forget? "We're here, looking for Natsuko. My ex-wife. My girlfriend. I need to find her to make sure she's okay." If she died Takeru and Yamato would be heartbroken. She was their _mother_. And I would too... obviously. I mean I was dating her. I loved her. I'd never gotten over her really—I knew I never would... It was like a haunting love that wouldn't leave me alone...

"I know," Toshiko said, "I just mean, we have no way to find her. Maybe we should have spoken to the kids about it. They might know a way to actually find her quicker?"

"No," I said flatly, staring off toward Mushroomon and Haruhiko who walked significantly faster than the rest of us. "We need to keep looking. There's no time to stop. She could be dead by now. Takeru already had to go through her death once."

"Is that all?" She asked.

"And Yamato obviously." I said.

"And you." She pointed out.

"Well yeah... duh." I said, "Yeah..."

Toshiko raised her eyebrows, but the conversation didn't last any longer. Mushroomon was running directly toward us and skidded to a halt on the not-really-a-ground.

"There are two digimon coming." He said. "I can sense them. They're pretty strong."

For some reason I didn't panic. Possibly because I was a complete fool, possibly because I was panicking so much that my body shut down so the panic was undetectable, but possibly because I hoped it was Wizardmon and Centarumon, our missing partners.

But it wasn't.

It was a really bubbly looking, bald version of Angemon, and a big scaly green dinosaur.

"Who are you?" The angel asked moments after they arrived. His voice was really low and growling, and yet strangely comforting.

"My name is Mushroomon."

"I know that." The angel said bluntly. "Who are the rest of you?"

"My name is Hiroaki." I told him, "This is Toshiko and this is Haruhiko." I motioned to the latter as he joined us finally.

"What are you doing here?" The angel asked.

"Looking for my girlfriend. She's in trouble." I told him. "I think."

"Does she look like you?" He asked, his voice changing to that of a concerned friend.

"Not overly..." Haruhiko said, receiving a sharp punch in the arm by Toshiko.

"A human?" I asked, "yes."

"I think I might know where she is." The angel said. "Let me take you there."

Before I could respond Toshiko was dragging me away. "No." She said. "No, he's creepy."

"I don't care." I said quickly. "He knows where Natsuko is, so we have to go. Well I have to. You guys can do what you want."

"Hiroaki," Haruhiko said, "You're my best friend. If you think we should trust them, then I promise you I'll stick by your side."

"I need to stay too." Mushroomon said. "Toshiko's right. They're creepy. I'm the only defense you have."

We all turned to Toshiko who rolled her eyes. "Fine. But only because I think I might actually be able to outrun them with my attractive young person body."

"Baby, you're always attracti—" Haruhiko started.

I punched him in the arm and groaned, "Stop being grossly in love." I said sharply, "It's annoying." I turned and walked toward the menacing looking green dinosaur and the angel. If we didn't go with them I had a feeling the dinosaur was going to eat us anyway. Was there really a choice in this matter.

"Alright." I told them. "Take me to Natsuko."

The angel smiled, his lips curling underneath his metal helmet. "Perfect." He stuck out his and for me to shake. "I'm Clavisangemon. This is Dinorexmon." I nodded and shook his hand. "Let's go then." He said, turning and leading the way.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** It's wedding time, will Jou and Momoe actually get married, or will the sins cause too much trouble?


	27. I Digi-Do!

**Y/N:** Wow, okay, so this is the wedding chapter. I hope you enjoy it, there are a few surprises thrown in there, it definitely isn't your typical wedding anyway. Leave a review if you can to let us know what you think, and let's get on with the story!

**U/N:** So we put this chapter up with the one shot that went up earlier because they're... really connected :P Sorry this didn't go up on Saturday, I wasn't here and there were complications and stuff. But yeah :D I hope you like it, I mean we've talked about Momoe's wedding before-in the in-between wedding one so you already know a little bit about this one, but it should still be surprising.

This is actually two chapters crammed together into one because an upcoming chapter seemed too ... big to keep in one-I think it's fairly obvious where the dramatic cliffhanger was supposed to be... but yeah.

I hope you like and and you should review and critic it and tell us your theories if you have any because i like them aaaaaaaand yeah :D My feet... are dying. The end.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 27: I Digi-Do! **

_**Jou Kido:**_

"How do you feel?"

I didn't even know what to think. How did I feel? I felt relieved, and happy. I was nervous, frightened, and I was confused. Confused mostly about why I was frightened, frightened about what I was nervous about and nervous about my confusion. I was just a cycle, and I wasn't really coping with it very well. I fancied myself a mature individual, on most occasions when my father wasn't involved, but I was also fairly over dramatic. I was doing my absolute best not to panic... but being me, it was proving to be really hard. Inside I felt like I was screaming, smashing against the restraints of a room where the walls were caving in quickly, but on the outside I remained as calm as ever.

"How do I feel?" I shot to Iori who was standing at the base of the hill I was standing on, Armadillomon at his side, "I feel absolutely terrible. Awful! I'm going to die!" As calm as ever.

Iori and I met up every Thursday, usually at this tree, sometimes during the winter we'd meet up in a cafe just across the pond, but since it was late April we met here instead. The grass was so vibrant compared to the snow I'd gotten so used to seeing. The air, and the grass as well, was wet with the previous night's spring rain, the sky was blue, but with dark looming clouds scattered about. I wasn't afraid that it would rain, but if it did that wouldn't matter. The wedding was inside.

I was getting married.

I clenched my fists as I watched Iori climb the hill toward me. He was wearing sneakers with his black pants and shirt. His tie was hanging around his shoulders, untied and his grey vest was undone, and his blazer was held under his arm.

"Jou," He said with a smile, hugging me the moment he reached the top of the hill. "You don't feel awful. You're just nervous." He said. "They say that the wedding is the most stressful time for most people, and you're Jou, so it'd be worse for you. I'm surprised you haven't passed out or died of an anxiety attack yet."

_Gee... thanks Iori._ I thought. But he was right. I was just being Jou and overreacting. I always did this, about everything, which was why, about seven years ago Taichi had dubbed any sort of freak out as pulling a 'Jou'. But I was pretty sure my 'Jou' was justified in this situation. I was cramming all of the stress of a wedding into two weeks—which was like no time at all. Jun had our wedding planned forever, so actually pulling it off took no time at all. Momoe didn't seem to be Jou-ing out, but she was always so calm.

I was definitely frightened for the wedding. What if something went wrong? People would talk about the colossal screw up of a wedding forever. And among those people would be my father, who my nearly three year old daughter had invited to the wedding. I loved her and all, really I did... but sometimes she pulled out more twists than Mimi. I just couldn't _wait_ until she was a teenager.

There I went, thinking sarcastically again.

_Calm down Jou._

"You're right." I said aloud.

Iori nodded and smiled at me. "Just think of it this way... after today it'll all be over."

"No it won't." I said quietly. "The point of a wedding is everlasting. What if I'm making the wrong decision?"

"You aren't." Iori said bluntly, "But you know, you're right. It's not going to be over—but do you want it to be? No, you don't." He answered for me, which was what he did when he was on to a good point. So I knew I'd feel better in a moment. "You want to be with Momoe forever, and that's the _only_ thing that matters today. Your wedding was planned in like two weeks Jou, things are bound to screw up—but as long as you keep in mind that you love Momoe, and she loves you, the whole day will be perfect for both of you."

And then I was relaxing. He was right. Iori was right all the time. That wasn't true, but I liked to remind myself of the false fact just to ensure that I now had the right to be calm.

"Thank you Iori..." I said quietly, patting his shoulder. "Do you want to get going?"

Iori glanced over his shoulder and then back to me, and nodded, "Yeah."

"What's wrong?" I asked, noticing something was off.

"Nothing." Iori said quickly.

"He's looking for Natsuni." Armadillomon answered, as Iori nudged him with his foot to show signs of annoyance. Why didn't he want to talk about it? What was wrong?

"Where's Natsuni?" I asked.

Iori shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know." He admitted. "She won't call me back, and when I went to her house her dad yelled at me to leave because she wasn't home..." He trailed off for a moment before coming back, his voice strong, "I think she hates me. I yelled at my mom and then I left... and I haven't seen her since. I feel awful about it though..."

"Did you apologize?" I asked, knowing full well that, although an apology doesn't erase the happenings, it does lighten the pain on both sides.

Iori shook his head. "She's gone." He said quietly. "Mom left." His usually strong voice wavered for a moment, "I don't know where she is. I don't know why Natsuni won't talk to me..."

"Iori." I said, placing my hands on his shoulders. "It's okay." I said, "Your Mom is going to be fine. I promise you that, and Natsuni will come around. She's really cool. She's not one to hold grudges." He looked up at me and nodded. He knew I had a point but didn't want to believe it. I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't let this pass though, he would be internally musing about it until she came around. "Trust me, everything's going to turn out okay. It always does."

"That's true."

Both of us turned our heads sharply toward the tree where a little girl was sitting in the branches. Her hair was blonde and she was wearing a pink and green dress practically coated in lace. She was looking down at us with a smile as she kicked her feet back and forth through the air.

"Things always have turned out for the best." She said with a smile that suddenly fell, "And they'll continue to do so, even if what you think is the best, isn't really what is the best... the best will always happen."

Both of us stared at her, completely shocked. Was she there the whole time? Just listening to us?

Suddenly she leapt from the tree and landed smoothly on the wet grass before smiling up at us again. "See ya!" She winked at us and skipped off, down the hill.

"Who... was that?" Iori asked, sounding just as confused as I felt, as he watched her go.

"No idea..." I said, not really paying attention, I was staring at the tree. The bark which was usually grey and brown, normal bark colour, seemed off. There were dark patches on it... I reached out and touched it slowly, but it just felt normal. I looked up at the branches which had few leaves on it, being early Spring and all, but there were buds of flowers on the tips of them all. The buds were very dark. "Could've sworn this was an elm tree." I said quietly.

"It is." Iori said, looking back to it, then, shocked, he said "What the heck happened to it?"

"I have no idea." I said, trying to push the tree from my mind, but finding it hard. The tree seemed more important to me than the wedding at the moment, but I knew it was time to go. "Come on. Let's go," I said, "I still have to change into my tux..."

"Can't wait to see that," Iori said with smirk. I elbowed him, but the two of us set off.

_**Momoe Inoue:**_

"Are you _sure_ it's okay that Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon are here?" Chiziru asked me, watching the pair of digimon play with her son, Masa, and Emiko. Palmon was there too, weaving flowers together to put in both mine and Emiko's hair, and Bearmon was in the corner, watching over all of them, ensuring that they didn't do anything too despicable. Emiko was getting to be a naughty trickster. I swear she had to get that from Jou's side of the family. I didn't have much room to talk though. My family was a pretty crazy bunch…

"Of course I'm sure," I said rolling my eyes. "Bearmon and Palmon are going to be there. Palmon's my freaking flower girl. If I didn't want digimon, I wouldn't have chosen that. I'm sure Jun and Shuu will bring Meramon and Otamamon too. So what if you and Mantarou brought your digimon partners? It's a wedding. All of your closest friends and family are supposed to attend, right?"

"But won't people think it's strange to have so many weird creatures involved?" she wanted to know.

"Everyone knows about digimon…I think…" I said. "It's just a small, intimate gathering. We couldn't afford a huge wedding, and it was easier with the time restraints that Jun imposed to just have a few people attend."

"What about Jou's dad? He like, hates digimon, doesn't he?" She asked.

"True," I murmured. "But that makes this all the more sweet. He doesn't approve of Jou at all, and this little act of defiance will help with Jou's retaliation. He wasn't going to marry me because his dad might be happier if he did, so you can see why I'm all for the digimon making Mr Kido squirm."

She laughed, and then proceeded to practically rip my clothes off of my body. She didn't even warn me. But I was used to her erratic behaviour by now, so I just let her do what she wanted to do. I was putting all of my trust in her to get me ready for my big day. My heart skipped just thinking about it. In just a couple of hours, I was going to be walking down the aisle towards a man that I loved very much. And then we were going to be married. The last wedding I'd been to was a disaster, and though I couldn't imagine anything quite as bad as my baby sister's wedding, I just prayed that I wouldn't discover something worse.

I began running through a checklist in my mind. Jun was taking care of the seating charts, and the cake, and the decorations. She'd had them planned for months. I only had to worry about my daughter—who was nowhere near ready—and myself. But that was enough to make me jittery. What if I forgot something? I had something old and borrowed—a necklace of my grandmother's—and something new and blue—a pair of very sensible heels that Jun assured me was the perfect addition to my simple, white sundress that I'd chosen in place of a gown. If I could have talked her out of white, I probably would have. Emiko had been eying my dress since I'd bought it, and I was scared that I'd find jam-handprints on the back of it or mud trim. I'd had to keep her dress out of reach, or else it would've been in rags.

And oh. My. God. I was getting married! It was starting to sink in, and I wasn't sure if I was ready. I was excited, and nervous and insecure, and impatient. Could the time pass any slower? What if it went by too fast and I couldn't remember anything afterwards?

"Breath," Chiziru told me with a laugh. "I mean, I'm sure it's pretty terrifying, tying yourself down to just the one guy for the rest of your life, but it's nothing to hyperventilate over. Besides, if it doesn't work out, you can always get a divorce. There's nothing to worry about."

"I'm not scared," I assured her. "Jou's the right choice, and I'm really happy with him."

"I know you are," she said. "For now."

"For always," I corrected.

"Good," she said with a smile. "Then don't worry about walking down the aisle. Even if you mess up, it can't be as bad as Miyako's. I mean, I tried to ruin it, and that Mimi girl proposed in the middle, and that demon child, Wormmon and Hawkmon scared all the guests away. And there was a food fight… No. There's no way in hell you can do worse, so don't freak out if you stumble over the lines, or trip down the aisle."

I had to stop myself from knocking on the wooden table. Knock on wood right? I didn't believe in the silly superstition. And she was right. Miyako had the worst wedding in history. And I didn't even have people that could be scared by digimon…

…but I did! How could I have forgotten all about Jou's dad's date? Aimi was going to be there, and she might even bring her three daughters, and that would make the total be four people that could potentially be traumatized for life at the event. I mean, _I_ was practically terrified of Meramon still and I'd sat down and talked with him loads of times.

"Mom?" Emiko called from the other side of the room. "Can I be like you now?"

I looked to her confused. She wanted to have a panic attack about the mental stability of the wedding guests? But then I noticed she was pointing between her clothes and myself and realized I was still just standing there in my underwear.

"You can wear a really pretty dress now," I said. It was just a couple hours until go time. She couldn't mess it up too badly by then. She didn't even get to play with flower petals, since she said flowers were for babies, and declared she would be the ring bearer instead. She shed most of her clothes on her own, and I had to literally wrestle her into her white dress. She pouted and grumbled from the time-out chair she had been placed on after she kicked _ in retaliation when he said that she looked very "Pwetty".

Chiziru made quick work of getting me dressed, and pushed me into a chair myself. "I'm going to make you look so beautiful, that Jou won't even be able to recognize you."

I didn't know whether to be insulted or not, but I let her have free reign anyway while I focussed on my breathing. It didn't always have to be up to me. Jou could worry over his dad's girlfriend. I would worry about our daughter instead, who was eyeing up Chiziru's assortment of lipsticks.

Then the door burst open, and Jun and Miyako came rushing inside, closing the door hastily.

"I've got your veil!" Miyako announced, handing a beautiful, lacy veil to Chiziru.

"You're ready," Jun said sounding pleased.

"As she'll ever be," Chiziru said, though she still reached for more makeup.

"It looks great down there," Miyako gushed. "And there's even a steel chair for Meramon, so he doesn't light the pews on fire. It's so exciting. I won't be the only married digidestined anymore!"

"The clock is ticking," Jun said with a smile, causing my heart to speed up. "And once you're married, Shuu can ask me to marry him, and I'll join the two of you as a married woman!"

"Gag me with a spoon," Chiziru said. But she was smiling. Today was going to be fine…hopefully. Because I had these three to stand up with me. I smiled too, ready for anything.

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I supposed that I was lucky to even still be invited to the wedding, not that I was particularly excited to go. Jou yelled at me really loudly on my birthday, and the next time I saw him, he ignored me completely. And then he left with _Sora_. Why did he always blame me? It wasn't my fault that Sora had left crying, and it wasn't my fault that Yamato had shown up to my Hating Sora club meetings. It wasn't my fault that there was a list a mile long of things that Sora had done bad, or that I found annoying.

Except it kind of was. Just kind of though. Not entirely.

I slipped my red dress on, and fastened the black belt that Sora had picked out for me around my waist. I looked amazing, but I couldn't manage to smile at my reflection. I looked as miserable as I did beautiful. So…a lot. And I wouldn't even get to walk in with anybody. I didn't think so anyway. I'd be flying solo, because Koushiro hadn't so much as acknowledged me since my birthday either. I wasn't sure if that was because he really meant it when he left me, saying that I wasn't his girlfriend anymore, or if it was because of his newly found laziness.

Neither option really appealed to me in any way.

He, Ken and Yamato were still lounging on the couch in the living room, watching that godforsaken movie…_again_. And if I wasn't such a nice person that cared about their happiness, I would take that movie out of the player, and smash it into tiny bits so that they had to watch something new, because if I have to watch any of those scenes, one. More. Time. Well, heads _will_ roll.

I put the finishing touches on my eyes, forcing myself to smile—a twisted, grimace really—at my reflection. They weren't too bold, or too smoky. They wouldn't draw too much attention away from the bride at the very least. I didn't want to make her jealous or anything. Usually I would have had Sora do my makeup, and then silently fume over the fact that hers always ended up looking better than mine, but she wasn't there. She'd taken a bag of her stuff, and left. I didn't know where she was staying. I honestly hadn't seen her since she left with Jou, Daisuke and Iori the day after my birthday. She could be anywhere. Though, she was probably at Taichi and Yamato's place, since she'd done that before when she broke up with Neo and thought I'd rub it in her face…

I probably would have, had she given me the opportunity.

I felt terrible about that. And that I sabotaged her college application. And that I threw the birthday cake she'd spent so much time making in the garbage can. And for the hate club that I'd created for the sole purpose of bashing her. And that I kept referring to her as an ugly, fat girl just to make myself feel better. I hated that I did all of that. But every time I heard her name or laid eyes on her—or even _thought_ about her for a considerable amount of time—it was like a switch went off in my brain, and I couldn't stop myself from being horrible and angry and terribly jealous.

And now Sora hated me.

My vision clouded, and the tears started pouring out of my eyes with a vengeance. She was going to hate me forever, and I couldn't do anything to stop that, because I couldn't go near her without wanting to destroy her life and everything she loves, just because she was so much better than me. She was such a better person, and I couldn't even blame all of our friends for siding with her, even though the thought made me outrageously jealous. They were all going to hate me forever too, all because I was a horrible, mean person.

"I'm sorry," I screamed towards the ceiling angrily. "I can't help it. I don't mean it! I'm sorry Sora!"

I was yelling to her, even though I knew she couldn't hear me.

"Quiet down!" Yamato shouted back. "We're watching a movie in here."

"I'm sorry," I called quieter. I sighed. I couldn't even apologize without them hating me. I reached out to the counter and grabbed my makeup remover and some wipes. I'd made a mess of my beautiful makeup, and now resembled a drowned racoon.

I had to start over, and not just with the makeup, but with Sora too.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

I was wearing a blue dress, my hair pulled back, tied in a bun with bits of it dangling down. It looked pretty cool, and I was taking full credit for it even though it had been an accident. I was wearing heels, like usual, but the ones I was wearing were even taller than usual.

And Neo was next to me, wearing a black suit with a white vest and tie. We were standing outside the church, too afraid to enter. What was I supposed to do? Just walk right in? No one knew I was bringing Neo... would they freak out? I should have asked Momoe at the very least, what if she was freaking out about this wedding already? Then here I was just throwing a wedge into her plan. An evil wedge that had killed Patamon and Agumon—oh no! Patamon and Agumon would be there...

"Are we going to go in...?" Neo asked awkwardly as I fixed his hair for the tenth time at least. Every time I put it back in place it would just spring back into a mess—much like Taichi's...

"Y-yeah." I nodded, "Of course." I was being stupid. People would care, but they would give me time to explain—not everyone's eyes would fall on me instantly in a fit of rage. I linked arms with Neo and led him up the stairs to the church, pushing open the large wooden doors.

The first thing I noticed was the stone floor. The second thing I noticed was that every eye in the building was trained on me and Neo.

"Sora?" Taichi barked, "What the hell are you doing here with him?"

Oh great. If Mimi hadn't convinced them to hate me with her numerous points, then here I was with another one. A really big one. I'd come to one of my best friend's wedding with a psychopathic murderer...

Come to think of it—_why_ had I agreed to this?

Because he'd apologized. He was turning over a new leaf. He was maturing. He was being a good guy, and we were only here as friends.

"Nice to see you too, Taichi," Neo said sarcastically.

"No, really," Rei added from her chair, right next to Taichi, "What are you doing here Neo?"

Neo cleared his throat loudly and nervously as he tried to keep his air of confidence. The entire room was silent, and when he opened his mouth to speak, someone else's voice rang out instead.

"Leave him alone guys." It was Yamato. "It's a long story." I looked to him with a smile. He was standing against the wall with Katsue, both of them looking very cool. They were perfect for each other. I wondered for a moment where Gabumon was, but I spotted him and Agumon sitting in the front row eagerly awaiting the wedding.

No one seemed too willing to abide by Yamato's new rule, but eventually they all looked away. Rei was the last to turn her head. She tried to smile at Neo, but she looked too worried to really do so.

Koushiro was going to bring Biyomon, and so I just needed to find him. It didn't take long. He and Ken were laying on the carpeted stage area at the front of the church, Wormmon, Tentomon and Biyomon sitting with them.

Biyomon's eyes locked with mine and she excitedly set off into the air, flying straight toward me. I released Neo and hugged her as she fell into my arms.

"I missed you!" She said happily into my shoulder.

"I missed you too," I said with a laugh.

"Why do you miss each other?" Neo asked quietly, "Didn't you see each other not long ago?"

"Yeah," I said as Biyomon slid down to the floor and stood next to me. "But I love her. She's my partner. It's hard to not miss her even after a few seconds."

"Oh..." Neo said quietly, looking down to his feet. I knew he was thinking of Dracomon. He'd been a very bad partner for a very long time, and it simply wasn't fair to him. Neo was, of course, trying to fix all the problems, but there was a lot to do, and he wasn't sure where to start. "I'm going to go sit down. I feel a little sick."

"Okay," I said with a nod. "I'll be there in a bit." He nodded to me and then I set off, Biyomon practically running to keep up, talking about how irritating it was to be around Koushiro and Ken lately with all of their tiredness. She kept telling me I looked pretty, and if it weren't Biyomon I'd be suspicious. But she looked really pretty too. Someone had tied a ribbon around her neck, and it looked very nice.

I was headed into the room behind the main church area where Momoe would be. I knocked on the door and heard Miyako's muffled voice come through telling me to enter.

I slipped inside and couldn't help but smile. Momoe was standing in front of a full body mirror in her white sundress, her long flowing veil attached to her hair. She looked really pretty. Suddenly she spun around.

"Oh thank goodness!" She said sharply, "Sora!" She snapped at Chiziru, her sister who was wearing a silver dress. Chiziru tossed Momoe a black belt and Momoe looked to me. "Belt? Or no?"

I shook my head simply. It wasn't even a hard choice, which told me one of two things. Either Momoe was really bad with fashion, or she was nervous. And I had a feeling it was the latter of the two.

"Are you ready?" I asked her. She smiled to me and nodded, but I could tell she was still a little scared. I heard someone yell angrily in the corner, so I turned to see Emiko screaming at Chiziru's son.

"Emiko!" Momoe said loudly, "Stop being a bully!" Emiko looked to Momoe and crossed her arms, pouting, she then sat on Jun who was also wearing the silver dress, playing with the children. Finally I turned to Miyako with a grin, but it fell quickly when I saw the long black gloves she was wearing along with the silver dress.

I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but there was no way to do that without calling attention to her which I knew she wouldn't appreciate.

"Is Mimi here?" I turned to see Palmon who was sitting on the other end of the room with Jun's Otamamon, and Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, Bearmon and Hawkmon.

"I'm not sure." I said, "Probably." She seemed offended by my answer, perhaps she was mad at Mimi still.

Suddenly the door was opening, and I spun around to see who it was. Gomamon slipped through the door at the bottom and looked up to me. "There you are." He said.

"You're looking for Sora?" Biyomon asked.

"Jou is." Gomamon sighed. "He says he wants to ask her something."

"Why are you so sad about that?" Biyomon asked, "What's wrong with Sora?"

"Nothing." Gomamon said quickly, "Sora's great. Jou's the problem. He won't hardly look at me." I sighed, Jou _had_ been pretty busy lately. What with his two jobs, his daughter, his wife, his father, his brother and his girlfriend yelling at him to get married, the Digital World disappearing along with the rest of our parents, and of course all the strange things that were happening with the deadly sins... Gomamon was bound to feel left out.

"Come on," I said to him with a smile. He nodded at me and turned to lead the way to the other side of the podium. We had to step onto the stage, and overtop of Ken and Koushiro whose digimon were yelling at them to stand up and do something.

Finally we were entering Jou's change room which was much messier than Momoe's had been. Shin was sitting in the corner on a desk eating some sort of messy chocolate dessert his tie tied totally incorrectly, Shuu and Iori were yelling loudly at one another as Armadillomon and Meramon tried to calm them, and Jou was standing in front of the mirror like Momoe had been, staring at himself.

"Oh thank God!" He gasped, "Sora!"

"Gomamon found me." I said, directing his attention to Gomamon.

"Yeah," He said, "But I need your help. I can't tie a tie. None of us can."

So after five minutes of tying ties and straightening them all up, and trying to force Iori to stop yelling at everyone all the time, I was waving goodbye to them and stepping out of the room, patting Gomamon on the head quickly.

"Hey," Katsue, who was still leaning against the wall right outside of Jou's change room with Yamato, who had slumped down and sat on the floor next to her.

"Hello!" I smiled at her, "You remember Biyomon?"

"Yeah..." She said, nodding, "Forgot her name, remember the face. Kind of hard to forget if you know what I mean." She said, her eyes flicking around to all the different digimon. I tried to see it from her perspective, which was fairly amusing in all actuality.

The orange dinosaur was sitting next to his best friend, the lizard with the horn in a dog's coat. The girl she was talking to had just come out of a room filled with a man on fire, a very large armadillo and a seal with an orange mohawk, accompanied by a large pink bird. Over, behind the two giant yelling bugs, in the other change room was a big tadpole, a spunky flower in a dress, a big red talking hawk, a living teddy bear with a backwards baseball cap, a pumpkin creature with an axe in his head and a talking rock creature... and that wasn't all of them. Rei was sitting on the pews now with Taichi and her two partner like digimon, Pal and Pul the floating babies in devil costumes, Hikari was surrounded by two arguing rabbits—one that could potentially actually be a dog—a cat with large green gloves and a flying pig like creature. Now, I wasn't actually sure where Labramon or Veemon were.

Being new to digimon must have been hard. I didn't hardly remember my own reaction... I'd just woken up and then Yokomon was there... I don't think I screamed. We just talked and she explained everything... but seeing everyone else so comfortable around them all must have been hard.

Suddenly Jou was pushing past me, almost knocking me over. He turned quickly and steadied me and smiled. "Sorry, I just have to get outside and talk to my dad's girlfriend before she walks in on this crazy fest. I think she'll go nuts..."

"She won't be alone." Katsue said, her eyebrows raised along with her glass of alcohol, as if toasting with some imaginary person. Jou ignored her and turned on his heel, running for the door.

I nodded politely to Katsue and set off with Biyomon who grabbed my hand. "You know what Sora?"

"What?" I asked her as we walked along the wall to get to where Neo was sitting.

"You're a lot more girly than when I met you." She said bluntly.

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"No!" She said quickly, "I'm just saying that even though you're so different, this is the first time in a _long_ time that you seem to be yourself. You don't seem scared or stressed or anything. You're just being you. I like that. I like you."

"Aw!" I cooed, scooping her into the air. "I like you too!" I smiled at her as I hugged her. It definitely felt good to know that someone was still on my side through thick and thin.

I carried her all the way to Neo, both of us laughing the whole way, until finally I was sitting next to him. I set her beside me, and before I could even say anything someone else had sat down. I bent forward and saw Takeru sitting next to Neo with a smile.

He held out his hand to shake Neo's, and Neo obliged nervously.

"Good to see you." Takeru said politely, then, "So, anyone notice how crazy everyone is being?" I nodded without looking around. They were all crazy. All of them.

"It's because of the seven deadly sins." I said quickly, being sure to tell him as simply as I could. If no one had told him it may have already been too late. "Our theory—well Jou's theory—wherever he got it from... I think Mari—"

"She's usually right." Neo pointed out quickly. "Smart girl."

"Yes, well," I said slowly, "Daemon and his digimon are infecting us with the deadly sins. Don't let it get to you."

"Knowing about it helps." I turned to see Miyako sitting down next to Biyomon, clutching her head with one hand and a bowl of something with the other. "But it doesn't fix it. I've been eating more lately, only the thing is, I know that I need to stop, so I do. I can force myself to remember that eating might kill me." She reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful of potpourri and shoved it into her mouth.

I snatched the bowl from her, "Yeah, but at least Taichi's sticking to food." I said, "Next would you like to eat the pews? I'm sure they taste delicious." She realized what she was doing and jumped to her feet, running toward the door to spit it all out.

"That's not fair." Takeru sighed. "I want one too. I want to have one! I'll have..."

"Envy?" Neo suggested.

"Why that one?" Takeru asked.

"You're actually jealous right now that everyone else is being eaten alive." Neo pointed out before turning to me as Takeru realized his mistake as Miyako had with hers, "We have to put a stop to this... and even though I don't have a crest to actually digivolve the little wea...weally cute... digimon..." He trailed off, hoping I hadn't noticed him almost calling Dracomon a weakling. I had. "Anyway, I want to help."

"I'd be happy to have you help." I told him, "And you might even win over the others."

"Not Taichi." Takeru said. "He's kind of... hard to win over."

"Ha!" Biyomon laughed, "If you think Taichi's hard—try Iori."

"Right now," I said, "I feel like Mimi's worse."

"Sora...?" A voice said from behind me.

Of course. Mimi. I turned around and looked at her, trying to glare but mostly expressing the fear I was feeling. What was she going to do this time?

"C-can I talk to you?" She asked slowly.

I turned around, thought about ignoring her, decided not to, and jumped to my feet. I slipped past Neo and Takeru and told Biyomon I'd be right back before stepping away with Mimi, toward the corner of the room.

I couldn't help but notice she was wearing the belt I'd helped her get as she led the way. Finally she spun around when she made it to the corner. She didn't make eye contact with me though.

"Sora..." Mimi said quietly, "I..."

"You...?" I asked her. "You what?" Want to throw _me_ in the trash this time? Rip my dress off and make me sit in my underwear through the wedding? Cut all my hair off?

"I'm... a bad person." She said finally. "I've done very bad things, and I—" She cut herself off, as she suddenly burst into tears.

"Mimi!" I gasped, confused ,"Mimi?"

"S-S-Sora, I'm so sorry!" She stuttered as she turned her head from me. "I don't deserve for you to comfort me! I'm the worst friend on the history of the p-planet!" I looked over my shoulder and saw that everyone was pretending to ignore her.

"Mimi," I said, "It's not your fault. It's a digimon who is making you like this—"

"No!" She said sharply, cutting me off, "It's not affecting you or the others—not this bad! I'm weak Sora—I should be able to stand up to the digimon if it really is there but I haven't been. I'm just really jealous of you—I'm so sorry for tossing your cake in the trash—it was really b-beautiful, and I'm sure it tasted awesome, because you're actually very good at b-baking. Your cooking is a different story, but we'll come back to that later," I laughed as she continued, "I've done some r-really awful things to you, and I'm so s-s-sorry!"

"Mimi—" I tried again.

"I was so jealous of you," She blubbered, "I thought you were going to steal Koushiro from me—but it wasn't you doing that... it was me. I was pushing him away from me with my insanity. It's all my fault. Everything is my fault. Not yours. And you're really pretty."

"Thank you..." I said slowly, not sure how to take this. Sure, I was more than happy with her, I was so pleased that she was coming clean and apologizing, but so long as that envy creature was hanging about she was never going to stay this way.

"Will you stay?" She asked, "I-in my house? Don't leave Sora—I'm sorry. I want you to stay. We used to be really close."

"Mimi—" I started, planning to tell her that for my own sanity I couldn't do that... but this was the real Mimi. She was back for however long it was going to be. But that meant she was still there somewhere... "I'll stay." I told her.

"I have one more thing to say..." She said, still crying as hard as ever. "Promise you'll stay even after I tell you." She said.

"What?" I asked

"P-promise."

"I—yeah, I promise." I told her, suspicious. "What did you do?"

"I..." She trailed off for a moment, wiping her face and looking down to the side. "I-I-I..." Why was she stuttering so much? What did she do? "I screwed up your application to the fancy fashion school you wanted to go to. I was so mad, and stupid—I'm so sorry!"

I felt as if she'd punched me in the gut rather than just apologized. She'd been the cause of that? No. It was the digimon of envy... whoever that was. But even so... I was a firm believer in destiny. This was a timing thing. And because of that timing I was sure that I wasn't supposed to get in to that school. Which also meant that I wasn't supposed to be in fashion... and although I was infuriated with Mimi... it wasn't her fault.

"Mimi..." I said slowly.

"Slap me." She said through her tears. "J-Just do it."

"I'm not going to—"

She reached for my hand and slapped herself in the face with my hand which was now wet with her tears. "Slap me. P-please!"

"Mimi!" I said loudly.

"Please!" She cried out, "I deserve a lot more than that!"

I stepped forward and hugged her tight as she wrapped her own arms around me, crying into my shoulder. "S-Sora... I'm so... sorry..."

"I know." I said quietly. "Mimi. Listen to me." I pushed her out of the hug. "We're going to go fix your makeup, and then we're going to come back to this wedding looking as hot as ever, you're going to join me and Neo, and maybe if Koushiro stops laying around we'll get him to dance with you. But you're going to stop crying, and we're going to be friends again."

"I... Sora..." She trailed off again, "I don't deser—"

"I don't care what you think you deserve." I said. "I'm willing to look past it all." Which was really hard for me to do after everything she'd put me through. "I'm willing to let you join me and my good friend Neo at our best friend's wedding."

"My best friend." Mimi said, and for a moment I thought she'd already reverted to her old self. "My old best friend anyway... He's your brother. You've known him forever. Longer than I have, and you know him better and treat him better..."

"Mimi, come on... stop crying." I said quietly. She nodded and wiped her eyes smearing her makeup even more.

"I don't want to be a third wheel..." She said quietly.

"You won't be." I told her, putting my arm around her and leading her toward Momoe's change room where I knew there would be a lot of makeup to help Mimi's face. "Neo and I are just friends."

"Whatever you say..." She said in a drowned out sort of giggle.

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

"One time I _killed_ you." Iori said, standing at the front of the church where Daisuke, Tai, and I were standing. "Oh wait, did I not tell you? I can see the _future_."

Iori lunged at Daisuke who jumped out of the way. "Don't touch me. I don't want to catch loser."

"Don't call me a loser!" Iori snapped.

"I'm not meaning that you suck," Daisuke said sharply, "Just that you're not as awesome as me. And let's face it? Who is?" Iori finally caught him and punched him in the arm as hard as he could. Daisuke pretended it didn't hurt, when it obviously did.

"Please don't punch my boyfriend." I said sharply, but suddenly I was very angry. Uncontrollably so! I wanted to do something awful! "Only a little bit of please!" I growled.

"Wow, what happened to you?" Taichi asked, his eyebrows raised.

I growled at him and shot him a deadly glare, whipping my head around to face him, my black and purple hair flipping angrily as well. I could feel the anger growing inside me so much that if I didn't control it my looming dark shroud may have come back.

"Do you want to see the old me?" I asked loudly.

"Can the old you cook?" Taichi asked, "Because that would be great." He smiled.

I shook my head with gritted and barred teeth as I looked to my dress. "Why am I wearing pink?" I asked loudly, "WHERE IS MY SPIDERWEB DRESS?"

"Calm down sweetie." Daisuke said, placing his hands on my shoulders and staring into my eyes. I calmed down immediately. "Let's sit down... The wedding will start soon anyway."

"Oh!" Iori gasped, turning to run back to Jou's dressing room to join the others as Taichi sauntered back to his seat next to Rei. Daisuke led me back to my seat, and on the way I saw Katsue practically dragging Yamato toward Agumon and Gabumon where they could take their seat.

Finally though I sat down, and tried to calm down. Something was really wrong... maybe if I had enough patience to listen to what everyone had to say I'd know what it was...

_**Tatum Jefferson:**_

"Willis," Hikari said as she snuggled up to him, rubbing her head against his shoulder like a cat. Willis looked down to her, his face red as Terriermon and Lopmon bounced up and down trying to catch Patamon who was flying around us. Gatomon was watching Hikari with a disgusted look, and I was standing at the end of the bench, staring at them, my eyebrows raised.

"Hikari," Willis said simply, "Remember how I get all benches?"

"I don't remember that." She said, pulling her head back.

"Well I do." Willis said.

I'd gotten the run-down from Miyako about how the sins are affecting them. I'd even warned Michael, but that didn't help him at all, and apparently Hikari and Willis hadn't been able to be saved either. So there I was, watching Hikari's bizarre take on what 'lust' meant as Willis tried to take everything for his own.

"Seriously, it's mine." He said. "You can sit on the floor next to me though."

"Do you like girls who sit on the floor?" She asked.

"Sure?" He tried, and in a second Hikari was sitting on the floor.

Boy, was I glad I wasn't part of their group. It seemed only the group of them were being affected by the sins. Monodromon was standing next to me, silently as always.

"Here's your boyfriend." I turned sharply and saw that Mari Goutokuji girl dragging Michael by his ear. "He's been infected too?"

"Yeah," I said shyly, brushing my red hair from my face, "Sorry about that..."

"He's like a cat in heat." She said, her face beat red as she remembered whatever it was that Michael had done. I didn't want to know. I knew he wouldn't cheat on me while uninfected, and hopefully had enough sense not to either way.

Mari raised her eyebrows and then glared at Hikari and Willis before stalking away, leaving Michael behind.

"Can we take Hikari on our date tonight too?" Michael asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

"NO!" Willis yelled, "I'll take Tatum though! I have two of everything else, I want two girlfriends too!" It was true, he was also wearing two bowties.

"No," I said flatly. "I'm not going on a date with either of you tonight because you're both insane. I would advise you do to the same, Hikari."

Hikari looked to me with a smile from her place on the ground.

"I'm going to go sit over with Takeru and Neo." I said finally, "Because they seem saner, which is saying something considering the mental state of Neo himself." I started walking away but turned back and grabbed Michael, pulling him along with me by his ear as Monodromon followed along happily.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

Weddings were so exciting. And yes, while I was secretly hoping that something might happen that made my own wedding look far less horrible, I wanted Momoe and Jou's to go smoothly as well. We were lined up outside the back door, waiting for our cues. Palmon started walking first, and she looked to be having loads of fun distributing the flower petals, and throwing them over the guests. Emiko followed her out, holding out a small pillow proudly. Instead of the rings though, there was a banana resting on it. I didn't think Momoe had noticed yet, but there it was, plain as day. Yellow with bruise spots from where Emiko had squeezed it. I remembered giving it to her an hour ago for a snack so she didn't complain about being hungry during the wedding. Bearmon walked behind her, holding his hand fisted behind his back. I had a sneaking suspicion that that was where the rings were hidden. The bear digimon was bearing the rings…I snickered to myself, and nearly toppled over when Chiziru started pushing me.

I'd missed my cue!

I hurried out into the aisle, blushing when everyone's eyes fell on me as I stumbled in my heels. I made sure my gloves where fastened in place. It wouldn't do to have them fall down and gross people out so bad that they wanted to leave. That would ruin the wedding, and I couldn't do that.

I tried to keep from looking anyone directly in the eye, or else I knew I'd imagine that they were accusing me of hiding my problems rather than facing them…but I didn't have time to face them, nor did I have enough support. I hadn't seen Ken since he left to warn the others. No. I just spotted him. He was slouched down in his seat beside my parents—the poor guy—half asleep. Mom was looking at him with disgust, while Dad was too busy fuming to bother. He was furious that Momoe had chosen Mantarou to walk her down the aisle instead of himself. It was the father's right he said. But Momoe didn't want him to do it. Mantarou was the better choice, as he hadn't demanded that she give Emiko up for adoption when she showed Emiko to him for the first time. No. That was Dad. Why would she want Dad to give her away? She didn't. And that was what had him so mad. But he still came to the wedding, just as both he and Mom came to my own. They couldn't risk not coming. It was bad for their family image. At least Mom was excited about this wedding. Besides, Dad still had Chiziru to give away someday.

I shook my head and continued down the aisle. It was a happy day. I didn't need to think about Dad or my arms, or my fear. I saw Jou standing at the end, bouncing on his heels, trying to get a glimpse of Momoe, even though she hadn't come out just yet. The sight put a smile on my face, and I quickened my pace.

"Iori," Shin was saying from his place at Jou's side. "Switch places with me. You're the best man, you have to stand beside Jou!"

"Don't tell me what to do," Iori snapped, pulling his arm back and flinging a punch at Shin's face. He ducked underneath the fist, leaving Iori's fist on a one-way street to the side of Jou's head.

"Jou!" Shuu gasped.

"What?" he asked, turning just in time to get a face full of Iori's fist. I heard the audience gasp, and Iori stammer out an apology. "Am I bleeding? I better not be bleeding. Momoe's wearing white. I'll get it all over her."

I stepped to my place and looked back to see if Momoe was coming yet. She was. I saw her wide eyes from the doorway where she stood next to Mantarou—who looked so proud to be holding on to Momoe's arm. Chiziru was torn between laughter and disgust as she stepped into place next to me, and Jun was absolutely horrified on her way down the aisle. I saw Momoe shake her head and smile. She knew that with everyone acting crazy _something_ was bound to go wrong. Thankfully it was done and out of the way now. Momoe and Mantarou started their walk down the aisle. Even a bloody nose wasn't enough to keep Jou from grinning like a fool at the sight of her.

Koushiro groaned loudly. I chuckled at the sight of him. He was standing, though he was kind of leaning against his podium desperately trying to find a way to sleep whilst standing. The wedding had barely started, and he was already ready for it to be finished with.

I scanned the pews looking for Yamato. Ken was sleeping, Koushiro was trying to. I wondered how he was faring with the excitement of the wedding. When I found him, he was yawning, and stretching his arms into the air. He looked miserable to have to be sitting up. He leaned forward, looking to his right. He seemed to be counting the people between him and the aisle. He must have decided there weren't too many, because he started by pushing Katsue from his side toward the aisle. Rei was at the end, and Pal and Pul clung to her arms to keep her from falling to the ground where she would have been crushed. Taichi fell to the floor first, followed by Agumon and Gabumon, who were topped by Katsue. Pal and Pul weren't able to hold Rei anymore, and set her on top of the pile before falling down to join it.

Momoe—who had chosen the moment Yamato started pushing to walk past that particular pew—was knocked off her feet by the commotion, but Mantarou managed to catch her before she fell flat on her face. She sent a glare at the now sleeping Yamato, who'd sprawled out along the full length of the bench, and continued walking towards us with her head held high.

"Okay…I'm supposed to start talking now…but I don't really have a speech planned, since I was too lazy to actually write it…so welcome, and stuff…" Koushiro rambled. "Uh…I could read a prayer right now…but I won't. Because it's not vital to the wedding. And then I'm supposed to say some touching stuff about love, but I don't care to…"

"Stop skipping stuff," Iori growled. Koushiro straightened up at the unspoken threat, and picked up some papers.

"We're here to join the two of them in marriage, they love each other, there are lots of poems about love, and instead of saying one right now, I want you all to think of your favourites instead," Koushiro said quickly, so quickly that I barely understood a word. But at least he was doing his job. "Okay. Now that that's over with, the two of them need to exchange vows, and I'm sure that if they didn't write some of their own, they'll be able to come up with some right now."

"What?" Momoe and Jou gasped. They hadn't had the year to prepare that Ken and I did. They based the entire wedding around Jun's binder.

"I thought of this," Jun announced. She pulled two pieces of paper out of nowhere and stuffed them into Jou and Momoe's hands. "And I wrote your vows for you."

"Okay…ummm," Jou said reading through Jun's vows. "I've cared about Momoe ever since I saw her at her parent's convenience store and she was adding "Digi" and "Mon" to random words in every sentence. She was so nervous on our first date, but I didn't notice over my own nerves. And while we did have our ups and downs and disagreements, I was never happier than I was when she came home to me carrying our sweet baby girl, and I was never more scared then when I thought I might lose her to Fanglongmon. And though I was a stubborn idiot"—he stopped to glare at Jun—"I'm really glad that I listened to my wonderful advisor_ Jun_ and finally got down on one knee just a couple of weeks ago…"

There were snickers in the audience as he read the words that were clearly written by Jun.

"I am so glad that I let my best friend help me get you to finally propose to me, so that she can also get married…" Momoe started reading, but stopped and shook her head, throwing the paper at the ground. "Jou. I love you. I will love, and have loved you for a long time. And together we made a beautiful baby girl that I'm so happy could be here today. So even though we did things backwards, and neither of our parents are happy with the way things have happened for us, I want you to know that I am. You make me so happy, and I plan on loving you for the rest of our lives, and I pray that they won't be cut short by the Digital World's problems. I want to be with you, and you make me a better person."

"You make me better too," Jou murmured, stroking her hair.

"Okay," Koushiro said, interrupting the cute moment. "So now that that's out of the way, you can go sign the registry…or wait…are you supposed to say your "I dos" first?"

Before he could figure it out, the doors at the back of the church burst open again. I looked to Emiko first, but she seemed just as surprised as everyone else, and I turned back to see a large, bright red crocodile wandering down the aisle. It had black along the top of his nose and head—which was as long as his body—and so many teeth that it was scary. He had two jagged, sky blue ridges along his back, and down his two tails, tipped with a spiked end. He had wicked, beady eyes and webbing on his elbows and knees. There was rainbow coloured smoke coming out of his nose. But that wasn't the strangest part about him. It was the fact that he seemed to be carrying a small, sleeping digimon on his back. The tiny digimon was wrapped with chains, locked with an alarm clock and white spikes, that looked like teeth, decorating his forehead, with red markings between them and two limp sheep horns hanging down the back of his head.

The reaction was almost immediate. There were a couple of screams, and most of the digimon jumped to their feet. Palmon and Bearmon took fighting stances in front of the bride and groom, and Otamamon came running over to protect Jun.

"You're still here?" Koushiro asked him. Otamamon glared at him and prepared himself for a fight. "We'll all die if we put our faith in _his_ tiny webbed hands!"

"It's a good thing we've got like twenty something digimon here then, isn't it?" Iori snapped at him.

Emiko giggled, and every eye was on her as she threw her banana at the sleeping baby digimon on the crocodile's back. It bounced off, and nothing happened…but just for a second. It's eyes snapped open, and suddenly, the chains fell away and he was growing into what I was absolutely sure was a body-building hellhound with four wings on his back and giant claws on both his hands and feet.

Now everyone was screaming. Momoe was trying to get around Bearmon so she could get her daughter, but it was no use. I took it as a sign that it was my duty as the often-absent-yet-still-the-favourite aunt, and ran towards my niece. The hellhound and the crocodile smirked, and the hellhound reached out a long, muscular arm and plucked Emiko off of the ground _just_ before I could grab her, and I ended up clenching nothing but air.

"Emiko!" I screamed, with Jou and Momoe. I ran after the two digimon as they flung themselves at the wall, bursting through the stone wall, and ran off into the city. I couldn't keep up. "Emiko!" I yelled again, falling to my knees.

But they were gone.

_**Jou Kido:**_

I was having a really hard time letting my emotions adjust to what was going on, but I didn't have time to figure it out. I needed to go. Now.

But why was everyone in my way? Why weren't they moving? Was I not pushing them hard enough?

After shoving Shin and Iori out of the way I came face to face with Momoe, practically pushing her over in the process.

"Jou—" She gasped breathlessly.

"I know." I growled, "I'm going!" I side stepped around her, and practically threw Taichi out of my way as I leapt from the crowd that had gathered. "Gomamon!" I called over my shoulder loudly.

"Coming!" I heard in response as I jumped through the hole that the digimon had created as bits of the church crumbled. I almost tripped over Miyako who was on her knees, "Jou! We need to wait for the others!" He was running alongside me now, as I ran along the path of wreckage that the alligator digimon and the crazy beast thing had left behind.

"No." I shot back quickly, "He has Emiko. If they want to come, they can come, but I'm not waiting!"

"Would you do this for me?" He asked, "Would you save me this quickly?"

"Absolutely!" I shot, "Why wouldn't I?" He didn't answer, so I kept running in silence, I needed to keep my breath and energy anyway.

I couldn't see either of them—those digimon were out of my sight—I could tell they went this way what with the deep footsteps and fallen trees and fences, but I couldn't see them! How was I supposed to catch up?

"JOU!" I froze suddenly, spinning around to see a girl in a red dress standing in the wind, the loose strands of her brown hair blowing in the wind. Her partner standing behind her in her red floral clothing.

"Mimi?" I asked, shocked, "I can't talk, I have to save Emiko."

"I want to help." Mimi said. "I'm sorry for being an idiot. And to make it up for you, we're going to go save your daughter." I couldn't help but smile. Mimi smiled back and nodded, taking Rosemon's hand. Rosemon set off into the air flying toward us, grabbing my hand as Gomamon leapt into the air, landing in Mimi's free arm.

Rosemon could fly faster than I could run, and that was ultimately what was going to save Emiko. We needed to catch up now.

But now that I had a little time to think, the only question that was crossing my mind was... why Emiko? Why did Emiko get taken? They'd come to us, the digidestined... whoever they were. That made sense. Perfect sense. All evil digimon hated us—but why would they leave after taking just the smallest human there? She had a digimon, yes, but she'd not seen Monmon since she'd gotten her digivice... So what did they want with her? Whatever the reason was I could only hope that they needed her alive...

"Jou," Mimi said loudly as she adjusted Gomamon in her arms. "Jou, I'm sorry for everything that I did. You were right. You're always right... I wish I would just learn to listen to you."

"You have to learn your own lessons." I told her, trying to smile, "It takes some time, and pushing for people to learn things. I'm happy to help and bring you around to who you were meant to be." Now wasn't really the time to be doing this, but there was nothing to do in the time between now and when we found Emiko.

Mimi said nothing else, but instead looked onward, toward my daughter.

"Gomamon, are you ready to fight?" I asked.

"No." Gomamon admitted.

"What?" I gasped.

"I don't think it's important for me to care about anything that you care about if you don't care about what I care about." Gomamon said sharply.

"This is _not_ the time to be acting up Gomamon!" I yelled, "Just throw a tantrum later!"

"Jou," Mimi said sharply, "If I may, I think it's my turn to step in and help you out like you helped me. Gomamon feels left out because you're ignoring him like I ignored my mother's cooking growing up."

"I don't ignore him..." I said quietly. But... maybe I had been. I couldn't remember what the last thing he had to say was...

"If you say so." She said.

"There they are!" Rosemon said majestically, staring ahead. I turned my head sharply and found that she was right. There, ahead of us was the red alligator and the awakened beast, and since Rosemon was faster we gained on them quickly. And there, crying in a mostly outstretched hand of the beast flying above the alligator was my daughter. Alive. So I was going to save her. That was going to happen.

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

"Okay Mimi," I muttered under my breath. "You can do this."

"Mimi," Jou called. "What do we do first?"

"Digivolve?" Gomamon suggested.

"Right," Jou said. "Sorry. I'm just worried, I guess. I'm not thinking straight. She's right there, and she's _crying_ and I just want to go over there and take her, but I know it won't be that easy."

"So…digivolve?" Gomamon repeated.

"Go for it," Jou said sounding distinctly frazzled. Oh no. He was going to be depending on me so much for this battle. He had the determination, he wanted his daughter safe no matter what, but could he suppress the crazy-dad symptoms that would make him act before thinking and potentially cause Emiko harm with the consequences? I didn't know. So it was up to me.

And that was a very, very bad thing.

I could barely think straight myself. The second that crocodile came in the church, I basically forgot ever lesson I'd taught myself, and wanted to destroy Sora again. That alone gave me a hunch as to who these guys were. But I needed confirmation. If one of these guys was messing with my head, and making me insane in my envy, I needed to know which it was. Because I wanted to slaughter the beast. Which was new for me, since I was strongly against excessive violence.

The rainbow steam coming from the crocodile's nose was very distracting too. I wanted it. I wanted to be as beautiful as it, I wanted to be able to spew rainbows from my nose and mouth and ears. I wanted it so badly. And I couldn't do it—I knew, because I tried—and it just wasn't fair that this crocodile was able to do something that I really, really wanted to do.

"Mimi," Jou said, snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"What?" I asked. "Weren't you and Gomamon digivolving?"

"We did that…" Jou said. "You didn't notice?"

"I was…distracted…" I said, glancing at the crocodile once again and then forcing my eyes away instantly. He was the one. I didn't even need to ask. Not anymore. This crocodile was responsible for me being Crazy-Psycho-Mimi this last while. And I was not happy with him.

"Rosemon!" I shouted. "Go for the red one."

"I guess we'll try the demon from hell," Jou said nodding to Plesiomon. Honestly, how did I miss Gomamon digivolving? Was I being hypnotized by rainbow smoke? "Plesiomon, just be careful…okay? He's got Emiko."

"I'm always careful," Plesiomon sang. I nearly rolled my eyes at Jou. Of _course_ Plesiomon was going to be careful. He knew what was at stake. He loved Emiko too.

"Beauty Shock!" Rosemon screamed as she flew towards the crocodile digimon, her white, petal cape flying behind her. She held her whip in the air, charged with electricity, and flung it at the overgrown lizard.

"Cauda!" the digimon retaliated, winging his two tails at her and knocking the whip out of the way, without trouble.

"Damn," I muttered. I had been hoping it would be easy. I mean, they needed the two digimon to kidnap a baby. I figured that meant they weren't strong.

"Sad Water Blast!" Plesiomon tried, squirting a blast of water at the larger, demonic digimon. Said digimon seemed to raise his eyebrow at the sad attack. It didn't do any damage. All it managed to do was get him a bit wet. Emiko too.

"You got Emiko," Jou accused.

"It's just water, Jou," I pointed out.

"It could have been worse," he snapped.

"Stop worrying," I shouted at him. "I _will_ save your daughter. I will do everything I can to make sure she _stays_ safe too. You need to know that. And accept that, so that we can actually get something done!"

"I trust you, Mimi," he said. "I do. But you're not yourself."

"No, she's not," the crocodile laughed. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"What's beautiful?" I asked, worried that he meant that someone was more beautiful than I was. Because _that_ wasn't fair. I had to be the best at something. I couldn't always lose to other people. Why did they always get the best stuff?

"You feel the envy, don't you?" he purred. "It's coursing through your veins. You were so easy to corrupt. Just the simplest suggestion, and your mind went wild, taking it to extremes that I hadn't thought possible in such a short time."

"Why are you doing this to us?" I asked, trying to fight the flattered feeling of being the one that he chose. I was the first one! Me. No one else. No. Mimi, stop it!

"Because we can," he said.

"It's fun," the demon digimon added.

"And you've got to have a lot more fun than I have, haven't you, Belphemon," the crocodile said, sounding disgusted by this fact.

"Now, now," the demon, Belphemon said. "Your _envy_ is showing, Leviamon."

"I'm surprised you could conjure enough energy to infect that many," Leviamon, the crocodile snapped.

"Envy and sloth," Jou decided. "Belphemon's the one that affected Ken."

"And Koushiro," I realized. "And Yamato."

"Leviamon got to you and Takeru," Jou informed me.

"I know," I said. "I've got my sights set on him."

"Mimi," Jou said, grabbing my arm as I prepared to run to go join the battle myself, since I needed to prove to myself that I could overcome the envy. "You helped me, and now I'll help you. You can't just do that. It might just be my typical anxious self talking, but we've got to come up with a plan. Worrying is fine, your anger is fine, but you need to channel it into something useful."

A bright green light cut off his rant. It was coming from his hand, his digivice more specifically. That was my colour! My crest. It was also the colour of jealousy. That was unsettling to realize. Almost as unsettling as learning that my own digivice was glowing with a silver light. Jou's crest.

"Oh my god!" I gasped. "We're fusing! We're really doing it."

"Wow," Jou said, and we turned as one to our digimon who were glowing to match our digivices.

"**Plesiomon digivolve to…**"

"**Rosemon digivolve to…**"

"**Lotusmon!**"

She was beautiful. She wore a lotus flower hat, and had purple skin, and was wearing a skin tight purple top, a shade darker than her skin, with long socks to match. Her skirt flared around her feet, a brilliant white. She had sleeves that started at her elbows that flared as well, and a white lace around her shoulders. In one hand she held a staff with a rainbow coloured lotus flower topping it, and in the other was a staff I recognized from museums back in New York that I went to when I was bored. It was a Caduceus. It had two snakes intertwined around it, and wings branching from the top. And, if I was right, it was a symbol of health and medicine. Perfect for Jou.

"You two have hurt the digidestined for too long," Lotusmon declared, pointing a staff at each of the enemy digimon. "And now, you'll just have to pay."

"You think you can stop us?" Leviamon asked. "Can your partner focus long enough to help you?"

"She's got two partners," Jou shouted. "And I think we're both interested in defeating you."

"Let's see how strong you really are," Lotusmon said, launching herself into the air.

"Keep the kid, Belphemon," Leviamon said. "I'll take care of them."

Belphemon didn't bother to respond.

"Serpent Ruin!" Lotusmon called. The black snake on her Caduceus glowed, and a large, black aura flew towards the crocodile. His rainbow smoke dissipated it though, before it could do any damage.

"I want that rainbow," I declared.

"Focus Mimi," Jou shouted. "Don't let him win."

"But it's so hard," I whined. "I'm not as strong as you. I wish I was as strong as you. It isn't fair!"

"Mimi," Jou snapped.

"Two can play that game," Lotusmon declared. "Seven's Fantasia!"

Her lotus staff lit up with all the colours of the rainbow, before shooting a beam of each colour directly at Leviamon. It was a direct hit, and he lost his footing, falling to the ground. Before he could even get back to his feet, Lotusmon twirled her way to him with her Caduceus extended, and shouted "Serpent Ruin!" The black aura hit him this time, and soon he was nothing more than data, doomed to roam Earth for the rest of all time. It was sad, kind of. But I was glad for it too. This way he couldn't affect anyone anymore.

The moment he burst into data, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. One that I hadn't realized I'd been carrying, despite its immense weight. I didn't care about a stupid rainbow anymore, and I wasn't silently fuming over Koushiro's wandering interest, or Sora's sheer perfection. I was free to be Mimi again. And it felt fantastic. I finally felt good about myself. I didn't want to be anybody else. I _was_ slightly vain, but that was normal.

It was nice to be able to be vain again. I'd spent so long feeling like I was fatter, uglier and dumber than everyone I'd met, that it was great to know that I was all that!

"Mimi," Jou said. "How are we going to get Emiko away from Belphemon?"

"He'll have to set her down, won't he?" I asked. But we didn't have time to contemplate it, because Lotusmon had already set her sights on Belphemon, and was determined to take him down too.

"Gift of Darkness!" Belphemon bellowed, raising the hand that wasn't holding Emiko, and bathing it in what I could only assume were the flames of hell, and launching his fist at Lotusmon.

"Now now," Lotusmon said teasingly as she jumped over the fist and landing on his arm. "Aren't you supposed to be lazy? I thought you would be, since you curse people with sloth and all. I could help you get some sleep if you want!" She ran up his arms, and bashed his head with both of her staffs. If she thought it might render him unconscious, she was wrong. He snarled at her.

"Lampranthus!" he shouted. The chains wrapped around his body lit with dark flames.

"Emiko," Jou said in a strangled voice. I watched in horror as the flames danced just below her.

"Serpent Cure!" Lotusmon called, letting the white snake glow with a bright light, dissipating the black flames.

"Oh thank god," Jou gasped.

"Dark Horn!" Belphemon tried.

"Oh, no," Lotusmon told him. "You're not allowed to do that. I can't let you. You might hurt the baby, and that would be an awful thing to do. Seven's Fantasia!" The rainbow beams danced across the digimon's skin, and he relaxed, losing the will to fight as it lulled him towards sleep. "And now, for my final act, Serpent Ruin!"

The black aura from her Caduceus slammed into Belphemon, shattering his digital makeup, and sending Emiko, who'd been in his hand, flying towards the ground.

"Emiko!" Jou and I screamed at once, but we weren't the only ones. It looked like Sora and Takeru had finally brought the Calvary. Sora was riding on Birdramon's one foot with Neo, while Shuu and Meramon clung to the other. Takeru had Angemon carrying him, and Momoe was with Monzaemon, Miyako and Aquilamon.

But they were too late. They couldn't possibly get to Emiko in time. She was falling too fast. Lotusmon however, was in the perfect position. She angled herself before flying at Emiko as fast as she could. When she reached her, she scooped her into her arms, and twirled herself into an upright position just before landing on the ground.

"Yes!" I screamed. "You did it! You. Are. The. Best. Lotusmon for the win!"

"Emiko," Jou called, rushing towards Lotusmon and taking his daughter from her without a word. "It's okay. Daddy's here. There's nothing to be afraid of." Emiko, for her part, didn't seem to realize that she was suppose to be afraid at all anymore, since she was giggling, looking like she wanted to do that again.

"Look at you, Lotusmon," I said, hurrying to my digimon's side. "You look great. Colour-wise you're more like Gomamon, but you're rocking the flower scheme. You are perfect!" I was squealing. I admit it.

"Sora!" I called quickly. "Come and see. Don't you just love her?"

"Yeah," Sora said warily. "I'm totally _so jealous_ of you."

"Don't be silly," I said. "We beat him. I'm not jealous of you anymore. Why would I be?"

"Now I feel _so_ much better," she said sarcastically, but she was smiling brightly.

"What's he doing here?" I asked, nodding towards Neo.

"I'm strictly moral support," he informed me.

"I couldn't leave him with Iori and Taichi," Sora said sheepishly. "Hey, Takeru. Did you take notes? You've got the third fusion for your books right here."

"Third?" Takeru said confused, and then his eyes widened comically. "Right. Totally the third one. Yep. I've got it. Lotusmon right? Wow, Mimi, you and Jou sure beat me to the punch."

There was totally something going on there, but I couldn't bother figuring it out. I had time for that. I'd need _something_ to fill up the time I'd spent hating Sora.

"I can't believe him," Lotusmon said, before splitting into two rookie digimon again.

"I just saved his daughter, and he couldn't even spare me a second glance," Gomamon complained.

"He had to make sure she was okay though," Palmon told him.

"He never cares to see whether _I'm_ okay. He didn't even thank me," Gomamon growled, sending a dirty look in his partner's direction. "He doesn't want me anymore. I get it. He replaced me with his daughter. I thought we'd be able to share him, but I was wrong."

"Gomamon," Palmon gasped, but he was already storming away. Momoe tried to talk to him, but he snapped at her and kept going. She didn't try too hard though, she needed to get to Emiko. Her wedding dress was still impeccably clean, as she made her way slowly to her almost-husband and her daughter. "Gomamon, wait for me!"

"Palmon," I said slowly, realizing what she planned on doing. I thought we'd be able to spend time together now that I was better, so I could make up for anything I'd done to upset her. But the look in her eyes told me that she'd already forgiven me. And this was something that she needed to do for her friend. And Gomamon needed a friend right then. "Go on."

"Thanks Mimi," she said with a smile. "You're the best."

"No," I said with a grin. "_You_ are."

Things were going to get better now. I was sure of it. But there was a part of me that warned me this might just be the calm before the storm.

_**Sigma:**_

MetalPhantomon reminded me a bit of the sort of grim reaper that was always in my childhood cartoons. He had no skin, and instead was made up entirely of bones, with a dark cloak lined with a blood red and a large scythe. At the base of his spine, where his hip bone should be, was an electricity filled, pink orb which he seemed to use to float in place.

But he still didn't scare me as much as Sigma had a tendency to.

_Excellent_ I heard Sigma think. _He'll rid us of the humans, and we'll be back on our quest._

He'd never exactly explained this quest to me. He'd taught me a lot though, in all the years that I'd known him, and one of those things was that I was not to ask him questions about his secret plots. I didn't need to know them, because it would make me a liability. I couldn't lie as well as he could—or at all really.

"Digitamamon," Yoshie called. "Are you ready to go partner?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," her new partner responded, bending his knees deeply, before launching himself at MetalPhantomon, who raised his scythe in defense. I noticed a silver orb attached to the base of his scythe. It didn't exactly match the colour scheme.

_Don't waste time on pointless observations!_ Sigma snapped at me in the back of my mind. He was right of course. I couldn't let Yoshie fight on her own.

"Piedmon," I muttered. "You too."

"Of course," Piedmon said, bowing to me quickly, before preparing to join the fray.

"Stop," Sigma snarled through my lips against my wishes. "I forbid you from participating."

Piedmon stopped in his tracks, and looked towards me, cocking his head to one side.

"Well, which is it?" he wanted to know.

"You will never fight against the side of darkness," Sigma informed him.

"Kiyoko," Yoshie urged. "Don't let him overshadow you. You're a star just waiting to shine."

"That's enough out of you," Sigma told her.

"It's enough out of _you_," I corrected him. "Piedmon, as your partner, you have to listen to _me._ And I want you to help Yoshie."

Sigma seemed to grab a hold of me and throw me to the back of my own mind. "No," he snarled through my mouth while I was powerless to stop him. "I am _his_ master, and therefore it is my orders that you must follow."

Piedmon looked between me and the battle, wincing as Digitamamon's Nightmare Sindrome was knocked out of the way, and the egg digimon was slammed towards the would-be-ground. I had to get him to help, but with Sigma in the way, I could do nothing.

No.

That wasn't true. There was one thing I could do. One thing that only I could do. I could fight against Sigma. It was something that I'd never dreamed of doing, even in my wildest fantasies. He never would have let me, but I needed to now. For Yoshie. For the first person that ever noticed me, the real me, the one I'd buried under a false name and then hid behind Sigma. She could tell who I was, and saw things for me that I could hardly imagine.

_You wouldn't really defy me though…would you? You need me. You can't live without me. Have I not proven my worth to you when I kept you alive, and kept you from the harms of human contact?_

Not all human contact was bad though. Some of it was good. I had Hideto, who I could _almost_ count as a friend, and my cousin, Koushiro. And now I had Yoshie. None of them had ever hurt me.

_Not yet. But they will. They won't ever accept you. Not like I have._

But Sigma had _never_ accepted me. He spent all of his time suppressing me. He kept me from being the person I could be. From the person I _wanted_ to be. But Yoshie, the wonderful, perfect human being that she was. _She_ accepted me, even though she didn't know me. Not really. She made me realize that I could be better than I was now, better without Sigma. Healthier even…

_You'll never last without me,_ Sigma snarled at me in the recesses of my mind._ You will regret this decision._

"No," I told him. "I really won't!"

I let out a scream as the large, demonic shadow that was Sigma burst out of my chest. He couldn't hurt me, not physically at least. But it was hard to force him from my body. He'd only left me once since I let him come in all that time ago, and that was during the battle against Arkadimon. He'd wanted to get his hands on those digidestined, and couldn't do it whilst in the confines of my human form. That was the first taste of freedom I could even remember, and it felt good as I helped Sora instead of hindered her as Sigma had expected me to. I used the memory of that feeling to fuel me now as I banished him from myself.

And then he was gone, disappearing into the endless darkness and gridlines that made up the Digital World. My shoulders shook from the effort, and Yoshie put a hand on my back, staring after Sigma with wide eyes. She gave me a reassuring pat. Sigma was gone. And this time…he wasn't coming back…

But I didn't have time to worry over what that meant for me.

"Piedmon," I said, nodding to the fight. My digimon burst into a large grin and jumped into the fight.

I had a battle to win.

_**Satoe Tachikawa:**_

"I just wish I could be more like her..." I said, referring to Mimi. I was opening up to this she-devil for some reason. Sitting in a prison cell with her really made me open up. It was probably because I knew I had nothing to be afraid of. Even if we got out of here we'd probably never see each other again, so it was easy enough to open up and be honest. "She's so... pure. It's not fair."

"Well you raised her." Ladydevimon said. "She has parts of you in her, which means that you're capable of it—" She froze, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" It was strange that she heard something and I didn't—maybe digital creatures had better hearing than humans.

"It..." She trailed off and jumped to her feet, landing mid air and flew silently across the room, landing next to me, her ear placed against the door. "Someone is fighting out there."

"Do you think someone is fighting against that atrocious captor of ours?" I asked with as much hope as I could muster.

"I think so." She said, her lips curling into a smile.

"Let's go help them!" I insisted, pulling myself to my feet, though I wasn't really sure what was getting over me. "Open the door. Let's go!"

"I can't." She said, looking toward her feet. "It's locked."

"You're a digimon!" I hissed, "Even that weird plant thing my daughter has can attack things! Come on!"

"The powers of darkness don't work here!" Ladydevimon shot at me. "Idiot."

"Slut." I hissed.

"Oh me?" Ladydevimon argued, growling at me, "You know what—?" She stopped herself. "This isn't the time."

"I'm sorry..." I said quietly, "I shouldn't have called you a slut."

"It's okay." Ladydevimon said, "Now let's think. What would Mimi do?"

"What?" I gasped.

"You want to be more like Mimi. What. Would. Mimi. Do?" Ladydevimon was talking to me as if I was stupid... and maybe I was. But she had a point. Mimi could get out of this... what would she do? Well, Mimi hated fighting, so she'd avoid fighting, but I knew that was impossible. We'd need to fight that weird captor guy, Metalphantomon or whatever his name was... but she would make the best out of the situation.

We had to make the best out of the information that we had...

Which wasn't much... but we knew the powers of darkness didn't work here... which meant the powers of light must.

"We need light!" I said with a triumphant smile.

"We don't have light." Ladydevimon said, but she was too late, for we suddenly did. Floating between the two of us was a bright ball of light with a strange device in the middle of it. I awkwardly looked to Ladydevimon who was staring at it as if it was the most shocking thing in the world, and in a weird way I suppose it was. Honestly this had never happened to me before.

I grabbed it and suddenly we were both blinded by light, which faded quickly, and when it did, Ladydevimon was gone. In her place was a woman in golden-bronze clothing, holding a gold and silver shield, a giant sword decorated with snakes. On her head was a golden snake head shaped helmet with two white wings, and she had two long teal braids.

"What happened...?" I asked slowly.

"You made me digivolve..." Ladydevimon said slowly. "With a digivice..." Her face was more shocked than I'd ever seen on anyone. "P-partners...?" She stuttered. She looked over her new form and then up to me. "My name is Minervamon." She gasped. "I'm... I'm a mega. Finally. A digivice... Finally doing what's right."

"What's right?" I asked her.

"Helping you is right." Lady—Minervamon said. "Let's go win this battle."

She set off at a run, without me, which was sort of annoying. So I reached down and slipped my heels back on and ran after her. I ran down a creaking, wooden staircase, not catching up to Minervamon at all, and then I found her, in a big open room at the base of the tower.

Metalphantomon, in his menacing skeletal glory, his rose coloured orb glowing and his cape hanging limp, was standing in the group of figures I found. As was a strange clown, that annoying egg from the restaurant, a weird boy in a silver mask, and... Yoshie Izumi.

I couldn't help but smile when I saw her, and I saw that she smiled back. Minervamon was right. Yoshie had come to save me... she was a lot different than I'd pegged her as... and apparently Koushiro, her son as well... and even my own daughter... maybe it was time to rethink everything. To re-create my life. Except my impeccable fashion sense.

"Piedmon." Minervamon growled. Piedmon... the digimon who had captured her from her home town as a child and forced her to fight for evil. Suddenly Minervamon was running, her large sword held in an offensive pose.

"No!" Yoshie and the boy called out.

"Minervamon!" I screamed causing everyone to turn to me. "They're on our side." I told her. She turned to me and stared directly through my eyes. Confused. "Trust me." I knew it was going to be hard to trust me since I'd been totally wrong up until now, but honestly, it was time to change her views as well as my own.

She nodded and spun on Metalphantomon.

"So you've escaped sweetheart?" Metalphantomon said to Minervamon as he laughed a hollow wasn't surprising since he was a skeleton. "Well I captured you once, I can do it again."

"Now she has me!"I defended her.

"And me!" Yoshie added. "All of us are here to help. You don't stand a chance mister!" I smiled at her again, and she nodded before we both turned back toward Metalphantomon, who was already soaring quickly through the air, his glowing pink scythe held high as he aimed toward Minervamon.

"Nightmare syndrome!" Digitamamon shouted, a dark shadow flying at Metalphantomon.

"Olympia slash!" Minervamon shouted.

"Trump sword!" Piedmon added.

All three of them hit Metalphantomon head on creating an explosion, forcing me off of my feet, landing roughly.

"Grave Scream." It was the darkest most terrifying voice I'd ever heard in my life as his yellow eyes flashed from the chaos our friends had caused in their attempts to harm him, I was so scared he was coming for me, but when he flew the other way I felt instant relief—until...

Yoshie let out a loud scream, and I was instantly back on my feet, running toward her. She'd come all the way here to save me, and I'd have to do the same for her. It was the right thing to do, which meant that I knew I'd succeed. Just like Minervamon had told me.

Before I knew it I was leaping into the air and grabbing onto the long, cold skeletal hand that had Yoshie around the middle, keeping her arms camped to her body.

"Satoe!" Yoshie screamed, "Get out of here!"

"Olympia smash!" Minervamon shouted, running toward us as I clawed at his long fingers. Metalphantomon slashed his scythe at Minervamon who went flying toward the ground.

Digitamamon suddenly flew at Metalphantomon who tried to hit him too, but missed. Digitamamon, clamped shut in his shell hit the glowing pink orb that seemed to be the source of Metalphantomon's power. With a shuddering smash the orb cracked, a thin line defacing the surface.

Suddenly I knew what to do. I released his arm and looked to Yoshie in a way that told her I'd be right back. Metalphantomon sliced at me this time with his scythe, but Piedmon was standing in the way in a second, two of his four swords held in a crossed formation, keeping his scythe away.

I nodded to him as Yoshie gasped in pain and the blonde boy came to help her. But we had to destroy the villain instead of try to save Yoshie. This was the only way to keep her safe. I reached down and took my heels off. They were really expensive and it hurt me to do this, but I wound my arm back and slammed it as hard as I could into the crack in the orb that Digitamamon had created. I smiled as he let out a cry of pain, releasing Yoshie and recoiling away from Piedmon, but not before I pulled my damaged shoe back.

"Weird clown guy!" I shouted, "Use your sword and hit that orb!" Piedmon, whose name I knew, but didn't want to admit to, nodded and ran forward and did exactly as I said, wedging his sword right into the crack. Suddenly the orb shattered and Metalphantomon let out a loud scream, before he exploded into bits of dust.

I looked away from him instantly, and turned to Yoshie who was already on her feet, stepping toward me. She quickly wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

"I'm glad you're okay." She whispered.

I wasn't sure if I was ready for this just yet, but nonetheless I hugged her back. "Thank you... for saving me."

"Thank _you_ for saving _me_." Yoshie returned the favour, and again I found myself smiling... maybe Mimi wasn't such a disappointment after all. If acting like her for just half an hour made me feel this good... I should be proud to call her my daughter.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find Minervamon holding the silver orb that had been attached to Metalphantomon's scythe. "He dropped this." She said, handing it to me. "It's for you. Thank you."

I smiled at her, and found myself hugging her a moment later. I was just... so happy suddenly.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** The digidestined deal with the aftermath of the wedding, and try to adjust to the relief the two sinful digimon's demises gave them. But things aren't going to be smooth sailing from here.


	28. Cut Away

**Y/N:** I enjoyed writing this chapter, even though it was awhile ago. I did not enjoy trying to piece this chapter and the next one together in an order that both made sense and didn't seem too rushed or chaotic. I hope it worked out... Anyway, I hope you like reading it! Please leave a review if you can, thanks. :)

**U/N:** Sooo I wrote Joe and Kari here, and I think that's it. Due to minor complications this chapter and the next one were a little screwed up, so we had to switch some parts around, but I let my sister do that-Apparently I wrote Yuuko too, and Satoe-Anyway, the point here, is that I hope you like the chapter and leave reviews and whatnot :) Especially criticism... I mean, I like compliments too but I can't get better without criticism.

Also, to address some of the reviews-the reason the children are not as... worried about their parents in this case was because we didn't add the parents plot-lines until later, and that was... well stupid of us. We attempted to pass it off as the Deadly Sins affecting them, but there's really no getting around the fact that it was pretty screwed up.

And-I'll say this, Everything IS happening for a reason... so... yup.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 27: Cut Away **

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice, cold water over my head. I was instantly awake and full of so much pent up energy. What had I been doing with my life for the past week or two? I couldn't remember a moment when I so much as _looked_ at my laptop.

Oh god.

I'd spent all that time on a couch next to…_Ken_.

I would never be able to live that down. What if he thought we were _friends_ now? Just because I didn't want to waste energy or time on insulting his intelligence did not make us friends. We were just digidestined that were forced to work together far more often than I was actually comfortable with. We clashed almost as badly as Michael and Iori—though I was somewhat inclined to believe that neither of them knew exactly what their problems with each other was.

I cast a quick glance around the church. Yamato had woken up too, and was looking around, confused. And _Ken_ was on his feet, looking around frantically for his wife. The one he'd been ignoring for ages now. I glared at him when he caught my eye. I couldn't find Sora. Or…Mimi. I didn't know exactly where the two of us stood in our relationship, if you could really call it that in the first place. It had been months since it felt like anything substantial. But perhaps, once things settled, she would return to her previous ways. I could only hope. Until then though, I needed to be somewhere that we wouldn't be forced to see each other on a daily basis.

"Koushiro?" Tentomon asked from his place at my side. "Is everything alright? Do you need to lay down?"

"No," I said with a small smile. "I don't. I'm wide awake for once. What happened?"

"Guys!" Takeru yelled, unknowingly answering my question. He was flying through the gaping hole in the side of the church with Angemon, quickly followed by Sora, Neo and Birdramon—who reverted to Biyomon immediately upon landing—with Miyako, Shuu, Aquilamon and Meramon bringing in the rear. "They're gone. Mimi and Jou beat them…well, it was mostly just Palmon and Gomamon that did the fighting. But they fused!"

"That's great," Taichi said dismissively. "But I need to know. Since the wedding didn't exactly end…are we still going to have the reception dinner? Because I'm starving, and it was the only reason I actually came…"

"Shut up, Taichi," Iori growled. "You should've come for Jou, one of your oldest friends, not free food. What kind of leader are you!"

"Uh…a _hungry_ one," Taichi informed him.

"And he's not the leader," Daisuke said proudly. "I am. Because I'm that awesome, and he's not even close."

What the hell was going on here?

I only had vague recollections of the current situation. I remember wishing Sora would stop talking, because she was giving me a headache with all the information she was telling me. There was something about the deadly sins and the digidestined…and probably some digimon were involved. I could only assume I'd been infected by sloth, as I'd been too lazy to remember anything else. It was kind of disturbing to see Michael and Hikari compete with who could drape over their date most completely. And Willis was picking at the broken bits of the wall that the digimon had crashed through, picking up the smaller pieces like he was making a collection.

I needed to get out of there.

At least until I got my mind straightened out. I was behind on work too. How many meetings had I missed? How many things did I fail to discover simply because I was _too tired_?

"Hey Koushiro," Sora said with a smile, walking over to me. "Good to see you're actually awake for once."

"I've missed so much," I said gesturing to our friends.

"That's not such a bad thing," she said with a wince. "You guys were all pretty crazy. I'm really glad you're back to normal. We have a lot to accomplish, and with both Taichi and Daisuke out of commission, we're going to need you to fill us in on the council's decisions. And Willis is out of it, so we're depending on you to be the brain of the entire operation. We need a plan. We can't keep skating by like we have been. That's not cutting it anymore."

"You're right," I said, letting the words sink in. How much of this could we have prevented? Probably most of it, we were just too involved with our lives that we didn't see the harm in putting forth minimal effort. I shook my head. I'd think about this later, once I'd sorted through the memories of my lazy days. "So…where are you staying?"

"At home," she said with a smile. "Where else would I be?"

"I don't know. I figured that since things with Mimi had escalated so dramatically that you would remove yourself from the situation," I told her.

"Mimi and I are okay now," she said. "Not perfect, by any means, but we're getting there."

"That's…good," I said slowly.

"I take it _you_ aren't coming home," she guessed.

"No," I admitted. "I need to get away from her. I won't be able to process how I feel if I see her so often."

"I understand," she said. "But you should keep in mind, that the envy digimon has been destroyed—along with the sloth digimon, obviously—so she isn't crazy. Well, she's always been kind of crazy, and now she's trying so hard that she's _overly_ affectionate, but she's not so hurtful anymore."

I didn't say anything to that. How could I? I couldn't come up with a logical response. And I couldn't find it in myself to simply fall back into the old pattern. We would need to discuss our relationship like the adults that we were, and we'd see where we stood after that. But I needed some space first.

"Come on," Sora said, rolling her eyes. "I'll walk you home. Mimi's fretting over Emiko right now with Jou and Momoe, so she won't be there for a bit. You can get some things packed and get out of there without having to see her."

"Thanks," I muttered, and she led us to the street where she hailed a taxi—which I hardly consider walking me home, not that it mattered—and gave the driver our address. I was quick, packing only the basics. My laptop. Some papers from work. A couple changes of clothing. A toothbrush. And then I was out the door before Mimi got home. I didn't know how my resolve would last if she looked at me with sad eyes, without the fires of jealousy behind them. And I almost made it, but she was waiting on the other side of the door, fumbling with her keys when I was ready to leave.

"Oh," she said softly, eyeing my bag. "You're leaving?"

"It potentially won't be a permanent solution," I informed her.

"Come on Mimi," Sora said. "We'll pull out the couch and make a bed. He's got a lot of catching up to do. We'll have fun without him."

Thankfully Mimi was so pleased by the idea of Sora not hating her, that she seemed forget about my impending departure, and I was able to slip out the door mostly unnoticed. I walked to my parent's house from there, not wanting to be cramped in the back of a taxi again. I needed to exercise. Wow. That was something I never expected to say. I was usually content with hiding behind my computer, avoiding the sun like a vampire would, as if it would kill me if I found myself in its rays. It wasn't a particularly long walk, but it was nice, especially since it gave me time to talk with Tentomon, learn more about our current enemies and the list of suspicious disappearances. Kae Ichijouji and Natsuko Takaishi had been missing for ages, and Yamato's father had disappeared with Sora's parents. We didn't know who all had been taken in to the Digital World, or why they had been. But now that I had a surplus of energy, I was going to try and compile a list. We needed to figure this out. It wasn't fair for them if we put it off any longer.

I wondered idly just how much of our passive behaviour was due to the sloth digimon's influence, and how much was actual negligence. I didn't like the answer I arrived at.

The door wasn't locked when I got to my parents house. It was unusual. My mother always made sure the door was locked, especially since those digimon attacks three years prior when the worlds collided. She liked the added comfort. And while they didn't live in a particularly violent neighbourhood, it was best to lock it, just in case.

"Mom?" I called.

"Mrs Izumi?" Tentomon chimed in.

"She's gone…"

"Dad? You sound horrible," I said, rushing to the living room, where I'd heard his voice come from. I was met with a disgusting sight. His hair was standing on end, his clothing looked, at the very least, a week old. He had a bottle of some sort of alcohol in one hand and the television remote in the other—though the television was on mute. Judging by the collection of bottles at his feet, this wasn't the first night of drinking.

"She's gone," he repeated sounding miserable. "She didn't even leave a note. Didn't tell me what I did wrong. Where she was going."

"He's miserable," Andromon said, startling me. He didn't look much better than my father did.

"Did you get Andromon _drunk_?" I accused my father.

"Doesn't matter. Nothing matters," he slurred.

"Mom's gone then?" I summarized.

"She just left. She left me," he cried.

"No note, no excuses…" I mumbled, my brain running over possible reasoning. She loved Dad. I knew that, Dad knew that. Everyone knew that. She wouldn't leave him without telling him why. She was too kind and thoughtful to do something so cruel. My eyes widened as the answer nearly slapped me in the face. Hadn't I been contemplating making a list of people earlier that had left in a similar fashion? "She's not gone. Well. She _is._ The point is that she didn't leave on purpose."

"What do you know?" Dad snarled at me angrily.

"I know that she was taken into the Digital World," I told him pointedly. "And I'm going to make sure she gets home safe. Now get up, drink some _water_, eat something and have a shower. Mom's not going to be pleased when she sees what a mess you are. Get going!"

I had never seen my Dad move so quickly in his life. I sighed. I was a horrible son. I hadn't even realized that Mom was gone. I didn't even know how long she had _been_ gone. I grabbed my laptop out of my overnight bag, and headed to my old bedroom. I didn't expect to get much sleep tonight…

_**Iori Hida:**_

I was furious. So mad that it was hard to even think. I hadn't thought I would ever be that angry. I was practically choking on the anger in my rush to get it out. Daisuke was still riding that high horse, claiming he was the greatest person ever put on the face of the earth. I'd like to see how he'd fair in a real fight, just him and me. No digimon. He wouldn't be so proud of himself when he lost.

And Taichi! He didn't care about Jou at all. Just food. Jou was one of the only people I could look at these days without being instantly fed up with him. If I thought things with Yamato, Ken and Koushiro would be better once they stopped being so freaking lazy, I was wrong. Now I was mad that Ken didn't seem nearly relieved enough to know that his wife was still alive, and hadn't succumb to the bout of crazy that had taken over her life. I was ticked off that Yamato didn't notice that his date to the wedding was nearly drunk with the amount of alcohol she'd ingested _just_ so she could handle a room full of digimon. He should've noticed that and acted accordingly, or better yet, offered her the chance to not come, so she wouldn't be so stressed out. And then I was mad at _her_ because she was afraid of the wrong digimon. These were the good guys. None of them would hurt her. Even Aimi—Jou's dad's girlfriend—was handling the situation better than she was, and Aimi hadn't known about digimon until mere minutes before the wedding.

I was mad that Hikari seemed to be losing all sense of morals, and was draping herself over guys, and didn't look to be perturbed in the slightest. I had to keep myself from looking at Michael, afraid that if I did, I wouldn't be able to hold myself back. He irked me something terrible on a good day. With this problem I was having controlling my rage, I'd probably kill him before I realized what I was doing.

Where was Jou? How could he have left me to handle this on my own? Right. He was off saving his daughter. Or, he _had_ saved her, because the others were back now. They'd arrived too late, because they were stupid and waited so long before following after Mimi and Jou. That wasn't fair. I shouldn't be mad at them just because they were slightly late. Sora had made me really angry when I'd realized she'd forgiven Mimi without much debate. That was stupid. Almost as stupid as the fact that Koushiro was going to run from that problem, instead of dealing with it in a purely intellectual way. I always knew getting a girlfriend would ruin him.

_Stop it, Iori!_ I shouted to myself. It shouldn't have made me angry. It did once, but I thought I'd moved on from that. I was a different, more mature person…_You don't hate girls anymore. You love one. Remember?_

Great. Now I was going to be depressed. And angry that I was letting something so simple get to me so badly. So what if Natsuni hadn't called me once since I blew up at my mother. So what if my mother hadn't been seen since then either. I still had Meiyomon, and Kotemon. And Armadillomon.

"Iori," Armadillomon said. "Do you want to get going?"

"Yes," I said instantly. Okay. So I kind of growled it.

"Hey, Iori," Takeru said, holding onto the newly reverted Patamon. "You look like you're ready to kill something."

"I am," I said angrily grabbing at my tie. It was a stupid contraption, and I hated it. I didn't want it on anymore, and it felt like it was getting tighter, trying to strangle me.

"Here," Takeru said with a laugh, and using just one hand, loosened the deathtrap around my neck. "Let's get out of here. You look like you could use some fresh air."

"I thought that too," Armadillomon added.

I grumbled about not liking it when someone told me what to do, but they ignored me, dragging me out of the church anyway. Patamon laughed, and jumped out of Takeru's arms, flying into the sky.

"Don't go too far, Patamon," Takeru said desperately.

"Relax, Takeru," Patamon giggled. "I'm not going to get hurt."

"You don't know that. What if a rogue bird comes and knocks you out of the sky," Takeru asked him. "Then what? No. You better just come back here."

"I died Takeru," Patamon said. "But I'm back now. You can't treat me like I'm going to break. I won't."

"With Daemon's minions wandering the worlds, I don't want to take needless risks," Takeru insisted.

"You're smothering me, Takeru!" Patamon shouted, reminding me distinctly of myself when I screamed at my own mother just before she disappeared.

"I just love you too much to let you get hurt again," Takeru pleaded.

"No Takeru," Patamon said. "I need a break. I need room to breathe. I'm going on a vacation. I'll see you when I get back." He then flew off into the night, leaving Takeru staring after him, distraught.

"Patamon!" Takeru shouted. "Sorry, Iori. I've gotta go find him."

He shot off after his partner, but I didn't really expect him to find Patamon any time soon. He was a small digimon, and he could fly. He could be hiding in any number of places. And he deserved this break. I knew how it felt to be smothered, and it sucked. And I was ticked that Takeru would ever act that way. I was getting so angry at him, and I couldn't handle that too. I shouldn't be mad at him. I shouldn't be mad at anybody—except maybe Michael—but I couldn't help it. I needed to get away too, just like Patamon. But I couldn't, because I had this stupid wedding to go to…

The wedding I'd just finished attending. Which meant it was over. Which meant that I didn't have to wait around anymore. Suddenly I was running too, but in the direction of my house, and not after Patamon. Armadillomon shouted for me to slow down, but I couldn't. I left the doors open for him though when I got to the apartment building. He couldn't open them by himself.

"Iori?" Meiyomon said sounding confused as I burst into the room. "Are you getting attacked? Can I blow them up?"

"Just keep an eye out for Armadillomon, would you?" I asked him. "I'm going on vacation and he'll need someone to help him."

"I'm a real good helper," Meiyomon assured me.

"Good," I told him, rushing into my bedroom without further comment. Kotemon was in there, piling up small, stuffed penguins…

"Where'd you get the penguins," I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Taichi," he said simply. "He gives them to me when I complete training exercises correctly. Look how many I have! That means I'm doing well on my training. Better than all of the others, since they don't have this many penguins."

Huh. I actually remembered Taichi mentioning something about them.

"_Rei really wanted a stuffed giraffe. But I kept missing the final peg, so I only got these stupid penguins. I've got like thirty of them. Maybe more. Rei didn't want them. Only that giraffe that I finally won. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them all."_

I had to force myself from getting angry with Taichi. He was pawning off his failures on Kotemon and his other trainees! But it was making Kotemon pleased…so it shouldn't bother me as much as it did. I shook my head. I had to stop being so angry. I didn't have time to contemplate penguins!

"I'm going on a vacation, Kotemon," I told him. "I'm going to need you to make sure that nobody finds me. Can you do that?"

"Of course! I'm a Knight now, that is well within my abilities," he said proudly.

I nodded my thanks at him, and pulled a large key out of my pocket. I'd been carrying it around with me, just in case things got to hectic and I needed a break. I used it on my closet door, and light started shining from beneath it. With one last look at Kotemon, I opened the door and stepped into the Land of Dreams.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"Just look at him." Kurayami growled as she stared toward Taichi who was laying in his chair, snoring loudly. He'd invited me over to watch our favourite childhood movie—unfortunately that was all a lie and he actually just wanted me to make him some supper since Yamato refused to continue cooking for him, and was on a date with Katsue anyway.

Kurayami was sitting on the couch next to me, glaring directly at Taichi.

"Easy tiger." Gatomon said from her relaxed state on the back of the couch.

Willis snickered at Gatomon's cat pun as he usually did. I looked to him and smiled as he squeezed my hand tight briefly.

"I just mean…" Kurayami snarled, "Look at him. He has… is that gravy? Is there gravy in his hair?"

I leaned forward and looked to Taichi's mess of hair. Yes. Yes he did have gravy in his hair.

"And I just mean, retract your claws before you hurt someone." Gatomon said, still not moving.

Kurayami shot her a glare.

"Kurayami," Labramon said sternly, as if he were her father and she were a child throwing a temper tantrum. "You remember what we talked about?"

"What did you talk about?" Willis asked when Kurayami refused to answer.

Labramon didn't look to Willis but instead continued to give Kurayami 'the look'. "We told you to calm your anger. It's all just the Deadly sin digimon. You're not really this angry or evil. You're over all of that. Keep it in check or we'll hide all of your things."

"Who is 'we'?" Willis asked.

"Me and Norn." Labramon said.

"Who?" I asked.

"The girl I babysit." Kurayami answere quickly. "She's nice." I had a feeling something more was going on with Norn, but I didn't want to press any further because it could potentially be the work of those sin creatures, and I didn't want to embarrass her by focusing on it. I knew how embarrassing it could get…

"_Hikari," Tatum said, sitting me down at the table in Willis' apartment in Japan where the four of us were going to be staying the night. "Michael," She said sternly to Michael who was sitting next to me. "You two are acting slightly more…. Promiscuous than usual."_

"_What?" I gasped, realizing that my arms were draped over Michael. I snapped back into my seat and looked to her confused._

"_So much so that you're reminding me of my stripper cousin." Tatum said slowly._

"_I…" I didn't know what to say._

"_I don't believe that." Michael said. "We're acting totally normal. Well I certainly am."_

_Tatum cleared her throat, "Seriously guys."_

"_Oh my God…" I said quietly, realizing suddenly what I'd done over the past couple of days. My face turned bright red as I tried to hide from Tatum. _

"_Look," Tatum said, more to Michael than to me. "You barely noticed that Jou's daughter was taken. Jou is heartbroken that his wedding didn't happen and neither of you paid any mind to that. I mean, you're not alone, but Willis won't listen to me unless I get him another apartment because he says he needs two. I just want you both to take notice what you've done and get back on the right track."_

"_I'm perfectly normal." Michael said as Tatum figuratively punched me in the gut. How could I be such an awful friend?_

"_I'll stick Jenna on you." Tatum growled._

_Michael straightened up quickly, "Maybe you're right." _

I'd called Jou right after and talked to him for a full hour about his plans. Apparently he had none, other than to hide from Jun who was both sympathetic and furious over the new development of the wedding progress.

I focused back on the present and saw that Kurayami was now gone from the couch.

"Where did she go?" I asked, releasing Willis' hand and standing up.

"To the kitchen." Labramon said. I decided it would be best to check on her to make sure the wrath wasn't making her to anything crazy.

"Where are you going?" Willis asked, "What are you getting? Get me one too. Get me two."

"Not getting anything." I told him with a sigh. I missed when Willis was… well, Willis. It was a little bit irritating having him so overcome by the sin of greed, but I couldn't say anything. I'd been affected by one of the worst ones… I couldn't even be sure how… I felt my face turning red again… I couldn't wait until all of this was behind us so I could just try to forget the embarrassment.

"Psst!"

I turned sharply to the hallway that led toward the bathroom and Taichi's bedroom.

"Hey…"

The voice was most definitely coming from the hallway… but it was dark. I looked back nervously, aiming to get Gatomon to come along with me to be safe, but she was still laying comfortably on the back of the couch. I didn't need her here… we'd all been growing so independent and strong. So strong and use to danger that we didn't need our digimon all the time. That was probably a bad thing, getting use to the thrill of danger… but according to recent discoveries the Digital World would soon be at complete peace… Just as soon as all of the crests found their proper owners.

And unless we were soon to discover another set of hidden crests, that meant there were only two more to go. So everything would be back in place sooner or later.

Point being, I didn't need Gatomon. And if it turned out that I did need her, she was still in the living room.

I turned back to the dark hallway and stepped slowly down it. I placed my hand on the wall for guidance and balance just in case.

"Hello?" I asked quietly.

"Hey," The voice said casually.

"Who are you?" I asked to the darkness.

"You don't remember me?" The voice asked. "It's me. Yukai." Memories flashed through my head. It was that boy who was following me. It was time to find out more about him. I thought that was fair since he had sat in the washroom while I took a shower once.

After a quick blink he was there. Standing by Taichi's bedroom door, his hair as dark as his eyes. He smiled kindly at me and waved with a childlike innocence. He looked older than when I'd seen him before… he kept getting older which constantly ruined my theory that he was a ghost. Ghost's don't age, but for some reason he couldn't touch me…

"What are you doing here?" I asked, stepping toward him.

Suddenly he was gone, and his voice appeared behind me. "I'm looking for someone." He said. "I keep getting close… but then I get confused. I get so lost and my mind starts getting all jumbled up and numb."

I nodded, looking over my shoulder, "Who is it?"

"I can't…" He said, "I can't tell you."

I spun around but he wasn't there again. "Why not?"

"Because I can't remember." He said slowly, "I can't think about it or—like I said. My head goes all numb." Why was it that nothing was ever easy? Because that would make it boring. I smiled to Yukai over my shoulder and nodded.

"Well, I promised to help you." I said. "Anything you need, just tell me." I said.

"Well… can you ask someone something for me?" He said softly.

"Absolutely." I said quickly.

"Alr—" Yukai disappeared suddenly as Willis started chanting from the living room.

"My turn!" He cheered, "My turn! My turn!"

I spun on my heels and ran toward the living room. "What's going on?" I asked, my hand flying to my mouth the moment I saw what was happening.

Gatomon's hand was on her forehead as she hung her head in shame, Labramon was barking like any regular dog as Willis pumped his fists in the air. Even Terriermon and Lopmon had stopped playing their game to watch what was going on.

Kurayami was standing over Taichi with a pair of scissors in one hand, a large lock of his hair in her other, and then… she just… cut it off.

Everyone silenced as we watched his hair fall.

Willis moved quickly and grabbed the scissors from Kurayami's hand to help in the process. There wasn't much I could do now… they were already going at it like it was some sort of school art project.

"I knew something bad was going to happen." Gatomon sighed.

"Me too." Labramon agreed before the two of them glared at each other. I sometimes just thought they hated each other to follow social stereotypes of a dog and a cat.

"Taichi?" I tried.

Suddenly his eyes popped open, and within three seconds he'd caught on to what was going on and he let out a scream of anguish.

_**Yuuko Yagami:**_

I was on a mission. Taichi didn't think I could do it, but I could. Well, maybe. Probably. I was just as adventurous as my children, just as pure as Hikari, just as thick headed and strong as Taichi, and now, since the Digital World inadvertently reverted my age to… whatever age this was. Twenty-five perhaps?

But nonetheless. I had to prove Taichi wrong, and to do it I'd stolen one of his knights who had become my partner. Dorumon. A purple fox-lizard with two tiny black wings. He was very talkative and excitable. He wanted to prove himself as a knight to Taichi, and I was going to help him do just that. So the two of us were heading out to find and destroy the 'Death Knights'. I had absolutely no idea who the Death Knights were, or what I was looking for, but I was sure it wouldn't be too hard. There was nowhere to hide since the Digital World was a dark endless pit of doom.

"So do your wings work?" I asked Dorumon since we'd finally undergone our very first silent minute since we'd met.

"Shush." Dorumon said sharply, "Don't you hear that?"

Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. What did he hear? Was he tracking someone? Was it one of the Death Knights? Was this about to get dangerous?

"No…" I answered in a whisper.

"It's…" Dorumon stopped and closed his eyes. Suddenly he jerked his head back and to the left and popped his eyes open. I spun around quickly and saw what he was staring at. Floating through the air behind us, flapping his tiny orange wings was a familiar digimon.

"I know that one." I said slowly, closing my eyes and trying to remember where I'd seen him. Multiple times… in the arms of a blonde haired child—Yamato? No. Takeru Takaishi. "Patamon!" I called out, his name flying into my mind.

He stopped flying and looked toward Dorumon and myself, a grumpy expression cast across his face. He stared at us for a moment before deciding to fly toward us.

"Who are you?" He asked.

At first I was offended, but I did look much younger than normal, so I couldn't really blame him for not recognizing me.

"My name is Yuuko Yagami." I told him, "I'm Hikari and Taichi's mother." He smiled brightly suddenly and flew into my arms.

"Thank goodness." He exhaled deeply, "I'm exhausted."

"What are you doing here?" Dorumon asked him. "It is dangerous here little pig friend."

"Ugh." Patamon grunted, too exhausted to care about being called a pig. "It's fine. I'm on vacation."

"And you couldn't think of a different place to do that?" I asked, looking around the emptiness surrounding us. It didn't look like a fun spot to be spending some free time.

"I didn't have much time to think," Patamon admitted. "I'm actually looking for Takeru's mom, do you know her?"

"Natsuko," I nodded, "How do know where she is?"

"I don't." Patamon admitted. "But a digimon back there a bit said she saw a couple of human girls fighting someone over here. But I guess that was just you."

"Can you even count?" Dorumon asked. I waved my hand to silence him.

"That wasn't us." I said. "The others must be around here somewhere." I looked to Dorumon who was already on the ball, closing his eyes and listening for the others. Apparently he had incredible hearing, though I did wonder for a moment how he didn't hear them before, but did hear the tiny orange flying…. Guinea pig?

I looked around too as Dorumon listened. To the left I saw that the bright green gridlines were distorted… almost as if something was there, in their place. Like a big cave in the middle of the grids…

"Hah!" Dorumon grinned suddenly.

"You found them?" Patamon asked.

Dorumon shook his head, but his grin didn't falter. "Something better."

I suddenly knew what it was. It was one of the Death Knights. He'd spotted one of them with his strange ultra-senses. He was excited because he wanted to prove his worth, and although I felt the same, I was still frightened.

And apparently Patamon felt the same.

"Let's get out of here!" He gasped, sensing whatever it was that Dorumon had. Patamon leapt from my arms and set off in the other direction. His panicking was increasing the fear inside of myself, and caused me to set off after him. Dorumon was laughing almost maniacally as he ran behind me.

I did the only thing I knew how to when it came to fighting with digimon. I pulled out my digivice and held it so tight in my fist that my knuckles started turning white.

My heart was pounding which was ridiculous because I hadn't even seen what was after us yet. But that didn't last too long. The moment I glanced over my shoulder I spotted him. It looked like a very tall man in a yellow set of armour with black stripes all over. He looked like a giant bee-man with two glowing blue swords and a red scarf around his neck.

He was running toward us at incredible speed, and suddenly the fear had doubled if not tripled or more. I bit my lip hard to avoid screaming as we ran around the distortion in the gridlines.

As we ran Patamon began taking harsh breaths as he prepared to speak.

"They're… they're close!" Patamon gasped.

And he was right. As we rounded the distortion I spotted who Patamon was looking for. Natsuko, though she too looked younger than normal, Kae Ichijouji, who also looked like she'd jumped through a time machine. The two of them were accompanied by an octopus-man, a wolf-man, a little fire creature and a warrior rabbit.

Just taking in the sight was bizarre, but because I was in the Digital World, it wasn't even that weird. Luckily seeing them was very good news because we currently had a crazed digimon chasing us…

This way we would have help and we wouldn't have to die.

I glanced over my shoulder again and the bee creature was only a few feet away. He growled into his smile and I couldn't help but scream.

_**Satoe Tachikawa:**_

It was a long walk back to the restaurant, but it seemed to go by pretty quickly. Mostly we just introduced each other. Kiyoko was related to Koushiro and his partner was Piedmon. Digitamamon had become Yoshie's partner in my absence, and then I explained how Ladydevimon changed for the better. Along with myself.

It was strange, but the more we talked the more free I felt. I felt as though Everything I'd ever done had been wrong, and yet I knew I still had time to make up for it.

It had only been a few days since I'd left Earth, but I couldn't help but miss Mimi and Keisuke. I was so excited to get back to them and show them the new me. I didn't have to worry about whether or not they'd like the new me or not, because I just... knew they would.

Soon enough we were standing in Digitamamon's restaurant and he was sending us off to the kitchen to relax. He wasn't asking us to continue paying for the broken vase by means of payment—and even though it had only been a few _hours_ since I had left, I felt so different that I thought I might even help a little. Maybe doing dishes... or something else easy.

But he didn't ask.

Minervamon, by the time we sat down, finally had true control of her new body which I thought was pretty cool. She was really pretty now—not that she wasn't before, but she was really pure and strong now, along with being absolutely gorgeous. The perfect digimon to be my partner.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the gaudy device I'd received for becoming said partner, but I didn't really care. I was just happy to have moved forward in my life.

I decided to put the device in my purse which I found on the floor near the stove before pulling out a mirror. My hair wasn't very neat, but I could fix that later.

First I had to repay Digitamamon.

I slipped out of the kitchen and into the dining area to the stand where I had knocked over the vase and I set the silver orb there. It looked like it was going to roll off, so I kept balancing it until finally it stayed perfectly still.

"It is perfect." Digitamamon said as he walked up behind me.

"I'm sorry for breaking your vase." I told him.

"You seem to have had a complete turnaround." He pointed out.

I smiled at him and patted his head, heading back to the kitchen. I really had.

_**Sigma:**_

I didn't know how to act in my present company. If it were just Piedmon, or just Yoshie, I didn't think I'd feel so out of place. But it was not just either of them. There was a small crowd of people and digimon chatting animatedly in the dining section of the restaurant. I didn't know what to do. Usually at times such as these, I pulled Sigma in front of me, let him take over so that I wouldn't feel nervous or afraid. So that I didn't seem awkward and out of place. It would all be him, his fault.

But he wasn't there anymore. I'd banished him, and he wasn't coming back. During the battle this seemed like the right decision. Get rid of Sigma, and then I could help Yoshie, piece of cake. Now though… I was so alone, I didn't like the empty space in my mind. I'd had to put up with another person inside there for so long that I hadn't even noticed how much space he was taking up. I was alone now…

Yet I could not make myself fully regret my choice. Sigma had been out of control. He was determined to allow anyone or anything to be destroyed in order to reach his final goal…which was still a mystery to me. I couldn't handle it if he actually followed through with some of his more detailed scheming. And he'd done a lot of scheming about all the people and digimon I interacted with frequently. Mari. Hideto. Piedmon. Yoshie. No. He was gone, and they'd all be safe, even Mari, and I didn't particularly care for her.

"This place looks infinitely better," the orange haired lady said. I thought she might be Mimi's mother, Satoe maybe? I didn't know, and Sigma wasn't there to tell me using his seemingly omnipresent intelligence.

"Is that a compliment?" the Digitamamon asked, though he didn't seem sarcastic like I figured he would.

"It really is. I would totally eat here if I was a digimon," Satoe continued. "It could be my go-to restaurant."

"I kind of like that idea," Satoe's partner, Minervamon said with a smile. "I'm finally able to go out with other digimon without them screaming in terror when they set eyes upon me. I _could_ come and eat here someday without worrying."

"Maybe I could just whip something up in the kitchen…now?" Yoshie asked.

"That would be delightful," Satoe said. I had heard enough rants from Koushiro during my spy-visits to know that he thought she was a despicable human being that hated his mere existence. And I couldn't see it. She was a nice and thoughtful individual. He had to be worse at social interpretations than _I_ was. And that was saying something.

"What about you, Kiyoko," Yoshie asked, and I felt myself both shrink from the attention as all the eyes in the room turned to me…but also flush happily at hearing my own name said with such kindness. Before Yoshie, I'd only heard it said in anger and disgust.

But that part of my life was over now. I had a bright future to look forward to—well, if Yoshie had anything to do with it, anyway.

"What Kiyoko needs," Satoe said, picking at my long hair. "Is a makeover. How does he expect to win this boy over if he looks like this? You can't even see his eyes."

"Win…him…over?" I asked in a strangled voice. How had Satoe known there was anyone that I _wanted_ to win over? Had Yoshie told her while I was panicking over the emptiness of my own mind?

"Oh yes," Satoe insisted. "You go make something to warm him up, Yoshie. The poor dear is shivering."

"With fear," I said, and then clamped my hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that. I usually kept a fairly constant internal commentary, while Sigma had control of my actual voice…I hadn't realized I'd have to actively _stop_ myself from speaking. I'd never done it before…

"Now now," Satoe said, picking up a knife from a bucket on the nearest table. It looked like someone had decided to shine the silverware. And I gulped. I didn't take to kindly to someone wielding a knife at my head. "Hold still. This might take awhile. It's really too bad there aren't any scissors…"

She pushed pulled my chair away from the table I was seated at, and circled me like a hawk waiting for the perfect moment to swoop down and dismember its prey. She swooped all of my long hair into one hand, and used the knife to hack off the make-shift ponytail.

I gasped as the weight of the hair was lifted to me, and watched as the strands of hair fell to the wooden floor.

"Hey!" Digitamamon was saying. "This cannot be sanitary! I just passed the inspections, you can't risk this."

But I was too busy imagining each strand of hair as a piece of my old self. The self that was dependent on Sigma. The self that always dreamed, but never set out to accomplish anything, but wasn't allowed to regret it. It wasn't just a new haircut that Satoe was giving me. She was giving me a chance to be a different, better me, just like Yoshie believed I could be.

I took the remaining half of my mask off of my face, and held it in my lap. It was a symbol of my past, the scared little boy that let someone else take over for him, and hid behind Sigma like he was a mask. I shook my head, causing Satoe to scold me.

"I'm holding a sharp knife you know," she told me. "I almost sliced your ear off!"

I chuckled, and snapped my mask in half. I didn't need it anymore. With the confidence that both Yoshie and Satoe had in me and Piedmon by my side…I didn't have to hide anymore, I could show myself to the world, and that felt really empowering.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

I looked stupid.

I was practically a stranger to myself when I looked in the mirror. Hikari was a horrible little sister, letting them hack away at my hair like that. I'd spent pretty much my entire life getting it just the way I wanted it, and now all of that work was gone. My head felt way too light, and everyone looked at me strangely.

"Stop looking at me," I growled at Yamato while eating a bag of chips. Food was the simplest and best comfort in the entire world.

"You're going to get fat, man," he told me. "And you don't have your hair to help hide your fat face."

"Mean," I pointed out, and stuffed more chips in my mouth. He was just making me feel worse. Seriously though, I'd never expected Hikari to betray me like this.

"Who's Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome?" Rei asked as she wheeled herself in the room. We were all hanging out at my apartment, because I couldn't bear to face the world looking as stupid as I did. "Look at me. I've got a boyfriend and all, but I just can't get over how good this guy looks, don't you agree Tatum?"

"If he doesn't try and kiss every girl he passes, I'd say he's a step up from my boyfriend," Tatum answered rolling her eyes. She was walking behind Rei, with Monodromon standing silently at her side. He didn't head over to play with Agumon, Veemon, Pal and Pul. He just sat next to her when she threw herself next to me on the couch. Kind of like Betamon was doing with Michael, only Michael had to hold him down, since he always seemed to want to run away.

Michael also didn't seem to register the jab.

I stared at Rei. Couldn't she recognize me? Or did she regularly just flirt with other people like this? Oh god. Yamato was right. I was going to get fat, and then she was going to leave me for one of these other people. I reached for more chips. I needed comfort.

"Taichi," Rei said. "I was kidding. Stop stuffing your face. You need a new hobby."

I snorted. "Like eating's a hobby. It's a lifestyle choice."

"Dude," Daisuke called from behind Yamato. "It's a _bad_ lifestyle choice. You should be more like me, because I am one fine specimen. Am I right?"

I rolled my eyes. Of course he thought that. Pride was getting to his head. He was becoming almost unbearable to be around. At least my eating was under control. I mean, sure I ate a lot more than I usually did, but the food was _so_ good, and I couldn't help but want it all the time. I might indulge myself more often these days, but I wasn't getting out of control. The thought of being unable to handle it made me anxious. And the best cure to anxiety, I've found, is to gorge myself on food. I needed another bag of chips…or maybe I could get someone to cook me an early dinner…

"Am I right?" Daisuke repeated when no one answered. "Never mind. I'm totally great. I know it, you all know it. It doesn't matter that you won't say it, 'cause I know you're thinking it. You're all jealous that you're not me."

"We sure are," Michael said unconvincingly, while rolling his eyes. He tried to reach over to Tatum, but she slapped his hand out of the way.

"And, my hair doesn't look like a hack job, so I've got that going for me too," Daisuke added proudly.

"Yeah, well what do you know?" I growled. I was not in a good mood. And even my chopped hair looked better than Daisuke's spiked mess.

"I think it looks rather distinguished," Rei said, rolling herself over so she could pat my hand.

"Much more befitting of an ambassador, I think," Tatum added.

"I could be an ambassador," Daisuke said. "A better one that Taichi, because I'm not stupid and fat like him. I'm perfect. The Digital World would love to have me."

"You don't talk to your customers that way, do you?" Yamato asked hesitantly.

"Dude, of course I do," Daisuke laughed. "They need to know how awesome I am, and they agree with me sometimes. Why do you think they buy _my_ noodles over the competitors?"

"Maybe Kurayami should take over until Pride is destroyed," I suggested. I didn't want him ruining his career because of the sin digimon's influence.

"Where is Kurayami anyway?" Rei asked.

"Oh, she's just babysitting. I offered, since I'm the best at babysitting, but she likes to hang around and talk with the kid all day, so I let her, since I'm an amazing boyfriend," Daisuke informed us. It seemed that one of them was always babysitting, yet they'd never once brought the kid to see us. It was weird, but I'd already grabbed another bag of chips, so I didn't bother worrying about it. The food was calling to me.

But I wasn't out of control. I swear.

"Isn't this fun?"

"I guess," I said without looking to see who was talking. That was a big mistake. Rei screamed, and Tatum jumped to her feet, pulling out her digivice. Monodromon followed her lead. Pal and Pul came flying out of my bedroom, coming to a stop in front of Rei. Agumon and Veemon seemed to be racing each other to see who could get here first. All of this happened during the time it took to finish one handful of chips. So, like four seconds.

And I still didn't know what they were all worked up about.

"Get your head out of that damn chip bag, Taichi," Yamato growled at me. I looked up confused, only to see that we had a visitor—which explained why I didn't recognize the voice.

"Who are you?" I asked him. It was obvious he was a digimon. He kind of had what looked like a beak—but might've just been a gigantic nose—and a ridiculously long beard to go with it. His hair was just as long, flowing down his back. He had some pretty big hands, all decked out in gold rings, and gold bangles decorated his wrists. He had a staff with decorative spikes, and a bejeweled poncho paired with puffy pants. He looked hilarious.

"I am Barbamon," he said.

"What are you doing here?" I wanted to know. He was interrupting snack time. Granted it was almost _always_ snack time, but whatever.

"You didn't issue me an invitation, so I decided to crash the party," Barbamon told me.

"Taichi," Yamato hissed. "Don't converse with him. Destroy him."

"But we don't know if he's a bad guy," I pointed out.

"I am," Barbamon informed me.

I sighed and reluctantly put my bag of chips on the coffee table. "Okay, Agumon, let's get this over with."

"I can't digivolve in the house Taichi," Agumon said. I groaned.

"Fine," I said. "But someone owes me dinner after this."

"I'll buy you something from Mimi's if you make sure we get out of here alive," Yamato promised me. I guess he was feeling the pressure more than I was, since Gabumon wasn't there. He needed to depend on others, and it wasn't sitting well with him. But hey, if he was going to buy me food, I could handle anything. It was all the motivation that I needed.

"Let's take this outside, buddy," I told Barbamon.

"Why would I let you leave, when I could more easily defeat you now?" he asked.

That was a good question. I was running through different answers in my mind when Tatum spoke up. "Because you're greedy, and we'll let you fight the others if you beat us, because I know you want to fight all of us. You want to beat us all, don't you? You don't want any of the others to have a chance."

"You're mine," Barbamon snapped. "Not theirs. I won't let them take this away from me. I want to have _all_ of your deaths on my hands. Not just one or two. I want them all."

"Exactly," Tatum said. "But you won't get them unless you fight outside."

"I could find them on my own," he protested.

"But they'll be able to beat you, because they'll know you're coming," Tatum said, changing her tactics. "We can give you inside information, weaknesses…but _only_ if you take this outside, and _only_ if you win."

"I'll win. And then I'll get the secrets, and I can beat _all_ of you," Barbamon promised giddily. For an old looking digimon, he was pretty spry, and burst out the window, jumping to the ground outside.

"What was that?" Yamato demanded. "You can't tell him anything."

"I don't plan on it," Tatum told him wryly. "Because we're going to win. Jou and Mimi took out two at once. We should have enough power here to handle one."

"I have enough power in my little finger," Daisuke bragged. "I don't even need your help."

"Okay," Veemon snickered. "Show me how it's done."

"Not _you_ Veemon," Daisuke whined. "You're my partner. You're part of the pure awesome that is me."

"Yamato," I called. "Watch over Rei, will you? Make sure nothing happens to her."

"I want to fight too," he protested.

"Without a digimon, your best bet is to stay out of his way. If he gets to you, he'll use you as leverage. Pal, Pul you're with Yamato."

"Right!" the two little devils said, saluting me. Yamato grumbled, but let Tatum, Daisuke and I leave.

"Tatum," Michael said slowly.

"I'm just here for backup," she said. "I'll run interference. If he looks like he's going for Rei and Yamato, I'll stop him. You guys focus on the main battle."

"Thanks," I told her.

"I'm happy to help," she said with a grin. "Now let's beat this guy!"

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

This was going to be awesome. Okay. It was going to be great; _I_ was going to be awesome. But I knew that already. Everyone really should, because I was probably the best person I'd ever seen in my life. Not that I could do it without Veemon though. I didn't know what was up with the others. They were acting like they didn't know just how great I could be. But I could be more than just great.

With Veemon's help anyway.

Outside of battles though, nothing could stop me.

"Let's do this!" I shouted after hearing Tatum's war cry. I contemplated following Barbamon out the window, but decided that a two story drop was too far, even for me. Instead, I ran after Taichi, Michael and Tatum, who'd run out the front door. I beat them outside though, that's how fast I was. _Super_ fast.

"I hope this won't take long," Barbamon complained. "I need to beat the rest of you too. I need all of your heads for my collection."

"Gross dude," I said. Collecting our heads? That's one sick digimon. I thought Piedmon was bad when he wanted to collect us all as key chains.

"Enough small talk!" he shrieked. "Fight me. If you dare…"

"Oh, we dare all right," I said. "Veemon, let's show this old guy what we're made of."

"You got it, Daisuke," Veemon said happily.

"**Veemon digivolve to… ExVeemon!**"

"**ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!**"

"**AeroVeedramon digivolve to… UlforceVeedramon!**"

"Yes! Go UlforceVeedramon. Who's the man?" I shouted. "Okay…so that's me. But you're definitely the _mon_!"

"Thanks," UlforceVeedramon said. I thought it might just possibly have been a little sarcastic. I couldn't see why though.

"Let's join the team, Agumon," Taichi called. I was so proud of myself. He was following _my_ example.

"**Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!**"

"**Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!**"

"**MetalGreymon digivolve to… WarGreymon!**"

I looked to Michael and Tatum, who were just standing on the sidelines, wondering which one would be next in our game of follow the leader.

"Monodramon, digivolve to Airdramon!" Tatum shouted, acting as Monodromon's voice as he digivolved into the flying dragon that is Airdramon.

"You too Betamon," Michael cheered.

I watched, just waiting. Betamon seemed to realize that everyone was just looking at him, waiting for him to do something. "Oh, right!"

"**Betamon digivolve to… Seadramon!**"

The funniest part about the whole thing, was that Michael's digivice didn't glow like the rest of ours did. Was he just so far from being awesome, that his digivice didn't even get to glow? What a loser. I was glad mine glowed. It probably glowed brighter than everyone else's, since I was so much stronger than them. UlforceVeedramon stumbled, and I worried for a second. I couldn't do this without him. Thankfully he straightened himself, and looked at tough as ever.

"What a lightshow," Barbamon commented. "Are you done yet?"

"Don't be cocky," Tatum chastised.

"Why not?" he wanted to know. "You're not your whole team. I have every chance of winning. With your members so affected by my team, the young lady is the only one that can think clearly."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told him. "I'm the best. I can totally beat you."

UlforceVeedramon faltered again. What was up with him?

"You don't think clearly either!"

I looked up to see Yamato leaning out of the hole in the side of their apartment where the window once was.

"I am," Barbamon insisted. "I see me winning, and I want it. That's enough."

"You're clouded by your own greed," Rei agreed. "You're just as disadvantaged as they are."

"I am not!" Barbamon shouted, raising his hand at the building. "Dark Inferno!"

He released a ball of black flame, aimed directly to our nearly unprotected friends. Pal and Pul were there, but they weren't going to be able to handle an attack like that. They were too small. They weren't good enough. They needed someone to help them. Someone awesome like me. But just as I thought to tell UlforceVeedramon to help out, he stumbled again. Seriously, what was up with him?

"Wing Cutter!" Tatum screamed, and Airdramon obliged, flapping his wings hard, causing the wind to form blades that were directed at the black ball of fire.

"Seadramon, put it out!" Michael ordered. Seadramon rolled his eyes but didn't put up a fight.

"Ice Blast!" he called, shooting out a small jet of water that he then used his icy breath on to freeze.

The Wing Cutter pushed the ball towards the ice, and the ice melted on contact, putting out the fire. They did alright, I supposed. Nothing like WarGreymon or UlforceVeedramon could do, but they got the job done. I was pleased to see that UlforceVeedramon stood up again seemingly over whatever it was that was distracting him. He needed to get his head in the game if we wanted to win this.

WarGreymon jumped into the air and threw his hands above his head. He wasn't prepared to wait around for Taichi to get his mind off of eating. Nor was he going to let Barbamon know the plan by announcing it like Michael did. "Terra Force!" he launched his big ball of compacted energy at the old looking digimon.

"Ah, ah, ah," Barbamon said gleefully as he jumped over the attack. It hit the ground, causing the earth to shake. The media was going to have a field day with the crater it caused. Luckily though, it only hit the street, rather than the foundation of the apartment building behind us. But it was close. We didn't really pick the best battle grounds.

"The Ray of Victory!" UlforceVeedramon shouted, trying to catch Barbamon off guard, and sending a V shaped blast of energy at our enemy. He seemed distracted enough by his earlier dodge, but he twirled his staff and hit the ray of energy like a baseball, sending it flying into the sky. I hoped there weren't any birds or planes in its path…

"You really think you can beat me," Barbamon laughed giddily. "I'll have your heads in no time."

"We'll see about that," Taichi growled. "WarGreymon!"

"Oh, we can't have that, now can we?" Barbamon said. "We're fighting with uneven numbers now, and I don't think that's fair. I'll just have to take one of you as my own."

Wait…what?

Was he saying what I thought he was saying? Of course he was. I was awesome, there was no way I would have misheard him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw UlforceVeedramon stumble again. He really needed to stop doing that.

"Oh yes," Barbamon decided with a wicked laugh. "Now which one do I want? The flying lizard? No, he's too weak. I want something powerful. I want the strongest."

"You can't have him!" I shouted, looking at UlforceVeedramon with fear. He couldn't take him. I was sure of it…but just in case…

"Your digimon can barely stand on his own feet," Barbamon snapped. "I want _you_."

I gasped. WarGreymon.

"Death Lure!" Barbamon called before any of us had the chance to even think of a plan. He raised his staff, which started to glow, and WarGreymon was instantly hypnotized. "Beautiful, isn't it? Soon he'll be locked in an inescapable hell, and the only way to ease the burns of the flames will be to perform acts of my choosing."

"WarGreymon!" Taichi cried in anguish.

"Stop him!" Rei screamed.

But how? I was awesome. I knew I was. But was I good enough to fix a problem this big?

"The staff!" Yamato yelled. "It's the staff."

I knew that much. I wasn't stupid.

"He's right," Tatum cheered.

"He is?" Michael wanted to know.

"Yes," Tatum decided. "We need to take the staff from him. Or at least stop the light from getting to WarGreymon."

"Like a shield?" Michael suggested, downhearted. He couldn't figure out how we were going to get one. But I could.

"UlforceVeedramon," I called. "Michael says we need a shield. Do you think you can do that buddy?"

"On it," UlforceVeedramon said, no longer swaying on his feet. "Tensegrity Shield!" He cast out a barrier of pure light, using it to overpower the light from Barbamon's staff. Then he flew at WarGreymon, tackling him out of Barbamon's range. WarGreymon shook his head. Good. He wasn't evil. I didn't think I could handle having to attack one of my friends. Even if I probably would have won, since I was better.

Damn it. UlforceVeedramon was uneasy again. What was wrong with him!

Barbamon let out a loud, angry cry. He was frustrated. And that was bad. Bad guys were a lot easier to deal with when they were thinking clearly.

"You won't win!" he screamed, and I knew he'd lost it. He was crazy. Desperate. "I won't let you! I _will_ have your heads."

"Dude," I found myself saying. "We're keeping our heads, thanks."

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. He screamed again, and lifted his hands slowly, holding his staff high above him. "Pandemonium Lost!"

At first I figured he said it wrong, since nothing was happening, but then I noticed the energy that was swirling in from around him. It was like he was taking energy from hell itself. I could practically feel the evil from it where I stood.

"God no," Michael gasped looking at the attack with wide eyes. It was getting bigger, and bigger. I wanted to look away, but it was like it had me in a trance.

"It's too strong," Tatum said. "It'll destroy half of Odaiba."

"Then we can't let him use it," Taichi said simply. "We have to beat him before he can."

"And how do we do that?" Tatum wanted to know.

"His hands are busy," I pointed out.

"So we attack head on; he can't stop us," Taichi suggested, before turning to the digimon. "Use the strongest thing you've got!"

The nodded, and turned back to Barbamon with their game faces on.

"Wing Cutter!" Tatum called as Seadramon decided upon, "Ice Blast!" The two attacks hit Barbamon head on, but he just laughed a cold, deranged sort of laugh.

"That tickles," he said, causing all the hair on my skin to stand on edge.

"Tag-team him!" I suggested to WarGreymon and UlforceVeedramon. Neither could beat him on their own, but they were two of the strongest digimon I knew. They could beat anything if they only worked together.

UlforceVeedramon—who'd now recovered from his last bout of wooziness—was the first one to agree, igniting his skin in a dragon's fire. "Dragon Impulse X!"

WarGreymon chose to start spinning, winding himself around fast enough to create a tornado of flames, before crying out, "Ultra Tornado!"

The two fire coated digimon launched themselves at Barbamon, who didn't look afraid. He was confident in himself, and for a second I was worried. Just a second though. Barbamon was too freaked out over his greedy goal to realize that these two, together, were stronger than he was. He thought _wanting_ to win would be enough to actually do so.

He was wrong.

WarGreymon and UlforceVeedramon hit at the same time, ripping Barbamon to shreds. He didn't even have time to scream before he was nothing but data. I felt myself relax as the giant-ball-of-pure-evil that Barbamon had conjured dissipated.

We'd just saved Odaiba.

No. It was my idea.

_I_ saved Odaiba. I was so awesome! UlforceVeedramon reverted back into Veemon unexpectedly, but I didn't care. I was so much better at fighting then all of the others, and my strategies were perfect. I wouldn't even _need_ WarGreymon next time. I might not even need Veemon. I was the man!

_**Jou Kido:**_

"Yes." I said for the millionth time to Jun who was on the other end of the telephone. "Yes, I promise. _Yes."_

"Are you sure?" She asked again, "I don't want to wait forever."

"Jun." I hissed, "I promise you I will get married. We'll just do it the normal way. As in... we'll give it some time. We'll plan it out _ourselves_ and then we'll be fine."

"Fine." Jun huffed, "Sorry about what happened though. I'm glad you saved Emiko."

"Oh good," I said sarcastically, "For a second I thought you were rooting for the bad guys."

"Don't be that way Jou." Jun scoffed, "You know what I mean. Anyway, I have to go."

"Alright," I said, "Okay, bye Jun."

"Talk to you later."

_Click_

I put my phone back in my pocket and turned to see who had shown up for the weekly meeting.

Willis was sitting at the other end of the table with Mari and Hikari at either side of him. He was grinning wickedly from ear to ear which was just bizarre. Takeru was next to Mari with Catherine at his side. Next to her sat Miyako, who was nervously brushing her hair out of her face and looking around the table as I was, and finally there was Kurayami, sitting next to me.

What happened to our group? Of the originals there was just Takeru, Hikari and myself. Where was everyone? Were they doing important things that we should be talking about at the meeting? Or did they have nothing, and found it meaningless to show up?

"So," Takeru said looking around, "I guess no one else is going to take charge, so I will." He cleared his throat and stood up after Catherine gave him thumbs up for good luck. He smiled at her and turned to the rest of us, "I don't really have much to report on... other than Patamon is gone."

"What?" Hikari asked. "Where?"

"Honestly?" Takeru asked, "I have no idea."

"I did notice him missing..." Mari said, gazing toward the digimon who were all eating excitedly, one table over. Lalamon, Gatomon, Terriermon, Lopmon, and Floramon sat alongside Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon. "What happened?" She asked.

"He just got mad at me and left." Takeru said. "H-he'll be back though." He sounded more like he was asking for confirmation than anything else.

"Of course he will be." I nodded. I had no way to prove it, but I was sure that he would. Just as Emiko had found her way back to me. Perhaps we'd have to go save him like we did with her, but no matter what, Patamon would be back. He always had before... but Gomamon was a different story.

I'd spent the whole of the previous night—when Jun and Momoe weren't asking me questions about our next wedding—thinking about him. He was right. I was ignoring him. I should have asked him to come live with me. I should have spent more time with him... It was time for me to find him. And that's what I planned on doing; right after this meeting was over.

"I have something to say," I said, raising my hand, and glancing around one last time for Iori. "Though I'm not sure how logical it is. I was hoping Sora would be here..."

"Just spit it out." Mari prompted.

"Well," I said, "There's this tree by Iori's house and it's turning all weird and black and there was a mysterious blonde girl sitting in it with a frilly dress and—"

"What?" Kurayami asked sharply. "Are you sure?"

I nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"No reason." She said quickly with such force that I knew the topic was ended.

"I have something to say." Willis said, jumping to his feet. "Two things." I rolled my eyes. "The first one is that Hikari is very pretty today." Hikari smiled at him as he grabbed her hand from the table, "And the other is that... uhm..."

"You don't have anything do you?" Takeru asked.

"No I do!" Willis said nervously, "Why? Do you? I want it. GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Calm down dude!" Takeru said quickly, raising his hands in surrender. "I don't have anything else."

We sat in silence for a while until Hideto came out with six orders of French fries for Willis. He set them down in front of him and then took his seat next to me.

"Want some?" Willis offered, handing one to Hikari. "I certainly don't need this many. How about you Mari? Takeru?"

Takeru did, but as he reached for it he did it with caution, scared Willis would snap at him again. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." Willis said, rolling his shoulders back and twisting his head. "I feel... free. I think..."

"Someone defeated greed?" I asked, and Willis nodded.

"They must have." He surmised.

"Really?" Terriermon called excitedly from his place at the next table. "Thank God!"

"Willis you were really getting annoying for a bit there!" Lopmon added.

"No I wasn't," He said passively, then, to Hikari, "Was I?" She nodded and his face turned red. "Sorry..."

"Not your fault." Hikari and Mari said together, both comforting him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Are your meetings usually more... excitable?" Catherine asked in her thick accent.

Takeru nodded, "Usually there's piles of things to say. Like our parents—" He turned back to us all and slammed his hands down on the table. "I need to say something."

"You don't need to be so angry about it." Gatomon mumbled

"What?" Kurayami asked, ignoring Gatomon.

"Our parents." He said firmly. "They've been gone for so long. Hikari, Taichi said he saw your mother and she decided to go off on a quest. Do you not still find yourself curious as to whether or not she's okay?"

"Of course." Hikari nodded, "But it's really up to her if that's what she wants. She's a grown woman. I have faith that she'll come back."

"Okay, fine," He said, "But my parents, Ken's mother—Sora's parents! They could be in serious danger. Does no one want to help them?"

"Why don't _you_?" Hideto asked, "They're _your_ parents."

"I have been." Takeru shot. "Not as much as I should've been, I'll admit. But I've been searching for them. I can't find them."

"Ken's been looking." Miyako said quietly, staring down at her hands, folded in her lap.

"That's great." Takeru said, "But no one else is..."

"May I?" Lalamon said, fluttering into the air and landing on the table, staring toward us all. "The Digital World is alive, as is Earth. But the Digital World has more than just living organisms, it has a mind of its own. Perhaps the Digital World is preventing you from finding your parents so they can fulfill their destiny."

"What's their destiny?" Mari asked.

"Well..." Lalamon said, "I don't know. But they're there for a reason. I doubt they were kidnapped or taken. There would be signs of struggle. Were there?" Takeru shook his head. "So it must have been the Digital World's doing. So there you go. The Digital World is taking care of things. Just like it did with all of you."

I felt chills run down my spine. That was creepy. But so cool at the same time. The Digital World had always felt like home to me—well after the first few days and my multiple fits of terror. But if the world was alive, and taking care of us... it was like a parent. The Digital World had always been there, it selected us specifically and now took care of us... so everyone's parents were now being initiated into the family... that was... a much more settling way to look at the issue.

"Can you prove that?" Terriermon asked.

"No." Lalamon admitted.

"Then sit down." Lopmon giggled. Lalamon obeyed and sat next to Lopmon and the two started whispering and giggling together.

"I think it makes sense." Takeru decided. I had a feeling he was just saying that so he could relax a little bit, but there was no way he'd stop looking and I knew that.

"Is there anything else?" Hideto asked, "Or should I go make some more food?" No one said anything, "Anyone have anything? Anything at all?

"I do." Miyako said slowly, looking down to her gloved hands. She looked up with so much fear that even Willis shut up. "I..." She stood up and started rolling down her glove when the restaurant door opened with a loud cheer bursting through. Daisuke, Rei, Tatum, Michael, Yamato and a complete stranger piled through the door with a set of digimon and laughed, high-fiving each other. Miyako's face turned as red as a tomato and she sat down quickly.

"You're the best!" Daisuke laughed.

"No!" The stranger said with Taichi's voice, "_You're _the best." I leaned forward in my chair, gripping the armrests. His hair was so short! What happened?

"I know." Daisuke's face suddenly fell as he sat down in an empty seat, allowing Veemon, Agumon, Betamon, Monodramon, Pal and Pul to sit down with the other digimon. "We beat Greed by the way."

"I know." Willis said with a grin.

"Oh can I have some?" Taichi asked Willis when he saw some French fries still waiting there.

"Sure." Willis nodded. Taichi shoved Willis right out of his seat and began cramming food into his mouth. I looked to Miyako who shook her head and stood up.

"Taichi?" Takeru questioned cautiously. "What happened to your hair?" Taichi glared at Kurayami and Willis but said nothing.

"I have to go." She said, leaving without another word. Willis took her spot and looked to Kurayami, waving to her with a smile. He dropped his hands as she glared at him.

"Alright." I said. "I'm going too."

I heard a few farewells, but I headed to the door, glancing over my shoulder to see if Hawkmon was there, but he wasn't. Miyako must've left him at home. I stepped out the door into the warm spring air and looked around for Miyako, but she wasn't there...

I figured she'd gotten into a cab or ran off somewhere, but there was no way of knowing where she was, so it was time to revert back to my old plan. I had to find Gomamon and make things right.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Sora and Ken narrate a journey to the Digital World with complications, Hiroaki and Natsuni continue to navigate their way through their new surroundings in the Digital World. Takeru has to lead a strange assortment of people in a battle, and Yamato has a very unfortunate meeting with a certain council member.


	29. Tumultuous

**Y/N:** I vaguely remember what this chapter is about, and I remember enjoying it…I think. I mean, Daisuke and Jou's parts from the last chapter used to be a part of this one, and we traded them with Ken and Sora, so they're in this one. I'm excited about the next chapter more though, since it's something new, but I hope you enjoy this one too! :) Review if you can, and thank you for reading!

**U/N:** This chapter. Is. Something. I honestly have no idea which parts are in this one. I know that this is the halfway point of the arc, and then the next two chapters are like.. surprise, different kind of things that fit in still obviously, and then the one after that starts the second half of the arc which is a lot more action packed.

I'm apparently Takeru, Hiroaki and Yamato here-hey a family-and Sora, who ruined the pattern.

Sooooo also a few of you mentioned a couple chapters ago that Lotusmon killing two of them was overkill-and that. Is. True. We tried something new with the planning of this story and everything kept getting pushed off until there wasn't time-but it's worked pretty well into the plot itself in my opinion.

Sorry, there are a lot of issues with this story obviously-it was hard to make sure every single character got a plot. Sometimes I wish I never randomly created Kurayami which was as much a surprise to my sister and myself as it was to you because there are just SO MANY CHARACTERS.

But I mean, boo hoo. There's like twelve of you and we wrote you like a bajillion chapters. You're welcome :P So review and stuff.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 29: Tumultuous**

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"The point is," Katsue said through fits of laughter, "He's never going to mess with me again."

Taichi, Rei and I were practically dying of laughter after her story, as Agumon, Gabumon, Pal and Pul looked very confused, not understand exactly what was going on.

"I'll be right back," Katsue said, wiping tears from her eyes before stepping off to the kitchen to refill her refreshment.

"She's definitely a keeper." Taichi said, his laughter calming down. "She's so funny—she's smart, pretty and well traveled. What's not to like?"

"Who said anything about not liking her?" I asked quietly, "Dude, after that story I think I'm in love."

Rei cooed from her chair, but Taichi shook his head. "No you're not. Stop being a baby. You're the only one not trapped in a relationship right now."

"Trapped?" Rei asked, her eyebrows raised.

"You know what I mean," Taichi said.

"Lucky for you, I'm going to let that one roll." Rei snickered, but we both stared at her, as confused as the digimon this time, "Get it? Because I'm in a chair?"

"Oh," Taichi nodded, "Yeah, good one." He smiled at her but then turned back to me. "You and Katsue—your weird unloving open relationship is the only thing that keeps logic in our lives. We're all so young. You don't need to commit yet."

"Taichi," I said, motioning to Rei, "You did."

"I found the right girl." Taichi said. "When you find the right girl, you do it too."

"Who says she's not the right girl?" I asked.

"You said that you _think_ you're in love." Taichi pointed out, "Until a moment comes where you're absolutely sure, stop thinking it."

"I'm just pretending I'm not hearing this." Rei decided, "That's the worst advice ever. I'll talk you through it later." She said with a sigh and a smile, her eyebrows raised. I wasn't sure what to think, but it didn't matter, Katsue was back, sitting down on the arm of the couch.

"What are you drinking?" Gabumon asked. Katsue jumped and spilled a little of her—whatever it was—on her pants. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

"A little," She admitted, "I just keep forgetting that you're here."

"How?" Gabumon asked.

"Well you keep disappearing or turning into a toy." She said.

"Well that's just not true." Gabumon defended.

"It's the spell." Taichi said quickly in explanation. "The Queen lady three years ago cast a spell on the humans so they forgot about the digimon. In the process she put a sort of haze over the digimon so humans see what they want to see. Toys, kids in a costume—sometimes nothing at all."

"You don't want to see me?" Gabumon asked.

"It's not that." Katsue said, "It's just that I'm not used to it yet. The wedding yesterday was so frightening. Every time I looked at something I was so sure it was just a toy, or a stack of books... and then it moved and started talking, shifting into a digimon... it's so weird."

"That sounds awful." Gabumon said. "I promise to talk more often so you won't forget I'm here."

"Thanks," Katsue winked at him and raised her class in a toast again. She did that a lot, it was pretty cute of her.

Suddenly someone was knocking on the door.

"I'll get it." Taichi said, jumping to his feet and wiping crumbs off of his pants before rushing to the door, unlocking it and opening it, before suddenly closing it most of the way. "Marrow!" He said loudly, waving with his hand behind his back.

"Go!" I whispered to the Digimon. Gabumon and Pal ran dragging Agumon and Pul behind them towards the computer, where they sent themselves back to the Digital World.

"What brings you to my house on Earth?" Taichi asked.

Marrow pushed the door open and stepped into the room accompanied by two Redvegiemon.

His eyes fell traced the room and then stopped, locking with my own. "You." He said pointing directly toward me. I pointed at myself, "Me?" I asked. He nodded.

"What do you want with Yamato?" Taichi asked, sounding just as confused as I felt.

"You broke one of the most important rules of the Digital World." He said sharply.

"And what was that?" I asked, retorting just as sharply.

"You let the secret of the digimon out." He growled. "To her." He pointed at Katsue.

"No," I said loudly, "You did." I pointed to the Redvegiemon. "Just now."

"Ah!" Katsue fake screamed throwing the glass over her shoulder. "I'm scared!" I had to force myself not to laugh, if I laughed I was going to give it all away! I needed something to ruin the mood.

"I have proof." Marrow growled. Well that did it.

"What proof?" Taichi asked.

"I heard Gabumon talk about it with you Taichi, and that Takenouchi girl who listens in on all of our meetings." Marrow said.

"Prove it." Katsue said.

"Pardon me?" Marrow asked.

"You heard me." She shot. "I said _prove_ it." Marrow looked affronted, as if no one ever dared stand up to him before. "That's right." She said. "You can't. So kindly move your busted creeper ass out of my boyfriend's apartment, and take your bouncing sunburned beach balls with you. You're disturbing our paralyzed friends sleep."

"It's past my bedtime." Rei nodded in agreement.

Marrow looked around the room, angrily, shot me a glare and said, "I'll get my proof." And then was gone, pushing Redvegiemon out the door, and slamming it behind him.

"That was close," Rei said, but Taichi hushed her, and listened for Marrow's footsteps.

When he was gone I turned to Katsue, "We _really_ need to find you a partner. I'm far too awesome to go to jail."

"Well let's get on it then." She winked to me.

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

I was back to my usual self. Which was good. What _wasn't_ good was that Miyako had had a terrible attack the night after the wedding, and was still shaking at the thought of it even as she went through the methodic procedure of getting ready for work. I told her she didn't need to go in, but she insisted that it would be better this way. She'd have something to distract her from her fear, and the pain.

I wanted her to stay with me, but I knew what she was getting at. I wouldn't be great company for a few days. I'd missed so much school that I was too far behind to do anything other than study and write papers. Or so I thought. Sora on the other hand seemed to have a different idea, because she called me up at eight in the morning.

"You're coming with me today," she ordered.

"I can't today, how about later this week," I suggested. "I'm a little swamped with homework at the moment…"

"Is your homework more important than your mother? Because that's what we're going to do. We're going to try and find them," she told me.

"But…"

There wasn't much of an argument after that. I wanted to save my mother. I needed to bring her back home. Dad was going completely mental without her. He'd ordered take-out every day since she left. He couldn't even make a sandwich on his own. He was helpless on his own. I wasn't finding her just for Dad though. It was too dangerous to leave her alone, and I missed her. So much. More than I thought I would. I didn't see her too often, now that I had my own apartment and whatnot, but I always called her. We talked more often now than we did when I lived at home. Well, we used to. Before she was taken by the Digital World. I wanted that back. I wanted _her_ back.

So I hung up the phone and grabbed a jacket. Wormmon and I arrived at the park—where she decided we'd meet—and was raring to go. That is, until I saw that she had Koushiro with her.

"No," he said the second he saw me.

"Koushiro," Sora warned him.

"You said nothing about him meddling with our search," he complained.

"He's the only one that's actually _tried_ to find anybody," Sora pointed out. It was a sad, but true fact. "It's only fair to include him, since we're trying to find his mother too."

"What made you change your mind and start searching?" I wanted to know.

"It has come into light that there are more than the few we initially knew that have disappeared, and the Digital World is the strongest hypothesis of their current location," Koushiro said. Sometimes, I figured he worded things in a complicated way _just_ so he could rub his intelligence in my face. Just because I wasn't Dark-Spore-Smart didn't mean I wasn't smart. He just didn't seem to get it. Either that or he felt threatened by me. I liked to pretend it was the latter of the two, but figured he was just smug.

Sora snorted delicately at his explanation.

"Who'd you discover missing?" I asked, though I had a hunch.

"My mother," he said, refusing to meet my eye.

"You're mother," I said with a laugh. "When did she disappear?"

I was astonished to be met with absolute silence.

"You don't know?" I asked incredulously. "You didn't notice she was missing at all?"

"I think we've established that much," he growled.

"Not only her though," Sora said. "Mimi mentioned her Dad called asking about her Mom. Apparently she came to Japan to visit Mimi, but she never made it there…"

"You think she's there too," I surmised.

"Yes," Sora said. "And my parents, and Yamato and Takeru's too."

"Let's not waste time listing the suspected targets, let's actually start looking for them," Koushiro interrupted.

"Whoa," I said. "Hold up. Why is it that you suddenly drop everything just because it's _your_ Mom that's missing? Why didn't you try to help the others? You can't seriously be that self focused."

"I was caught up in my research!" Koushiro argued.

"Uh, guys?" Sora said.

"And I have the Police Academy," I pointed out. "I still made time."

"Koushiro?" Tentomon interrupted.

"I also have the council in addition to my research, and I practically do Taichi's job for him, since he can't be bothered with the paperwork," Koushiro added.

"Ken?" Wormmon tried.

"Are you trying to tell me that you had no free time, whatsoever?" I demanded.

"Yes! My girlfriend was going crazy, and then I was infected by sloth. I didn't have time!" he yelled out.

"Don't act like you would have done anything if you did have 'free time'. You're just trying to make yourself sound better," I told him sharply.

"Guys!" Biyomon shouted.

"What!" we shouted at the same time.

"Oh, don't stop now," a cool, female voice said. "You were quite entertaining."

"Who are you?" I asked, turning to see what at first I thought was just a human, but realized she had to be a digimon, what with the wings on her back and her pointed ears. She was dressed in black, with a purple robe, and one of her hands consisted of long, golden fingers. And they were sharp looking.

"Lilithmon," Sora gasped.

"Yes, yes," Lilithmon dismissed. "We've met before. But it looks like your white haired knight in not-so-shining armor isn't here to save you this time."

"Biyomon!" Sora shouted holding up her digivice. She wasn't going to waste time today. I got my digivice ready too, and noticed Koushiro followed suit.

"**Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!**"

"**Wormmon digivolve to… Stingmon!**"

"**Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon!**"

"**Birdramon digivolve to… Garudamon!**"

"**Stingmon digivolve to… JewelBeemon!**"

"**Kabuterimon digivolve to… MegaKabuterimon!**"

I didn't know what level this Lilithmon was, but I suspected she was a mega. Having three ultimates fight against her should be okay odds.

"You don't think so little of me, do you?" Lilithmon pouted, before turning to our digimon and pouncing. "Empress Emblaze!" I wasn't expecting her to summon the hand-shaped monstrosity that she swung at MegaKabuterimon, causing him to revert to Tentomon instantly.

Okay. So maybe ultimates weren't going to cut it.

"You have to digivolve again!" Sora insisted. "We can fuse, Koushiro. That should be enough."

I didn't comment. Did she think I wasn't good enough to help them too? She ignored me completely. To be fair, I didn't think she realized she'd done it. But she had. Fusing wasn't everything. I could still help. JewelBeemon could digivolve to mega. But he couldn't if Tentomon was going to. GranKuwagamon and HerculesKabuterimon were natural born enemies in the Digital World. We couldn't have them starting to fight each other and leave Sora and Garudamon to fight against Lilithmon alone.

"**Garudamon digivolve to… Phoenixmon!**"

"Oh no," Lilithmon said. "I really can't let you do that. Empress Emblaze!"

Phoenixmon managed to fly above the attack the first time, but Lilithmon was not letting her get away with it, and quickly launched the same attack again, hitting her in the side.

"Biyomon!" Sora screamed as she watched her partner fall.

"How the mighty fall," Lilithmon commented before setting her sights on JewelBeemon. "You're next, handsome."

"We need to get out of here," Koushiro said.

"What? No!" I told him. "We can still fight."

"I didn't mean run away," he snapped. "I meant to the Digital World."

"That sounds good," Sora said. "We don't want to lose them…"

"And we won't," Koushiro insisted. He pulled his key out of his pocket and opened the gate. "Guys, get through. Hurry!" I didn't bother to argue this time. JewelBeemon stood guard as we ran into the Digital World.

"You can't escape me," Lilithmon snarled as I got through. Only JewelBeemon, Biyomon and Sora were left. She melted into the shadows, and came out of the darkness in the Digital World. "I don't need a doorway to move between worlds."

"JewelBeemon!" I shouted. He moved quickly, knocking Sora out of the way, and jumping over Biyomon who was just coming through the door.

"Catch me if you can," Lilithmon said, melting into the darkness again, only to appear next to Koushiro, who thought for a second and decided to try and punch her. But he didn't hit anything, since she disappeared again. "You hoo!"

She was beside me, beside the door. I didn't bother to think things through, and threw myself at her, and hit the door…slamming it closed.

"Now look what you did," Lilithmon said sadly. "You left your friend on Earth, all alone."

Who?

"Sora!" Biyomon shouted. "We have to get Sora. We can't win without her."

"You can't win anyway," Lilithmon said. "But that's beside the point. I find you entertaining, so I'm going to let you live. Don't do anything stupid, because I'll have to kill you if you do, and I do hate to get my hands dirty."

Then she melted away again leaving us alone in the Digital World.

"We're trapped," Koushiro said.

"What are you talking about? We come and go all the time," I pointed out.

"Through the computer, where I open a gate since I leave the door unlocked, but we bypassed that today, didn't we? We used the key to move the door to us in an attempt to save our digimon's lives. And it closed behind us. Now, without Sora, we can't get the gate to Earth opened. We're stuck," Koushiro told me.

"So you're lack of forethought got us trapped," I surmised.

"Was I supposed to assume that Lilithmon would be attacking us today?" he demanded.

"We were heading here anyway," I argued. "Why didn't you just have us meet at your house, where you could have just opened a gate instead of using the door?"

"Because Sora didn't tell me that we were leaving," he snapped. "She didn't say _you_ were going to be here either."

"It's _your_ fault," I said, not pleased that he was taking it out on Sora.

"_You_ are the one that closed the door before she could get in," he pointed out.

"Because I was trying to stop Lilithmon," I defended myself.

"We don't have time for this," Biyomon yelled. "Sora will figure it out. She'll help us. I trust her to do so. Until then, we might as well search like we planned."

"Shh!" Tentomon insisted. "Listen."

"To what?" I asked him, annoyed.

"There are a lot of them," JewelBeemon said, confusing me further. The three digimon took off running towards whatever sound it was that they heard. Koushiro and I glared at each other and started rushing after them. I was determined to get to them first. I was the better athlete. He didn't stand a chance.

"Oh my god," I gasped when I reached out digimon. They'd stumbled upon something alright. Daemon had mentioned armies, one being his own, but I hadn't believed him. Not really. But here it was, the truth staring me in the face. There was an army of digimon, and they all turned to face us, the intruders.

"Who are they?" Koushiro wondered, though he didn't really expect me to answer him. For once I was glad of that.

"I," a large digimon who looked somewhat like a half-man, half-dog monster, with two shark like heads coming out of his hips and bat wings said. "am GranDracmon, general of this army. We are the X-Antibodies, and you my friend are not going to like what we do to trespassers, especially nosey little digidestined."

"Okay…so it's time to go now," Koushiro said with wide eyes.

"You're running away?" I scoffed. "Chicken."

"I'm not a coward, I'm merely suggesting we relocate ourselves until a time when we have the others for back-up," Koushiro protested.

"Yep, you're definitely a chicken," I told him.

"Tentomon and I could beat way more than you could," he challenged.

"JewelBeemon and I will have a distinct advantage," I promised.

"And what's that?" he wanted to know.

"_We_ aren't chickens," I said. "JewelBeemon, let's go!"

"Right," he said. And he flew towards the awaiting army.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

At first I wasn't quite sure what had happened. But then… then I caught on. The door had slammed right in my face, all of them getting through without me. I slowly raised my hand to my nose and rubbed it gently. It was fine…

"Idiots!" I screamed, kicking the door as hard as I could.

Now was certainly not the time to get angry. Well, it was. But it was time for me to keep on track. Okay. So the two idiots—er… Ken and Koushiro, who were in fact idiots—had just slammed the door to the Digital World.

There was no way for me to get in. The door was closed, and so that meant the portals had to be closed too. That meant there was no way for them to get back, not with the key to Earth laying in the bottom of my purse…

I kicked the door again and screamed in anguish.

Biyomon, my best friend was trapped in the Digital World. Possibly forever. No. There had to be a way. Usually I'd go to Koushiro, my other best friend in this situation… but he was a total idiot. Why did he have to argue with Ken? And what was going to happen with that Lust creature?

I needed help to think of an idea. I needed to get the plan fast and I needed to act—just as fast. I needed to save the pair of idiots. I needed…

Before I knew it I was dialling a familiar number on my phone.

"Sora?" Mimi asked through the receiver. "What's wrong?"

"Why do you assume something is wrong?" I asked sheepishly.

"Well…" Mimi trailed off, "You… haven't called me since we made up at Jou's wedding…"

"Uh," I started, "Yeah, that was yesterday Mimi." I pointed out.

"Well, still." She said, "I was scared it was because you didn't want to talk to me…"

"Mimi, I slept at your house last night." I said, "On the couch. With you. Remember?"

"R-right." Mimi said quickly, "Yeah. What's wrong though?"

"Still assuming something is wrong?" I asked, but continued without her response. I needed to stay on track. "Koushiro and Ken trapped themselves in the Digital World."

"No substitutions." Mimi growled.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, "What?"

"Not you, sorry Sora," Mimi said, "I'm on the phone—if you want pickles, go get them yourself."

"Is this a good time…?" I asked slowly.

"Absolutely." Mimi said, "Yeah, they're in the fridge. Just… yep, behind the mayonnaise. One second Sora." Then, quieter, "Hideto I'm turning it over to you. I'll be back later." A second later she was back. "Alright. Tell me what happened and get to the restaurant."

So I did just that, telling her the story about how the idiots trapped themselves in the Digital World and how I desperately needed a way to get them out as I ran toward the road and jumped in a taxi.

Soon I was hanging up my phone and paying the cab driver.

"Alright," Mimi said, standing behind me wearing a pink sundress with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. "I have an idea."

"Already?" I asked with a smile. Dating Koushiro must have paid off with decision making and random knowledge.

"Yeah." She grinned. "I have two actually. But I'm not sure if either will work."

"Well fire them off."

"Okay," Mimi nodded, "Well Daemon can travel between the worlds… and I think his little partner friends can too. Maybe we can hitch a ride?" I raised my eyebrows as if to say that the plan was actually plausible, but it was highly unlikely they'd let us tag along. "And then… between Hikari and Kurayami we could get to the Dark Ocean and possibly from there we could find a way to get to the Digital World?"

"No use." I said, "If we use them to get from Earth to the Digital World the path will only lead back to Earth."

"Well that sucks…" Mimi said, biting her lip. "How did we used to get into the Digital World? We never used to have the keys…"

That was a good question. How did we used to get in? Before Apocalymon's spell had trapped us in the Digital World… and reverted Daisuke and the other's digivices! We used the D-3's.

"Does anyone still have a D-3?" I asked her.

"Well yeah," Mimi said, "I imagine anyone who had one and wasn't trapped in the Digital World still has one."

I let the digidestined we'd met in the past run through my mind. Who would still have a D-3? Someone had to. Someone had to still have one… that seemed to be the only reasonable plan left….

And suddenly it hit me.

"So the Dark Spore Children!" I gasped.

Mimi clapped her hands together and nodded. "That's it!" Then her face fell, "I haven't seen one of them in a long time though…"

A memory from late February shot through my mind.

_"I got a new co-worker," Iori had said, and then with a heavy hint of sarcasm, "You really must thank your parents, Miyako. She's a real keeper."_

_"Oh?" Miyako said surprised. "Who is it?"_

_"Noriko," he told her._

"I know where to go." I said with a grin. "We have to go find Miss Noriko Kawada."

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

That meeting went pretty terribly. But at least Greed was defeated. That meant there were only four more. Lust, Pride, Gluttony and Wrath. Thankfully Envy was defeated before I could get too affected by it. But there was no rule that said you couldn't be affected by more than one, and on numerous occasions I found myself eating even more junk food than normal, and getting mad at random things like fire hydrants. I'd have to keep my mind steady and on track.

Miyako left though, and Jou ran after her. There was nothing more to talk about and so people started drifting off. Taichi left with Yamato and Rei to head back to their apartment with Agumon, Pal and Pul. Gabumon didn't even arrive so I wondered for a moment where he was, but didn't think too much about it. Daisuke, Kurayami and Hikari left, Hikari planting a kiss on Willis before doing so, with their three digimon, and Willis left with Michael and _their_ three digimon.

That left me with Tatum, who hadn't been invited to Willis and Michael's bonding session, Mari, Hideto who was drawing mindlessly on the table with his finger, and of course, Catherine.

"Do... you guys want to do something?" I asked.

Mari raised her eyebrows as Hideto laughed at the pure awkwardness of the situation. This was certainly a strange group of people, and I didn't want to go outside with their digimon since that could scare people off, and that wouldn't be good... but then again no one else seemed to care, they'd all left with their digimon.

"We could go see a movie?" Tatum suggested, just as awkwardly.

"Or we could get to know each other." Catherine suggested, looking around the room with a smile. God she was adorable.

"You all seem really great," Hideto said, "But I have to plot a break-up, so I'm busy."

"Who are you breaking up this time?" Mari asked with a roll of her eyes. I looked back and forth between the two of them. As far as I could tell Hideto picked someone he wanted to date and broke them up from the couple that they were in. "You know, you could just work on wooing someone who's already single."

"Like you?" Hideto asked. Mari reacted by pretending to vomit on the floor and Hideto laughed.

"Who are you breaking up?" I asked, running through the couples in my head. I couldn't think of a single one that I didn't want to see endgame.

"No one." Hideto lied.

"Hikari." Agumon said quickly.

"And Willis." Gabumon added.

"You two are the worst henchmen ever." Hideto groaned, letting his head fall it his crossed arms.

"Good guys don't get henchmen." Tatum pointed out. "They're supposed to be allies if you're a good guy."

"Oh sorry," Hideto said sarcastically, "Guess I'm not caught up on the new set of lingo just yet." Mari, Tatum and Catherine laughed, but I was just glaring at him.

"You can't do that." I said.

"Sorry, what?" He asked.

"You can't break up Hikari and Willis." I told him, "They're happy together."

"You're telling me you want them to end up together?" Hideto asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Yes." I said firmly. "They're both happy. Leave it at that." Hideto shrugged.

"If you say so," He sighed, pushing his chair out and lazily standing up. "I'm going for a walk. You guys want to come? You're more than welcome. You guys will make _me_ look good." His eyes fell on Catherine. "Except you." He said, his eyes widening, "You're gorgeous." Catherine blushed and hid her face in her hands as I shot Hideto another glare.

"I'll go." I said, standing up, "I have to make sure you don't ruin someone's relationship."

"That's just what I do." Hideto said with a sigh, "But fine, I promise not to ruin the relationship of anyone who looks happy." I nodded with a smile.

"Good." I said. "That's settled then."

"So what's Koushiro's least favourite thing about Mimi?" Hideto asked.

"No." I growled.

"I'm kidding!" Hideto said, throwing his hands up, "But seriously... they don't seem very happy together."

"That's their business. Not yours." I said.

"Fine." Hideto sighed. "Come on. Let's go." He said, motioning to his digimon who slid out of their seat and raced toward the door. Mari was standing next, catching Lalamon in her arms, and then Floramon and Monodramon got up.

Tatum, Catherine and I took the rear as the digimon all shouted their ideas of where we should go.

"The park!" Lalamon cried out.

"The beach!" Agumon suggested.

"The _moon_!" Gabumon laughed.

"The Digital World?" Lalamon tried.

"Home!" Agumon and Gabumon chimed in.

"The roof of a building?" Floramon asked.

Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"You're weird." Hideto decided. Everyone laughed as we headed out the door, Hideto locking the restaurant behind him.

"I thought you were working late tonight." Mari said, stretching in the sunlight.

"That was when Mimi was in charge." Hideto smirked, "She left me in charge today so I closed early."

"Not getting many customers?" Tatum asked as Monodramon took her hand.

"Oh no," Hideto said, "It was packed. I just got bored so I kicked them out before the meeting."

I didn't really know where Hideto stood on my lists of people I liked and didn't like, but he was trustworthy at the very least. He helped us out against Arkadimon and stopped the fight, joining our side. He was just a free spirit. That's all. I would just have to get used to that.

So we set off down the street, choosing the beach as a suitable choice due to the open space and sand to play with. It was still too cold to play in the water, but that was okay.

For the first while of the walk Hideto recounted all of the couples he'd broken up and the twisted ways he'd done so. The reason why was always the same though. One of the people in the relationship was attractive and he wanted them.

Catherine and I laughed at most of the stories, and although it felt weird to do so it didn't really bother me. He told us that he never ended up with any of them, and afterwards he helped them all find better partners. I guess there wasn't anything wrong with helping people find true happiness.

We passed a few people on the street who looked to Floramon and the others oddly. I wondered what they thought when they saw them but none of them raised the alarm. Perhaps they just thought they were children?

But just as an incredibly fast motorcycle shot past us one of the children, Floramon to be exact froze suddenly and turned her head to look over her shoulder.

"What is it?" Catherine asked, kneeling down next to Floramon who shook her head.

"Nothing..." She decided. Catherine nodded and took my hand as we continued our journey to the beach.

Finally we were there, mostly alone. There was just one other couple sitting on a blanket and eating a picnic.

"Going to break them up?" Tatum asked as a joke.

Hideto looked them over but shook his head. "No."

"Why not?" Mari asked, "They're cute."

"They're eating jam." He decided, shuttering, "I hate jam."

Everyone laughed again as we sat down in the sand, letting the digimon run off to play. Floramon tested the waters before screaming in agony because it was so cold. Monodramon was laying right next to us, drawing in the sand with his claws as Agumon and Gabumon played catch with Lalamon. Lalamon was the ball.

Patamon would have had fun here... I knew it. If only he'd not run away.

"You okay?" Catherine asked. I nodded. She looked me over questioningly but decided to believe it. She turned to Tatum, "I 'eard you live in New York, is it nice zere?"

Tatum nodded, "It's awesome. Kind of scary though." She said, "You live in France?" Catherine nodded. "I've always wanted to go shopping in Paris. When are you going back?"

"Next weekend," Catherine said, "You should come visit some time. We could go shopping! It will be lots of fun." Tatum and Catherine practically exploded with tales of Paris and New York, and after a while I thought they might be trying to convince the other that their city was actually the better of the two.

Hideto and Mari were both laying on their backs talking quietly as the sun beat down on us. I figured it was a good time to relax...

I closed my eyes and listened to the wind and the waves, trying to calm down from everything that'd been going on. My mom left, then my dad, then Patamon... Lalamon had been so sure they'd be okay. I tried to focus on her words to relax, but it was so hard... there was a motorcycle passing by on the road. And as soon as it faded away it was back. Again and again it happened as if someone was driving back and forth.

"Floramon?" Catherine asked, pulling me from my attempted relaxation.

"That's a digimon." Floramon decided with a snarl. "A big one at that."

"What?" Lalamon asked sharply, flying away mid-toss as Monodramon sat up straight and looked toward the motorcycle. He started growling and Lalamon nodded. "You're right... he's not alone." All of the digimon spun around to face the water where, suddenly, a giant splash erupted, sending icy water all over the beach. In the water, standing on its surface was a female digimon wearing purple robes with two bat wings.

The motorcycle was growing louder so I turned sharply in time to see it coming straight for us. I threw myself toward Catherine and Tatum and rolled them over top of Hideto as the motorcycle shot past us. The rider leapt off the bike and let it run straight into the water. He had a tail, but looked more or less human. He had spiked yellow hair and a purple mask, he was wearing mostly leather, and had three red eyes. In each hand he held a gun, both of which he pointed directly toward us.

I scrambled to my feet and pulled Mari and Catherine up too as Tatum pulled Hideto out of the way, he began firing at us as we ran.

"Pepper breath!" Agumon said, sending a ball of fire toward the gun-wielder.

"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon joined in.

This was all happening so fast—who were these people, a what did they want? But I knew the answer to that. Judging by the look of the woman, she was the digimon of lust, and judgint by the urge to go eat the food that the frightened couple were currently leavin behind told me that this was the gluttony digimon.

"Who are you?" Hideto shot.

"My name is Beelzemon," The man said.

"And I'm Lilithmon." The woman said with a smile, and a laugh, "And we're your worst nightmare."

"You're the Teenage Wolves next album?" Hideto joked. I certainly admired his quick mindedness and his ability to never back down.

Lilithmon glared at Hideto and raised her hand, "Empress Emblaze!" She called out sending a hand shaped burst of energy to him.

"Not so fast!" Agumon shouted, "**Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!**" He was standing in the way, blocking the attack with the armour on his head.

Gabumon was running into the battle moments later, "**Gabumon digivolve to... Garurumon!**" Soon the orange dinosaur was standing next to the white and blue wolf, just like old times. Only they were Hideto's and not Yamato and Taichi's.

I couldn't stop thinking about Patamon and how I needed him to be there. I needed a partner. I couldn't help in this fight if I didn't have anyone to help me do so.

"Rain of Pollen!" Floramon shouted, sending golden dust all over Lilithmon and Beelzemon.

"We can't beat them with just these guys..." I said quietly. Catherine looked to me and nodded, pulling out her digivice. "Floramon!"

"**Floramon digivolve to... Kiwimon!**" Floramon shifted into the bird-like champion digimon.

I guess Catherine had misunderstood me. Even with five champion digimon we'd ever win... not against two mega digimon.

"**Lalamon digivolve to...** **Sunflowmon!**" Lalamo shifted into the sunflower digimon that had once been fighting against us, but was now one of our only hopes to survive the next hour.

"Monodramon," Tatum ordered, pointing her glowing digivice to her partner who quickly shifted into Airdramon. "Wing Cutter!" Airdramon obliged and fired slices through the air toward Beelzamon who dodged it easily and raised his guns directly toward him. "Move!" Airdramon, once again obeyed, dodging the series of shots.

This could easily be one of the most dangerous battles I'd ever been in. For some reason the concept of bullets seemed scarier than the explosions, or the attacks of any of the other battles.

Greymon, Garurumon, Sunflowmon, Kiwimon and Airdramon formed a protective barrier around Catherine, Tatum, Hideto, Mari and I.

"Why do you even try?" Lilithmon asked us as we prepared to attack. "You know we'll beat you. You've won all the battles that you bought the rights for. You can't win everything. Not forever."

"Well we'll see about that." I growled. Clearly she was talking to me as none of the others had been around in the ordeal for too long. As Greymon and the others started firing attacks toward the enemies I turned to the others, "Guys," I said quietly, "We shouldn't wait to see."

"What do you mean?" Mari asked.

"We need to get out of here." I said.

"Hell no," Hideto said, "We're going to stay and fight." Mari pointed at Hideto in agreement.

"He's right Takeru," Tatum declared, "We're going to fight. We can't go back to the others and tell them that we backed down. They'd all stay to fight. So we should too."

"It's dangerous." I said sharply. "We're on Earth, the digimon can't be reborn—what if your partners die because of your rash behaviour?"

"What are you talking about?" Lilithmon said, appearing between Mari and Catherine, causing them both to jump. Hideto and I reached forward and dragged them away from her. "Oh? Don't want to include me? I'm not good enough for you?"

Kiwimon had suddenly tackled Lilithmon to the ground where she screamed in agony, wrapping her hands around the bird's neck, throwing her to the side. "Empress Emblaze!" She cried out, sending her magical hand toward Kiwimon.

"No!" Catherine shouted, trying to free herself from my grasp.

"Sunflowmon!" Mari shouted loudly as the sunflower shot through the air and scooped Kiwimon off the ground, and slamming into the ground a few feet away rolling through the sand. Lilithmon turned angrily on the rest of us as Catherine finally managed to free herself of my grasp.

She wound her hand back and smacked Catherine across the face. I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me as Catherine fell into the sand. I gasped, trying to catch my breath and then I shook my head. "Alright." I declared. "Get her."

It was as if the others partners were obeying me instead. Greymon roared loudly in a sort of battle cry as Sunflowmon and Kiwimon shot toward Lilithmon rolling through the air across the beach.

"Catherine?" I asked, falling to my knees next to her. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes fluttered, but she didn't wake. Her cheek was red where Lilithmon had hit her, but she looked like she'd be okay, so I stood quickly turning to the battle where Garurumon's teeth were clamped tight around Beelzemon's firing arm. Finally he dropped the gun and Garurumon picked it up, running it away from him with it. Beelzemon growled at Greymon.

"Darkness Claw!" He shouted, summoning a claw out of nowhere as he lashed it down toward Greymon, hitting him directly in the side, and causing him to fall over.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted from the ground where he fired a blast of fire out of his mouth, hitting Beelzemon head on, scorching his clothing.

I was having a hard time following both battles, flicking my eyes back and forth until finally I found myself watching Mari standing in the middle of scene cheering on her digimon.

"She's nuts." Tatum said breathlessly.

"Mari get the hell out of there!" Hideto called, drawing all attention toward her.

Lilithmon acted quickly, slamming her foot into Kiwimon's head and forcing her to revert back to Floramon. She grabbed Sunflowmon by the arm and threw her into Airdramon in the sky, then turned on Mari whose expression didn't change.

"Mari!" Hideto called as Lilithmon ran toward her, grabbing her around the neck and slamming her into the sand.

Hideto started running toward her, but Beelzemon used his second gun to shoot at his feet, keeping him back as he kept Greymon in the sand.

Mari used her feet and pushed Lilithmon off of her, and jumped to her feet, but Lilithmon acted quickly and wrapped her arm around her neck and held her long pointed fingernails up to her temple before turning her to face us all.

"Now," She said, "I want you all to watch carefully. I want your first loss to stay in the front of your minds forever." Lilithmon wound back her hand, and brought it down quickly toward Mari who ducked under her arm quickly avoiding the nails. Mari jumped back to her feet and punched over her shoulder, hitting Lilithmon in the nose.

She started running away, but Lilithmon, angry, dove through the air, grabbing her feet and kicking her.

"Just give it up!" Lilithmon growled.

"I will _never_ give up!" Mari shot, kicking Lilithmon in the shoulder.

Suddenly Sunflowmon lit up as she flew toward Lilithmon who was pulling herself to her feet. "**Sunflowmon digivolve to... Lilamon!**" When the light faded a fairy was in her place decorated in lilac flowers. "Lila showers!" She shouted, firing multiple beams of light toward Lilithmon, hitting her directly in the back.

I looked to Hideto who was taking this battle worse than anyone. His fists were clenched and he was biting his lip. Suddenly Mari had thrown her arms around him.

"Oh thank God!" He gasped, hugging her back.

Mari smiled at him. "Didn't think you'd care so much."

"You're like my best friend." He said flatly, "Can't have you die. Without you, who would Sigma and I pick on?"

Mari punched his arm, and he relaxed a little until he looked back to the battle where Greymon and Garurumon were both being beaten easily by Beelzemon.

I looked to Floramon who was fine, laying in the sand, holding her head, and then to Catherine who was still unconscious, Tatum hanging over her, checking her pulse from time to time, trying to wake her up.

This wasn't going well so far...

Airdramon was silently attacking Beelzemon, trying to save Garurumon and Greymon, but he kept blocking the attacks with ease.

"Marvel shot!" Lilamon shouted, sending a ball of energy to Lilithmon, sending her flying away. She quickly turned to Beelzemon and flew at him, "Lilac Dagger!" A dagger appeared in her hand and she held it out right, stabbing him in his shoulder. He fell back into the water, splashing wildly as Lilamon helped Greymon to his feet.

"This has been fun." Lilithmon said with a grin, "but, here's a little news for you." She jumped into the air and landed in the water behind Beelzemon. "We've just been toying with you."

"Keep telling yourself that." I shot. Hideto looked to me and nodded in approval. Did that mean I was cool now too?

_Snap out of it Takeru. Now's not the time._

Lilithmon took Beelzemon's hand and they started glowing until their forms fused together in one beast. They now had seven long black and purple arms with red claws on the end of each of them, a sharp toothed mouth hanging out the bottom, and a venus fly trap as a head. "**Lilithmon—Beelzemon DNA digivolve to... Ogudomon!**"

"Hurray." Hideto said sarcastically. "Greymon—Garurumon! Get back!" His digimon obeyed, jumping back in line with Airdramon and Lilamon.

"Catedral!" Ogudomon shouted with the mouth that hung underneath him, firing a blast toward Airdramon.

"Move!" Tatum screamed, but it was too late, Airdramon was hit, falling toward the ground and shifting back to Monodramon upon impact. Tatum was on her feet a moment later, running to her partner, and pulling him up into her arms. She turned to Floramon and motioned for her to come over to her. Floramon nodded and set off at a run across the beach.

"Catedral!" Ogudomon shouted, firing toward Floramon.

"Marvel shot!" Lilamon shouted, firing directly at Catedral's attack causing them to explode midair, creating a large crater in the sand, and sending Floramon flying through the air. I ran toward her and jumped through the air, and caught her before landing roughly in the sand.

"Thank you." She said quietly into my shoulder before she lost consciousness.

"No problem," I said, my shoulder aching as I pulled myself into a sitting position. Although I hurt really bad, I didn't regret catching her. I needed to do something. I felt so useless without Patamon, and if Floramon died then she'd never come back...

"Takeru," Hideto said, coming to pull me to my feet. "You were right, we need to leave."

"No, screw that." Mari said flatly. "Lilamon! Attack!"

"Mari," I tried, "There's a point where you need to give up. We can't win!"

"No!" She growled, "We _will_ win. Just believe. If we give up then we won't. So stop giving up and fight!"

My eyes widened as her digivice lit a light green colour, shining brightly.

"**Lilamon digivolve to... Rosemon!**" When the light faded Rosemon stood in Lilamon's place, but instead of red petals they were white, and her cape was light pink. She grinned and rose her long black whip, flicking it toward Ogudomon hitting him directly in the face.

"Gradus!" Ogudomon shouted angrily, running toward our remaining three ally digimon, with remarkable speed as his seven legs smashed against the sand, sending piles of sand flying behind him, and then, with great speed, slammed his arm down on Garurumon. He began slamming his front two legs down on Garurumon in quick succession.

"Garurumon!" Hideto said in a mangled voice as he grabbed my arm tightly.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted, firing a giant ball of fire toward Ogudomon, pushing him away from Garurumon who shakily stood up and fired blue flames toward Ogudamon, and then suddenly all three of our digimon were attacking him at once.

"Takeru," Tatum said sharply, motioning for me to bring Floramon toward her, Monodramon and Catherine. I ran over to her and set Floramon down. "He's weak." She decided.

"What?" I asked her.

"He's throwing our confidence." She said clearly, "Ogudomon is a combination of the Seven Great Demon Lords. But he only used two of them. If there were all seven he would be nearly unstoppable—but he only has a fraction of his power."

"How do you know these things?" I asked.

"Research." She said passively, "Seriously, just attack him head on. We'll win."

I nodded and turned to Hideto, "Hey—"

"Got it." He nodded. "Mari?" He said, elbowing her lightly.

"Loud and clear." She grinned. "Rosemon!"

Rosemon looked over her shoulder and nodded, cracking her whip and wrapping it around Ogudomon's head, keeping him still.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon roared, sending a ball of fire to the immobilized enemy.

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon joined in.

"Beauty shock!" Rosemon sang, the whip wrapped around Ogudomon's head suddenly buzzing with electricity. Ogudomon staggered backwards as Rosemon's whip released him.

Greymon roared, pushing him off of his feet, unbalanced and falling toward Garurumon who kicked off the ground and tackled him until he fell toward Rosemon who spun around and cracked her whip one last time, hitting him across the face, causing him to burst into data.

And it was over, just like that. Two more of the Deadly sins were defeated and Mari had mastered her crest... I felt so relieved that my time getting to know those who I needed to wasn't a total disaster.

Afterwards we waited on the beach until the others came around.

Monodramon came around first, hugging Tatum, and then finally Floramon who demanded to know how the battle was over. And by the time Catherine awoke we were all sitting together, watching the sunset.

I heard her moan and turned to her as her eyes opened slowly, and she sat up. "Takeru!" She gasped, sitting up and leaning in to kiss me. I turned my head quickly and she kissed my cheek. Everyone else pretended they hadn't noticed, and politely ignored our conversation. "Is there something wrong Takeru?"

"Wrong?" I asked.

"With me." She said.

"No—no!" I insisted, "You're great!"

"Why won't you kiss me?" She asked quietly.

"I'm... waiting for the perfect moment." I admitted. "My mom told me that the first kiss had to be magical... I'm waiting for the exact right moment."

"Oh," She said, content with my answer.

Finally, when we were all splitting off to head home Hideto stopped me as he pretended to tie his shoe. "What do you need?" I asked.

"We were on the beach watching the sunset..." Hideto said, "You helped in a battle to save the world and saved her life in the process and the very first thing she thought to do when she woke up was to kiss you."

"Your point?" I asked.

"How much more magical can you get?" He asked.

And... he had a point, but I shrugged it off. What did Hideto know about love? Nothing.

_**Hiroaki Ishida:**_

Dinorexmon, the large green dinosaur, and Clavisangemon, the bubbly angel digimon were still leading us through the Digital World. I was starting to get tired, which was a bad sign since I didn't really trust these digimon. Perhaps that was their plan, to tire us out and then destroy us. I could only hope not. I didn't want that at all. If I was destroyed there was no way I was going to bring Natsuko back.

I vaguely remembered how upset Takeru was the last time she was missing three years ago, I had to get her back to him before he did something he'd regret.

Then I remembered how upset I was the last time. We weren't even together really and I was more upset then than I was now. Why was that? Was it because I loved her more back then? That didn't seem right... Back then I was remembering the love we shared as a married couple mixed with the feelings I felt, and now I was focusing on the feelings I felt at the present. I did love her... but did I love her the same way I used to? No... So was it enough?

I came back to the present again and saw Mushroomon walking as close to the digimon as he dared. Personally I was staying as far back as I could, Toshiko and Haruhiko on either side of me. I'd chosen to stay behind the angel instead of the giant dinosaur since his tail looked painful and I didn't want to be near it.

"What's Mushroomon doing?" I asked, barely moving my lips so as to be as quiet as possible. i looked to Toshiko who was pointing to her ear and to the digimon. So he was listening to them? Spying? They were talking after all. What if they were plotting our demise? That hardly seemed fair. I could only hope that if they _were_ planning something evil it would be to kidnap us and put us in a prison cell along with Natsuko. That seemed fairly logical since they told us they knew where she was, but still seemed evil...

Soon Mushroomon was back in our group, his face flat, void of emotion. He looked up to Toshiko and motioned for her to follow him. He then turned to me and Haruhiko and did the same. I glanced back at Clavisangemon and Dinorexmon, but turned back to Mushroomon and nodded.

The four of us were sneaking away from strong looking digimon who had already seemed evil, but with the look Mushroomon was now casting their way seemed a lot more than just evil.

I looked onward and saw a large castle like building. Or a Temple of some sort. Something nonetheless.

"Let's go there." I heard Haruhiko say quietly.

Mushroomon nodded in agreement and then grabbed Toshiko's hand and set off at a run. I glanced back to the other digimon, they hadn't noticed our departure yet, but it seemed like a good idea to put as much distance between us and them as we could.

I turned back to see Haruhiko staring at me, urging me to follow them. I nodded and the two of us ran after Toshiko. If the others noticed us missing then Mushroomon would most certainly not be enough to save us from their wrath, should it come. Which I was still convinced would happen.

"They were talking about killing us." Mushroomon said in a breathy tone as we neared the temple-like building. "I heard them debating whether or not to kill us. They think you're the digidestined."

That made sense, humans in the prime of their age in the Digital World. Killing us was just harsh though, and it strongly made me debate whether or not Takeru or Yamato should be wandering around in this world.

We were fairly close to the Temple when we heard the scream. I jumped and spun around to see the dinosaur digimon running toward us, his mouth open as he roared loudly, his strides getting progressively longer.

"That can't be good." Haruhiko said, his voice wavering. I turned and grabbed his wrist and ran. Mushroomon was already dragging Toshiko toward the golden bridge that led to the big doors that would lead inside. Hopefully this was a good place and not a place filled with more evil. But it felt magical and peaceful so I figured we'd be safe...

Dinorexmon roared loudly once more when we finally reached the bridge, the bottom of it rattling with each step each of us took, until finally we slammed into the door, trying to push it open.

"Pull?" Toshiko tried, so we all obliged, pulling on the doors, but they wouldn't open. They were locked.

"Open the door!" I screamed, slamming my fists into it. "Open the damned door!"

And then there was another shuttering roar. So close this time. I spun around to see Clavisangmon on the bridge, walking slowly toward us, and Dinorexmon standing at the other end, too big to follow any further.

"Thought you'd escape?" Clavisangemon asked with his smooth voice. "That's adorable."

I heard more thuds and turned to see Haruhiko continue knocking loudly on the door. I looked back quickly when I heard sudden rattling footsteps and saw Mushroomon run in front of us all. "Fungus Cruncher!" He shouted, firing a series of tiny mushrooms toward the enemy. Each of them hit and exploded upon impact, but when the smoke cleared he was standing in the same place, unscathed.

"Well," Clavisangemon said softly, "I thought about killing you, then I thought—no, we could have fun with them. But I suppose you chose the first option. Well, so be it." He raised his giant key like staff, a sly grin spreading across his face.

My first thought was that we could bail and jump off the bridge. Possibly with the strange happenings we could enter the temple from underneath, but I didn't need a plan. Someone else already had one.

A dark shape landed in front of me, and with a thud Clavisangemon had fallen backward. It took me a moment to take in what I was seeing, but there they were, right in front of us. Centarumon had leapt over the temple wall with Wizardmon on his back.

Wizardmon looked back and tipped his hat to me with a smile.

"Wizardmon!" I gasped.

"Centarumon?" Haruhiko questioned.

"Zenith Gate!" Clavisangemon shouted, but his attack was blocked by Wizardmon's staff. Centarumon reared back and kicked Clavisangemon again sending him even further down the bridge, falling through the air and landing on his back. Slowly the angel got up and growled, jumping backward and landing on the dinosaurs head. "If it's a battle you want, then it's a battle you'll get." He said.

Wizardmon swished his cape and disappeared, reappearing in the air behind the two digimon. "Electro squall!" He shouted, sending a large bolt of lightning down toward Clavisangemon who turned sharply and raised his key as some sort of conductor. My stomach tensed as he aimed it toward Wizardmon and shot his attack back at him.

"Wizardmon!" I called out, pushing to move past Mushroomon and out onto the battle. Centarumon stopped me with his mechanical arm and shook his head.

"Stay human." He said quietly before turning to the battle and running out after Wizardmon who was falling from the sky. Centarumon raised his arm and shouted, "Solar ray!" Before a blast of energy shot toward Dinorexmon.

I tried to look through the battle to Wizardmon. Was he okay? Suddenly he was in the air again though, so I relaxed a little. I hadn't seen him in a while so I didn't want him to die without me being able to say goodbye one last time. But before he could even attack again Dinorexmon had swatted him from the sky with his tail as his scythe-like hands sliced toward Centarumon who jumped back to avoid getting hurt.

"S-should I help?" Mushroomon asked quietly.

"No need." A wry voice said from above us. I spun quickly and looked up the wall of the temple to see who it was, but I couldn't see anything besides dark shapes standing atop the wall. "Dark Broom!" the voice called out causing Mushroomon to gasp as a blast shot toward Clavisangemon.

"It's Lady Babamon!"

Suddenly there she was, a small old woman draped in green robes with a broom in her hand. She didn't look too powerful, but if she thought she could help us win...

"Let's show them what we can do." Babamon said, raising her broom. "Ready council? Attack!"

The first thing I noticed was a small glittering fairy shoot past my head, a red spear held tightly in her hands, and then a robotic man landed next to the bridge with a Lion walking on two feet in a pair of pants and an ogre holding a big club. I recognized all three of them from Takeru's books and drawings. Ogremon, Leomon and Andromon. On the other side of the bridge a strange blue and white fish-like digimon with a harpoon in his hands and an oxygen tank on his back landed next to a humanoid digimon in golden bug shaped armour.

Leomon was the first to act, running straight into the battle with Ogremon just one step behind.

"Fist of the beast king!" He roared as he punched the air, sending a blast toward the opponents.

"Pummel whack!" Ogremon chimed in sending a similar blast to the same target.

Both attacks hit full force, knocking the angel from his place atop Dinorexmon.

Wizardmon lunged toward the fallen digimon as the small fairy that reminded me of Tinkerbell stabbed Dinorexmon repeatedly with her spear, annoying him and capturing his attention.

"Striking Fish!" The fish digimon shouted, sending his harpoon toward Dinorexmon, hitting him directly in the neck. Dinorexmon let out a loud scream of pain as the golden bug shot a blast out of his gun-like hands.

My attention was back to Wizardmon who was wrestling with Clavisangemon, both of their staves laying on the ground, scattered away from them. I tried to go to help him, but Haruhiko and Toshiko grabbed me quickly.

"He'll be okay." Toshiko insisted.

"Just relax." Haruhiko joined in, "It's not safe for you out there."

I saw Andromon firing attack after attack from his arms as Dinorexmon tried to shake off Tinkerbell.

"Move on!" Babamon ordered and Andromon, the fish and the bug obeyed her, all of them moving in on the battle where Tinkerbell was already fighting alongside Centarumon, Leomon and Ogremon.

They were all shouting at once and it was hard to hear them all. "Fist of the Beast King!" "Striking Fish!" "Nightmare Pandemic!" "Dark Broom!" "Solar Ray!" "Lightning Blade!" "Homing Lazer!"

All the attacks shot straight toward Dinorexmon who didn't stand a chance. He burst into the familiar digital data and all that was left was a brown orb which fell a little ways until it drifted to a complete stop.

I turned to Wizardmon where Musrhoomon had gone to help out. Mushroomon was holding both of the staves, trying to find an opportune time to hand Wizardmon his weapon as he rolled around on the ground with Clavisangemon.

Clavisangemon seemed fairly defenceless without his staff which had a white orb, similar to the one that had fallen from Dinorexmon, wrapped in its intricacies. But Wizardmon had magic and I knew he could do it without the staff if only he'd get a chance.

Suddenly Wizardmon swished his cape again and appeared a few feet away, raising his hand to shoot a ball of fire at Clavisangemon who had spotted Mushroomon with his staff. Clavisangemon shot toward him as he panicked and began to run away.

Centarumon was standing between the two of them, running with lightning speed, his mechanical arm trapping Clavisangemon's head in his grasp. Wizardmon shot a large ball of fire toward the squirming angel as Centarumon clamped his hand tighter around his head, and then Clavisangemon had gone the same way as his partner, his staff, still in Mushroomon's hand, burst into data as well leaving the white orb to fall and bounce off of Mushroomon's head, landing softly in the air.

I felt Haruhiko and Toshiko's grip relax on my arm with the battle over, so I pulled free of them and ran down the shaky bridge and jumped over top of Babamon, pushing past the fish and Ogremon and spread my arms out to catch Wizardmon who was jumping into them already.

"It's good to see you!" I laughed as he hugged me.

"I haven't been gone that long, have I?" Wizardmon asked. I nodded and he shrugged, "I've been training with the Knights. I'm going to be stronger so I can protect you. I guess I was just having so much fun that I didn't keep track of the time."

"That's fine." I smiled, "So long as you're happy with what you're doing with all of the time away, I'm happy to let you go."

Wizardmon smiled at me as Toshiko and Haruhiko gathered around their own partners, and then finally we turned to the 'Council' as Babamon has called them.

"I'll take that." She said to Mushroomon who was holding the white orb. The brown one that had come from Dinorexmon was in Leomon's hand.

"What are they?" Toshiko asked.

"I have no idea." Babamon admitted.

"But I bet Taichi will." The fish said.

"It would do best to ask him about it nonetheless." Ogremon added. "Thank you for your help." He nodded toward the group of us.

"It's been fun." Tinkerbell said with an absurd amount of volume for such a small fairy. "But... bye!"

As the council turned back toward the Temple doors which, from my perspective still seemed locked Centarumon bid farewell to Haruhiko.

"You should be safe now. Go home." Centarumon said. "As part of the council it would be wise for me to follow them back."

"Alright." Haruhiko said with a nod, though I could tell he wasn't happy about it, and then Centarumon was gone.

"What about you?" I asked Wizardmon.

"The Knights don't train as much as the Council seems to think we do..." Wizardmon admitted. "I'd be happy to escort you to whatever it is you're looking for."

"I'd be happy to have you." I said reaching out and shaking his hand. And with that, we were off. We had to find Natsuko, and with Wizardmon around it felt much more plausible.

_**Natsuni Ando:**_

I'm not going to lie. I was having the time of my life in the Digital World. Sure there were no trees, and there wasn't any ground, and I wasn't even sure which way was up and which was down…but I was with Goblimon, and I got to play the part of the adventurer or explorer. It was like Indiana Jones, but with a girl protagonist. I was also playing a character struggling to survive in a foreign location with nothing but the clothes on my back and a few companions. I got really into the role too. I ripped the bottom off of my shirt, and tied it around my head like a sweatband, and had another strip tied around my arm, once I'd ripped my sleeves off. The only thing missing with my costume was authenticity. It was missing the dirt, blood and sweat that a real adventurer might come across.

The only down side to my digital vacation was that my mother had to be involved. Well…I guess Iori's mother was a bit of a plot hole too.

"…totally barbaric! Why, when her father hears of this…"

My mother had begun her rant the moment I let Goblimon take me into his arms and I gave him the biggest hug I'd ever given anyone in my life. She couldn't believe I would ever touch such a grotesque creature. That was when I ripped my shirt, telling her that Goblimon and I would match better if I looked the part of a homeless, cave-woman.

"….what I could have done to deserve a child as disobedient…"

And okay, so I didn't exactly stop at my costume. I started running around and jumping and I climbed onto Goblimon's back and up to his shoulders so I could see further while pretending to be holding a telescope. I was kind of channelling a bit of Peter Pan's lost boys, and started a game of follow the leader—only Goblimon participated—and I did a couple of cartwheels too.

"…disgrace to the family name! Why I wish she had never been born!"

That one hurt. A lot. But I wasn't going to let that show. She didn't want me to have fun, and she didn't want me to choose anything about my future. I was over that. I didn't really care too much. My biggest issue was that I didn't want to get disowned or something. But I didn't really think Dad cared too much about what I did. He never seemed to ask, and never tried to schedule things for me, like Mother did.

"I didn't think it would be _your_ family name she was spoiling," Iori's mother said with a snort. "Just your husband's."

"I care about my husband's name!" Mother screeched. That was definitely true. She cared more about Dad's family than her own, which was probably why she was so desperate that I prove myself to them. She didn't want to be an outcast at social functions. Like me. I never talked to anyone at them, but that was mostly because she wouldn't allow me to bring Iori and I was forbidden from speaking about movies.

"Do you care about your daughter though?" Mrs Hida asked pointedly. And I swear, my mother paused. She had to stop and _think_ about it.

"Yes," she decided. "I care that she does her duty to the family and upholds our honour. Unfortunately, she seems too daft to do even the simplest things."

"She's not _that_ bad," Mrs Hida protested. "She's a great friend, even though I'm sure that she and Iori spend far too much time alone together. And she's outgoing enough to initiate conversations despite the numerous arguments Iori and I have had about her, which he no doubt informed her of."

"You're son is a bad influence on her! He's the reason she's this…this…disappointment!"

Goblimon pulled me from his shoulder and into his embrace. I whispered my thanks, not wanting to miss where the argument was going, even though I wasn't actually enjoying it much.

Mrs Hida's face flushed red with anger. "If _you_ are any indication, my son has saved her from a horrible future!"

"Why you!" Mother screamed at her. She was so angry, that she couldn't form words. It was kind of funny, in a depressing sort of way, to watch her flounder for words that could express just how horrible of a daughter she now thought I was. I'd wasted so much time trying to be the girl she wanted me to, while sneaking around with Iori, being the girl that _I_ wanted me to be. And it didn't amount to anything. She'd dismissed me already, after just a few seconds in the Digital World. As much as it pained me to admit it, she wasn't worth that. Not if she didn't think of me as anything more than a lump of clay, ready to be molded into anything of her choosing.

Whatever it was that she wanted to say, she didn't say it. Instead she clamped her mouth shut, crossed her arms across her chest and ignored us. She still walked behind us, afraid of being left alone is such unfamiliar territory, but she refused to look at any of us.

"He has you know," I told Mrs Hida. She looked confused. "Iori. He saved me. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I know he didn't mean it when he yelled."

"He did mean it," Mrs Hida said softly. "But it's kind of you to say so. Iori doesn't say things if he doesn't mean them. I didn't mean to make him hate me so much."

"He doesn't hate you," I insisted. "He really doesn't. He wasn't acting like himself. I don't know what was wrong, but he was so angry at everything. It wasn't _your_ fault."

"I wasn't ready," she said to me. "I pushed him too hard, trying to keep him the same. I didn't want him to grow up. I wasn't ready to lose him. I'm still not ready to lose him, but I already have. I pushed him away from me."

"He'd forgive you," I whispered. "That's his thing. It takes him awhile sometimes, but he _will_ forgive you. You're his mom. He knows you love him, and that you're scared. He doesn't want to leave you alone either. Why do you think he waited so long to snap? He loves you too."

"It doesn't feel like that," she admitted. "I just feel lonely so much. I need him to help me through that. Without his father and grandfather, I'm alone."

"You don't have to be," I suggested, already running through different movie plots in my mind. I was sure I'd be able to find someone to make her less lonely. A new friend perhaps? A new love interest? I wasn't sure. But I knew I'd be tapping in to the movie magic somehow.

"There are other humans ahead of us," Goblimon announced, interrupting a rather intriguing yet simple love plot from one of my favourite films. And sure enough, there were three adults, a giant mushroom and…a child? Or was that a digimon too? I couldn't tell. It wasn't until we were much closer that I realized it was, in fact, a digimon. A wizard.

"Hello!" I called happily, running to these humans with vigor. I was totally ready for some new company. "How are you? _Who_ are you might be the better question though."

"Hiroaki Ishida," I tall young man said. I could not believe that he was Yamato Ishida's father. He looked far too young for that. Then again, my own mother and Mrs Hida were looking far more youthful than usual as well. "This is Haruhiko and Toshiko Takenouchi, Mushroommon and Wizardmon. What are you three doing here?"

"I don't know, Mr Ishida," I said. "We didn't exactly mean to come here if you know what I mean. But I'm kind of glad I get to spend time with Goblimon. I'm Natsuni Ando. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"You don't know why you're here either?" Mrs Takenouchi asked.

"No," Mother said simply. "And I would like very much to go home. I am not enjoying myself."

"I don't know if we _can_ go home," Mr Takenouchi admitted.

"We could," Wizardmon said. "I could bring you. I travel back and forth for my knight training. It shouldn't be much trouble."

"B-but," I stammered. I didn't want to leave yet.

"Please," Mother said coldly to Wizardmon.

"I'm staying," Mrs Hida announced. "I was brought for a reason. Perhaps I am here to learn more about my son, to understand him better."

"I can help you with that," I said, relieved to have an excuse to stay.

"I am not travelling with one of those _things_ alone," Mother said disgusted.

"We couldn't have that," Mr Takenouchi said, rolling his eyes. I had to repress a giggle. The dirty look on Mother's face was quite funny.

"Someone needs to protect Wizardmon from the wicked witch," Mrs Takenouchi agreed. "Take us with you, Wizardmon. If you need us though, Hiroaki, don't hesitate to collect us. I'd be here in a second. We're a team after all."

And just like that, before I even had the chance to speak to either digimon, or get to know either of the Takenouchis, they were gone, taking Mother with them. That just left Mr Ishida, Mrs Hida, Goblimon and myself to take on the Digital World. I'm not going to lie, romantic movie plots were already running through my head. I'd really have to figure out if he was single—in the movies, the guy almost always was.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

I had to tell someone. It wasn't getting any better like I'd hoped. Ken was missing the whole time he'd been affected by sloth, but I'd thought he would be around more now that Belphemon was defeated. I was wrong. The house was empty when I'd come home from work, and he'd only left a scribbled note on the counter.

_Sora called. I'm looking for my mom. Sorry. I won't be there for dinner._

That was it. So I went to our group meeting alone, and I guess the pressure was getting to me, because I almost pulled my gloves off in the middle of the restaurant. If Daisuke, Taichi and the others hadn't interrupted, my secret would've been in the open by now. And though most of me felt relieved at their intrusion, a small part of me was disappointed. I wanted them to know what was going on. I wanted them to care about me, to help me. But at the same time, I didn't want to announce such a secret in a public location. This led me to the obvious solution: tell them one at a time, and let it spread through the grapevine like gossip.

I knew the perfect person to tell first too, Iori. He wouldn't judge me, and he'd know how to help. He was really good at bottling up his feelings, so he should be able to help me sort mine out. Not to mention the fact that he was my go-to person for a good rant. He always listened to, he didn't just pretend. And now that I actually treated him like a grown-up, rather than a little child, he didn't even get annoyed with me anymore.

As much as I wanted to be able to talk with him though, I was a little scared of how he'd react now that he'd been affected by Wrath so dramatically. So I brought Hawkmon along with me, just in case. I didn't expect him to attack me or anything…but I couldn't count out the possibility.

"Why wasn't Iori at the meeting earlier?" Hawkmon asked as we neared his apartment building.

"I don't know," I said, thinking it over. "Maybe he just didn't think he could handle it."

"I didn't think he ever admitted to weaknesses," Hawkmon mused.

"He doesn't. Not usually," I told him. "But remember, he isn't in his usual frame of mind right now. Daisuke's presence makes him furious, when typically, it's only Michael that can do that. Not even Noriko can make him so mad so instantaneously."

We made it to the building and walked up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I didn't handle enclosed spaces like that very well these days. What if whoever was attacking me cut the power, and used the elevator against me? I wouldn't be able to get out, I couldn't escape, and then they could kill me.

"That's strange," Hawkmon said as we came up to the doorway.

"What's strange?" I asked. It didn't seem out of the ordinary to me.

"Since bringing Meiyomon back to earth with us, I've yet to come to this house without hearing some sort of argument," Hawkmon said. It was true. Usually it was Meiyomon trying to convince someone to let him blow something up. But it was almost silent. It was eerie.

I knocked on the door hesitantly, gripping my digivice, just in case. The door opened almost immediately and I was met with a giant grin on a little jester boy.

"Miyako!" Meiyomon cheered.

"Meiyomon!" Armadillomon scolded. "You aren't supposed to open the door. It could've been a stranger."

"But it's not," Meiyomon said with a pout. "It's just Miyako. Hi Miyako. You're really pretty today. Did you know that? I did. So…since you're really pretty today, and I told you about that, would you let me blow up the refrigerator?"

"No," I said shortly. Flattery wouldn't work on me, though it _was_ nice to hear.

"You're no fun," Meiyomon whined, running off to the living room. I sighed and invited myself in, since neither Meiyomon nor Armadillomon seemed to care.

"Hello Miyako," Armadillomon said sadly. "What brings you here?"

"She's looking for Iori," Hawkmon informed him. "Is he here?"

"No."

"No?" I asked.

"No," Armadillomon agreed.

"Where is he?" Hawkmon asked.

"I don't know!" Armadillomon cried. "He left, but he didn't tell me where he was going. He's gone, just like his mother."

"His mother's gone too?" I asked, though I thought I might've heard about that sometime. "Is he looking for her?"

"Maybe…" Armadillomon said.

"He didn't tell you anything?" I clarified.

"No. And I didn't even see him leave," Armadillomon said. No wonder the guy was so bummed out. Iori just ditched him. I'd have to have some words with him, and they wouldn't be pretty.

"Let me call Jou," I suggested. Jou would know. He and Iori were pretty close. I rushed over to the home phone and dialed Jou's number. It rang only twice before Jou picked up with a confused greeting. "Jou, it's me."

"Miyako? Is something wrong?" he asked quickly.

"Iori's not here, and Armadillomon's freaking out. Do you know where he could be?" I demanded.

"Work, possibly?" Jou suggested. "He should be studying though. His exams are coming up. He really needs to focus."

"It can be hard to focus if you've been kidnapped, Jou," I snapped.

"You think he's been kidnapped? By one of Daemon's minions?" Jou asked suddenly sounding terribly worried.

"It's a possibility. They want us dead," I pointed out. "So does Arkadimon. And—" I stopped myself. I hadn't told Jou about the thing that was after me just yet. And he was already so worried about Iori…I decided to pass on informing him about me. Jou was a natural worrier. I didn't want to overload him.

"Right," Jou said. "I'll try to contact him. Just check your parent's store. He _does_ work there. Let me know if you find him okay? I don't like this."

"I don't like it either," I told him, but I promised to call him if I found anything.

"You're going to find Iori?" Armadillomon asked brightly. "I'm coming with you."

"B-but," I stammered, looking to Meiyomon who was staring at the television set with a gleam in his eye. "Meiyomon needs supervision."

"Iori might need me," Armadillomon pleaded.

"Take him with you, Miyako," Hawkmon instructed me. "I will do some digging here, to see if he left any clues, in case Jou's guess proves false. I'm not just the brawn in our partnership you know. I'm not useless outside of battle. I can use my brain as well."

"I know you can, Hawkmon," I said with a short, nervous laugh. It was almost dark outside. Could I really bring myself to walk alone outside? Almost alone anyway. Armadillomon would be with me, but I couldn't exactly make him digivolve…

But what choice did I have? Armadillomon was looking at me with pleading eyes, and Hawkmon wanted to prove himself. I just had to bolster my courage. What could happen on the streets of Odaiba anyway?

I didn't actually want to think about that…

"Let's go," Armadillomon said excitedly. "I want to find Iori."

"Go on," Hawkmon said. "I'm sure I can figure out how to work this telephone contraption should I need to contact you with any leads."

"You do that," I said, before he pushed us out of the apartment. I let Armadillomon lead me down the stairs—though he wanted to use the elevator—and then I started leading him to my parent's store. It was only at the corner. How much trouble could we get into in that short distance?

There were a lot more people on the streets than usual. All of them dressed darkly, wearing masks. I didn't understand how I could have missed Halloween. It's one of my favourite holidays. You get to dress up and give kids candy.

"Halloween came early this year," Armadillomon commented.

"No it didn't," I said. "It can't. It's on a set day of the year. It's always in October."

"But Miyako…"Armadillomon said sounding confused. "It's April."

My eyes widened. He was right. It _was_ April. Which meant that these weren't parents and children in scary costumes. I looked at the nearest person closer, and realized that they weren't people at all. They weren't even digimon. They were shadows. From the Dark Ocean.

"Armadillomon," I whimpered. "We've got to run."

"I don't think so," a shadow said from behind me. "I may have been cast aside earlier than expected, but that won't stop me from reaching my ends. I _will_ succeed. Mark my words."

"Run!" Armadillomon cried, but it was too late. We were both snatched up by the shadows that had been cluttering the street.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** We are in for a first in the next chapter (actually two) where you'll get the story from a completely different narration. We're excited about it, and we hope you'll enjoy it too, but you'll have to wait until the next update to get the answers.


	30. Digi-Interlude (Part 1)

**Y/N:** Yay, it's time for the special chapter. I'm not going to ramble a lot today, I'm just going to ask that you review if you can/want to, and that you try and enjoy what we've written.

**U/N:** Soooo this should've gone up YESTERDAY-but it didn't-It's my sister's fault really. She also won't write anything. She's a menace. A menace I tell you!  
Luckily, we're really far ahead.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter-it's obviously different than most chapters, happy... well, Mother's day xD

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 30: Digi-Interlude (Part 1)**

_**Isao Kido:**_

I was walking again, as I often did during midday. I found it very calming. Aimi was having dinner with her daughters tonight, and I was alone. I'd gotten so used to the company after years and years of being alone, that I just... didn't know what to do anymore.

Usually during these walks I'd have long meaningful and frustrated epiphanies, but instead all I could think about was what I should say to Aimi when I proposed, if I ever did. Or what present I could get Emiko to make her like me. Jou's wedding had been a disaster, and those monsters being around was a little unnerving, but they weren't as despicable as I remembered them being. Even Aimi stayed calm, which was shocking due to that being her very first time seeing them, and a set of them barging in and stealing my granddaughter.

After she'd been back I tried to see her, to see if she'd been harmed, but Jou wouldn't let me come near her. He wouldn't let hardly anyone come near. I knew why. I'd been a bad father. But was it really wrong to stand up for what you believed in and raise a child the way you see fit? Well, yes, in a way that could go wrong... but had it?

No. Shuu was a well respected man, and although he wasn't a doctor he was definitely an accomplished man as well. I was proud to call him my son. Jun... that spiky ball of energy was sure something, but she reminded me of Asami, full of so much energy and truth... she was going to be hard to get used to, but if I ever could I knew she'd be great company. Shin was a doctor, and out looking for a wife... the man I'd wanted all my children to be, and I was no more proud of him than I was of Shuu or Jou.

Jou... a doctor, a veterinarian, a father, almost-a-husband. He was wise and mature and brilliant... just like Asami said he'd be. I wished she could see him then... I wished she could have been there to see all of them. She'd be proud too. And with her there we wouldn't be in this mess.

The mess we could easily step out of if I could just admit to being wrong. In my head it seemed too easy, but when I came to say it aloud it was just wrong. I couldn't admit aloud that I was wrong because I wasn't entirely wrong. In fact I wasn't wrong, or right. I was just bad. I could have done it better, and yet I failed too. That was okay... there was still time to fix it. Time to make things right and be there for Emiko.

"That took you long enough."

I looked around, seeing that I was in the park now. No one was around though... who had spoken.

"Over here."

I spun around and gasped at the beast standing before me. It was a unicorn with a red helmet on its head, and a set of wings on its back.

"Digimon?" I asked quietly.

The beast nodded. "My name is Unimon." The beast said, "I've been watching you for a long time."

Suddenly a memory of almost running into a unicorn three years back when the Digital World had met with Earth filled my mind. I'd seen this exact beast before. And in the sky while I was searching for my boys...

"You've been there all along?" I asked.

"Just three years." Unimon admitted majestically. "I met your son, Jou much before though. He saved me. He is wise and strong. And occasionally brave." I chuckled at the last one, and couldn't help but remember all the safety precautions Jou had set up at night in case of a burglar, or the floating devices he'd use in the bath.

"Why were you watching me?" I asked, suddenly serious again.

"We are meant to be together." He said. And another memory flashed into my mind.

"_Isao?" Asami had said many, many years ago on the day of my first wedding, "Before you go out there, I want to tell you something." She was on the other side of the door to the dressing room. I opened the door and she smiled at me nervously, dressed in a red robe. She stepped inside and admired me. "You look wonderful." She said._

"_You look beautiful as well." I said with a smile to her. "What did you need to say?"_

"_Mariko... she asked me to leave." Asami said. "And I'm happy to!" She added quickly, with my confused reaction, "But I wanted you to know why first. I need you to know what she knows. Why she didn't want you to invite me in the first place. Why she asked me to leave just now."_

"_What is it?" I asked, completely unable to find a solution to what she was saying._

"_I..." She froze, "Isao, I love you. I have for a very long time. And... I probably always will." It was my turn to freeze, staring at her with shock. What was I to say? She loved me? This was not the time to tell me this! I was already freaking out! "Don't say anything." She said quickly turning to the door again. When she was out in the hall she reached for the doorknob and before closing it behind her she said, "We are meant to be together." _

_I slammed my foot between the door and the wall and watched it bounce back open. _

"_I can't leave." I told her. "I have to stay, you realize. I love Mariko. It was very inconsiderate for you to say this to me today."_

"_I know." She said slowly. "I'm sorry."_

"_Mariko is right. You need to leave. I'm getting married today, and there is nothing you can say that will stop me." I told her. She began to cry before nodding and running off. I loved Mariko. I had always loved Asami as well, but I was getting married._

I snapped back to the present and looked at Unimon who reminded me so much of Asami. "No." I said flatly. "No." I repeated, turning away. "I was right before, not now. I don't need you. I don't need them. I just need to be alone. Forever."

"Isao," Unimon was disappointed in me. I turned to shout at him, but he was gone as quickly as he had come.

_**Tatum Jefferson:**_

I loved Japan. Really, I did. But I was always so relieved and happy to be back in America. I did however hate airplanes ever since that one time that I was attacked on Michael's father's private jet, and since the Digital World had closed, we'd all had to come back on an airplane instead.

"_What do you mean the Digital World is closed?" Michael had asked, "How am I going to get home?"_

"_I don't know." Taichi snapped. "Figure it out. I'm busy trying to not get fired."_

"_We're rich Michael." Willis reminded him. "We'll take a plane."_

"_Oh no." Terriermon shook his head bluntly. "Nope. Uh-uh. Never gonna happen."_

"_I hate being luggage..." Lopmon sighed._

"_You'll have me," Gatomon said, "We can snoop though people's luggage, I've always been curious as to what people think they need to take with them."_

"_Wasn't it curiosity that killed the cat?" Terriermon asked._

"_Great!" Lopmon cried out, "We'll be trapped with a dead cat!"_

So I wasn't the one who hated it the most, but I certainly hated it a fair bit. But that was okay. I didn't really need to worry about that anymore... so long as I didn't need to urgently get back to Japan, or save the Digital World it would all be okay. Hopefully.

We were home though after a long, sleepless night. Hikari, Michael and Willis all went straight for the kitchen, but I opted for taking my luggage up the stairs. Gatomon led the way for Terriermon, Lopmon and Monodromon to the back yard for some time to stretch from their time cramped up in the luggage compartment, while Betamon slunk down into the basement where he seemed to enjoy spending time.

I put away all of my things, and then threw all of my dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket at the end of my bed. Michael and I had been in a completely steady relationship for three solid years, and a shaky one for two years before that. Five years of relationship. And we were living together... but in his brother's house. Sure they now shared the bills since both had jobs—even though Willis' job was a total secret, but I sometimes wished I didn't share a house with so many other people. I wanted to move forward with Michael...

Anyway, I took a quick shower and threw on a tube top and some short shorts. It was always so hot in the house, and I didn't like to sweat while napping, which was what I planned to do after a quick snack.

Down in the kitchen I found Michael and Betamon arguing with each other.

"You're not listening to me!" Michael yelled as I stepped into the room. "BETAMON!"

"What?" Betamon asked as if Michael hadn't yelled at him.

"Why do you never listen to me?" Michael asked.

"I have a hearing problem." He admitted. "Water logged ears, you know?"

"No, I don't know." Michael snapped. "I don't know why you never listen to me when I talk."

"And I don't know why you always talk to me!" Betamon yelled.

Michael took a deep breath and then turned angrily away from Betamon and looked to me with a smile. He stepped toward me and kissed me quickly. "You're very pretty."

"You're just saying that because I'm wearing next to nothing." I joked.

He poked my nose and smiled at me. "Want me to make you something? I'm taking Betamon for a picnic. If you want to come?"

"Nah, I'm just going to make a quick sandwich and head to bed." I told him.

"Ah cool," He smiled, "Well see you when you wake up then. Don't snore too loudly. Hikari and Willis are sleeping." He placed his finger to his lips and shushed me. I laughed, and then he kissed me again as he grabbed the basket off the counter and led Betamon out of the kitchen.

After I made my sandwich and was sitting down to eat it he kitchen door opened, and I spun around to greet whoever it was. Jenna walked in with a leather backpack, wearing fishnet stockings and knee high black boots. She was wearing a deep purple, blood red and black dress, and her hair, which was pulled back with a streak of black in it, was topped with a small veiled top hat. She had the most frustrated expression I'd ever seen plastered all over her face. She had been forced to stay with her father and Willis' mother while we were away for the wedding, too young to be trusted to stay here alone, but now that we were back, sure enough, so was Jenna.

Unfortunately, she wasn't alone.

"I just think that if you stopped wearing such mean looking clothing boys would like you more." Mary Kennedy said, following Jenna into the kitchen. Jenna looked to me and mouthed the words 'help me'. I rose my eyebrows and set the sandwich down, turning to Mary.

"Hello," I said with a smile, reaching out my hand for a handshake.

"Well aren't you mostly naked...?" She said slowly, ignoring my hand. I felt my face turn redder than my hair as I turned away. "So my new daughter dressed in gothic clothing and my new son's dating a whore."

"I'm standing beside a block of knives." Jenna growled, "I'm not afraid to cut you, Lady Tubbington."

"You watch your mouth young lady!" Mary scolded, "Or you're grounded."

"You're not my mother." Jenna growled.

"Hey girls!" I said loudly trying to stop the argument.

"No, listen here—" Mary started.

"No _you_ listen—" Jenna was cut off by me instead.

"How about you_ both_ listen?" I suggested. They both turned to me. "Jenna, calm down. Mary, grow up. You're a grown woman. Jenna wears a different style of clothing every week. It's just a phase. Let it go. She looks awesome. I'm wearing practically nothing because I'm about to take a nap."

"So you sleep around in those clothes huh?" Mary asked.

"Word play. Funny." It was Willis, standing in the doorway, speaking sarcastically. "Mom..." He said, rubbing his eyes, "Your blunt and basic pessimistic attitude woke me up. Again."

"Willis dear," Mary said kindly, "Don't you feel the least bit uncomfortable with these types of people around?"

"No," Willis admitted, "Because I wasn't raised to be a bigot like you. Seriously Mom, lighten up. Everything is there for a reason. Digimon, Goth people, Tatum's wonderful pyjamas. Just... stop being so rude every time you come over."

"Do you not feel awful?" Jenna asked sharply, "Every time your son talks to you he has to tell you to grow up. Do you not feel like you're doing _something_ wrong?"

"I don't have to. I know I'm right." Mary said through gritted teeth.

"Even when the whole world is against you?" Jenna asked.

"Yes!" Mary declared.

"You're such a Bitch!" Jenna screamed.

"Don't use such language young lady!" Mary ordered, stepping forward and reaching for Jenna's arm, grabbing her wrist tight.

"Get off of me!" Jenna shot, "You're like the Evil step-mother from Hell!"

"Don't talk to me like that!" Mary argued, as I awkwardly slipped off of my chair, and out of the way of their argument. "I'm not from Hell!"

"Yes you are!" Jenna snapped, "Why don't you just leave and go back there? You'll probably fit in better there!" Suddenly Mary had slapped Jenna who stood, frozen in place as Mary immediately released her. At least she could tell she'd gone too far.

"Mom!" Willis gasped as Jenna set off the other way, out the second door to the kitchen. I shot a glance to Willis who was already scolding his mother, then to my sandwich... I was so hungry...

But then I ran out the door after Jenna.

She'd left the back door open, so she must have gone outside. It wasn't until I was already watching the digimon play by the willow tree that I realized she hadn't been the one to leave the door open, it had been them.

"Have you seen Jenna?" I asked them. Each of them shook their head, and so I was off, Monodramon following closely behind, searching for her. Eventually I was out in the front of the house, where Michael and Betamon were sitting on a blanket. They hadn't gotten too far. "Have _you_ seen Jenna?" I asked.

"She said she was going home to talk to our parents... Which I now realize makes no sense..." Michael said, "Why?"

I didn't answer him and instead found myself moments later, pulling out of the driveway in the car Willis had bought Michael for his birthday. I didn't know what she was planning on doing, since her mother was dead, but if she was going to talk to her father about how mean Mary was being she was just going to get more frustrated. She needed to talk to someone who understood. And if anyone did, _I_ did. Next to Jenna, I was Mary's favourite punching bag.

I drove the quickest way there, and parked half-heartedly in the driveway, and ran for the front door, but stopped when I saw Jenna's backpack laying by the corner of the house. I ran toward that instead and looked out back.

Monodramon was pointing to the ground where I could see where her heels had imprinted into it and so I followed her footsteps.

And then I heard a splash. I turned sharply toward the pond in the back yard and ran toward it.

As I was nearing it I was stopped by a voice.

"Tatum!"

I screamed a little, and turned to see a woman with long locks of golden hair. She was so beautiful, standing in a long, draping dress, her eyes very green.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking around for some sign of someone else.

"Tatum," She said again, stepping toward me, "You must protect Jenna and Michael. For me. Please."

"Of course." I said nervously. I would definitely protect them, but why would I have to?

"Now hurry to the looking glass," She motioned with her pale, delicate fingers toward the pond I followed her gaze and looked back for just a moment before setting off and the woman was gone.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the weirdest thing I'd ever gone through. I reached the pond and another scream escaped my lips. Jenna's veiled top hat was floating in the water. "Jenna?" I gasped, hurrying into the water which was icy cold on my bare feet and legs. I rushed to her hat and grabbed it, looking around in the water. "Jenna?" I asked again. I was about to dive under to find her, but the water had started glowing.

What was going on?

And suddenly there was no water, just an image in glass all around me of the Digital World, of Jenna, climbing out of the same pond I was in, into the darkness of the Digital World. Was... was this another way into the Digital World?

I was answered a moment later, when the water surrounded and engulfed me, dragging me through a dark cave as I gasped, desperate for air, and then—I was breathing.

"Tatum?" Jenna asked. "Monodramon?" I wiped my wet hair out of my eyes and looked around, seeing that Monodramon had followed me, and then I turned and I saw her.

"Jenna!" I gasped, "Jenna you're okay!" I waded through the water and climbed out after her. It seemed weird that the water was here, but nowhere else in the Digital World... but this was obviously a special case—maybe it wasn't water at all. What had that woman called it? The Looking Glass?

Oh! That was where Michael had been! That's what he'd told me. That's where he learned of the other crests. Right under this pond was a runic temple... there was definitely some magical quality to the pond.

"What are you doing here?" Jenna asked.

"I came to make sure you were okay?" I said, handed her hat back to her. "So are you?"

"No." She admitted. "I came here to talk to my mother." She was speaking quietly. "She's buried in the back yard you know. And—I thought—" She stopped herself, "Well I came to the water and—it ate me." She laughed.

"Well that makes three of us." I joked, pulling Monodramon out of the water.

"So where are we?" Jenna asked, "Any idea?"

"The Digital World." I said softly.

"REALLY?" Jenna, jumped to her feet and was running around before I couldn't even think to stop her. She began ranting about how it's not as cool as she thought it would be, but she then remembered how Michael had mentioned someone stealing it.

"_Protect Jenna and Michael."_ The woman's voice echoed in my head.

"Jenna!" I said sharply, "Come on, stay close. We're going to find a way out of here..."

_**Agumon:**_

"Come on guys," I shouted. "Work those digi-muscles."

Veemon cheered and put even more effort into his set of lunges. While he did that, I took attendance in my head. My claws made it hard to hold a pencil, so I always told Taichi who was missing, so he could write it down for me, since Marrow insisted he have a piece of paper to tell him who was present. I couldn't see why. The Knights were Taichi's project. Well, Taichi's, mine and Gabumon's. But Marrow wasn't involved. Actually, Marrow thought the whole idea was stupid. But, since Taichi told me I wasn't allowed to just Pepper Breath the guy, I had to follow his instructions.

Gabumon was there, working with Centaurumon, who was new to the training, while Veemon tried to get Andromon excited about the whole process. Dorumon was off with Taichi's mom somewhere, so I'd have to mark him absent. I hoped he was okay though. Wizardmon wasn't there either. But Wizardmon always just meditated. It wasn't one of my exercises, but he did it anyway. He said it was so he could get in tune with his body and his magic, but I didn't really understand what he was talking about—probably since I didn't have any magic of my own. Wormmon wasn't here. That was a bit disappointing, since he'd never missed a training exercise before, but he was probably off with Ken doing something really important, like fighting Pride or Wrath. Or he was out looking for Ken's mom. He did that a lot too. I couldn't hold that against him. Sometimes I wanted to be able to go and look for Taichi's mom too. But I couldn't. I had to watch over all of the Knights during training, and go to council meetings. And when I wasn't doing either of those, I was with Taichi, fighting some threat.

I wanted to make Taichi happy, especially since he'd been so upset that his hair had been cut. Well…I don't think it was the hair-cut, per say, just that no one recognized him anymore. _I_ hardly recognized him. If he hadn't smelled distinctly like Taichi, I wouldn't have known it was him…and I think he knows that. I'd known him for thirteen years now, but I'd never seen him looking any different really. His hair was a really big distraction. A really, super cool distraction, but still…a distraction. I wondered if the council would be able to see past that now, and know that he was actually a good choice for the ambassador. They didn't make it a secret that they thought he was too immature to handle the job.

"Where's Kotemon?" I demanded, realizing that our final member was missing too, and he was always the most enthusiastic other than Dorumon about practicing.

"I haven't heard from him," Veemon called loudly. "Not since last time."

"He went to visit Chikara's family," Andromon said. "Perhaps Iori would know?"

"We wouldn't know," Gabumon said.

"Yeah," I said. "He's avoiding people because of the wrath thing...or maybe he's on vacation like Patamon. Or missing, like our partner's parents."

"He'll be fine," Veemon said, sounding unsure of himself.

It was getting too hard for me. I didn't like to think about things that were so serious. I preferred happy, uncomplicated things. I didn't like worrying about the wellbeing of all of the digidestined because they could get attacked at any given second…

"We'll deal with this after training," I announced, starting to jog on the spot. "Let's go for a run. Keep up!"

They all passed me quite easily. I was so happy to see their improvements. It made me feel like Taichi's Knights weren't such a bad idea, like Marrow thought. And the smiles on their faces made me feel like all the extra hard work and training was worth it. I started running faster. It wouldn't do to have them all beat me, not when I was the trainer anyway.

_**Palmon:**_

We were in the Digital World. It made me so sad to be there these days. I didn't like that there wasn't a sun, so I couldn't soak up its rays. It made my petals wilt, and it made me feel queasy inside. And there weren't any plants. None at all! I missed them. I liked to play with them, and hide in them, and bask in their beauty. But I couldn't do that anymore. It was just empty. Kind of like how I felt when I looked at Gomamon.

He was even sadder than I was. But I didn't think it really had anything to do with the lack of water that the Digital World seemed to have. It was because of Jou. But I didn't understand why Gomamon was so upset about it. There must've been more than what I saw. Gomamon wouldn't have gotten so angry if it only happened the once.

"So," I said after a long silence. "Was it as cool to you as it was for me to be a super pretty flower?"

"No," he said sullenly.

"Well, I didn't really think you would've thought it was _too_ fun, since you're usually a fish of some sort," I told him.

"I'm not a fish," he said in a rush. "I'm a seal. And Ikkakumon is a walrus. And Zudamon is a…turtle? Yeah, a turtle."

"And Plesiomon is the Loch Ness Monster," I said. "That's what Mimi thinks anyway."

"I don't know what Loch Ness means…but if it means a sea monster, then she's right," Gomamon decided.

"Gomamon…what are we doing here?" I asked finally. There was really no time to beat around the bush—and no bushes around here to beat. I wanted to help him figure things out. Mimi said I was a good listener. Well, except when she was being really mean, because Mimi doesn't like it when I scold her.

"I don't know why _you_ are here at all," he muttered.

"Because you're my friend," I told him. "And you need help. So I thought I'd help you. But what's wrong? It can't be because Jou didn't say thank you."

"Why can't it be?" he said stalling, but I'd caught on to him.

"Just tell me," I ordered. "Or else I'll have to guess. And I'll pick some really bad guesses."

"Jou doesn't need me anymore!" he shouted out, tears already pooling in his eyes.

"That's not true," I tried to tell him, but he shook his head.

"It is," he cried. "He's got Momoe now, and Emiko. And Iori and Miyako and Monmon and Bearmon. What does he need me for? Bearmon lives with him. I barely get to see him. And when I do get to see him, he doesn't give me any attention at all. Not unless it's to yell at me. It's not fair! I waited for so long to meet him, and we've been together for ages now, but as soon as his daughter comes along, I'm out on the curb."

"Gomamon," I said. "He just doesn't have space in his house. That's all. Monmon doesn't live there."

"But I was around before Bearmon was!" he shouted. "And I know I was supposed to stay here and balance out the crest of Faith, but we've fixed that problem now. I can come and go as I please. But he didn't ask me to live with him, because he doesn't want me to. He doesn't want me at all. I can just tell."

"Have you ever asked him if you could live there?" I asked gently.

"No," Gomamon admitted.

"Jou can't read your mind. He's a doctor, not a superhero," I told him, and ignored his protests that Jou was both. "If you're upset with him, you have to tell him why. He probably hasn't even realized that he's overlooking you. He's busy with his jobs and his wedding—which was ruined—and his daughter. Adding in the multiple threats to the Digital World, like Arkadimon, Daemon's minions and whoever it was that took away all the plants and the sun…Jou's mind is a little full. Tell him what's wrong. And if he doesn't have time to listen to you, I'll tie him up with my Poison Ivy, and then you can say whatever you want."

"I bet he's allergic to poison ivy," Gomamon said with a small smile.

"There you are," I said happily; glad to see the real Gomamon was coming back. I'd missed him. "So let's go find Jou and you can tell him how you feel."

"Okay!" Gomamon cheered, and we started to run through the nothingness, feeling as though a lot of emotional trouble had been lifted from our shoulders. But our run was cut short…by a large digimon that looked a bit like a puffer-fish.

"Pukumon," Gomamon gasped.

"Who?" I asked nervously.

"He was the Syakomon Jou was treating," Gomamon explained quickly. "He took two of the crests from Monmon. The ones that Monmon stole from Ken."

"Oh no," I said horrified. He looked like he wanted a fight. We were just two rookies, and Mimi and Jou weren't there to help us.

_**Gomamon:**_

I knew I shouldn't have gone to the wedding. I should have stayed back and kept an eye on Pukumon, but I didn't, and now he was here, planning to attack us. What was done was done, but there was still one thing we could do.

We could fight.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon shouted out, her voice shaky.

I needed Jou. I needed to digivolve, but would I even be able to? I mean, not only was I out of energy from turning into that distinctly feminine Lotusmon, which I was trying to be mature about, but would Jou and I have faith in each other?

Digivolving worked both ways, but right then I figured Jou and I wouldn't be able to work as one.

Palmon's poison Ivy was brushed aside as if it were a minnow attacking a great white shark.

"Marching fi—" I stopped. They couldn't help us now. There was no more water. Dammit! I needed to help save the Digital World. For the fish. For everyone... but I couldn't. Not without Jou, and here I was, hoping desperately for Jou to notice me more—I needed to get my head out of the foam and snap out of it. Jou's attention was the least of my worries. It still hurt that he would treat me like sashimi left over from last week, but it was because he had was up to his gills in work and baby vomit. I really needed to focus.

"Claw attack!" I settled, running forward and scratching toward Pukumon whose metal shell was unaffected by my attack. I jumped back before he could retaliate, and landed next to Palmon. "Our attacks aren't working." I informed Palmon as if she hadn't already noticed.

"We need to get out of here." Palmon noted, turning and running. I was a little behind, not registering what she'd said as quickly as I should have, but it didn't matter, because Pukumon had his eyes trained on Palmon. He shot past me and slammed into her, sending her flying through the air, but she didn't land because Pukumon had caught her. "Stop!" She screamed, "Let me go!"

She was struggling enough to cause him to stop, so I ran toward him. I had to save Palmon! She was the only friend I had left that would listen to what I had to say. I jumped through the air and tackled Pukumon, one of the metal spikes on his body scratched my arm really deep though. I let out a cry of pain as Pukumon dropped Palmon in surprise.

He spun around and grabbed me tightly around the middle, but there was no use struggling. My arm hurt really bad.

"Go get help!" I shouted to Palmon before she could do something stupid. "Go! Go get Jou!"

_**Gabumon:**_

"Where's your beloved Taichi?" Marrow asked from his seat at the council table. I looked to Agumon who was staring Marrow down with a glare.

"He'll be here." Agumon growled.

"And what about Koushiro?" Marrow asked, a sly smile spreading across his face. "Did we not agree that if he didn't attend another meeting we would take a vote to boot him out of the council?"

"The meeting doesn't start for another three minutes Marrow." Agumon snapped, "Give him time!"

But I had a feeling Taichi wasn't coming. Something felt off ever since I'd come back to the Digital World when Marrow had arrived at Taichi's house...

"Agumon," I whispered, "I'll be right back."

"Okay." Agumon nodded, "But don't be late, we'll need your vote to keep Koushiro in the council." I nodded to him but slid off my chair anyway. I wasn't sure if I'd be back in time, but I wasn't going far. I just needed to check something. I ran around the table and to the large door at the other side. I pushed it open and stepped into the hallway.

"Sora?" I asked quietly, looking around. Sora would never miss a chance to step in as part of the council. I knew something had to be wrong. I ran do the end of the hall past Sora's bench and stopped in front of the big silver door that matched Sora's key to Earth.

I reached up, standing on my toes and pulled the door as hard as I could. It opened easily, but on the other side of it was just the brick wall of the temple. Something was wrong. Why wasn't the gate open? Something must have happened that locked the others out of the Digital World! I ran back to the meeting room quickly and hurried to my seat as Marrow was saying, "All in favour of booting the kid from the club?"

I rushed to my seat and pulled myself up to sit down. I looked around.

Marrow's hand was raised instantly, followed closely by Erif's. Babamon rose hers next claiming that she was growing too old to wait and be patient for those who didn't want to show up to their own job, especially when everyone else was forced to attend so often. Tinkermon reluctantly agreed with her, and raised her hand. Divermon, and Ogremon were next, and finally Metalifekuwagamon.

I counted them on my fingers and tallied seven. That was exactly half of the people in the council.

"All for keeping him in?" Marrow asked.

Agumon, Leomon, Centarumon, Andromon, Benjamin and I raised our hands, and then all of our eyes fell on D'arcmon. She looked around and then nodded, raising her hand. I sighed with relief. It was a tie then.

"So it's a tie." Agumon said, "We will have to wait for another day where the rest of the council members are here. Then we'll vote again."

Marrow looked really frustrated as he sat down, crossing his arms. Why was he more focused on the drama in the council than he was with anything else? It seemed weird to me, but I didn't voice my opinions. I couldn't actually remember a time that I had. Other than telling Taichi that Yamato had told Katsue about the digimon, and that didn't go over very well.

I looked away quickly when I noticed Marrow watching me from the corner of his eyes.

"What's the first order of business?" Agumon asked.

"Well for starters," Marrow said sharply, "I'm the stand-in council leader for when Taichi is unable to attend. So stand down soldier." Agumon rolled his eyes but let Marrow take over. "So for starters we're disbanding the Knights. They're dumb, and useless."

"We need to take a vote." Agumon reminded him, "And I'd just like to point out that four of the council members are actually _on_ the Knights, so good luck."

"No votes." Marrow said calmly. "I'm in charge this time. No voting, no Knights, no Koushiro and no questions."

I slowly raised my hand. "Hello?" I said slowly. Everyone turned to me. "Yes, um..." I could feel myself blush. It was a good thing I had my fur coat on. "The..." My voice was so quiet. Why was I so shy? My stomach was freaking out and I felt like there might be another problem to clean up in a couple seconds.

"Spit it out." Marrow shot.

Interesting choice of words.

I forced myself to not _spit it out_ and instead said, "The gateway to the Human world has been closed off somehow. Koushiro and the others are unable to get here. The Digidestined can no longer save the world until we can open the gate."

"Well what do you want me to do about it?" Marrow asked, "Next."

"No," Leomon said firmly, "This is important."

"I concur." Centarumon added, "It's been so long since we've not had them. Remember last time everyone? The Dark Ocean infected the world and many of us lost our lives."

"We must find a way to bring the Digidestined back." Andromon concluded.

It made me feel less shy and worthless having those three stand up for me. They were always so passive and nonchalant when it came to these meetings, but here they were, agreeing with me. I was blushing again, but for a different reason.

"Well how to you propose we do that?" Marrow asked snidely.

And then a giant argument burst out. Eventually we had to take a vote between many different options until it was narrowed down to just two.

Due to narrowing the possibilities down, either the key alone, or Koushiro had to be in the Digital World somewhere, or there would be no problem. So the options were to go help him, or to leave him be. Unfortunately the voting didn't go in our favour this time.

Agumon, Leomon, Centarumon, Adromon and I were the only ones who voted to help him, leaving nine to vote against us. I glared at each of them, but we moved on quickly.

"Next?" Marrow said again, much lazier this time.

"Well," Babamon said, clearing her throat and lifting a basket onto the table. "We've located two of the so called Death Knights, and we defeated them, as most of you know." I didn't know, and by the looks of it Agumon, D'arcmon and Marrow didn't know either. "But when we defeated them they left behind these." She uncovered the basket, revealing a brown and white orb. "What should we do with them?"

"I know exactly what to do with those." Marrow said. "There's a temple where those belong. What are you doing with them?"

"I just told you." She said sharply. "Don't test me boy."

Marrow rolled his eyes. "Give me those." He said with a shake of his head. "I know where they go."

"As do I." D'arcmon said gently, "I'll take them." She took the basket from Babamon. "You're in charge here, we wouldn't want you to leave. It's okay Marrow. Just leave it to me."

"If you say so." He said coolly. He sat back down and looked around. "Next?" There were a few repeats, but nothing interesting enough to capture my full attention. Yamato could be with Koushiro... what if he was in danger? What if he wasn't and was instead trapped on Earth? Either way there was a chance I'd never see him again and I didn't like it.

_**Labramon:**_

Life with Kurayami was fun. She was really hard to get close to at the start, but eventually we managed. She was really cool, and I was starting to think she actually liked me. The others said it was because of her past, but she didn't like to talk about it. The only information I had on her past came directly from Veemon or Daisuke who weren't the most reliable sources, but I trusted them.

But lately she'd been distant again. As if she was scared of me, or something. She'd told me it was because she didn't want me to get hurt, and thus didn't want me out in the battles digivolving, but I wasn't sure I believed her.

But that was okay. She trusted me to babysit Norn all the time. I liked Norn. Though she was incredibly creepy at times with all that she knew about everything, she was still kind and generally awesome. But there was one other thing about her...

She _loved_ playing Hide and Seek.

And I was always the seeker.

"Norn!" I called, "I'm done counting. I'm coming!"

The moment I'd opened my eyes to turn around I could sense her standing behind me though. I jumped around, ready to call her out and catch her, but I gasped instead. It wasn't Norn.

It was a boy with dark hair, and dark eyes. He looked sad.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"You can see me?" The boy asked, ignoring the question. I felt safe around him, though I knew it could be an illusion. "How is it you can see me, when only those connected to the Dark Ocean from birth have the potential to see me? Are you a demon? Were you born there?"

"No, I'm not." I said, shakily. Glancing behind my shoulder to make sure Norn wasn't in the room.

"She's in the cabinet under the bathroom sink." The boy said casually. "A nice hiding place. I remember when I could fit there."

I was starting to get scared, but I had to remain calm. Kurayami would be back soon. Maybe. I hoped anyway. "Why can only those people see you?"

"Oh," The boy said, "You see, the Dark Ocean is where bad spirits go to rot after they're done infecting their bodies. That's where I went after I died." So this boy was dead? Why could I see him? I did vaguely remember Daisuke reading something out of a magazine about how dogs and children were supposedly able to see spirits. That meant Norn could as well.

"Why did you come from the Dark Ocean?" I asked, "Why are you back here?"

"Can I tell you a secret?" The boy asked me. "Something really private?" I nodded nervously, and he smiled at me. "I was going to get that Hikari girl to make sure it was true for me... but I don't need confirmation anymore. I just know it's true."

"What's true?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity.

"You have to promise not to tell _anyone_." He insisted, "Including Kurayami."

"I promise." I nodded.

The boy smiled, and then blinked. Within seconds he no longer looked like an adult, but rather a small child, aged three or four at the most.

"I..." He said slowly, in his new, childlike voice. "I am Kurayami's brother."

"You're what?" I gasped.

"You heard me." He said. "Sometimes I don't remember though. The closer I get to her the more confused I am... but remember you promised not to tell her."

"I know."

"So keep that promise." He shot. And with that, he was gone, just vanishing from the messy apartment. How was I supposed to keep something from my partner? Even if she was overly distant lately... I'd have to though. I made a promise...

"Are you coming?" I heard Norn's muffled voice call from upstairs.

"Yep!" I called, running off.

_**Tentomon:**_

I couldn't help but feel apprehensive as I flew into the air, preparing for my next bout of digivolution. Ken and Koushiro were not acting as the mature, intelligent humans that I knew them to be. While I _did_ tend to believe that Koushiro had to be one of the smartest humans in all of Earth, I realized that was a simple, biased opinion based on my relationship with him. Willis, according to test scores was smarter than him. But Koushiro never felt threatened by Willis. And to a degree, I felt as though he wasn't threatened by Ken either. I think he was disappointed in him. When they were younger, and Ken still held the potential of the Dark Spore, Koushiro felt like he'd found a rival. Someone that he could use to push himself further than he'd ever gone before, and he'd come out smarter for it. But Ken overcame the Dark Spore, and suddenly, he wasn't the genius boy that Koushiro had set his sights on.

He was still smart, though. Koushiro often times forgot that fact. He was just so disappointed that he didn't have a rival anymore. And though he'd never told me, I knew he was upset because he'd thought he finally had someone he could converse with, without having to water down what he was saying for Ken to understand.

And, due to his stubborn nature, he was unable to accept that Ken could _still_ talk with him simply because he was no longer as intelligent. It was rather petty, but it was Koushiro.

"Ready Tentomon?" Koushiro asked, gripping his digivice.

I sighed, and prepared myself for the coming onslaught, hoping that my ultimate would be enough to handle this army. I couldn't risk becoming mega. Not with Ken and Wormmon fighting alongside us, anyway. Wormmon and I were pretty good friends. We both had stubborn partners with above average intelligence—more so in my case, but again, I was biased—that often had to fight to fit in. But when we became mega level digimon, I couldn't even bear the sight of him. He claimed to be the king of the insect digimon, but I think we all knew that _I_ was the real monarch here.

When we were rookies, we could joke about our dispute, but when we were megas…it was all about the kill.

"I'm ready," I told him. I felt the familiar—and somewhat comforting—warm feeling growing inside of me, until my shell began to glow. My body stretched and morphed. I grew new wings, gained a helmet, lost my rosy red colouring in exchange for a cool blue. Words came from my mouth without thought.

"**Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon!**"

But I wasn't done yet. My body grew a dark red shell as I gained even more height. A horn sprouted from my head, and I lost my helmet. My hands and feet though, stayed the same blue.

I wondered how humans could think it normal to stay the same for their entire lives. Sure, they grew for awhile, changing from child to adult, but they could never go back to being a child. It was weird for me to think about. I couldn't fathom being stuck as Kabuterimon for the rest of my entire existence. But I didn't have long to ponder such thoughts, as words were being shouted once again.

"**Kabuterimon digivolve to… MegaKabuterimon!**"

The transformation was complete. I was much bigger than before, and larger than JewelBeemon. My size seemed to cause a few of the lesser level digimon in the army to step back in fear. But the stronger digimon thought of it as a challenge. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? Well I wasn't going to let them win.

I looked to JewelBeemon and saw him nod. We were ready. I lifted off the ground and flew at the army, hands fisted, ready to see who could take down the most.

_**Biyomon:**_

"Idiots!" I screamed at the four idiots. Why was no one listening to me? It wasn't safe. I wanted them to be safe, they were my friends, and fighting this massive army of the 'X-antibodies' as they'd said was _not_ going to help us in that sense. "Someone listen to me!" I yelled loudly, but no one heard me.

I wasn't one to get mad, but as I watched Megakabuterimon and Jewelbeemon fight against the army, I couldn't help but get a little angry. Perhaps it was Daemon and his minions. Wrath was a very dominant sin and I couldn't help but feel that I might have been getting affected by it. Either that or they really were just idiots.

"KEN!" I yelled, flying up to his ear level. He was standing in a fighting pose, staring at his digimon intently. "You realize that humans can die in the Digital World right? They want to kill you! You will _never_ see Miyako again! We have to leave!" But of course he wasn't listening. I flew toward Koushiro and landed on the ground next to him.

"GET HIM!" Koushiro bellowed, punching the air.

What was with these competitions the humans always had? Taichi and Yamato went through it, I was pretty sure Daisuke and Takeru had as well, and Koushiro and Ken were now in a heated argument... boys. Now I knew why Sora had so much trouble with her dating life. "Koushiro, if we don't leave now then we're all going to die, and you of all people can locate the negatives in that outcome." Was he even listening? "Koushiro!" I shouted, "KOUSHIRO!"

"WHAT?" He snapped, rounding on me.

"We need to leave." I informed him simply.

"No!" He snapped, annoyed.

"Fine." I said. I flapped my wings and was off, heading toward my tied-for-best-friend-with-Sora Tentomon, of course he was currently Megakabuterimon. He'd leave. And if he did, then Koushiro would have to. And we'd be safe.

"Biyomon," Megakabuterimon grumbled before I'd even reached him. He was wrestling off a dragon-like digimon, "It's not safe! Stay back!"

"No!" I said, "Well, yes. That's the idea. But you need to come with me. You're strong Megakabuterimon, really you are. But even with Jewelbeemon to help you, you can't beat a whole army. Look at you. You're already out of breath."

"Biyomon," He said, "Get back. I have to do what Koushiro says."

"Not if what he says is wrong." I snapped, "It's dangerous! We need to get out of here!"

"Biyomon!" It was Jewelbeemon this time. I turned to him in time to see some bright blasting attack hurdling right toward me. I screamed, but there was no time to escape.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** The Dig-Interlude continues next time!


	31. Digi-Interlude (Part 2)

**Y/N:** Time for part 2! I hope you enjoy, and if you do, why not leave us a review to tell us your favourite part? If you want to anyway. It doesn't matter too much.

**U/N:** So this is the rest of the digimon here, I think I wrote... Gatomon, Patamon... Terriermon and Lopmon-or something, I'm not totally sure. There's also a couple other people but I don't know who they are either-just, hope you like part 2 of the Digi-interlude thing aaaand review or the whole... lava snake will come and eat your unborn children... or whatever it is I used to say.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 31: Digi-Interlude (Part 2)**

_**Veemon:**_

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get back to Earth, which meant that I couldn't get back to Daisuke, and I was really worried about him. The digimon of Pride was really affecting him badly. I was having trouble holding on to my mega form when we fought together, because his pride was getting in the way of his humility. If I hadn't been training as hard as I could, I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as I did. But I couldn't talk to him about it. He wouldn't listen.

I couldn't do anything but throw myself further into my own training. Agumon and Gabumon were busy with the council now, and so were Centaurumon and Andromon. I was alone in the meadow, throwing some punches around, and practicing my V-Headbutt. I wasn't making much progress though. I needed someone to practice _with_.

"Hello?"

I stopped mid punch and whirled around to see a Kamemon standing in the doorway. I wondered what he was doing here though. Was he the same Kamemon that was partners with Taichi and Hikari's dad? I couldn't think of a reason for that Kamemon to be here, but then again, I didn't really have a reason for being here either.

"What are you doing?" Kamemon asked me.

"Practicing," I said, resuming my training.

"Oh," he said. He didn't talk again for awhile, choosing to wander around, looking at the training meadow. It wasn't really much to look at. A lot of the grass had been flattened because of the training sessions, and any flowers there might have been were long since destroyed.

"Do you know how to get back to Earth?" he asked me eventually. So he _was_ a partner digimon like I'd thought.

"I do, yes," I told him. "But I can't help you right now."

"If I wait until after your training?" he asked sounding hopeful.

"No," I said, sighing when his face fell. "The gate is closed right now. Koushiro or Sora did something and it's not working. I'm sorry I can't help you."

"Is it okay if I wait here with you then?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. I decided I'd take a break. Training just wasn't fun by myself. "What brings you to the Temple?"

"Yuuko left me behind. She got a partner. I think he trains with you. I'm not sure though. But she just left me here when they ran away. They didn't want Taichi to stop them, but they didn't even think about me. I've been wandering around the Temple for awhile now. I don't know what else to do with myself."

"That makes two of us," I said with a smile. At least I wasn't alone anymore.

"Three, actually."

I jumped to my feet, ready to attack the intruder but realized it was just Benjamin. What was he doing in the meadow? He didn't usually come anywhere near the training. The entire council seemed to ignore us. Well, other than our friends I suppose.

"Don't scare me like that," Kamemon said with a smile.

"I was just wondering where you'd gotten to, Kamemon," Benjamin told him.

"I met Benjamin not long after Yuuko left," Kamemon told me. "He says that he's often ignored too."

"Really?" I asked. Wasn't he a part of the council? Shouldn't that make him important?

"Unfortunately," Benjamin said. "I am a representative for the people that run this Temple. But the council members do not think it fair that there are two of us on the council and therefore ignore all of my news. They never ask anything of me any more either."

"That doesn't sound fair," I said. What else was I supposed to say? I wasn't good with sadness or loneliness. Daisuke didn't often feel either of those, and I didn't either.

"The real kicker is that I am the _only_ member of the council from the Temple. Marrow looks like he is, but after looking into it, I have no idea where he came from," Benjamin said. "It confuses me greatly."

"Just because you don't know where he came from doesn't mean he doesn't belong," I said sharply. But I apologized when I saw their hurt expressions. "I don't know where I came from exactly, but I know I'm a digimon."

"You came from the Digital World then," Kamemon said. It wasn't helpful at all.

"But I don't even remember a time when there were more than just one Veemon," I said. "I'm an ancient digimon, not that it helps. That just means that I'm not _supposed_ to be here if all the other Veemon are gone. But here I am. And I've been on lots of adventures too. Were those adventures the reason that I alone survived whatever it was that took out all of the other Veemon?"

"I believe so, yes," Benjamin said. "You had a destiny to live for. You needed to help Daisuke and therefore save the Digital World."

"But I helped another kid at one time too," I said. "His name was Ryou. He wasn't my partner or anything, but he didn't have one. I don't know if he ever found one either. He was a lot of fun to work with, but when we finished his quest, he went on to find another one, and I got taken aside and put inside the Digimental of courage, where I could wait for Daisuke to find me."

"You don't know what happened to him?" Kamemon asked.

"Nope," I said with a smile. "But he was pretty cool. He probably found another digimon to help him even if he didn't find his partner."

"He did," Benjamin informed me. "And he found Ken Ichijouji as well. He was there during Ken's first stay in the Digital World, and though Ken doesn't remember it, I'm sure Wormmon does if you ever want to talk about it. They defeated Millenniummon, and restored time to the Digital World. Until that moment, the Digital World was running at a much faster speed than all of the other worlds."

"Wow, Ken did that? He doesn't even remember it," I said in awe. That was so cool. I was definitely going to ask Wormmon about it later.

"They didn't defeat Millenniummon's team though. They may still be running about the Digital World today, though they haven't made a ruckus, so there was really nothing we could do about it," Benjamin explained.

"Maybe Ryou will come back then, to help finish the job?" I asked.

"Or maybe the Digital World has brought in others to do the job for him," Benjamin said with a twinkle in his eye.

_**Wormmon (as JewelBeemon):**_

"Shot Claw!" I called, taking down one of the members of the opposing army. I heard MegaKabuterimon shouting "Wild Scratcher!" behind me. He'd taken down just as many as I had. Maybe more due to his enormous size. A lot of the army's soldiers were afraid of how big he was, but they weren't remotely scared of me. I was tall too, you know. Much taller than Ken. And I could fly, which was more than most of them could say. I just wasn't quite as big as MegaKabuterimon. I was only a fraction of his size, really. But that meant I could weave in and out of my opponents, catching them off guard and adding to my total.

These digimon had signed a pact with the enemy, and were working to be sure the world was not brought back. I had to keep that in mind with each attack. It was a horrible feeling to be destroying so many digimon's lives in this onslaught, but it needed to be done. I comforted myself with the knowledge that they would be reborn—hopefully with no recollection of their evil ways—and go on to live better lives because of it.

It was only a possibility, but it was all I had.

Not that it would really matter much longer. It seemed that no matter how many enemy digimon I—or MegaKabuterimon—took down, more and more popped up in their place. We weren't making as much progress as I would have liked. And I was getting tired. There was only so much time one could spend in their ultimate form, fighting for their partner's survival, before their strength gave in and they reverted back to rookie. Or even in-training. I wasn't going to last long enough to get rid of every last one of these digimon. There was just no way.

And then a Reptiledramon in the army turned his sights on Biyomon, charging up his energy into one of his cybernetic hands and let loose the beam as he screamed out "Crash Charge!"

"Biyomon!" I shouted, but it was too late. I couldn't get to her in time to stop the attack, and she was hit straight on. I stilled in fear, afraid that when the smoke cleared I'd see nothing more than a small egg in place of our friend.

"I-I'm, o-okay," Biyomon called in a weak, faltering voice and I was able to let loose the breath I'd been holding in subconsciously.

"MegaKabuterimon," Koushiro said with a no-nonsense voice. "It's time to digivolve. We need more power. We can't lose now. But we can't flee either. We're in a dangerous position."

"Right," MegaKabuterimon agreed, already starting to glow a purple that matched Koushiro's digivice.

"**MegaKabuterimon digivolve to…**"

He shifted from the large red beetle to have a metallic shell that was such a pale gold it almost looked like bone. The shell on his back split in two, aiming out the sides, where two wings became visible, and two new horns joined the big one on his head. He wasn't quite finished though when Ken decided to comment.

"Hang on," Ken said. "Why should _you_ get to digivolve? JewelBeemon would be just as powerful."

"We can't both digivolve," Koushiro told him superiorly. "And MegaKabuterimon is already started."

"JewelBeemon will beat him done then," Ken said, holding his digivice tightly and looking forlornly at Biyomon. "Digivolve!"

"**JewelBeemon digivolve to…**"

I felt the familiar pull, and suddenly I didn't have a choice. Not that I would have chosen _not_ to. I wanted to protect Ken and Biyomon and Koushiro too. I couldn't let the army take them out. It wasn't fair. I needed to do my job, so I didn't fight the pull of digivolution. I lit up a bright magenta colour—Ken is very insistent that we never use the term 'pink' to describe it—and felt my limbs start to shift. I fell over, so that I was standing on my arms and legs, and two more arms sprouted from in between them. My wings grew red, rimmed with the same black shell the rest of my body now sported, and two very large and long pincers shot out of my face.

One more thing grew though: an uncontrollable hatred for HerculesKabuterimon. It grew so large and so fast that I couldn't think of anything else. The large army that had seemed so important just moments before didn't exist to me anymore. The only thing that mattered was destroying HerculesKabuterimon, and claiming my rightful place as Insect King of the digimon. How _dare_ he say that title was his own, when it was so obviously mine?

"…**HerculesKabuterimon!**"

"…**GranKuwagamon!**"

"GranKuwagamon," HerculesKabuterimon growled angrily. I couldn't understand his anger. It wasn't like I was trying to steal _his_ title from him. He'd taken mine!

"You're mine," I declared, and flew at him.

"Mega Electro Shocker!" he screamed out, shooting large amounts of electricity from his four hands. Knowing that it could do severe damage to me, I dodged easily, allowing a rogue Grademon to take the hit for me. He was annihilated instantly.

"Dimension Scissors!" I called, hoping to snap him in half while he was distracted by the death of that digimon, but he caught on to my plan before I could execute it.

"Horn Buster Kai!" he attacked, locking my pincers with his three horns. He'd push towards me, trying desperately to hit me with the charge of electricity at the tip of his centre horn, and I'd push on him, trying to snap said horn off of his body with my scissor attack.

"What an interesting development," that GranDracmon that I barely even remembered over my irresistible anger said. "I think I'll like this. Go on. Destroy one another. Don't mind me. I'm just enjoying the show."

He was annoying me. It was almost enough to make me want to pull away from HerculesKabuterimon. _Almost_. But I knew that if I did so, HerculesKabuterimon would hit me with his Horn Buster Kai, and could quite possibly destroy me with it. He wasn't weak. It was the reason that I had so much trouble wrestling my title back from him. He was strong enough to try and back up his claim. I was strong too, but until I got a good hit, we were locked in a stalemate.

"This isn't nearly as interesting as I'd hoped," GranDracmon said after only a few seconds. "You're not doing anything, just pushing each other back and forth. Maybe this will get you to be more entertaining. Ginryumon, attack the humans!"

"What?!" Ken and Koushiro shouted at the same time.

I couldn't trust HerculesKabuterimon enough though to do anything about it as the samurai, lizard digimon made his way towards my partner. In the back of my mind, I knew I ought to care about Koushiro as well, but all I could think about was that once the boy was destroyed, HerculesKabuterimon would lose all of his power, leaving me the victor in our longstanding battle.

"Ken, Koushiro," I heard Biyomon call out worriedly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her stagger to her feet, summoning all of her energy so that she could fight against the new enemy. "You can't keep fighting each other," she insisted. "You're friends. You're fighting for the same cause. You need to put your differences aside for the sake of the Digital World. Think of your friends and the ones that love you. Miyako, Mimi, _Sora_. They believe in you, and trust you to do the right thing. Look at your partners! _This_ is what your anger has allowed them to become. They're _killing_ each other."

She was crying by the end, but was still there standing guard as Ginryumon neared.

"Stop being so stupid and get over yourselves," she screamed.

And something in her speech must have touched our human partners, because they stopped glaring at each other and looked towards HerculesKabuterimon and myself, locked in a battle of wills, and their resolve wavered. The anger broke.

"Stop fighting!" Ken called to me. "He's your friend. We _need_ you."

"HerculesKabuterimon, think this through," Koushiro suggested. "Remember that GranKuwagamon and Wormmon are the same digimon. You _like_ Wormmon."

As their anger at each other subsided, so too did my own. Something strange was happening to me, and I felt myself start to glow brightly once again. It wasn't until my body started to shrink and shift into that of a slightly more humanoid shape that I realized what was happening. I was slide-digivolving. I was becoming the digimon I should have been, but wasn't because of the anger Ken and Koushiro shared with one another. I lost my second set of arms, but grew long, blade-like claws on both of my remaining hands, and kind of clunky feet.

I loved it! I was able to move much easier than before as well.

"**GranKuwagamon slide digivolve to… GrandisKuwagamon!**"

Once my digivolution was complete, I turned to see that HerculesKabuterimon—who I'd counted as my very worst enemy—was changing shape as well, turning into a completely different bug digimon. He had big clawed hands, and a purple metal body, with a lot of silver accents. He had a long, narrowed head, and a winding tail. Each of the four sections of his wings had four separate wings within them.

"**HerculesKabuterimon slide digivolve to… TyrantKabuterimon!**"

"Gran Killer!" I called, slicing Ginryumon into bits before he could cause Biyomon, Ken or Koushiro any harm. GranDracmon looked furious to see that TyrantKabuterimon and I were no longer enemies. We stood on a united front now.

"You won't win!" he called. "Army, attack!"

"Bee Cyclone!" TyrantKabuterimon commanded, raising his two hands in the air, and waiting. The army looked around nervously, unsure of what was supposed to happen. A buzzing started to grow.

"Don't just stand there! This is what you've been training for," GranDracmon shouted, though I doubt it was specifically true. They decided the buzzing couldn't be worse than their leader's wrath, and started stalking forward. The buzzing kept growing. I heard Ken gasp as he realized what was happening. A swarm of insect digimon had come to answer TyrantKabuterimon's command. There were Flymon, the bee type digimon, and Snimon who looked like Earth's praying mantises. A couple of Roachmon joined the fray, scuttling along like their Earth counterpart, the cockroach would. The dragonfly digimon, Yanmamon was also among the numbers, as well as some Kuwagamon, the stag beetle.

GranDracmon had an army, that was true, but now, we had an army of our own. And there was no way we were going down without a great fight.

_**Terriermon:**_

"It's just a game." Gatomon said simply. "Come on guys." I was being awesome. Lopmon was being a girl and crying though. Betamon was having a picnic, not that I cared, that guy gave me the creeps, and Monodramon had left, so it was just the three of us.

"It's really easy." I insisted. I could show her how because I was really good at it. I was really good at everything. Because I was awesome. "Just close your eyes and count."

"I know!" Lopmon growled.

"Well then what's the problem?" Gatomon asked, placing her paw on Lopmon's shoulder. "Don't you know how?"

"It's like this," I said, "one, two, three, four, fi—"

"I know how Terriermon!" Lopmon cried out, "I'm just sad. I know how to play."

"What's wrong?" Gatomon asked.

"Nothing." Lopmon lied, shaking her head. "Just ignore me. I'll count now." I didn't want to ignore her. If she had a reason to cry, I wanted to know what it was. I wanted to know everything about her, she was my twin sister and although we were very specifically different animal species, I really loved her and wanted to make her feel better. I was good at making her feel bad, so I was probably good at making her feel good. I was good at a lot of things.

But I didn't get the chance. Lopmon had already staggered over toward the willow tree and closed her eyes, "one, two, three..." As she continued counting Gatomon debated going over to her but shook her head and bounded off quickly.

I decided to do the same and hid in the same place I always hid. No one ever found me here. It was a good hiding place because I was a good hider.

And so I waited, and sure enough Lopmon's counting stopped eventually. I waited in silent anticipation, waiting for her to come near so I could hold my breath until she wandered off... but she didn't come near. Maybe she was looking for Gatomon...

I poked my head out of the bush and looked around. Lopmon wasn't there. "Psst!" I hissed. "Gatomon!"

Suddenly Gatomon was standing beside me. "So that's where you've been hiding." She laughed.

"No, listen, where is Lopmon?" I asked. She looked to me confused, and then ran to the middle of the yard and looked around. I followed her, and tripped over one of my dog-ears. I pulled myself to my feet, embarrassed and looked around.

Gatomon closed her eyes and sniffed the air. "She's... gone."

_**Armadillomon:**_

The first thing I noticed was the darkness. It felt like it was closing in on me from all sides. I didn't like it. It reminded me of my past. And that was something I chose to forget about. It was depressing, and painful. I had been carefree—and truthfully, I was still—but there had been a time when I didn't enjoy my life. Because of the darkness. The same darkness that was surrounding me now.

It was hard to see what was around me, but I was sure I knew the building. There wasn't much in the way of real estate in the Dark Ocean after all. There was just the one castle, the one that belonged to Dragomon for the past long while. It had been his invasion that had allowed me to be freed. I didn't like him, and I was glad he was dead, but his existence saved me from a horrible eternity, so I couldn't be too unforgiving.

And the time I'd spent here, in the Dark Ocean had been my salvation as well, as the rest of the Armadillomon that had once wondered the Digital World so freely were destroyed while I was away. I didn't enjoy being a servant to the Shadow King, but again, it saved my life, so I couldn't hate it entirely. If I hadn't been captured along with countless other digimon, I wouldn't have been taken to a safe place inside the Digimental of Knowledge. And if I wasn't put there, I never would have met Iori, and I could never imagine my life without him. He was too important to me…

Iori!

Miyako and I were looking for him. The shadows had attacked, and I shivered. Perhaps the Shadow King was among them. Was he the one that spoke? I couldn't be sure. It had been so long ago, and I didn't remember—not just out of choice this time, but in all actuality.

Miyako…where was she? She was with me when we were taken. But they could have taken her somewhere else. What did they want her for? Did they finally give up on Hikari and decide that since Dragomon was no longer here to insist on her that any female might do? They needed a human to help them extend their race. I didn't understand why. Iori said that I didn't need to concern myself with the reproduction process, as digimon didn't have one. He'd been so embarrassed by it that I didn't want to press my luck. But I did know that they needed a _human_ in particular, because humans were _able_ to reproduce, and had the added bonus of being able to pass into all the realms. The shadows had difficulty surviving anywhere other than the Dark Ocean. They could travel during night hours in other realms, but it took a lot of effort.

I started wandering around the room I was in, trying to see how big it was in the darkness. I ran into the first wall after only three steps, and then walked around the perimeter. It wasn't very big. But it wasn't too small for me either. I tripped over something as I made my way back to the door—where I was going to try to break out. And the thing I tripped over groaned. It was Miyako! That was a relief. Well…for a minute. She was unconscious, which wasn't a good thing. I was going to have to wake her up, and then…we were going to have to get out of here.

_**Gatomon:**_

I'd told Terriermon where Lopmon had gone after catching her scent. He said he'd be able to do it being a dog and all, but I was still pretty sure he was a rabbit. Nonetheless, I helped him out, and he'd be able to find her and bring her back. I thought about tagging along, but she would want Terriermon or Willis or Hikari. Someone who knew her well. But not me. She was still crying. I could smell it.

And so I was left alone, but that had happened a lot lately. Between the dramatic adventures these kids went on everything was so calm and peaceful. Not usually any drama or chaos, and they'd spend tons of time with us digimon, but the second something started going on they all started breaking up with each other and stepping into complicated pools of drama. It was like they saved all their pent up feelings and aggression for when the world was in crisis mode.

I climbed to my favourite place, just behind the chimney on the top of Willis' house, and looked to the clouds. It was strange how even in a different country—a different world, the clouds always looked the same. Just beautiful, calm and magnificent. And that one totally looked like a fish.

I closed my eyes and thought about Japan, and America and the Digital World and which one I liked more, but I always came to the conclusion that as long as Hikari was there it was fine by me... even though Japan was better than America.

And the Digital World beat both Japan and America, blindfolded with its paws tied behind its back.

"Hey there." A voice said, making me jump to my senses, turning to see Wizardmon sitting on the roof next to me.

"Geez Wizardmon!" I gasped, "You just scared one of my nine lives away!"

He laughed at me and just sighed, relaxing next to me. Having Wizardmon back was the best. We'd just gone back to being friends as if nothing had happened. Not true though. So much had happened. Ten years had passed between his death and the time when we were reunited, and in that time, so much had happened.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked, "More cat puns?"

"Not today," I laughed, "I was just comparing Earth to the Digital World."

"And?" He asked.

"The Digital World won, of course." I said.

"Well I think my home wins hands down." He said.

"I just said that." I said, "The Digital World."

Wizardmon looked to me, shocked. "You know I'm not from the Digital World don't you?" He asked.

No. I did not know that. I shook my head slowly. "It is kind of funny," I said slowly, "that you know so much about me, and I know so little about you."

"Gatomon," He said with a smile, "There's so much to tell. Perhaps another day. I should probably get back to Hiroaki soon anyway. I've left him in the Digital World you see."

"Oh the gate is locked." I told him. "It's not accessible."

"Well is that so?" Wizardmon said, relaxing again. "I must have just made it out before the lock."

"I guess so." I said, "So where are you from?"

"It's a world called Witchenly." Wizardmon said, "It's a beautiful, magical place. All sorcerer type digimon are from there."

"Does that mean you're not really a digimon?" I asked slowly.

"Oh I am." He said, "We're just from a different realm than you. It's very complicated. Perhaps if I ever find a way back I could show you?"

"I'd like that." I smiled, returning to staring at the sky. "Are there clouds there?"

"In Witchenly?" He asked, "Yes, there are." I smiled. Such beautiful things they were... so pure and carefree... that one... definitely looked like a mouse being chased by a can of cat food.

Gosh I was hungry...

"Want to get something to eat?" I asked Wizardmon.

"I'd like that." He said with a smile.

_**Hawkmon:**_

If I were a human, where would I hide? Perhaps the better question would've been what clues might I leave behind? I had a lot of searching to do, if I wanted to prove myself to be more valuable than a weapon. Us digimon were not being utilized to our full potentials. Tentomon, Gatomon, myself, we were not as unintelligent as the digidestined seemed to believe we were. We were not just meant for mindless fighting. We could come up with our own strategies, we didn't need to depend on the minds of our partners to fight. And until the humans join in the fight and prove that they even know what it's like to fight in a battle, I will remain of that opinion. They loved us, and we loved them, but it was not a matter of who loved who. It was a matter of principle.

And so, I would find Iori before Miyako could. I made it a race. I didn't have long though. She was not going too far.

"Meiyomon," I asked. "When was the last time you saw Iori?"

"Um… I don't know," Meiyomon told me. "He told me to look after Armadillomon though. Am I being bad? I let Armadillomon go with Miyako. I can't watch him from here."

"I'm sure it's fine," I said exasperatedly. How was I supposed to find clues if no one knew where to start?

"Good," Meiyomon cheered. "Can I blow up the television?"

"No," I snapped. Okay. I needed to think. If Iori was here, telling _Meiyomon_ of all digimon to look after Armadillomon, then that meant he was not, in fact, kidnapped as Miyako feared. That was a step in the right direction. Perhaps he felt ashamed of his decision, and that was why he did not inform Armadillomon of his impending disappearance? Or, more likely, he was afraid of what the influence of wrath might do to him, and removed himself from a setting that held many things that might ignite his temper.

But where could he go…?

"I wish I could go back," Meiyomon was saying. I hadn't listened to his story though. I was too busy diving into the recesses of my mind where I hoped to discover the answer. "Do you think he'd take me, when he gets back?"

"Take you where?" I asked, realizing belatedly that I might've missed something vital to my investigation.

"To that wishing place," Meiyomon told me. "Weren't you listening?"

"I was," I lied. "I just wanted to be sure."

"Okay," Meiyomon said. "Do you think he would take me though?"

Hmm… The wishing place… Where could that be? It hit me like a ton of bricks.

"The Land of Dreams!" I shouted.

"Yes, we've already established that," Meiyomon snapped. It seemed as though my investigation was irritating him in some way.

"No, no," I said simply to placate him. "That is where he is. He has the key. If he wanted to take a break from current events that is where he would go. Don't you think so? We simply must locate the door he created."

"Yeah!" Meiyomon cheered. "You're so smart. Let's go ask Kotemon. He's in Iori's bedroom still."

"Really?" I asked. Why did no one ask Kotemon in the first place then? It didn't make sense. Or, perhaps, I was the only one involved with a shred of common sense. It was nice to think so, though I worried about the state of our group. I flew into Iori's bedroom, with Meiyomon right behind me. "Kotemon!"

He was busy making a pile out of some sort of bird. I couldn't tell which one. The different species confused me. Digimon were much simpler to keep track of. He dropped his last bird on the pile at the sound of my shouting and cried out when the pile toppled to the floor.

"Why would you do that?" he cried, trying to collect his birds.

"We need to know where Iori is," I told him.

"I can't tell you," he said. "It's a secret."

"It's a matter of utmost urgency," I insisted.

"How important?" he wanted to know.

"It will help me prove that digimon are more than just fighters," I said. "That we are smart too."

He contemplated my argument, and I thought for a moment that he wouldn't agree. He was in training to be a knight after all. He lived and breathed fighting.

"In there," he said finally, pointing to the closet door which was propped open with another one of his stuffed birds. "Don't bug him though. He's on vacation."

"Vacation?" Meiyomon cried. "Why didn't he take me? I love vacations."

I didn't hesitate. I was aware that Meiyomon was following me again, but it didn't matter. I had to get to Iori before Miyako did. It wasn't just about human-digimon equality. Miyako was worried about him, and I wanted to ease her conscience. She had too much to worry about, she didn't need to add this. So I flew directly into the light coming from within the closet, and ended up in a field of beautiful flowers, and various fighting dummies that I saw Iori was using to practice his fighting. He was punching them, having discarded his kendo stick, which I noticed lying among the flowers.

"Iori!" Meiyomon shouted. "I'm mad at you."

"I'm probably mad at you too," Iori called back. "I'm mad at everyone and everything."

"Why didn't you bring me with you?" Meiyomon demanded.

"Because he did not wish you any harm," a melodic voice called from my left. I turned to see the fairy queen that had cast the spell on the humans after Fanglongmon's defeat. She was seated on what I thought to be a throne, though it didn't look as grad as I would have imagined. It was large, but made of simple wood, with the same flowers as the field was growing intricately curled around the legs and arms, and the spokes on the back. "He is going through troubling times. I worry for my Forgiving Knight. But I know he will pull through. He was chosen for a reason, you know."

"Would he listen, do you suppose, if I talked to him?" I asked, knowing that is what Miyako would expect of me.

"I believe he will," she said with a smile.

I flapped my wings and flew over to him, careful not to get in the way of his punches. "Are you alright, Iori?"

"Does it look like I'm alright?" he growled.

"There doesn't seem to be any wounds," I pointed out. "None that I can see, in any case."

"I'm furious," he said. "All the time. I can't get rid of my anger, no matter how many of these things I destroy. And I'm angry at almost everyone. Not Jou though. Or Armadillomon. Or the Queen. But mostly everyone else."

"Even Miyako?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes," he scowled. "She's keeping secrets. It's important, and she won't tell me. I thought she would, if I waited long enough. But now I can't be patient. Waiting makes me angrier, and I can't handle it."

"She'll want to tell you herself," I admitted. "She was going to, tonight. Is there anything that makes your anger swell worse than others?"

"My mom," he said easily. "She makes me so mad. And then she disappeared, so I have to worry about her, which makes it worse, because I'm furious that I'm mad at her, and that I might never see her again to fix the way I left it off. And then I get angry that I even _want_ to fix things. Does that make sense?"

"No," I said honestly.

"Okay. So, my mom is crazy," he tried to explain. "And she'd so controlling, and overbearing. Do digimon have parents? It would be so much easier to understand if you did."

"If I did, they are dead," I told him. "As far as I'm aware, I am the last Hawkmon in the Digital World. Perhaps, someday there will be more, but at the moment, I'm all there is."

"That's sucks," he said angrily. "Why aren't there more of you?"

"I'm not entirely certain," I admitted. "I was a young Poromon at the time, but I believe it was a virus of sorts that infected their data, and corrupted it. They were destroyed, and did not get restored in Primary Village. I remember being secreted away, before the virus could get to me, and I was locked in the Digitmental of love, to await my partner because I had a great destiny I needed to fulfill, and I could not do so if I were decimated with my village."

"It wasn't even a digimon that wiped them out?" Iori asked as he punched one last time against his current dummy and its head went flying with the force behind the punch. "You can't avenge them or anything?"

"The Digital World is just that, _digital_," I reminded him. "There are natural phenomenon that wipe out species of digimon here, just like there are natural disasters that destroy many lives on Earth. According to Miyako, many ancient civilizations were completely eradicated, while others grew to become cultures you see today. The same thing happened with ancient digimon. Centaurumon and Babamon are still around, but you don't see any other Veemons or Armadillomons either. We are all the last of our kind, stored away for the right child to need us."

The ground rocked as an explosion hit. Both Iori and I turned to chastise Meiyomon, but my anger melted when I caught sight of just who he was fighting.

_**Patamon:**_

Yuuko's scream caused me to turn around to see the bumblebee-man ready to attack us.

"Boom Bubble!" I screamed in reaction, the pressure of the attack pushing us out of the way.

"Wow Piglet," Dorumon said, "Nice one!"

Why did everyone think I was a pig? I wasn't a pig! Or was I?

Yuuko was running again, with me in her arms, but the bumblebee-man was going to catch up again and I wasn't strong enough to beat him. He looked like a... well definitely more than a rookie! And without Takeru I was useless. If only I hadn't run away—well they'd still be here. At least I got to help them out in whatever way I could.

But I was still gaining some energy back from being rebooted. Just digivolving to Angemon at the wedding was exhausting.

Suddenly I was snapped back into focus as I watched Natsuko Takaishi and her group of companions run toward us. Takeru's mother! He was going to be so happy that I'd found her for him. He searched a few times and found nothing, but here I was on my very first trip, and voila! There she was. I was really good at finding things!

I recognized the digimon that were running ahead of her. Merukimon, and Volcanusmon who were in the front were part of the Olympus Twelve, along with Lekismon and Coronamon who were running a little behind. But the woman running with Natsuko... I knew her, but I couldn't really place it. She looked young. Just like Natsuko and Yuuko did... Maybe it was Koushiro's mom? Or maybe Ken's?

I looked over my shoulder as Merukimon leapt over Yuuko and myself, and tackled the bumblebee-man into the not-so-much-a-ground. Volcanusmon had drawn out a sword and was running head on toward the bumblebee-man.

As they fought I tried to place who he might've been. I knew most digimon, so why didn't I know this one? Who was he?

"Patamon?"

I looked to my left and smiled, "Takeru's mom!" I shouted, floating into her arms to hug her.

"What are you doing here?" She gasped, "Where is Takeru?"

"He's on Earth." I said with a smile, "He's been looking for you for a long time, but it's okay, because I finally found you."

"A long time?" Natsuko asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I insisted.

"We haven't even been here that long." The mystery woman added. Her voice gave her away instantly. It was Mrs Ichijouji.

They were wrong. They'd been here a very long time. But I didn't want to argue, so I turned to the battle and gasped. Merukimon received a blow directly in the stomach and fell over. "Oh no!" I shouted, trying to help Volcanusmon fight the bumblebee-man, but Natsuko had a firm grip on me. "Let me go!" I shouted, "I need to help! He can't do it alone!"

And sure enough, I was right. Moments later Volcanusmon was down for the count.

"Lekismon," Natsuko said, "It's time to fight."

"You think it wise to fight me?" The bumblebee-man said. "Did you not just witness my fighting first hand? I'm stronger than you."

"Who are you?" I shot, ignoring him.

"My name is TigerVespamon." He said with a smirk. "Heard of me?"

"No." I admitted.

He looked offended and growled, clenching his fists tighter around the glowing blue swords in his hands. "No matter, you have now." He said, "I'd ask you to spread the word, but there won't be time for that. You're going to die now."

"Why are the baddies always so confident?" I asked boldly, while I was actually shaking in fear. "We always win! So why do you always let us know you're going to kill us? It makes you look even stupider when you lose! And besides. A digimon with a partner is stronger than one without because we can work together and our minds are like one. Sheer force isn't enough to win you know. Strategy and bonds—that's important too. You're alone and no one even knows your name. With Dorumon alone he could probably win. He has a partner."

"So does Lekismon." Natsuko said, pulling out her digivice.

_Oh thank God_. I thought, _Dorumon really probably couldn't do that on his own._

"So you are saying that this rookie and this champion will beat me?" Tigervespamon asked.

"Well I'll help." Coronamon added, clenching his fists and running out into the open. Dorumon and Lekismon followed suit.

"Me too!" I shouted, kicking out of Natsuko's grasp and into the air.

Tigervespamon smirked and slashed his sword through the air, sending a wave of energy toward me. I ducked through the air quickly, but he kept shooting them. I was dodging them, but I was running out of energy—maybe I wasn't going to be much help after all.

Lekismon lunged forward and hit Tigervespamon to stop his attacks as he swished one more.

I tried to dodge it, but it was moving too quickly and I was out of energy all together. I let out a scream of pain as I fell through the air. I felt like all the air had been taken from my body, I was in more pain than I could even remember. And then Natsuko caught me.

"We're going to win." She whispered to me, "You'll be okay." Then loudly, she screamed, "Get him! For Patamon!"

_**Lopmon:**_

I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. I just wanted the flashes to stop. I couldn't stop seeing her face. Before it had just been in my sleep, a warm blanket covering my frightened subconscious. But now, ever since Willis had shown me the picture of his twin sister, her face wouldn't leave me alone. It was haunting me like a bad memory. I needed to find her, but I couldn't see through the tears, and I was tripping and stumbling and barely avoiding things.

I wasn't even sure where I was! I stopped, and wiped my eyes, and looked around. I was in a bunch of trees. I didn't know how I'd gotten here, or where 'here' actually was, but the real problem was how I was going to get back.

But did I want to get back? I'd run away for a reason... I really needed to be with her... with Alice. Where was she though? I needed Willis to find her!

"_I'm not ready."_ He'd always say. Well I was! I was ready! Why couldn't he just _be_ ready? Be ready for me? I needed to find her—I couldn't wait any longer!

I just needed someone to hold onto!

"Lopmon...?"

I turned around quickly and saw Terriermon, standing by a tree, looking toward me, a sad look in his eyes.

"T-Terriermon..." I stuttered.

"You okay?" He asked slowly. I shook my head, "You were looking for her again, weren't you?" I nodded this time. "Lopmon, we'll find her. You don't have to do it alone." He said, coming toward me, "We're all here for you."

Before I knew it he was hugging me and I was crying again, unable to hold back my tears any longer.

"Hey!" Terriermon shouted, catching me off guard. I jumped back and we spun around. Betamon was standing by us with a grin.

"Hey..." He said awkwardly as if he had been sneaking around.

"Betamon!" We turned to see Michael pushing through the trees. "Stop running away from me!" As Michael picked Betamon back up his face read that he was annoyed. "You guys coming back?" Michael asked us.

"Not yet." I said, shaking my head. He smiled at me and wandered off, politely ignoring the tear stains on my face.

"Want to talk about it?" Terriermon asked. But I didn't. I just wanted to sit with him in the quiet.

"No." I said simply, and I knew that he understood because he cleared a spot for me to sit before doing the same for himself. And then that's what we did. I sat with Terriermon, who was both my best friend and my twin brother in silence as I tried to make sense of the confusing mess inside my head. But just having him there was comfort enough to get through it all... he was pretty awesome.

_**Betamon:**_

I was crying uncontrollably again. How was it that one being could hold so many tears. I couldn't see the daylight again today... why had it gone? _Where_ had it gone? Earlier in my confinement the only thing that would keep me going besides the thought of Michael saving me was the sunlight through the crack at the top of the cell. The daylight would pour through and warm me as if I'd not been in the damp cell for as long as I had been.

How long _had_ it been? Too long... forever really... years. Michael was never coming to save me. That was that. He didn't know where to look. And why would he? I was never going to see the light of day again... unless I gave in...

But how could I give in? How could I do what they say and just forget Michael? He was so important to me... He was my friend.

But they needed me to forget him. They needed me, the possessor of the crest of strength to keep it until they could get their hands on Michael. Michael was different than the other humans and they needed his body. They needed me to obey the new Michael, and not the old one. That way we would rule the Digital World.

But I couldn't do that. I could not forget him.

I let out a scream and a series of sobs as the whip cracked down on me again. Maybe it was time to just let go... But could I really do that to him?

I didn't have time to think about it as they cracked the whip again and again.

I didn't know how much longer I'd be able to hold on.

_**Natsuko Takaishi:**_

"For Patamon!" I screamed out. Lekismon was first to react, spinning quickly and kicking Tigervespamon in the side of the head, and then the purple fox that Patamon had referred to as Dorumon ran forward and bashed his head into Tigervespamon's stomach, and finally Coronamon leapt in and swatted him with his tail.

Unfortunately, Tigervespamon didn't seem to be too taken aback by the onslaught of attacks. "When did you get here?" I asked sharply.

Yuuko turned around and looked to me. "Not too long ago. You?"

"Few days maybe." I responded. It seemed odd, as if it could have been longer, and yet... just wasn't. "Just looking for a way out at this point," I filled her in.

"Oh?" She asked, "I'm searching for the Death Knights." She said, "Taichi said they need to be taken out."

"Well, obviously," I joked, "Their named the 'Death Knights'." Yuuko laughed and I felt relieved. Kae didn't understand my jokes and sarcasm and instead thought I was attacking her, and Hiroaki just hated it, saying that it made me seem 'snide'. I liked it though, and I was relieved to know that someone out there wasn't such a stick in the mud.

I jolted back to the battle as Coronamon got hit and watched as Kae ran toward him, catching him.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"Great." He lied, trying to sit up.

"Step it up!" I called to Lekismon, gripping my digivice, wishing against all odds that she could digivolve and become stronger.

Lekismon nodded to me and began moving even faster than she normally did, kicking Tigervespamon, and using her special attacks. "Moon night kick!" She shouted, leaping into the air and coming down hard on Tigervespamon's face.

"Dash metal!" Dorumon shouted, opening his mouth a little. A small orb of energy began to accumulate in his mouth as it began to charge. Lekismon did her best to keep Tigervespamon's attention from Dorumon.

"Moon Night Bomb!" She called mindlessly, throwing a strange froth toward the opponent. He dodged it easily, but it didn't matter, he was successfully distracted for a while. Finally though, he turned his head toward Dorumon whose attack was charging still. Lekismon reached forward and grabbed Tigervespamon's hand, pulling him back out of the way, but he reacted quickly elbowing her in the face, and then set off at a run toward Dorumon.

"I have to help!" Coronamon decided.

"No!" Kae ordered, "It isn't safe." Coronamon was standing though. "You're already hurt."

"Doesn't matter. I have to help." He said, running off.

"Good luck..." Kae said quietly, biting her lip. Suddenly a familiar light appeared in front of her. She reached up and grabbed the digivice that had appeared for her and held it up.

"Digi-evolve!" She said, "Or whatever!"

Coronamon looked back with a grin and jumped into the air. "**Coronamon digivolve to... Firamon!**" When he landed he was a cross between a fire lion and an eagle. He ran quickly and tackled Tigervespamon out of the way just as he was about to hit Dorumon.

"Don't fire!" Yuuko ordered when she saw Dorumon aiming his attack. "Wait." She said. It seemed that the longer he charged his attack the stronger it got, so even at a weaker state like the rookie he currently was, he could still use an incredible attack. I was really glad I'd read through Takeru's books before being dragged here. I knew more than he did when he arrived for the first time and that was more than helpful.

Lekismon was back on her feet, and with a quick glance to me she knew my plan. She pulled an arrow out and within seconds was aiming it directly at Tigervespamon. She released it and let it fly, Fireamon bit Tigervespamon's leg sharply causing him to freeze in place to try and rid himself of the lion attached to his leg.

"Raawgh!" He cried out as the arrow pierced his back. Angrily he took his weapons and aimed them down on Firamon, stabbing them both directly into his back. Firamon released Tigervespamon and jumped back, wounded.

"Fly." Kae said shyly. And so Firamon did. He flapped his wings and, still wounded, was in the air, dancing around Tigervespamon who'd taken flight after him. The two of them, although in pain, were moving at great speeds, spinning around one another, until finally Firamon shot a ball of fire from his forehead, sending him flying toward the ground, his wings on fire. "Flame dive!" Firamon was soaring quickly toward the ground, fire engulfing him.

"Lekismon!" I ordered, looking to her, she knew what to do.

She was in the air again, coming down with her icy foot outstretched, side by side with Firamon until they hit the target, slamming him into the ground. But since there really was no ground he used his injured wings and flew as quickly as he could out from underneath them.

"To the south!" Kae and I ordered immediately. The two digimon jumped to the south and fired their attacks. A ball of fire and an ice arrow respectively. Tigervespamon was hit, staggering backwards into the exact right place.

"Now!" Yuuko shouted. And with that, Dorumon's attack went flying, shooting lighting fast directly toward Tigervespamon who exploded almost violently into data, leaving behind a simple glass ball which rolled through the air toward Kae. She scooped it into her hands and held it up nervously. It was a lot like the one I had in my arms next to Patamon... what were they?

Firamon limped toward Lekismon who was already standing over Volcanusmon and Merukimon, healing them with her glowing hands. Dorumon jumped toward Yuuko and I as Kae staggered over as well.

None of us spoke, but instead listened to the others as Lekismon healed her best friend.

"I'm sorry," Merukimon said. "For always thinking that the two of you were nothing but useless children."

"It's clear now that you're much more than that." Volcanusmon said. "I'm sorry too."

"It's okay." Lekismon said.

"We had fun being those useless kids." Firamon agreed.

"But we moved on," Lekismon said, "You can too."

"We shall." Merukimo said. "We'll leave you with your partners now. We'll return to the castle and fill Marsmon back in with the details."

"He'll be proud of you." Volcanusmon added. "They all will be. Just as we are. We await your return."

"Goodbye." Merukimon finished. They exchanged quick farewells and meaningful looks, but then the two of them were gone, leaving Lekismon and Firamon to come back to Kae and I, their new partners. I still wasn't sure how I felt about having a partner. I worked better solo. I always had, but either way... I was happy to have Lekismon be my friend.

**_Yuuko Yagami:_**

As Natsuko, Kae, Firamon and Lekismon told us the story of their time in the Digital World, we set off through said world of emptiness. It was a lot less beautiful than Taichi and Hikari let on. Perhaps they were seeing some beauty in it that I did not. The artistic thought that nothing could be anything you wanted... well, it never really worked on me. Perhaps they just... saw something else. That was okay though. I didn't need to be surrounded by beauty... though it would be nice sometimes.

We found a village of fallen over straw houses along the line, and so we worked together and helped the little armless Yokomon rebuild their home, and in return they offered us strange seeds. I was hungry—but not that hungry. But it turned out that I wouldn't be hungry for long. Finally we found something much more promising than the small seeds. It was a restaurant.

"I'm so starving." Natsuko gasped. "I didn't realize it until right now, but I am."

"Me too." Kae smiled, "Let's go!" And so the six of us were running toward the restaurant with Patamon held tightly, still sleeping soundly, in Natsuko's arms.

I reached the door first and practically kicked it open, before pulling it widely for Firamon and Lekismon to fit Soon we were all sitting in the diner, around a table taking up half of the room while other digimon took up the rest of it.

"So... do you think they'll take my money?" I asked, holding up a wad of cash I'd had in my pocket.

"Oh you won't have to pay at all!" A voice said from behind me. I looked back quickly and gasped.

"Yoshie!" I squeaked, jumping to my feet, and running toward my best friend who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding a notepad. I threw my arms around her and hugged her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked me.

"Oh I just climbed through the refrigerator." I told her as if it were an everyday occurrence. "With Kamemon."

"Where is he?" She asked. And suddenly I had no idea... did he stay at the temple? Had I run from him? I was a terrible babysitter.

Yoshie told me to go sit down and came back a moment later with Satoe Tachikawa, and a blonde boy that I didn't recognize.

"This is Kiyoko." Yoshie said with a smile, introducing the boy. Soon an egg digimon, a clown digimon and a warrior lady digimon had followed them out and pulled some chairs over to join us.

"We're like Team-Mom" Natsuko joked as she set the green orb and Patamon on the table. He was stirring now, so I knew he'd wake up soon. "We just need Toshiko!" Everyone was laughing, and soon Digitamamon, who was the egg digimon, was closing up his shop so we'd have more room. Firamon was taking up a lot of room as it was.

As he moved to stand up though, he accidentally hit the table, and knocked it over. Kiyoko, the blonde boy had dived to the ground, catching Patamon, but the green orb smashed against the wooden floor.

"Oh no—" Kae gasped as the room lit up with an eerie green aura. It suddenly felt like a wave had washed over us all as the green light headed through any window or crack it could find. I spun around quickly and looked out the window and gasped.

"The trees are back!"

It was true. The green light was spreading around the ground outside, and trees were popping up everywhere as if they were growing in fast-forward. I was shoved out of the way a second later as everyone else wanted a chance to see too. Everyone except for Kae who was still sitting in her seat, holding the glass orb that we'd won for defeating Tigervespamon.

"Sh-should I—?" She started.

"Do it!" I grinned. She smiled at me and then held the orb above her head with two hands before bringing it down hard on the overturned table. The orb broke in her hand and gusts of wind shot from the shards is it eroded into thin air lighting the room up. The light did the same as the past orb had done.

This time I took Kae's hand and ran for the open doorway, and the two of us stepped outside. First I took note of how strange it was that the trees had sprouted where there was no ground. Their roots were visible growing down through the darkness. And then I looked up and saw with great pleasure, a sky. A dark, unlit sky, but it was still there.

"The sky is back too?" Kae gasped. "That's wonderful!" She clapped her hands together and I hugged her excitedly.

"I want to break the other one!" Satoe declared, drawing our attention back to the room where Satoe was climbing over Digitamamon's head toward a silver orb on a podium at the other end of the room. "Wait..." She said, "Will you make me work for ever if I break this?"

"No," Digitamamon laughed, and with that Satoe slammed the orb to the ground. I looked outside expectantly, but there was no change.

"That must have been the metal." Dorumon explained. "Not as dramatic or cool, but still helpful and important." With the last three words Satoe lit up like a light bulb and clapped her hands together.

We all stared outside for a bit at what we'd done, and then the silence was filled by a growling stomach. We all turned to Natsuko who laughed nervously.

"Saving the World makes me kind of hungry," She admitted and we all started laughing.

"Stop laughing!" Dorumon ordered. "Look outside! There are trees—the sky, but everything else is missing still!"

"There's also metal." Satoe added.

"We need to keep fighting. The rest are still out there. We need to locate and destroy the rest of the Death Knights! For Taichi!"

"Dorumon," I said sharply, "Calm down, okay? We'll find them. I promise."

He looked to me and nodded, but I could tell he was plotting something.

Next on Digimon Adventure 05:

Ken continues to fight the battle he Koushiro, Biyomon and their newly transformed digimon have been struggling with. Willis finds himself in a little trouble concerning Hikari. Yamato makes a couple of rash decisions that he could end up regretting. Rei and Taichi go for a little walk, and Koushiro makes a decision involving his future, before Taichi barges in on everything. Iori finds out just what it was that was attacking Meiyomon, and Natsuko and Kae take turns telling their sides of yet another battle.


	32. Home

**Y/N:** It was fun to write as the digimon, but we're back to the standard human characters from here on out. I really enjoyed transitioning between Tentomon, Wormmon and Ken for this battle and I really hope that you enjoy reading it as well. Review if you can, and thanks for reading!

**U/N:** So this is a crazy chapter! It doesn't really... have a consistent theme though, but that's okay. I... personally like this one, but it's all rather sudden. But that's fine. It's fine. It'll all be explained away. Don't worry :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 32: Home**

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

I couldn't believe my eyes. Biyomon was right. We were holding our digimon back with our anger towards each other. I mean…I didn't exactly _hate_ Koushiro, but I didn't really like him. He was always lording his intelligence over my head. And I'm sure to a degree I was slightly jealous that he was allowed to keep that intelligence, while I'd had a taste of it, but lost it when I lost the Dark Spore. But mostly, I was just angry that he thought my slight decline in intelligence meant that I was stupid.

But I didn't have time to worry about any of that anymore. We weren't best friends now by any means. We had more of a not-friends-exactly-but-kind-of-are vibe between us. Basically, I'd decided to tolerate him, and not let him get to me, and I figured he chose to do something pretty similar. Not a huge step towards a close bond like my bond with Daisuke, and my newer, but equally as strong bond with Michael. It was more like my bond with Iori. We didn't exactly interact much, but we weren't at each other's throats when we did.

Usually. Now, with him suffering from the influence of wrath, I was sure things might've been a little bit different.

But now wasn't the time to be contemplating such things. We had an army of insect digimon swarming the X-Antibodies, and new digimon partners to rave over. Oh, and GranDracmon needed to be taken out too.

"Thank you Biyomon," I said happily. I had such a cool new digimon partner. I couldn't get over it. And I wouldn't have ever gotten to meet him without Biyomon's help.

"Yes," Koushiro added. "It would seem that in this particular topic, you have a larger understanding than I do. I would never have thought of such a solution."

"As long as you and your partners aren't going to kill each other anymore, I'm happy," Biyomon said brightly. Well, as brightly as she could. She was in dire need of some rest, but we weren't quite out of the woods.

"Your shifting digivolutions won't aid you in this battle," GranDracmon claimed. "I can still handle the both of you at once."

"I'd like to see you try," GradisKuwagamon said. Even his voice was so cool and collected. I had the best digimon partner in the world. It was so exciting. I couldn't wait to share the news with Miyako.

"Crystal Revolution!" GranDracmon called, raising his arms at them and shooting out an icy blue beam. GrandisKuwagamon and TyrantKabuterimon moved really quickly—they were so fast now!—and slipped out of the way. I watched horrified as the beam hit one of GranDracmon's soldiers and a Flymon. They were instantly turned into ice crystals and shattered into data.

What if he _had_ hit GrandisKuwagamon? I'd just met him, and I'd already lost Wormmon once. I'd have to get my head in the game. I'd have to be one step ahead, so that even when GradisKuwagamon didn't know what to do, _I_ would be able to help.

"Too slow!" GrandisKuwagamon taunted. TyrantKabuterimon gave him a look, and he shrugged sheepishly before getting serious about the battle. That was good. I didn't want him to get too cocky just because he had a newer and better form than GranDracmon did. GrandisKuwagamon was still new to this form. He might slip up and cost himself his life.

"I'll get you," GranDracmon yelled frustrated that his attack didn't hit. "Keep your eyes peeled. You wouldn't want to miss this. Gorgon's Eye!"

"Gorgon?" Koushiro wondered. I could see where his train of thought was going. Mine was headed the same direction. Gorgons were ancient creatures that could turn their enemies to stone just by looking at them. If his attack was anything like their abilities…I didn't like the sounds of it.

"Don't look at it!" I screamed just as a large eye was opening on the front of his dog shaped body. He was a lot like a centaur, except that he was a vampire attached to a hellhound, rather than a man to a horse. And right on the chest of the hellhound was a giant eyelid, slowly rising, preparing to lock our digimon in stone…or worse.

"Don't let him open it!" Koushiro ordered.

"Then I believe it is time for us to fight back," TyrantKabuterimon announced.

"I'm on it!" GrandisKuwagamon decided, shooting forward until he was right in front of GranDracmon, and pulled back one of his arms. "Gran Killer!" He brought his arm—equipped with blades for claws—down, and the blades sank into the eye, through the eyelid. GranDracmon screamed in pain, and GrandisKuwagamon pulled his claws out, before raising them again. "Grandis Scissors!" This time, he used both sets of claws, crossing his arms before slashing from both sides at each of the two shark heads at GranDracmon's waist. The shark heads were sliced right off, falling downwards before being digitized.

"GrandisKuwagamon," TyrantKabuterimon warned simply, before charging an attack of his own. "Shine of Bees!" A ball of red-hot explosive energy was shot off of his entire body, aimed directly at GranDracmon…who GrandisKuwagamon was still standing in front of.

GrandisKuwagamon slashed one last time at GranDracmon, this time aiming for his chest, before starting to push away, but GranDracmon grabbed his arm.

"If I'm going down, you're coming with me," GranDracmon promised. I froze. I was going to lose him after all.

"Not in this lifetime," GrandisKuwagamon corrected, spinning around and slashing at him with his free arm, before doing a back flip to get away. It was really cool looking, but I was too busy being relieved to be properly awed by it.

TyrantKabuterimon's attack slammed into GranDracmon before he could come up with a suitable escape plan, and left absolutely no sign of him in its wake.

"You did it!" Koushiro cried. "You _both_ did it!"

"We did it together," I agreed feeling slightly out of place as we both jumped up and down and did a bit of a victory dance.

"We're not quite finished," TyrantKabuterimon said.

"There's more digimon to test out our new skills on," GrandisKuwagamon agreed, before flying out to join their army of bugs in taking down the remainder of the army. TyrantKabuterimon followed him at a much more subdued speed.

"Sora!" Biyomon shouted.

"Right," I said, feeling bad for forgetting that she was in pain. "We have to find a way to get out of the Digital World, so we can get you to Sora."

"No," Biyomon said with a laugh. "It's Sora! She's right there. She found us."

Koushiro and I turned to find Sora running at us with Jou and a girl I recognized as Noriko at her side. She looked torn between being happy to see us, and being furious that we'd accidentally slammed the door in her face. I was really hoping the happiness won out.

"There you are!" she called loudly. "We've been looking for you all over. You couldn't have waited a few seconds to close the door?"

"We didn't mean to," Koushiro said sheepishly, even though _I_ had been the one to close it. To be honest, I figured he would have thrown me to the lions and been done with it. It was nice to know that he was really taking Biyomon's words to heart, like I was.

"It doesn't matter if you didn't mean to," she chastised. "You were almost trapped in the Digital World forever. Is that what you want? You're just lucky that Noriko had a D-3 and Mimi was quick enough to come up with that solution. I was panicking and furious, and…oh my god. What happened to you, Biyomon?"

As Sora rushed over to tend to Biyomon's wounds, Koushiro watched over our digimon's progress, and Noriko stared at the battle with wide eyes.

"You haven't come across Gomamon have you?" Jou asked softly.

"He wasn't here," I told him.

"I don't know whether to be relieved or even more worried," Jou admitted. "I don't know where he is. I don't even know where to start looking."

"He'll turn up," I said, hoping that it wasn't going to be a lie.

"I can't believe you guys have just been fighting all this time," Sora commented, distracting me from the conversation. "How can you not be exhausted?"

"It's been awhile, I guess," I said. "But it wasn't _that_ long. JewelBeemon was showing slight signs of fatigue, but when he digivolved that went away."

"But you've been here for ages. I was worried that Lilithmon would have taken you out," Sora said.

"She left not long after we got here," I said. "It's been an hour, tops."

"No," she said, sounding confused. "You were trapped yesterday, it took me until now to locate Noriko..."

"Woo-hoo!" GradisKuwagamon said flying to my side. "Did you see that? I love this body. I should just be this way from now on. It's so much fun!"

"It is pretty cool," I said, pushing Sora's incorrect assumption about the time out of my mind. "But I kind of need to get home. I want to see if Mom found a way back, and I really should talk to Miyako. I'm worried about her."

Sora opened a door up right next to us and ushered me through. She was going to talk to Koushiro more about our disagreement on the amount of time that had passed, and I was happy to leave him with that debate. GrandisKuwagamon reluctantly reverted himself back to Wormmon, and we found ourselves standing in the park we'd met at before the battle.

"You should call Miyako now," Wormmons suggested, a little sore that he couldn't just walk around as GrandisKuwagamon. It would have been too suspicious looking. I would have let him otherwise. I dialed Miyako's number on my portable phone quickly, and waited for the typical ringing sounds, but was disappointed.

"The number you have dialled is currently not available," a woman's voice informed me.

I tried again.

"The number you have dialled is currently not available."

Miyako had voice mail. I should have been immediately directed to her answering machine, not informed that the number wasn't accessible. What did that even mean? Was she just in the Digital World now? Or did something bad happen to her? She was being attacked during the night. What if, while I was gone, whatever it was came and got her. How could I live with myself if that happened _just_ because I wasn't there?

_**Willis Kennedy:**_

"Where is Tatum?" Michael asked, frustrated as we sat around the dining table for lunch, "And Jenna?"

"Didn't you say Tatum chased Jenna off?" I asked, handing the juice pitcher to Hikari. I had juice with every meal. It did make me feel like a child sometimes, but it was just too delicious to not have all the time.

"Yeah, but you'd think they'd be back by now." Michael sighed, "And she didn't even take her phone so I can't text her. Well I can, and I did, but she can't respond." I wanted to at least pretend I knew how he felt, but it wasn't true. I didn't. I didn't have anyone that I was scared would be unable to locate. But I did have a growing fear that something really awful was happening to everyone. Ken said he's seen his mother in some cave of disks or whatever, but that didn't change the fact that _everyone_ seemed to be disappearing. Sora's parents and Takeru's parents, Koushiro's mom, apparently Mimi's mom which I'd learned when her father came knocking on the door earlier, Hikari's mother, Sigma, and now Tatum and Jenna... It was a little too suspicious. But then, what Lalamon had said brought the fear down.

She was right. The Digital World wouldn't randomly take them all, if it was, which it seemed to be, all of this was for a reason. We couldn't find them if we were looking for them, because if we found them then we'd take them away, and that would ruin the Digital World's plan, and one must not ruin destiny. That was my crest, and I, of all people should know that.

But, just like everyone else, I often got the urge to try and test it...

Lunch was almost over and so Terriermon and Lopmon ran off again. I could tell that Lopmon had been crying, but when I asked her if she was okay she just said 'yes'. I didn't want to pry, she'd always tell me eventually, but I had a feeling I already knew what it was. Betamon was already gone, and hadn't even shown up for lunch, which was why Michael was so frustrated, and Wizardmon and Gatomon had taken theirs out to the back yard under the willow tree.

"I'm going to go look for Betamon." Micahel said, "Or my sister. Or my girlfriend. Or my friends' parents. Or the Digimon who took the crests and stole them for his own greedy needs. Or the Digital World's ground. Or something productive." And with that he was gone, still listing off things that he could do. I heard something about befriending someone, but I tried not to eavesdrop.

"So we're alone," I said with a smile, looking to Hikari who snorted into her juice. "That was attractive," I joked, handing her a napkin. She laughed and wiped her reddening face. "What do you want to do?"

"Study." She admitted bluntly.

"And then we can go on a romantic picnic at sundown?" I asked.

She shook her head, "No, see I have a _lot_ of studying to do."

"How about tomorrow?" I suggested.

"I dunno," She said slowly, "I'll definitely think about it though."

She never wanted to do anything with me. All she ever wanted was to sit around the house and be boring.

"_Hey Hikari!" I suggested once, "Let's go skydiving! I've got a plane ready for us to jump out of!"_

"_Nah," She'd said, pulling her bowl of popcorn closer to her as she watched a rerun of her favourite television program._

Well that one was a long shot...

"_Hey Hikari!" I jumped into the room with car keys dangling in my hand. "Let's go for a road trip?"_

"_Nah," She said before turning back to Tatum and Jenna and began talking to them again._

That one could have been super fun, and long and romantic and...

"_Hey! Hey Hikari!" I ran into the room with a pie, ready to be put in the oven. "Let's put this in the oven together!"_

"_Nah," She said standing, facing the corner of the room. "I'm really busy doing absolutely nothing because I'm boring."_

So that last one didn't happen. Big deal.

"Are you done thinking about it?" I asked excitedly.

"No," She said, "I haven't even started. I really need to study, and we can only go if I get done it all, but since we're always in Japan it's getting harder and harder to keep up. Plus finals are coming up soon and I don't want to be behind."

"But since you're already so far behind does it really matter?" I asked.

"Yes." She said flatly, rounding on me in that angry way she did when I'd done something wrong. Twenty-five percent of the time this look led to the two of us breaking up... I'd have to handle this really well.

"Well why don't you want to hang out with me?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"I do, I'm just busy." She said.

"Busy being _boring_." I shot.

"Excuse me?" Hikari asked, standing up now.

"You heard me!" I said loudly—I was not handling this really well, "You're boring! All you ever want to do is sit around and do nothing! Can we not just go outside and do something for once?"

"You want to go outside and help me study?" She offered.

"There you go, being boring again." I growled.

"Boring?" She asked sharply, "Boring because I want to study so I can pass my classes and graduate to become a teacher?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, "Glad you see it my way."

And then Hikari flared her nostrils, and furrowed her brow, and I knew I'd gone too far.

Within seconds we were screaming at each other.

"YOU DON'T EVEN NEED A JOB!" I yelled, "I HAVE MORE MONEY RIGHT NOW THAN WE'LL EVER, EVER NEED!"

"MAYBE I _WANT_ A JOB!" Hikari screamed, "DID YOU EVER THINK THAT MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO SIT AROUND DOING NOTHING?"

"WELL THAT'S ALL YOU DO RIGHT NOW!" I shot.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" She yelled, "WE ALWAYS DO THINGS—JUST LAST WEEK—"

"IN JAPAN!" I yelled, "YOU ONLY DO THINGS WHEN WE'RE IN JAPAN!"

And it went on like that forever. Half the time I wasn't even sure what I was saying, but instead was focusing on the growing anger inside me. It was literally out of control, I was trying to grab at it and keep it calm, but it was impossible. I could just see Hikari's face getting more and more red with anger.

"Willis!" She screamed, "I want to m—"

"H-hello?"

We both stopped our argument completely and turned to Lopmon who was standing in the doorway, her ear held in her arms like a safety blanket. I couldn't help but picture her as a child. As _our_ child. We'd been too busy screaming at each other to notice her. To notice that she needed us. We didn't take the fight elsewhere, we didn't think of anyone else... we just did it.

"What's wrong?" Hikari asked gently, moving toward Lopmon and falling to her knees. I followed her and stood over them.

"Why are you guys arguing?" Lopmon asked quietly.

"It's nothing." I said, "I'm sorry."

"So sorry," Hikari agreed. "We shouldn't have frightened you."

"I-I'm not scared." Lopmon admitted. "I'm... sad. I don't want you two to fight."

Sad? I wondered for a moment why before remembering that I could just ask. "Why would you be sad?" I asked, but the moment I did, as Hikari looked up to me, I knew why.

"I don't want Hikari to leave." Lopmon said.

"Even if I did," Hikari said, "I made a promise to help you find who you're looking for. And I'll do just that."

Lopmon nodded, "Well thanks," She said, but just as I'd expected, she said, "That's not what I mean. You're my friend Hikari. I don't want you to go away."

And I realized then that we'd made so many mistakes in the past. So many mistakes that it seemed impossible to fix them all.

"Lopmon," I said, kneeling down to her level, "Hikari will always be your friend. Right?" I turned to Hikari who knew that there was more to what I'd said.

She gazed at me for a bit and then finally nodded. "Yeah, of course. Great friends... just not in the way we are now." We both nodded and looked back to Lopmon.

"Could you give us a minute?" I asked Lopmon, "We'll be out in a minute and we can watch a movie or something." She nodded and backed out of the room. I stood up and then reached to help Hikari to her feet.

"Willis," Hikari said slowly, "What's happening exactly?"

"Sit down?" I suggested. She nodded and walked to the other side of the table. I pulled out a chair and sat down slowly. "If I ask you a question, can you be one hundred percent honest?"

"Yes." She said with a nod.

"Where do you see yourself in five years?" I asked.

Apparently that wasn't what she was expecting. She went to answer, but then stopped to think. After a few seconds she said, "Well, I see myself at my first teaching job, getting a decent income and working to pay the bills. In Japan." It hurt. A lot, but I did ask for it. "I'm sorry," She said, clearly seeing the look on my face, "It's my home. I came here for you Willis, but... nothing is right for me here. Japan... is though. I belong there. That's why I keep having to go back. Right when I move away the Digital World is in crisis mode... it's a sign. It's fate. I'm supposed to be there. Not here."

"I... get it." I said slowly.

"Where do you see _yourself_?" Hikari asked.

That was a good question, even though it was my own. Where _did_ I see myself? An hour ago I would have said right here, with Hikari with a child on the way, still at my top secret government job, in this house, our digimon living with us, but finally having Michael, Jenna and Tatum out... but now... Well, it was the same. Just, without Hikari. "Right here." I admitted.

"So..." Hikari said slowly.

"What now?" I asked.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"It's open." Taichi said breathlessly. "The gate is open!" He was standing suddenly, kicking the chair back, and knocking it over. He'd been waiting by the computer watching for the gate to open again for a full day. Taichi was already grabbing his digivice and allowing himself to be dragged through the portal.

Katsue watched with an open mouth as Taichi vanished, "I don't think I'll ever get used to that." She said. I waited patiently, in the silence that followed Katsue's words with Rei and Katsue until Taichi burst from the computer again, this time with Gabumon and Agumon.

Gabumon had barely landed on the floor before we were hugging again.

"Sorry Rei," Taichi said, "I couldn't find the little devils."

"That's alright," She said, "As long as I'm not blocked from seeing them I feel a lot better. Now that the digimon are back can we go for a walk?"

"Absolutely," Taichi grinned.

"What's the big deal anyway?" Katsue asked, sitting up straighter in her seat on the couch. I turned to her questioningly and led Gabumon to the couch so we could sit with her. "I mean, it was like—how long was it? A day maybe? Not too long. Why are you guys so relieved?"

"Well for starters," Tai said, "We've been blocked from the Digital World multiple times for a couple year periods each time. It's not fun."

"That," I said, "And spending any time away from them at all is hard. They're like... they're more than a partner. They literally complete you. Any time from them is hard. That's why we need to find that for you. Besides the fact that I'll get arrested if we don't, it'll be so relaxing for you when you finally find that one digimon."

"Yeah, let's go search right now!" Taichi decided.

"We could probably squeeze a few hours in before supper," I pointed out to which Taichi almost threw up at. Ever since the gluttony monster had been taken down Taichi had been disgusted by even the thought of food.

"I—" Katsue tried.

"I see you with a water digimon!" Agumon chimed in. "You can't swim right? So he'll teach you how, it'll be cool!"

"I ca—" Katsue started again.

"Maybe we could just go sneak past Divermon and search around the ocean?" Rei suggested.

"And then we'll surely have your partner!" I said happily.

"Guys!" Katsue said sharply. "The way you're describing it makes it sound like a soul mate. Someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. And you're telling me that you're going to drag me around playing 'have you met Katsue' to all the Digimon in the Digital World, hoping that my digital soul mate will pop out with a bouquet of flowers and a box of vegan chocolates? It's not likely."

I guess she was right. A digimon _was _like a soul mate.

"And look at Agumon," She said, pointing to the digimon who was sitting on the floor by the coffee table playing with the television remote. "How did you meet him Taichi?"

"He was waiting for me." Taichi admitted.

"And Rei?" She asked, "How did you meet Rei?"

"We..." Taichi trailed off, "Well we were—I was... the elevator. I was headed for the elevator and she was stuck. I helped her."

"Okay," Katsue said, "Now tell me. Either time, were you walking around saying 'yup, today I'm going to find my soul mate'?"

"No." Taichi admitted.

"Exactly." Katsue said, "If every human has a digimon partner out there for them, then I'll find mine eventually. I promise, but you can't expect me to just jump out into a world filled with monsters to just to look around. Fate happens whether you're looking or not."

And she was right. She was a lot smarter than I seemed to give her credit for. Gabumon had been waiting for me. Taichi and the others had just been at that camp. It was sheer dumb luck... in other words, fate that we'd met. How could I, in good conscious, tell her to get out there and find a digimon soul mate? Because if she didn't...

"Yeah there's just the whole thing of me getting arrested," I said to the quiet room. "So if you could just ask fate to speed it up—"

"I'm leaving." Katsue said sharply, standing up. "We'll talk tomorrow, I just need to think." And after she'd put on her coat and boots, she was out the door. I felt awful. Why did I say anything? Partly because I didn't want to be arrested—that's why. But now she was upset. I'd have to call her.

She wouldn't want me to call her. She was mad at me. I'd have to give her some space. Why did she say 'we'll talk' though? That was pretty much the same as 'we need to talk' which really meant 'I'm breaking up with you'. Was Katsue going to break up with me? Was she _that_ mad?

Why did I always find myself in such an awful mess?

"Yamato?" I turned to see Taichi tying Rei's shoes for the walk they were going to go on. "Get the door?" I turned sharply again, this time to the door as it knocked again.

"Right," I said, jumping to my feet and rushing to the door, pulling it open. "Hikari?" I gasped, opening the door wider for her to enter. "What are you doing here? Who keeps buzzing you people in?"

"Can we talk?" She asked.

I looked over my shoulder to where Taichi was opening a portal to the Digital World for him and Rei to go on their walk. He looked to me confused, but I waved him off and he slowly nodded before giving me a thumbs up and a wink. He then let the light drag himself and Rei into the Digital World.

Gabumon was nodding at me without me having to say anything, dragging Agumon with him, down the hall.

"Come in!" I said brightly to Hikari, who stepped into the room, "Don't mind the mess, your brother lives here." She tried to laugh but failed, and decided to just sit down on the couch instead. I closed the door and sat next to her. "What's up?" I asked. "Didn't you _just_ go back to America? What are you doing here?"

"Well," She said, "When the Digital World opened up I just thought I'd drop by..." She said slowly "I..."

"What's wrong?" I asked. Even _I_ could tell that something was off, just by the way she was talking, "What happened?"

"Well," Hikari said quietly, "I needed someone to talk to." She paused and motioned to me, "I couldn't think of anyone else—you were oddly wise when you came over for lunch a couple weeks ago when you helped me figure out what I wanted."

"That wasn't hard," I pointed out, "You're always coming back here Hikari, it was obvious you wanted Japan back."

She nodded slowly, "Anyway, I'm taking some transfer classes over the summer to convert my schooling to Japan, and to prove I can actually do it, and then next year I'll start actual classes, right here in Odaiba."

"That's great!" I said with a grin, "I know everyone will be happy to have you back." She wasn't smiling though... "How... is Willis taking it all?"

"Oh," She said slowly, "We uhm... we broke up."

"Hikari," I said comfortingly. I knew how it felt to break up with someone you loved. It was one of the most painful things I'd ever had to do. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." She said with her shaky voice that clearly said it was not, in fact, okay. "We just wanted different things." She said, "Besides we were hardly dating anyway. We kissed maybe three times since Arkadimon's battle and barely at all before that... it was sneaking up on us but we were just trying to ignore it—you know we've broken up six times in the past three years? That's ridiculous. Plus we never had time to do anything because I'm always busy studying... oh God... I _am_ boring! I'm—"

"Stop," I said suddenly, cutting her off. "I know venting is important, trust me. And I'll let you finish. But I just need to say, you are _not_ boring Hikari. Not at all. You're by far one of the most interesting and complex people I know."

She stared at me for a moment and then finally smiled, "Thank you," She said, blushing. She looked away and then continued venting to me about her recent break-up, until she finally got to, "And so I have to move out of course, but I can't yet—luckily my semester is almost over. Unfortunately, I don't actually have a place to stay in Japan when that _is_ over. I mean, you live with Taichi, Ken and Miyako are living together, Jou lives with Momoe, Daisuke, Takeru and Kurayami share a place, as do Koushiro, Mimi and Sora, and Iori lives with his mom. I don't want to move back home... I really don't. It'll make me feel like a failure."

"You won't have to." I decided. "Firstly, I'm going to help you find a place to stay, and in the meantime you can stay at Willis' apartment. He barely ever uses it right? So you can stay there—and if that makes you uncomfortable you can stay here. Have my room, I'll take the couch or bunk in Takeru's bed for a bit and make him take the floor. It'll all work out Hikari, but you should remember... you are one hundred percent _not_ a failure."

She looked up and smiled at me, and I suddenly realized how close we were sitting, "Coming from you," She said with a laugh, "Mr famous rock star."

"Me?" I laughed, "Everyone hates my music—All I write about is heartbreak."

"Maybe I could help you with your next single," She joked, "I certainly know what it feels like now too."

"Maybe instead we could write a song about apartment hunting," I laughed.

"Or eating lunch together platonically while my boyfriend was out with his brother?" She suggested.

"Or that boring date, when we went bowling," I froze at her expression.

"Date?" She asked. And before I knew what was happening, we were leaning into a kiss... Hikari started when my phone started ringing, stopping us from kissing. "You should get that..." She said on the third ring.

"Uh... One second." I said, heading to the phone. I picked it up, stopping the incessant ringing, "Hello?" I asked.

"Yamato?" It was Katsue. "Can we talk?" I looked to Hikari and then turned away again and nodded. "Are you nodding?" She asked.

I laughed, "Sorry I forgot you were on the phone, yes. Yes we can talk."

"Alright..." She said, "Meet me downstairs." And with that she hung up the phone. I turned to Hikari who was sitting on the couch with perfect posture.

"I—" I started.

"It's fine," Hikari nodded. "It's great actually." She stood up and walked to the door, "We both probably would have regretted that." She said with a laugh. I couldn't help but laugh in agreement. She was Taichi's little sister, and I'd grown up with the impression that she and Takeru were soul mates. It seemed wrong to steal her from both of them, even if neither of them seemed to really mind.

"I still promise to help you find that apartment though." I said pointedly. "A promise is a promise."

She smiled at me and nodded. "Thanks Yamato." And then, with a quick "I'll be right back!" to Gabumon, I walked her out, down the hallway, and then the stairs until we were in the lobby. She hugged me and said goodbye before heading out the door. I saw Katsue standing by the elevator, clearly expecting me to be lazy and not take the stairs like usual, but I had some weight to lose after sloth had had his fun.

I turned to the glass wall and looked at my reflection, fixing my blond hair before talking to Katsue. If she was going to break up with me, I'd need to at least look nice. I rushed over to her and surprised her from behind. She screamed and turned around quickly almost slapping me in the face.

She gasped and sighed in relief, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Katsue said breathlessly.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"No," She said, "I am. I'm sorry for yelling at you up there." _Sorry?_ That certainly didn't sound like a breakup. "You were just trying to help. I want that. I want you to help me. For so long I've been pushing people away... and you were just trying to get closer and I was scared. I'd love for you to help me find my digital soul mate. And..."

"And?" I prompted.

"I... just wanted to say," She was stalling obviously, "I think I love..." Me? She loved me? This was going much better than I'd hoped. I mean I loved her too! I'd told Taichi that but he told me to wait. For _this_ _exact moment_. "I love... elevators." She said with a nod, "Yeah, look at them." She pointed to the silver door, "It's really... cool, and... imaginative."

Well... oh well. She'd hopefully tell me eventually. "Want to go for a walk?" I asked, "Or do you want to just ride the elevator?"

She laughed and punched my arm, "You're such an idiot." She said, taking my hand and leading me to the door outside.

_**Rei Saiba:**_

The first thing Taichi and I noticed as we stepped into the Digital World was the trees. Usually the first thing I did was run around, get it all out of my system while I still could—because it was still so utterly amazing and wonderful to be able to walk on my own—but I couldn't bring myself to move this time. I was gobsmacked.

"Where…?" Taichi started to ask, looking around to see if there was anything else that came back. The grid lines were gone from above us, making me feel as though the sky too, was back. But there was no light for me to be sure of that.

"Wow," I said gasping.

"It wasn't like this just a minute ago," Taichi claimed.

"It's amazing," I said hugging him. "Things are happening. Whatever you guys are doing, just keep doing it."

"We haven't done anything. Okay, that's not exactly true. We've gotten rid of five of the seven sin digimon. I wonder what Daemon was thinking when he chose them, you know? They were just so easy to defeat," he said. "Maybe _easy_ isn't the right word, but they didn't do anything to kill us."

"They were trying to," I pointed out. "If you ate the way you were for much longer you'd have been hospitalized."

"Don't mention the eating thing," he begged, and I laughed at him. He was embarrassed by his behaviour and repulsed by anything other than fruit and vegetables these days. "Stop looking at me like that."

I had a problem with staring lately. He looked so different without his hair, and though I knew he was somewhat self conscious about it, I thought he looked amazing. I was secretly glad that Hikari allowed Willis and Kurayami cut his hair. I was a little worried about how attached to it he was though.

"You look good, Taichi," I assured him.

"You look better," he joked. But it was sweet at the same time. Until it brought up his and Yamato's conversation about what made the perfect girl and I was reminded that according to Taichi the perfect girl was actually Katsue.

"Do you hate that I'm not really funny," I asked nervously.

"No," he said.

"What about the fact that I'm not well travelled?"

"I don't mind that either," he told me.

"I'm going to have to take your word about me being pretty, and I_ know_ I'm fairly smart…" I added.

"What's this about Rei?" he wanted to know.

"Your ideal girl. I can't be her," I pointed out. "You want a pretty, smart girl that is funny and well travelled. I'm not qualified."

"I was just talking for Yamato," he told me.

"But I still don't fit."

"That's the best part," he said. "I'm funny, so we balance each other out. Yamato is practically a stick in the mud. He needs someone that can pull him out of that shell of his and get him to laugh. He writes really depressing music, Rei. He needs to liven up a bit.

"And as for the travelling," he continued. "We can travel together. I think I'd like that. We were friends first Rei, that means a lot to me. We can sit around and do nothing, and it's still fun because you're there too. You don't have to worry. If I wasn't happy with you, we probably wouldn't have gotten together in the first place."

"Yeah…maybe," I said. I sounded whiny and insecure. But I couldn't travel as easily as some other girl could, and he'd always have to help me carry my luggage, or push me in my chair. Was he really ready for something like that? Or would he get overwhelmed?

"I really love being around you Rei," he said softly. "I don't see that changing any time soon, if ever."

I felt all warm and fuzzy inside, and wrapped my arms around his middle. He was so perfect for me, I couldn't help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I'd gotten stuck in that elevator six years before.

"That's really sweet Taichi," I told him feeling my face flush bright red. "Thanks for bringing me here. It's really nice to just walk around for a little while—not that I hate my chair, it's just…I like walking better." He nodded.

"It's a really cheap date too," he joked. I laughed a bit.

"Now, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I've got to go," he said, his eyebrows furrowing.

"So soon? Why?" I asked. We were having a good time, weren't we?

"I just realized that the gate is open—dumb, I know, since we've been here for awhile—and I forgot that Koushiro and I need to get to the Temple for a meeting... It's important, I'm really sorry," he said.

"Go on," I told him. "I'll be around when you get back."

"You're the best," he said, kissing my cheek and running off. Great. He was just lucky that Yamato had taught me how to use my digivice to get home…

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

I wasn't sure how I felt about my tentative friendship with Ken. Could I even call it a friendship? Not really. It was more like a tolerance. I would be more tolerant of him, and less condescending, and hopefully he would return the favour by not irking me so often. I could only hope that was true. I wasn't sure how long this understanding would last though. I knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing. But, if TyrantKabuterimon was the result of my efforts, it would be more than worth it to try.

Without him, we would still be struggling to fight that army. No. We'd probably be dead, because he would have still been HerculesKabuterimon struggling to fight off GranKuwagamon, though they were evenly matched, desperate to reclaim his right as the king of the insect digimon. I couldn't fathom a reason for him to want such a title so badly, but I could understand his drive. When I wanted something, I would try everything I could to ensure that I got as close to it as possible. Typically though, my goals involved the realm of knowledge, rather than a reign over hundreds of other living digimon, but it was the thought that counted.

I was disappointed though, that I hadn't taken the time to interrogate GranDracmon about his allegiances. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. I was too busy trying to prove myself to be Ken's better. It was Sora, who pointed out my folly.

"_Where did that army come from, anyway?" she'd asked me._

"_We aren't sure entirely. They were, however, using this location as a training ground, learning formations and tactics for their real purpose," I said. "They called themselves the X-Antibodies."_

"_But _who_ did they work for?" she questioned._

"_We never actually pinned down a suspect," I admitted. "But their obsession with their name, the X-Antibodies…it doesn't sit well with me."_

"_You think they were teaming up with Arkadimon?" she gasped._

"_It's a possibility. But there are so many unknown variables that leave it only a possibility. Daemon could have handpicked them from Neo's collection. He did do that, though it doesn't necessarily mean that _these_ were those digimon. But there's also the matter of the missing Digital World. They could have been employees of whoever demolished the code that kept the sky and earth where it belongs. Or…it could be someone else entirely."_

"_You're saying that it could be anyone," she said shakily. "We could be attacked by any number of digimon, at any time."_

"_Until we deal with all of the current problems," I agreed. "We aren't safe."_

It was a hard pill to swallow. I'd wasted far too much time sitting on a couch watching the same movie on repeat. I should have been working towards solving some of these mysteries. I don't care that sloth was infecting me. My drive for knowledge should have been enough to keep me from doing absolutely nothing. I would have liked to be able to admit that I'd at least kept running over solutions at the back of my mind, but it would have been a lie.

There was so much that I needed to work on now, and not enough time to do so. Especially when Sora kept giving me other projects. Ones that didn't involve the Digital World at all. Like the project I was currently trying to pluck up enough courage to attempt. I was standing outside of the house I'd called home for months. But I hadn't opened the door. I couldn't bring myself to do so. I'd left this house for a reason. It wasn't my home at the moment. I hadn't knocked on the door either, though I deduced that it was my only other option.

I sighed, but couldn't scrounge up a reason _not_ to knock on the door, and so I raised my hand and let my fist slam against it three times.

"Coming!"

Great. I'd been hoping she would be at the restaurant truthfully, so that I could go track down Sora—who'd kept Tentomon with her—and examine the differences between HerculesKabuterimon and TyrantKabuterimon. That unfortunately would not be a possibility. The door opened quickly, before I could decide to leave. Confrontations were not my specialty, and talking with my ex-girlfriend was a type of confrontation I'd never experienced before.

"K-Koushiro?" she stammered when she caught sight of me.

"Hello, Mimi…."

"You didn't need to knock you know," she said softly. "You kind of live here too."

"I wasn't sure where I stood on that front, actually," I admitted awkwardly. "I don't know the protocol for this…"

"Are you here to take your stuff and leave?"

Her bottom lip quivered and I was losing any sort of resolve I'd gathered. It was one thing to watch her cry when she was being horrid to Sora, and everyone else really, but it was another to see her standing there in oversized pajamas, looking so small and defenceless, trying to hold off tears. It was worse too, because Sora assured me that she was better now, and therefore fully aware of any consequences her actions caused her.

"Sora suggested I…talk to you," I said, gauging her reaction to the mention of Sora. She didn't seem angry or jealous. That was definitely a positive. She actually seemed rather pleased by the idea. Before I could decide what to make of my observations, she jumped into a speech.

"I'm so, so, so, _so_ sorry, Koushiro," she said. "I didn't mean to do it. But, I guess I _did_ mean to, because I made all of those decisions regardless of Leviamon's influence. I wouldn't have ever acted like that I don't think if it wasn't for him though. I might've been a bit jealous at times, because you spend so much time with her, but I wouldn't have gone crazy. And I never would have suspected you of anything. I mean, I totally spent a lot of time with Jou too, and that's practically the same thing, but turned around right? So it would have been hypocritical to be mad at Sora and not have you be mad at me. But I _love_ Sora. There are things that she does that get on my nerves, but there're probably more things about me that get on her nerves. I'm pretty annoying, you know. But I wanted her to live here. I _wanted_ to have your best friend, and one of my closest friends living with us."

"Breath Mimi," I suggested before she could get much further into her rant. There was a lot there that I needed to process.

"You don't have to forgive me, you know," she whispered. "I'm not expecting it. _I_ wouldn't forgive me. But I do forgive you for ruining my birthday, even though it was mostly my fault. And I hope you don't mind, but I threw that movie out…it was broken anyway, since you, Ken and Yamato watched it so much, but I threw it out before I could ask…"

"That's fine," I said. "I didn't like it anyway."

"Good," she said. "And I'm glad you're safe. Sora was really worried. I take it my suggestion worked? Noriko was able to get there?"

"She was," I said awkwardly. Was this the point where I was supposed to tell her that I either did or didn't forgive her? I didn't know if I did just yet or not though. She was pretty horrible…but I'd been pretty bad too, when I was under Belphemon's command. We weren't on the same level by any means, but I wasn't without fault either. And I knew firsthand how drastically different I felt the moment that Belphemon had been destroyed. Was it the same for her too? Could I really just forget it ever happened? No. I couldn't forget about it. Not with how much damage it did to Sora. But maybe…I could follow Sora's example, and learn to get passed it?

"I'm going to make it up to Sora, you know," she informed me. "And Jou, and I'd like to make it up to you too. If you'd let me?"

This was the moment that could make or break our future together, and I found I just wasn't ready to get rid of that chance we'd had before. I wanted to see if we could still make it, despite our fluctuations.

"I still love you, Mimi," I told her. "The real you anyway, and I'm pretty sure that's what I'm seeing right now."

"You are," she said with tear filled eyes and a wavering smile.

"Then I think we ought to give it another go," I offered. "Just to see how we fare?"

"I think I'd really, _really_ love that, Koushiro," she said. I opened my arms, and she was quick to envelop herself in them, pushing herself up onto her toes as she closed in on my mouth.

But the door banged open, startling her before she could do just that.

"Koushiro!" Taichi yelled. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you. The gate's back open, and that means we've got to get to the council. Agumon said Marrow's been trying to kick the two of us out just because we missed the one meeting. We've got to get there ASAP. He also said something about some orbs? I don't know. But we're late, so get a move on. Oh, hi Mimi."

"Hello, Taichi," she said softly. I squeezed her hand, a silent promise that we'd get back to this later and followed Taichi into the office area in the living room.

"Bye!" she called.

"Good, the gates are both still open. It would totally suck to get stuck in the Digital World," Taichi said. I chose not to comment. Did he not know where I'd been for the last little while? "Okay. Let's go show Marrow who's boss."

We were the last people to enter the meeting room, and I was surprised to see that everyone was there. We'd missed the meeting, but they were still waiting. Tinkermon was telling Centarumon a rumour that human women were seen near a restaurant. I wondered which few it was. Sora, Mimi, Hikari, Kurayami, Mari—not Miyako, obviously. There were also quite a few friends that were brought to and from the Digital World these days as well, Rei and Katsue were a couple… I shook the thought out of my mind. I had other things to contemplate at the moment.

"Nice of you to show your faces," Marrow sneered.

"Well, you know, we were barred from the Digital World," Taichi said. "So, did we miss anything important?"

"Other than the decree that Koushiro, here, is no longer a part of the council?" Marrow asked with a grin.

"Yeah…that's not happening," Taichi told him. "I take it you substituted as head of the council while I was absent. I also take it that you did not read the guide list that I had written about what someone could and could not do in my absence? I still get the final say. It's rule number one. Agumon also informed me that a vote took place that made it so that decision couldn't even exist, so nope. It didn't happen. Sit down Koushiro."

"We're having _another_ meeting?" Divermon said exasperatedly.

"Just a quick recap one," Taichi said.

"How many meetings do we need to have in one week?" Babamon wanted to know.

"One," Taichi told her. "It's always been one."

"This is at least the sixth," MetalifeKuwagamon informed him.

"No, it's the first. Well, it's the second, since you had the last one without me," Taichi corrected him. "Not exactly an easy mistake to make, but I'll overlook it."

"There have been many meetings," Leomon said slowly.

"I'm getting confused," Ogremon added.

"Time is off kilter," I announced figuring I might as well voice my theory to a group of well rounded individuals. There was bound to be someone in the council that could help me figure out _why_ that was so.

"That's preposterous," Marrow declared.

"Yet true," I said. "Through experience, I've found that time is currently travelling at a much slower pace in the Digital World than it is on Earth."

"If you knew that, why didn't you tell Taichi," Tinkermon wanted to know. "Then we wouldn't have had to have so many meetings. We might actually get time to go to our homes and gather some news to share."

"I wasn't aware of the problem until just earlier today," I said sheepishly. I didn't like not being aware of issues this big. It made me feel inadequate. "Was there an instance when such a thing occurred in the past?"

I geared the question towards Babamon and Centaurumon, who'd been a part of the Digital World since the very beginning.

"Once, that I can recall," Babamon nodded. "A digimon from the Never Land sector grew too powerful, and became a force to be reckoned with."

"Millenniummon," Tinkermon supplied. "I remember him. Real rough around the collar. He didn't exactly fit in with the rest of Never Land. He was a real mean digimon. He got the boot though, when he tried to convince the other digimon there to join him in his quest for world domination. We weren't gonna join him. We're happy with Never Land. We never grow up there. He didn't either, not really."

"I've heard of him," I murmured, running through the various stories I'd read in the histories of the Digital World. Ken beat him, though he didn't remember it. Gennai told me about his abilities though. And his team of digimon, one for each of the elements.

"I was just discussing this very topic with Veemon," Benjamin spoke up. "He was very interested in it, asking some very good questions. I suppose, Tinkermon, that his powers over time itself were due to Never Land's never changing timeline?"

"I think so," Tinkermon agreed. "He's gone though, never came back. He'd be in Never Land if he did though. Or else he wouldn't have the same abilities. I'm not even sure if he was really defeated though. I could ask around."

"He was beaten," I offered. "By a digidestined…maybe two. Gennai was never really clear on the subject. He just kept telling me that he isn't a threat to the Digital World anymore. That he'd moved on to better things."

"That's not remotely ominous," Taichi snorted.

"Perhaps I could offer some information?" D'Arcmon asked. I nodded eagerly. I was learning so much already. No, it didn't all help me figure out the problems we were necessarily facing, but I was so far behind that any information was good information. D'Arcmon produced two orbs—one brown and the other pure white—that had Marrow's eyes widen. There was something so familiar about them, as if I'd seen one similar to them before…but I couldn't put my finger on where. Or when. "These orbs, they possess the elements of the Digital World. I suggest you break them, and set them free."

"Now wait just a minute," Marrow interrupted angrily. "We agreed these would go back to their rightful place."

"We did, yes," D'Arcmon said. "And that is what I am assuring happens."

Taichi took one look at Marrow's red, angry face and grabbed the two orbs, chucking them at the stone wall. They smashed instantly with bright colours of light swirling in the air, and suddenly if felt like we were falling. The Temple crashed into something. Everyone was knocked out of their seats, and I slammed my head against the cold, stone floor.

"The ground, the earth is back," D'Arcmon said happily. "And therefore, so is gravity."

"No way," Taichi said with a grin, looking towards the window, and sure enough the Temple market wasn't merely floating stalls anymore. It was in rough shape thanks to the landing, but the dirt paths were back, and the blades of grass had finally stopped floating midair. Lush green patches were scattered throughout the earth of the courtyard. "We brought back the ground? Yes! That's awesome. What was the other one though?"

"Light," D'Arcmon said. "Not the most helpful of elements without fire, which is what makes up the sun, but it is good to have it restored as well."

"Better than good," Taichi agreed. "Freaking fantastic. I can't believe you didn't want them smashed, Marrow."

"If I'd have known they were simply trapping our world, I would have broken them myself," he said, though he looked angry still. Shouldn't he be pleased that a part of the Digital World was back?

_**Iori Hida:**_

It wasn't what I wanted to see. I wanted to see Meiyomon doing something naughty, like blowing up a butterfly like he used to, but I was met with the sight of him surrounded by ten super-heated balls of light in the shape of a cross. He wasn't his bubbly child self either, he'd digivolved. That was enough of a sign for me to know that this small angel digimon that he was facing was more than met the eye.

And I was so mad at him for attacking my baby brother.

He was small, about as young looking as Meiyomon usually looked, and was blonde. He wore a white toga, and had two wings sprouting out of his head. There were gold cuffs wrapped around his wrists and ankles, and there was blue writing across his skin. There were four sets of wings, all the same brilliant, gleaming white as the ones on his head.

He looked harmless, except for the gut twisting grin spread across his face.

"Hello," he said. His voice started out childish, but dropped quickly into that of a man. His body shifted with each step he took towards me. His hair grew longer, and he became a tall man with five wings the same perfect white on one side of his body, while the connecting five shifted dramatically to long, black bat wings. One of the wings sprouting from his hair changed to match them. He wore white books with the gold cuffs still there, now with golden wings attached, but now wore black pants instead of his previous toga, and a white and black shirt with black and red sleeves. One hand was wearing a gleaming white glove, while the other looked like the tips were dipped in pure evil. And the collar on his shirt was a set of black angel wings. "Do you like my work?"

"What have you done to him," I growled.

"Not pleased I take it?" he asked. "That's alright. It's not for everyone. It goes over your head. Don't feel bad. You can't be expected to be on my level."

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"I am Lucemon," he said proudly. "I am the embodiment of Pride, returned at last. How the Digital World has suffered since my absence. It needs a healthy dose of Lucemon to put it back on its feet."

"What it needs is to be rid of _you,_" Hawkmon informed him.

"There's no need to be rude," Lucemon snapped. "You will fall. I can promise you this. You aren't at their level. The pioneer digidestined. The original set that were united with their digimon, body and spirit. _They_ defeated me, but I've learned from that experience. I won't let another human defeat me."

"You're wrong, you know," I told him, forcing my anger away. I couldn't let it cloud my judgement in this encounter. "No digimon that has _ever_ claimed things like that has managed to fulfill their promises."

"I'm confident that I'll be the first," he said. "It shouldn't be too hard. You're all on your lonesome. You're partner is missing, or haven't you heard?"

"Armadillomon?" I gasped.

"How did you get here?" the Queen asked, coming to stand at my side. "Iori has the only key."

But I left the gateway open. I _had_ to, or else I wouldn't be able to get home. Did he go through my house? I'd left Armadillomon, Meiyomon and Kotemon behind. What if my mother came home? Would he have killed her too? There wasn't any doubt in my mind. He would have. He seemed ruthless. And he had my brother in his grasps.

"Us sinful digimon don't adhere to simple rules of travel," he said with a haughty smile. "Daemon has ensured that we can travel wherever we wish at our leisure. All the better to hunt down pesky digidestined who think they can escape us by leaving their home plane."

"Ahh!" Meiyomon started to scream. The balls of light were drawing out his life force. He was already on his knees, struggling to hold onto his champion form.

"Meiyomon!" I called, glaring at Lucemon.

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon called. He jumped forward and removed his ornamental feather that was tucked into the black belt wrapped around his head. He used his black claws to whip it at Lucemon as if it were a boomerang. He was brave, but the red and white hawk was not the golden armadillo that I wanted to see. I couldn't help Hawkmon in this fight. Not unless he'd let me jump into the fray myself and try and beat Lucemon with my own two fists. I had enough anger trapped within me that I might actually do some damage before I went down for the count, but I doubted that Hawkmon or the Queen would let me.

A blast of green magic joined the feather on the course towards Lucemon before it hit. He was surprised, not hurt like I'd hoped, but it was enough to get him to let Meiyomon loose.

"Interesting," he said. "I'd pegged you as a human."

"You guessed wrong," the Queen said firmly.

"You messed with the wrong digimon," Meiyomon growled, exploding the ground around Lucemon's feet.

"I really would have thought you would have learned," Lucemon said shaking his head at Meiyomon's apparent foolishness. "Paradise Lost Punch!"

He launched Meiyomon into the air, before jumping up after him, slamming his fist into Meiyomon's stomach sending him careening to the meadow. Meiyomon landed hard, causing the ground to shift underneath him. The Queen thought quickly though, and wished for it to be soft so he didn't get too badly injured.

"Now for the bird," Lucemon said with a smile. "Deadly Roll!"

"I don't think so," the Queen snarled, wishing for a wall to appear between him and Hawkmon, who he'd been aiming for. "Iori, you must take them and run. Do it. I can hold him off. It is within my power to do so. But you must hurry. Your friend is in need of your help. Honour needs you, she's been taken. Go! I cannot hold him for long. Get going. You must be safe. The Holy Ones must be safe. Don't hesitate!"

She said not to, but I couldn't help it. How was I supposed to let her do this? She could die. I was pretty sure Lucemon's curiosity wouldn't be enough to keep her alive. But she was sure she could do this, and I wasn't a hundred percent sure of her abilities like she was. I wasn't even sure I knew what she was, or where she came from. But she _did_ understand the Land of Dreams far better than any other. She lived here. It was her domain. And she wouldn't lie to me.

And Miyako was in trouble. I didn't know how the queen new, but she seemed to know a lot of things that she really shouldn't know.

So I had no choice. I didn't enjoy it, but that didn't mean I had another option. Meiyomon and Hawkmon were depending on this. I had to go. I grabbed Hawkmon's wing, after he'd caught his feather, and dragged him and Meiyomon towards the gateway, slamming it closed behind us when we were through. No. It wouldn't help if he could really travel the dimensions without the keys, but it was a small comfort.

I had to warn the others though. We'd underestimated the sin digimon after sloth and envy went down so easily. But if he'd been defeated by the original digidestined however many years ago, we'd be able to beat him now. If we were careful.

_**Natsuko Takaishi:**_

"So where do we go now?" Lekismon asked. "I want to keep going. Dorumon is right you know, there are other Death Knights." All of us were sitting around the table. It was weird, for sure, that all of us had accidentally found ourselves in the Digital World, but at the same time, it was comforting to know it wasn't out to get just me and Kae. Yuuko and myself seemed much more equipped for the world itself than Satoe, Yoshie or Kae, but the three of them still sat at the table willing to help when the time came.

"There should be ten." Firamon added. "We killed three, so in theory, seven more."

"So seven more bad guys to kill until the Digital World returns to its former glory." Dorumon said with a strangely thirsty look in his eyes.

"It feels weird to be helping put it back together." Minervamon said quietly, and the Kiyoko boy nodded in agreement. Patamon was awake now and sitting in his arms, watching the conversation play out with big eyes.

"Well hopefully you'll get used to it." Satoe added, "I like it. It's kind of fun!"

"Exciting!" Yoshie agreed with excitement.

"So seriously though," Lekismon said, "Where are we going next?"

"We could just go out and search?" Dorumon suggested.

"I'd rather not leave my restaurant again." Digitamamon said, "I might miss that awful man coming back and trying to tear it down."

"We won't let him." Yoshie said, determined. "We'll keep you saf—" There was a loud howl outside and we were all on our feet in a second running for the doorway. Yuuko and I were the first outside, and were almost impaled by flying darts. Had it not been for Kiyoko and Digitamamon tackling us out of the way we'd have been toast.

I pulled myself shakily to my feet and looked toward the dart wielder. It was a digimon dressed in pink and red clothing. He was dark and sharp blades sticking from his robe sleeves.

"Who are you?" Yuuko growled, using me to balance herself on her way to her feet.

The digimon was standing calmly in the cool breeze of the Digital world, his arms crossed and his side to us. He was standing very dramatically. "I am Matadormon." He informed us.

"And why are you attacking my customers?" Digitamamon growled angrily. "Go attack someone else."

"Look!" Dorumon shouted, pushing past Yoshie and Satoe. "He has one of those orb things!" And sure enough, wrapped around his neck was a necklace finished off with a large black sphere.

"Darkness." Firamon said, sure of himself.

"Why did he come to us?" Lekismo asked, "I thought it would be hard to find them."

"Even I was harder to deal with that this guy..." Minervamon said slowly, and again, Kiyoko nodded.

"I felt the pain of losing my brothers." Matadormon informed us. "I followed the scent and energy, and they led me here, where their demise took place."

"Wrong," Satoe said harshly, "Wrong, wrong, wrong! We defeated them elsewhere, we just brought back your precious little jewels and smashed them to smithereens!"

"How dare you!" Matadormon barked, throwing more darts toward Satoe. It was Minervamon this time who saved the day, pulling her partner out of the way of the attack.

"This is crazy." I declared, "We can't just let him walk all over us like this."

"R-right." Kae stuttered. "Firamon?"

"Lekismon!" I ordered firmly.

"Minervamon!" Satoe joined in.

"Digitamamon!" Yoshie called.

"Dorumon!" Yuuko growled.

"Piedmon..." Kiyoko added quietly.

"Let's dance," Matadormon said dramatically.

_**Kae Ichijouji:**_

My life was now an endless array of battles. I wasn't sure I enjoyed it much. But I was very happy to have a partner in Coronamon—who I supposed was now called Firamon. It made the fighting a little easier to handle. Standing there surrounded by floating trees and blades of grass, it was nice to know that there were others at my side ready to fight with me. There was Lekismon, a warrior rabbit, Firamon's closest friend, and her partner Natsuko—who was quite nice, though we didn't particularly get along. Yoshie, so even tempered and sweet, was paired up with a hotheaded egg digimon, Digitamamon. Satoe—Yoshie's exact opposite—was paired up with a fierce woman warrior called Minervamon, and Yuuko had an eager to please Dorumon at her side.

And we actually had a digidestined—though I didn't recognize him and therefore had to take Yoshie's word on the subject—to help us this time. He had a clown digimon named Piedmon at his side and a small laptop in his hands, nervously staring at Matadormon, our opponent.

"Let's dance," Matadormon announced, and then he proceeded to run right at us. Digitamamon thrust himself forward and tackled Matadormon off of his current path, desperate to save his restaurant from unwarranted damages.

"Attack!" Dorumon shouted, jumping into the fray. Apparently we weren't going to get any time to think about strategy this time around. That didn't sound like a good idea. We'd only won in the past because of our strategy. Not mine…but the others'.

"Nightmare Syndrome!" Digitamamon attacked, sending a nightmarish demon at the colourful Matadormon.

"No!" Matadormon said, jumping out of the way. "I won't allow such tactics."

"You don't have much choice," Dorumon snorted, rearing up for an attack of his own. "Metal Cannon!" An iron sphere came out of his mouth, and hit Matadormon right in the stomach.

"If this is all you were going to unleash, then this will be more fun than I initially thought," Matadormon said gleefully jumping from foot to foot in a strange sort of dance.

"Chouzetsu Rappashu!" Matadormon called, spinning around and raiding his blade-clad foot at Dorumon, only to have Piedmon jump in the way and stop his leg with a blade of his own.

"Madness Merry-Go-Round!" Minervamon called, holding her sword out and spinning so fast that I lost sight of everything, seeing only a small tornado. The tornado swerved and was sent careening towards Matadormon, who jumped above her, allowing her to fall into Piedmon's arms.

"Burudoggu!" Matadormon shouted, holding out the blades on his arms out and spun just once, slashing at the pair of them.

"Tear Arrow!" Lekismon screamed.

"Fira Bomb!" Firamon yelled.

A ball of pure flames and an ice arrow hit Matadormon's back before he could do any damage, distracting him enough to keep him from trying again.

"Kiyoko, wasn't it?" I asked the young blonde who was busy typing away at his laptop.

"Um…yes," he said shyly.

"Do you think we can win?" I wanted to know.

"Yes," he said. "Minervamon and Piedmon should be enough power to back up any strategy you come up with."

"_You_ won't come up with the strategy?" I asked, disappointed.

"I—I don't do strategy. Sigma did…but he's not here anymore," he said softly. "But Piedmon's smart. He can do it too."

"Maybe we could tag team him?" Satoe suggested. "One goes to hit him, and when he dodges that one, the other one nails him?"

"Sounds good to me," I told her.

"Minervamon, attack him!" she screamed.

"On it, boss," Minervamon said cheerily, winding up for another Madness Merry-Go-Round. Matadormon saw her coming and jumped out of the way, right into Piedmon's path.

"Attack!" I shouted, cheering him on, as Kiyoko seemed too shy to in the crowd. I didn't think I'd ever meet a more soft-spoken person than myself. But it seemed that I was wrong.

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon called, lighting both hands with what I assumed to be lightning, before unleashing the electricity sending it flying at Matadormon electrocuting him. He wasn't de-digitizing though, like I'd expected him to.

"Firamon, use another bomb!" I called. The other digimon seemed to realize my plan—which wasn't clever by any means—and launched their own attacks back at Matadormon, destroying him on contact.

"We did it!" Dorumon shouted as everyone cheered. The black orb that Matadormon had been holding came rolling to Yoshie's feet, and she picked it up, smashing it as hard as she could against one of the floating trees. Just as I'd expected with darkness, nothing looked changed, though I was sure it was.

"That's four now," Natsuko commented.

"But there are more," Dorumon declared. Grabbing Yuuko's hand, he started leading her away from us. "We have to go Yuuko. Let's go!"

"Don't go anywhere!" Yuuko called to us, amused by Dorumon's enthusiasm. "I'll need to be able to find you again."

I agreed with her. We needed to keep tabs on our locations just in case our kids came to find us, though I was starting to think that just _maybe_, we were able to take care of ourselves in the Digital World that we were repairing, even if we were all absolutely exhausted and in desperate need of rest.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** With the parents still trapped in the Digital World, Miyako missing in action, Daemon and his remaining minions wandering about, and all the secrets roaming around in their group of Digidestined, will they ever be able to sort everything out? Find out next time. Seriously.


	33. The Return

**Y/N:** I'm not sure if I only wrote the one this chapter or not, but I have to say that writing as Sigma—or I guess Kiyoko now :)—is one of my very favourite things to do. His parts almost write themselves. Now I'm not sure they're any good, I just enjoy it. In any case, review if you can, and enjoy the ride!

**U/N:** I wrote Michael, and Hiroaki, and I think Yuuko and Kurayami here... some stuff goes doooown! I'm just going to say it-it's not well written. I'm not proud of it really. Not Michael's in any case, but the parents, I already told you that their plots are compacted so I don't feel embarrassed about that, but I truly do think Michael's is poorly written, and for that... I am sorry.

I hope you like it though... and... review and stuff?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 33: The Return**

_**Hiroaki Ishida:**_

Fumiko was a very nice woman. Natsuni was cool too, but she was a little wild. She was running ahead with Goblimon though, leaving Fumiko and I time to talk. The earth and the stars had come back only moments ago, a while after the grass, bushes and trees had come with the sky. I wasn't sure what exactly had made them appear, but either way, Fumiko had been below ground level when it happened so we'd had to dig her out of the ground that had trapped her up to her knees. But we'd gone on after that as if it had never happened.

"...and then he stormed off into his room and I was taken here." Fumiko finished her story, "Oh listen to me going on and on about _my_ life. Tell me about _you_." I was so comforted by the way Fumiko looked to me. She looked genuinely interested in my words, and my expressions and everything. I hadn't felt that in a long time. Natsuko was great, but so independent. Fumiko was very different.

"Well I don't have much to say," I said casually.

"I'm sure you've got loads of interesting stories." Fumiko brushed off my brushing off of her question. "Where are you from? Where do you work? What about your family? You're... whose father?"

"Takeru's," I said, picking the one she'd probably know more, having lived in the same building as him for a while, "And Yamato's."

"Natsuko's ex-husband?" Fumiko asked.

I nodded, "I prefer to go by _boyfriend_ now actually." I informed her. She nodded and continued smiling. "I work at the Broadcast station, and I'm from Odaiba." I told her, "I got my divorce with Natsuko sixteen years ago... and we got back together three years ago..."

"And how is that going?" She asked.

How was my relationship going? No one had asked me that. How _was_ it going?

"Awful." I admitted, "She always wants to be by herself, she's mean and sheltered, and I try to break through but I can't, and she won't watch any movies with me because she hates all _my_ movies, but I hate all of her movies, and she only cooks healthy foods, and she keeps leaving in the middle of the night to do a report on something—sometimes I think she'd prefer to not be dating me." I turned to Fumiko who was shocked, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that."

"And how do you feel?" Fumiko said, ignoring my apology, "You think she'd rather be single—what about you?"

"I... like being in a relationship." I admitted, "But maybe... not with her. Maybe she's not the right girl." Why was I saying these things? Maybe Natsuko really wasn't the problem? Maybe it was me?

I was saved from any further talk of my failing relationship when Wizardmon appeared next to me with a swish of his cape. "I'm back!" He declared.

"What took you so long?" I asked, rushing to him. I was joking of course, he'd only been gone a mere two hours or so.

"I stopped by Gatomon's house because the gate was closed for a full day." Wizardmon explained.

"You haven't been gone a full day." I told him. But as I looked up to the sky, which had appeared moments after the grass, bushes and trees, I realized that without the sun I had no way to prove that, just the light from the stars that had not left the sky. I had no way to document how much time had passed, but I was sure it hadn't been a full day.

"So where are we going?" Wizardmon asked.

"We're finding Natsuko." I told him, before turning to Fumiko, "This is Wizardmon, he's my partner."

"Oh that's adorable!" Fumiko cheered, "I wonder if I'll get one."

"Maybe," Wizardmon nodded with a smile, giving her hope.

We rushed to catch up with Natsuni and Goblimon and were off, walking again, and I couldn't help but gaze toward Fumiko every so often. And then we were interrupted again.

If the ground had still been missing then I would never have heard him coming up behind us. I spun around just in time for him to gallop to a stop in front of me though. It was Centarumon.

"Sir Hiroaki," He said, bowing his head politely, "I do believe I have a solution to your problem." What problem? The only problem I had was that I couldn't figure out if I wanted to stay in a relationship with my girlfriend and how could he know about that? "In the last meeting with the Council with which I work I learned of a couple women residing at Digitamamon's restaurant. It's a long journey, but I'd be happy to show you the way." Natsuko was still missing... How could I have let that slip my mind?

I almost wished that the Digital World would go away again... that way we could take shortcuts or eve fly there, but the gridlines were all gone, and with them, the gravity had returned. There was earth, sky, trees—still no water, or sun, but it looked just like it was night. It was perfectly normal now, so there were no shortcuts.

"That's great!" I smiled, "lead the way!"

_**Yuuko Yagami:**_

"Dorumon!" I hissed, "Dorumon!" He wasn't listening to me though. He was just running like a maniac. Sure the Digital World was slowly putting itself back together—the earth, the sky and the likes—which we'd only done part of—but here was still more to be done, and Dorumon wanted to be the sole reason it was all accomplished.

"We're gonna win!" Dorumon was singing loudly, "And everyone is going to love me! And Taichi will be all, 'Wow you're the best, you can rule the knights now', and I'll be all, 'You finally figured that out huh?' And he'll be all—"

"Dorumon!" I shouted again. "Calm down!" He finally stopped and turned to me, allowing me to catch up.

"What?" He asked.

"You said you wanted to help," I said, "I get that. But it's not going to help anyone if you're running around screaming, drawing attention to yourself. We've defeated two of them already together—Taichi will already be pleased!"

"But there are more!" He shot, "We can't rest until they're all defeated!"

"Dorumon," I said coldly, "Both times we defeated one we had so much help from others. Do you really think we can do it on our own?"

"Yes!" He shouted with glee, "I really do!" Why was he filled with so much energy and optimism _all_ the time? Maybe we could, I hadn't ruled out that possibility completely, but it did seem unlikely. Especially since I couldn't seem to make him digivolve like all the others seemed to be able to do—which is funny in a way since he kept ranting about how close he was to his champion form.

"Dorumo—" I said, but he cut me off.

"Shhh!" Dorumon hissed, "Can't you hear that? Are you deaf?"

I froze, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as I closed my eyes and tried to listen. I heard nothing at first, but then a crack in the distance… like thunder.

"What's that?" I asked quietly.

"It's… a Death Knight." Dorumon said, "I think. Yeah, it must be…"

"Well?" I asked, "What do we do? We can't fight it alone—"

"We don't have to." Dorumon declared. "It's headed straight for the restaurant as well."

My heart started pounding quickly, "We have to go warn the others!" I said loudly, grabbing Dorumon's arm and setting off at a run toward the restaurant. We'd only been running for five minutes before we'd stopped to talk, and so it took even less time to get back as adrenaline rushed through my body.

Suddenly I was throwing myself out into the clearing in front of the restaurant, and about two hundred yards away a giant dragon equipped with his own personal storm had done the same.

_**Sigma:**_

Team Mom. Somehow I found myself an honorary member though I lacked the qualifications. I wasn't a mother. I wasn't even female. Apparently, I attracted mothers like moths to an open flame. They all seemed to love me. I couldn't see why. I didn't love me. Not yet. It would probably be a long while before I would even _like_ myself. I'd spent too long with Sigma putting me down. It wasn't his words though, that kept me from liking myself. It was the fact that I'd let him do it. I didn't stop him. I spent years with him inside my head before I even thought about getting rid of him. If it wasn't for Yoshie…I probably never would have.

The diner was crowded, even though it was closed off to the public. Digitamamon was sitting in a booth next to Minervamon and Piedmon, discussing their fight against MetalPhantomon, while Firamon and Lekismon chatted animatedly to Kae and Natsuko about their home, including detailed descriptions of the other digimon that lived there. Yoshie and Satoe were in the kitchen for a cooking lesson. I didn't particularly wish to be the test subject for that meal. Satoe was a horrible chef.

Patamon was sitting off to the side with me. We weren't interacting, and hadn't since he landed himself on the table I was seated at. He would dramatically sigh, send me a look and then sigh again. I had a feeling he wanted to talk. But I wasn't good at talking about things. Feelings, inanimate objects…anything. I was a bad conversationalist. Yoshie could get me to talk about anything under the sun, but that was mostly because I was trying to impress her. She was so helpful to me that I felt the need to do something for her in return. If all she wanted was a conversation, then I would force myself through it.

Patamon heaved yet another long, drawn out sigh. He glared at me. I shrugged at him. It was down to a science now.

"Aren't you going to ask what's wrong?" he demanded.

"Should I?" I asked quietly.

"Yes," he said. "I'm sad. That means you have to try to make me not sad."

"How can I go about that?" I asked. I was not part of the cheering committee. If he wanted that, he ought to go to Yoshie. She was wonderful at it.

"Just listen," Patamon said. "That's all I need." He seemed to take my silence as an invitation. "I can't love. And it's making me sad. All the humans around me are falling in love and I want it. But I'm not allowed."

"Why not?" I asked out of obligation.

"Because digimon don't have kids," Patamon said. "We just pop out of nowhere. We don't need to love, because we don't need to have kids."

"You don't have to be able to have kids in order to love someone," I said firmly. I needed to believe that. And I did. One hundred percent. It was a very personal matter to me.

"But I thought…" Patamon started, but I felt passionate about this topic. I never got a chance to talk about it while under Sigma's influence and it looked like Patamon needed to hear this as much as I did.

"Love is love," I told him. "Whether it's platonic, or romantic. You can love your dog, or your digimon—or your human partner—and you can love someone with all your heart, friend, family or otherwise. _I _can't have kids. Does that mean I can't love?"

"No," Patamon giggled. "You're a boy. Boys don't have kids."

"The _boy_ I like can't have kids either," I informed him. "But he can love too. And maybe…someday… we can love each other just as much as anyone else."

"Love isn't about kids then," Patamon surmised.

"No," I assured him. "It's about feelings."

"Who's the boy?" he wanted to know.

Thankfully, the restaurant shook, and I didn't have to answer him. I didn't want him to be the first person I told. It would be strange. Piedmon didn't even know yet. Only Sigma. And only because he kept trying to force the affections away.

"What was that?" Satoe screamed from the doorway to the kitchen, holding the doorframe in an attempt to stay upright.

"It came from outside," Natsuko announced.

"They'd better stop soon," Digitamamon declared. "Or else they'll tear my restaurant to the ground."

"It's Owryumon," Piedmon said. "What is he doing back here?"

"Back? This thing has been here before?" Minervamon asked.

"He was trying to destroy the restaurant under Marrow's orders," I said as I realized just who the digimon had to be. "And now he's back to finish the job."

"But we can't handle another battle so soon," Kae said worriedly. "The digimon are tired."

"We don't have a choice," Firamon told her. "We cannot sit back and let him take us down."

"I've got a little fight left in me," Lekismon agreed. "We'll fight."

"I don't like this," Yoshie said, coming into the room behind Satoe.

"You don't have to," Patamon said. His sad, sighing persona was gone and in its place was a fierce fighter. It really was too bad that he was only a rookie though.

"Come out, come out," a deep, rumbling voice called. It had to be Owryumon. "Come out and play!"

"Let's go," I said. "The quicker we come the more powerful he'll assume we are. If he thinks we're a strong united front, he'll be playing it safe, trying to find our weak points. By the time he does, we might've exploited his own."

"Okay…" Kae said nervously. But they followed my instructions. This digimon, according to Piedmon was a mega. Not all of the Death Knights were. It was really unfortunate that we couldn't have been facing an ultimate. We could have pulled that off. As it was, the digimon were exhausted. I wasn't sure how much longer Piedmon would be Piedmon. We couldn't win if he reverted back to Tapirmon. I was in the lead, and was the first to see the large, golden dragon digimon. I was right. It was the same digimon as before.

He'd been scared off by Piedmon last time though, so maybe just the sight of so many extra digimon could get him to leave again? I was having trouble piecing together a legitimate plan. I had ideas, but I wasn't stringing them together properly. My small laptop was in my arms, starting up in preparation for the battle I hoped wouldn't take place.

"No holding back this time," Owryumon told us. "I'd love to see you fall. I've never killed a human before, but I'd like to. I'd like it very much. Who's going to be my first victim?"

"Not one of us," Satoe said with sass.

"Not anyone," Yoshie added.

"We're not going to let you get away with murder," Natsuko called.

"It's an immoral act," Kae informed him.

"I don't think he cares so much about that," Firamon told her.

"He should," Kae decided.

"And the little blonde boy, doesn't he have something pointless to add?" Owryumon asked. I shook my head. I was still trying to piece together a workable plan. I didn't have time to come up with anything that sounded even remotely witty, and I wasn't going to say anything dumb. This was Sigma's department… "Too bad. You've got nothing to postpone your demise then."

"Eiseiryuoujin!" he called without warning. He first flapped his left wing, then his right, sending two blades of wind towards us. The first hit Lekismon, the second Firamon, leaving them no choice but to revert to Lunamon and Coronamon.

"Oh no!" Satoe cried.

"What do we do?" Natsuko wanted to know. Her and Kae cradled their injured digimon, and all the mothers turned to me.

"I…I don't know yet," I admitted.

"The clock is ticking," Owryumon said with a laugh. "Two down, three to go."

"Four," Patamon corrected him, flying up to his face. "Boom Bubble!" The blast of air hit him in one of his eyes and he recoiled. Patamon cheered and flew back to us.

"Piedmon," I said nervously. I didn't know if it was going to work, but Owryumon was distracted, and we didn't know if we'd be able to pull that off again anytime soon. He nodded to me, knowing what I was suggesting, and jumped into the air.

"Trump Sword!" he called. His four swords floated around him and all shot forward, ready to slice and dice Owryumon. Except he caught on.

"Eiseiryuoujin!" Owryumon shouted again. Both slashes hit Piedmon before he had a chance to move and he fell to the ground—which unfortunately had returned. It would have been easier to fight him without it. Before, if Piedmon had been slammed downward, he wouldn't have gotten hurt by the impact, as there'd been nothing to hit, but now, there was a long slab of dirt he couldn't escape. He hit it hard and started glowing.

"Piedmon!" Yoshie gasped. But he wasn't Piedmon anymore. He was Tapirmon.

"What are we going to do?" Satoe screamed. "How do we win?"

"We can't," I said.

"Not without me!" Dorumon shouted, jumping over our heads and slamming into Owryumon's tail. "Dino Tooth!" He sunk his teeth into Owryumon's flesh.

"Dorumon, be careful!" Yuuko called, having run up behind him.

"You're back," Kae gasped.

"He wouldn't miss this fight for the world," Yuuko said with a grin.

"He should have," Satoe said miserably. "We won't win. He's going to kill us. I'm so sick of fighting. But we've got nowhere to run."

"I wish we could go home," Kae said sadly. "Ken would know what to do."

"Or Yamato or Takeru," Natsuko added. "I've had enough fighting for a lifetime. I don't want to die fighting."

"If we can get away from the fight, we could head to the Temple," Yuuko suggested. "There's a way to get home there. We could go home when we've finished fighting. Taichi was going to send me home before Dorumon and I ran off."

"Get off of me," Owryumon snapped, flicking his tail quickly, sending Dorumon flying at a tree. He hit it hard enough for the tree to snap. It fell forward, landing on Dorumon.

"Dorumon!" Yuuko cried.

"Digitamamon," Yoshie said shakily. "You and Minervamon are all that's left."

Before Digitamamon could prepare himself to fight, Owryumon slammed his tail down on top of the restaurant leaving nothing but a pile of wood in its place.

"No!" Digitamamon shouted. "Nightmare Syndrome!"

"It's not worth it," I called. "We can rebuild your restaurant. We can't rebuild ourselves."

"You want us to run for it?" Satoe asked.

"Just gather the digimon," I said. "I can get us out of her right now."

"Why didn't you say so ages ago?" she demanded.

"You never asked, so I assumed you didn't want to," I said. "It doesn't matter, just do as I said."

Yuuko ran after Dorumon, Yoshie went to collect Tapirmon for me. Digitamamon came, however unwillingly.

"You're not going anywhere," Owryumon declared.

"Hurry up!" Yuuko called as her and Yoshie returned.

"I'm almost done," I said, my fingers flying across the keyboard of my laptop. I was glad I'd thought to start it up when the fight was just starting. It saved a lot of time now. There were only a few more keys to press. "Just let me get my computer ready."

"Eiseiryuoujin!" Owryumon screamed, and two blades of wind came rushing towards us.

_**Michael Washington:**_

"This is bogus." Daisuke announced, "Why are we here?"

Although he was usually wrong, Daisuke really did have a point here. What were we doing here? Just yesterday we'd had a meeting, so what was the point of having another one? Couldn't they just text me the details instead of calling me from America? I mean, was it really _really_ crucial? I wasn't part of their earlier adventures so why did it matter if I was here or not?

Plus I was pretty sure I already knew what they wanted to say. The Digital World was open again. Duh, how else would I have gotten there so fast? The trees, grass, ground and sky were back in the Digital World. Uhh… yup. I noticed. On my way through. Because I was called back to Japan. _Again_.

I was however curious as to how that happened exactly.

Willis was next to me, trying to pretend nothing was wrong, and that he wasn't feeling awkward when it was apparent that he was. Hikari was sitting at the exact opposite end of the table, trying not to make eye contact with Willis. I felt bad for them both. I really liked both of them, and I knew how awful it must have been for them to have been broken up, especially in secret. They'd agreed not to tell anyone—though they'd both already told me. I lived with them. Yeah, Tatum and Jenna lived with them too—until they _vanished_.

I was scared Betamon would vanish too so I made sure to take him everywhere with me. Like now, but just like _always_ he made sure to keep as much distance between the two of us as possible. He was currently sitting in the corner of the room by himself, trying to take a nap or whatever. But he freaking hated me, and I was starting to hate him too. We didn't get along at all—plus I was _positive_ there was going to be something wrong with him. I could just tell! Something big was happening but he wouldn't tell me… maybe there'd be some big dramatic reveal… I'd rather things just get settled instead of building up into a giant mess….

I was simply not having a good week.

Taichi was standing next to Hikari, ready to take charge of the meeting once everyone arrived. I glanced around the table, trying to make sense of who was missing. Sora and Mimi were sitting with Koushiro and Jou, Takeru, Catherine—was she part of the group now? I couldn't tell, the group seemed to be constantly growing like a snowball rolling down a hill—Yamato and Kurayami were sitting on the other end of the table… and Ken was standing behind the glass doors of the restaurant on his phone. And Daisuke was stalking towards Ken, after yelling about how bogus this all was.

That left… Miyako and Iori, providing the Allias lll wasn't invited this time—why _were_ they always invited? I mean, they _had_ tried to kill us…

Finally the doors burst open. I looked back to see Ken being dragged inside by Daisuke.

"Sit down Taichi," Daisuke declared, "I'll take it from here."

"You—" Taichi tried.

"Sit!" Daisuke demanded. Taichi reluctantly sat down in the chair next to his sister as Daisuke slammed his open palms down on the table. "Okay! What's this meeting for?"

"Sit down!" Taichi growled, realizing how ridiculous this all was. Daisuke looked deflated, but decided that he was still the best and strutted to an empty seat next to Kurayami. "Alright," Taichi stood up and looked to us, "I'm just going to explain this all to you very quickly. Ready?" We all nodded, "The Death Knights are ten beings who represent the elements of the Digital World, when destroyed they leave behind orbs filled with the fractal code of the world itself. Upon the destruction of said orbs, the Digital World is restored."

"Alright," Willis spoke up, "So who the hell is destroying the so-called 'Death Knights'?" That was a good question—but it upset me that I didn't know. Willis was usually left in the dark, but it kind of made me sad to know that I was with him this time. I thought I'd been making progress on my list… Yamato had been crossed off immediately since we'd bonded on our attempt to be evil, I'd saved Sora's life and she'd acted kindly to me since, Koushiro and I bonded over ancient runes, Mimi used to be my best friend, I currently lived in a very awkward situation with Hikari, I'd been on a date with Miyako, Daisuke, Ken and I often hung out together, Willis was my brother… I mean that only left Taichi, Jou, Takeru, Kurayami and of course… Iori…

So why didn't I know?

"I don't know." Taichi said. Ohhh… no one knew. That made sense.

"If I may?" Jou said, raising his hand, "I think it's probably your parents." Everyone looked to him like he was crazy but he continued, "Lalamon said that the likely hood of us finding them was scarce due to the fact that they were probably on a mission. Perhaps this is that mission?"

"They don't have digimon." Mimi pointed out.

"No, it makes sense." Taichi decided. "My mother has one… and she'd left me after saying that she was going to destroy them all." Koushiro was already looking through his computer for something. "Well, either way, I got the privilege of destroying a couple of the orbs. I brought back the earth and the light. You're all welcome."

"Yay!" Takeru cheered, giving Taichi the reaction he wanted. Taichi grinned at Takeru and the two burst into laughter.

"What's next?" Taichi asked.

"Katsue needs a digimon partner." Yamato said quickly. Why was that important? I didn't think it really sat on the same level as the Digital World coming back.

"That's not as important." Taichi said dismissively.

"My impending imprisonment isn't important to you?" Yamato growled. "Who decides what's important or not? Am I not important enough to the team that you don't even care?"

"We care!" Sora insisted, "We'll help."

"Great," Yamato said, but he was still angry, "But _still_! We're all being incredibly selfish. Our parents are out there in the Digital World right now, fighting against enemies that we aren't allowed to—and no one even cares! Why are we just letting things slide? At first I thought it was because we'd grown up—but it doesn't make us more mature to be calm about it—our parents could be dead."

"They're not." Koushiro said with a sense of finality as he stared down at his computer. How could he know? "I've got them… Taichi reminded me that they have digivices—some of them anyway… and if you give me some time I should be able to narrow in on the signal."

"Just like that?" Takeru asked shocked, "Really?"

"They must be ready," Jou said, drawing my attention. He looked really tired—he'd probably been up late trying to figure out what to do with his wedding now that it had crashed… "I still agree with what Lalamon said, if we can narrow in on their signal and find them, their journey must be over." Everyone was silent so Jou continued, "I'd like to point out that Gomamon is missing. If anyone, or their digimon have any knowledge of his whereabouts, would you kindly let me know?"

"I'll ask Palmon." Mimi said quickly, clapping her hands together, "She ran after him right, she'll know."

"They're in the Digital World…" Willis said slowly, "Right? Did anyone let them out? I—well, I thought… I let them in, so…"

"Oh," Koushiro said, looking up, "There's probably no need to worry then. The time in the Digital World has been set off balance, as it was before Ken defeated Milleniumon," Koushiro said. I looked to Ken, thankfully he was just as confused as I was, "Well it's reverse now actually, so Gomamon is probably still blowing off steam since he's moving slower than you are."

"What?" Mimi gasped, "That can't be good—I'll get really old while Palmon stays young!"

"Well once the Death Knights are defeated the time should return to normal..." Koushiro said slowly. "I think." Then he was back to his computer, typing away, trying to find the signal for everyone's parents.

"Anyone else have anything while we wait?" Taichi asked.

"Yes," Kurayami said, standing up, "There's a mysterious girl living in my home."

"Kura!" Daisuke hissed as if she'd spoken some long kept secret, "Shush!"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"I mean that I found a little girl on the streets." Kurayami said boldly, "We took her in and are raising her and—"

"Well what does that have to do with the Digital World?" Taichi asked.

"I don't know," Kurayami insisted, "But Jou said he saw her—and that tree—"

"Yeah, I did." Jou nodded, "She was sitting in the tree—which has gotten worse if anyone cares."

"Any _serious_ issues?" Taichi asked, dismissing Jou and Kurayami, much to Daisuke's pleasure.

"I'd like to talk about the Deadly sins," I said slowly. I usually didn't bring things up, but I was sort of confused, and everyone turned on me, "Yeah, hi." I said, "Uh, why are they so easy to destroy?"

"Because we're super heroes." Daisuke grinned. I heard Betamon scoff from the corner and I rolled my eyes angrily, not even looking to him.

"Maybe," I said, "But does no one else feel that there's something more going on?"

"No." Daisuke said sharply. "We're just strong and good and… awesome. Well I am." I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything else. It honestly felt to me as if there was something else going on. Daemon must've known our strategies and our weaknesses. He'd been watching us for how long? Forever! Why did he choose _now_ to strike? There had to be a reason… something more than what everyone else was seeing.

Ken started mumbling to himself, his phone held tightly in his grip.

"What?" Kurayami asked. He didn't listen so she poked his cheek and he started turning to her. "What were you saying?" She prompted.

"Miyako…" He said slowly, "She… her phone—I can't call her. She's gone. Something is wrong."

"You're probably just overreacting." Jou said calmly, "Miyako has been doing her own thing a lot lately. In fact, Mari's not here either, she's probably with her."

"Or something _awful_ has happened." Ken growled, "You almost married her sister—you're practically her brother—you should know. Bad things are happening to her—really bad things, and—" He turned to his phone and clicked a few buttons until it was on speaker.

"_I already told you! The number you are trying to reach is not in this dimension!_" A female voice rang out. Ken hung up his phone.

"Something is wrong." He said again. "Miyako is in danger… I can just tell. I can _feel _it."

"Sorry," Willis said pointedly, "Are you implying that you can feel her pain? As if you're one person?"

"No." Ken shot, "I'm saying I know when something is wrong. Miyako is the love of my life—she's more than that actually—she _is_ my life. I don't know if any of you understand, but—"

"I do." Jou nodded. "If he says something is wrong, then something is wrong."

"Well what do we—" Taichi started, but there was a loud smash in the room down the hall. "What was that?" Taichi asked.

"It came from the office." Mimi said slowly getting to her feet.

"The signal is gone…" Koushiro muttered under his breath. Mimi looked to him, her eyes widening, and then as one, we all turned down the hall as the door to the office opened up.

As a group of people stepped out into the hallway the room seemed to explode.

"MOM!" Mimi screamed excitedly, but it was Ken who was running down the hallway to greet the woman standing near the front. He threw his arms around her and hugged her tight, ignoring the flaming digimon at her feet, which was what I was most interested in. Well, that and the fact that Tatum and Jenna weren't included.

Hikari and her own mother were hugging a moment after Ken and his, and then Koushiro, who hadn't moved had been hugged from behind by his mom. Mimi and her mother were jumping up and down screaming excitedly about how much they'd grown.

"I love you Mom!" Mimi cried.

"I've learned to accept your relationship with the skinny boy!" Satoe laughed excitedly before they slammed into a hug.

Takeru seemed torn for a moment, leaving himself the last to decide what to do. Patamon was in some weird kids arms, and his mother was standing with a funny-looking rabbit digimon. He settled on hugging his mom and then turning to Patamon.

"I'm sorry for smothering you." Takeru said quietly, but I still heard it.

"I'm sorry for running away and overreacting." Patamon responded quietly.

"Where's dad?" Yamato asked, reminding everyone that the battle was not yet won. There was still more going on.

"Was he taken too?" Ms Takaishi asked.

"He was looking for you…" Yamato said.

"Can you just tell us what happened?" Hikari blurted out, and everyone nodded in agreement. So we all sat quietly as the other's parents told us the story of what had happened while they were in the Digital World. Hikari's mother had met up with Dorumon and lost Kamemon. Takeru's mother had gotten her partner, Lunamon, and Ken's mother had received Coronamon. Yoshie helped Digitamamon, her partner who was standing by the wall with Minervamon, a newly transformed Ladydevimon, who had become Satoe's partner. Between them they'd defeated the Death Knight of wood, steel, wind and darkness.

"And then Kiyoko brought us all back." Yoshie Izumi finished, motioning to the blond boy who had been with Patamon.

"I found your parents." He said with a grin.

"And… who are you?" Daisuke asked, clearly bored of a story that wasn't featuring himself as the lead.

"Sigma?" Koushiro gasped. I blinked in surprise. It _was_ him! Without his mask and his super long dangling hair he looked so different!

"We call him Kiyoko now." Yoshie declared.

Everyone seemed to explode with happiness and funny tales of what had happened in their absence for a while,

"Oh my goodness, our husbands must have gone insane!" Yuuko Yagami had noticed.

"What do you _mean_ time has altered?" Natsuko Takaishi growled, "We've all probably lost our jobs!"

"I'm old again!" Satoe Tachikawa cried.

Okay, so maybe they weren't tales of happiness.

"What's wrong dear?" Kae Ichijouji asked her son who was sitting, staring down at his fingers, "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"No I am!" He said quickly, "So happy—I've been looking for you everywhere—but…"

"But?" Mrs Ichijouji asked.

"Miyako—" But the door had opened again, and Iori came barrelling into the room, with Meiyomon and Hawkmon by his side.

"Miyako's in danger!" He shouted, and suddenly everyone was on their feet, turning to him.

"Where?" Ken asked sharply, moving swiftly across the floor, pushing past his mother's new digimon partner to get to Iori.

"We're not actually sure." Hawkmon interjected.

"Why not?" Ken shot angrily.

"Ken!" I said loudly, "You need to stay calm. Daemon has been after you forever dude—don't let his minions get control of your anger. Take a deep breath and we'll figure this out. I promise to help you."

Ken was staring at me, I could tell he was angry, but he nodded slowly. "Then what do we do?"

"You said bad things were happening to her," Kurayami prompted, "What bad things. We can figure this out."

Ken looked nervous instantly as if he knew he shouldn't tell us, but if he didn't then whatever danger she could be in would only increase, and he knew that. He'd do what was right I knew, he just had to weigh over the options in his head. "Something… comes to her… at night." And instantly I had shivers down my spine. "She… her arms are all scratched up—and the other day… it was all down her side—it was getting worse. Something wants her…"

"And you didn't tell us about this _before_?" Taichi growled, "_This_ is important stuff—why was this never brought up?" Sora grabbed his wrist and calmed him. It seemed wrath was affecting all of us now, even myself—I'd noticed myself thinking more cynically than usual.

"Has it ever happened in the day?" We all turned to Kiyoko who had spoken up. "Has anything ever… has she… did it _only_ happen at night?" Ken nodded. "Then it's… I think it might be…"

"A shadow!" Kurayami and Hikari realized together. Kiyoko nodded and pointed at them.

"So a shadow has been attacking Miyako?" Hawkmon asked.

"Why?" Iori followed up.

"Who knows," Kurayami said, "But we all know where they would have taken her." She was already on her feet, and pushing past everyone in the crowded diner to get to the door. "Let's go get her Ken." I didn't want to be left behind, so I followed them to the door quickly. "Anyone else coming?" Kurayami asked.

"I'm coming," Daisuke said as if it weren't even a real question. He was next to Ken in a moment.

"I can't," Hikari said, "My key should be left out here just in case…"

"She's right," Sora said, "We don't want another Ken and Koushiro problem." Everyone turned to the two of them, both of them blushing.

"I want to." Yamato spoke up, "But now that I know my dad's still somewhere out there in the Digital World—he went there by choice. He's not protected by destiny or whatever…"

"I have to find Gomamon." Jou said, "But the second I do I'll be there helping her. Like you said Ken, she's practically my sister."

"So none of you are coming?" Ken asked, he didn't seem to mind though, he knew everyone had important things of their own to handle—so much was happening right now. He shook it off and turned to the door, but froze, turning back to his mother, "Mom—" He tried.

"Go," She grinned at him, "Be safe."

Ken smiled at her, "Thanks…" He said with a nod, and with that we were rushing out the door.

"Come on Betamon!" I yelled. I heard him groan loudly. I waited by the door, and watched as he lazily waddled from the crowd and out onto the street. I closed the door behind him and turned to the others.

"What're we doing?" Betamon asked loudly.

"Saving Miyako, come on." I said sharply.

"Sounds exhausting." He said annoyingly. I had to force myself to not scream at him—this wrath thing was really taking control now. "Where is she."

"The Dark Ocean." Kurayami said, "Come on, we don't have time to waste."

"Oh hell no." Betamon growled, "That place is screwed up. Do it yourself."

"Betamon!" I growled, "You're _coming_." I snapped.

"No!" Betamon yelled back.

"_Yes!_" I screamed, unable to hold it back any longer.

"Why are you always so controlling?" Betamon screamed, clenching his eyes shut in anger, "You just keep talking and talking—your voice, is annoying—your hair looks like a deflated bush poorly bleached and your ideas all suck. I don't want to have a picnic with you dude, I don't want to save your friend—I don't know her, I don't care about her—and most importantly I do _not_ want to _talk_ to you! Just let me go home!"

"You're an ass!" Kurayami said bluntly. Betamon lurched forward and, with his razor sharp teeth, bit her leg, hard.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" I screamed, prying his jaw open, and pulling him away from Kurayami.

"I'm not your _damned_ partner!" He screamed as if he'd wanted to get that off his chest for a long time, but the look on his face said he wanted to take it back instantly. But that was impossible. What did he mean…? This wasn't… Betamon…?

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

I couldn't blame Michael for backing out of coming with us—I couldn't blame anyone really—they all had their own woes, but so did I. Did no one remember my mother? She was gone still… Alive, last I'd heard, somewhere in one of the nine worlds. But Betamon wasn't Michael's partner? Where was the real Betamon? Either way, that was out of sight, and out of mind. I couldn't worry about that yet, all that mattered was that without his partner, Michael was of no use to us on this journey.

We had already reached Daisuke's apartment, and I was throwing things around the room furiously. I couldn't find the key anywhere. I needed it—like _now!_ Maybe we should have gotten Hikari's key? No! I had one too. Just where was it?

"Labramon?" I asked calmly to my partner who was sitting at the end of the bed. He practically screamed in fear at the sudden attention. "What's wrong—no—no time. Have you seen my Dark Ocean key?"

He shook his head. Great. I guess I'd have to keep looking. But it wasn't anywhere in the bedroom. I must have left it somewhere else. Hawkmon, Iori, Daisuke, Veemon, Ken, Wormmon, Takeru and Patamon were down, searching the rest of the house.

I turned to the door and froze. Something was engraved on the back of it… It honestly looked very messy but I could make out a 'Y' at the start, and the letters 'sil' at the end.

"Come on," I said quickly, holding the door open for Labramon, and together we rushed down the stairs, and into the kitchen where Iori and Hawkmon were throwing things out of the cupboards, destroying Labramon's fort.

The fort reminded me of the boy that had entered my room earlier that month… had he taken it? Was that possible? No—he couldn't have.

"Found anything?" Iori asked. I shook my head, "Me neither." He admitted sadly. I turned and rushed into the living room which was more of a mess than the kitchen. I knew I shouldn't have been worried about it—but I knew I'd have to clean it up—I pushed it from my mind though since Miyako was in danger somewhere. Daisuke, Ken and Wormmon were searching wildly through the room, throwing things left, right and center, while Veemon sat in the corner speaking with Norn, keeping her busy and making sure she wasn't asking any questions. The curtain that made up Takeru's room had fallen down and he and Patamon were searching there.

I moved to Norn and Veemon and sat on my knees. "Norn," I said calmly.

"Yes?" She asked, just as calm.

"Did you write something on the back of my bedroom door?" I asked her. She nodded with a big proud smile and I was suddenly unable to be mad at her. "What does it say?"

"It's my Master's name." She said simply.

_Master...?_

"Norn was just asking me if humans deserve to live." Veemon said. Easily readable in his eyes was the fact that he was hoping I'd have a good answer for her. I nodded and smiled at Norn.

"Of course humans deserve to live." I told her.

"They do bad things though." She said. "Lots of them. I see it all around you." Of course she'd pick now to go through this all. The Deadly sins had been affecting us, so she'd obviously be confused about what was right and what wasn't.

"All humans do bad things at one time or another." I said to her, "But they're all redeemable. Take me for example—I used to be filled with so much darkness and anger, and now I do whatever I can to help whoever I can. Everyone can change for the better, so no, they don't deserve to die. Remember that, okay?" She nodded and smiled up at me.

"Where is it?" Daisuke asked me suddenly.

I shrugged, "I don't know…"

"Well think!" Ken shot. I wanted to yell back, but I bit my tongue. He had every right to feel the way he did, his wife was in danger, "Where did you see it last?"

In my room at my dad's house it used to hang on the wall, but I'd packed everything from there and brought it here. It hung just next to my door on a silver hook on the wall, so I'd never lose it… Then it hit me.

"I know where it is."

"_Get_ it." Ken snarled.

"It's at my dad's house."

_"What's this?" Dad had asked, pointing to the key._

_"That's a key Dad," I said as calmly as I could. I could tell by the tone of his voice he wasn't pleased with what he saw._

_"One of your adventure time toys?" He asked._

_"Yes." I said simply._

_"It opens a door?" He asked._

_"That's what keys do," I pointed out._

_"Where's the door?" He asked._

_"It leads to…" I knew it would be a bad idea to bring this up with him, but I did it anyway, "The Dark Ocean."_

_He looked to me, nostrils flared, his knuckles whitening with the force of his clenched fist. "You _dare_ bring up that world to me?" He boomed, reaching for the key and ripping it from the wall._

_I jumped to my feet and stole it back instantly, ripping it from his tight grip. "Get lost!" I growled, "I need to keep it safe!"_

_"Nothing about that world is safe!" He yelled, "Nothing! I refuse to let you keep it—I won't lose you too."_

_Without saying anything I'd pushed him from the room and slammed the door shut, hiding the key in the place I hid everything I didn't want my dad to find, under the floorboard in my closet._

How had I missed that when I was packing up? That was where I kept everything important to me…

I slammed my fist against the door to my father's house, leaving Takeru and Patamon behind to watch over Norn, everyone else was standing behind me in some sort of menacing mob. We'd all rushed outside and gotten onto the bus, catching it just in time. We waited a few moments, but my father didn't answer the door, so I hopped off the cement porch and pushed away a couple daffodils and a stone, reaching into the crack at the base of the porch pulling out a tiny silver key.

I hopped back up and unlocked the door, pushing it open. "Hello?" I called out, "Dad?" I waited for an answer, and then turned to the others, "He's not home. Come on." I ushered them inside where Daisuke led them to my bedroom.

"I don't like it here." Labramon said to me, taking up the rear. "I always feel scared that your dad is going to snap."

"He's not even here," I said as comfortingly as I could. I sometimes felt the same—the only difference being I wasn't afraid of him. I just thought he was bound to snap eventually. I led Labramon after the others and into my bedroom where Ken, Daisuke, Iori, Wormmon, Veemon and Hakwmon were sitting on the stripped down bed. The only thing I'd left in the room were the band posters and dream catchers hanging from the walls and ceilings. The walls were black with red paint splattered over them.

I'd gone through a phase.

I didn't waste time looking around though and instead headed straight for the back of the room, sliding open the black doors to the closet and fell to my knees. I was already reaching for the loose floorboards when I'd heard the footsteps. I reached inside the hole in the floor and pushed aside the framed picture of my grandfather and I, and the tiny blue box that held a ring my mother had passed down to me, grabbing the slim key, pulling it from the darkness within. I spun around as the footsteps drew nearer and saw the door being pushed open.

"Kura?" Dad said, staring toward me, ignoring my friends on the bed. His hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, messy, black and thinning. His clothes looked tattered and old, and he had large bags under his eyes.

"Hey sir," Daisuke said, trying to be polite with him, as always.

"What are you doing?" Dad asked me, ignoring Daisuke, as always. He was staring at the key in my hands. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go to the Dark Ocean," I tried to reason with him.

"No!" He screamed, throwing his hands to his head.

"I have to—" I tried, but he suddenly threw his fist toward the wall.

"NO!" He screamed again. "You can't leave me!"

"Dad—"

"Give me the key!" Dad screamed, stepping toward me. Before I could even tell he'd moved, Daisuke was in between the two of us, holding him back from me.

"Sir, it's important—" Dad had interrupted him, but he didn't stop talking over him, "You don't understand! It's a life or death situation!"

"Kura you have to stay!" Dad screamed as Iori and Veemon leapt to their feet to keep him back as he overpowered Daisuke. With the three of them holding him back he was withheld, unable to move as he screamed. My heart was pounding quickly—I wanted to do what he said so badly—he looked so sad—so fearful… I couldn't put him through all of that—but I had to. I had to help Miyako…

I jumped to my feet and turned from him, throwing my closet door closed and using the key on it. The black door glowed from the cracks around the edges.

I was trying to ignore my father, but I heard him screaming. "She can't leave me like her mother did! Kura stop! Don't go! I'll _hate_ you!"

I winced, but paid no mind to him, sliding the door open again. Instantly I felt a strong pull into the Ocean as the cool breeze washed over me from the world in front of me. The grey sands, the black water the dark sky…

I looked back and Ken was already to his feet. He jumped through, ahead of me, Wormmon in his arms and Hawkmon in his wake.

I looked back for a moment and forced myself to turn away quickly at the sight of tears staining my father's face. I shook my head, trying to keep the image out of my mind, and I ran through the door, Labramon following at my feet.

"NO!" Dad screamed. "COME BACK!" I looked over my shoulder and saw him throw Iori to the ground, pushing Daisuke out of the way. Veemon was no match for him as he ran toward the door.

And then Daisuke locked eyes with me and I knew what was about to happen. I nodded and he lunged forward. "Save her!" He shouted, slamming the door shut. I watched as it glowed and, with a flash, it had vanished.

"We're trapped here?" Labramon asked.

"Just like Miyako." Hawkmon pointed out.

"We're going to save her though," Ken said, seemingly trying to convince himself, "And then we'll worry about getting out of here." It wasn't the best plan ever… but it was all we had.

I found myself staring at the place that the door had been, and it wasn't until Ken had grabbed me around the wrist, that I forced myself to look away. We had no idea where to look, and Miyako was probably in serious danger… it was time to go find her… I couldn't imagine how frightened she must have been…

I always thought that I'd be done with this place eventually, but time and time again I'd find myself back, and sure enough, there I was, once again… in the Dark Ocean.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** Mimi finds a gift a stranger had given her and it sparks some new questions. Hikari takes us on a winding journey full of twists and surprises. Tatum and Jenna stumble upon Primary Village and must fight to defend it. Jun stands up for someone important to her. Mari and Hideto get a big shock. And Natsuko tries to adapt to normal life once again.


	34. Creation

**Y/N:** This is insane, and I hope we wrote it well enough for you to keep up. :D Things are going to get really exciting in the next couple of chapters, I hope you're up for it! Also, leave a review, if you can, telling us what you think.

**U/N:** So this is kind of a big crazy chapter that goes in a slight different direction than the others... And I hope you like it, it's always interested me, andI don't want to give too much away, but this theme has probably been the one that's interested me most about digimon, and I really wanted to put it in, so we did.

Uhm... the keys are confusing some people I hear... So I'll just kind of do a small guide here...

Dark Ocean x2- Kari and Kura

Earth-Sora

Digital World-Koushiro

Dream World-Iori

Mysterious one-Willis  
Missing x4-Not telling you ;)

Not sure how to make it more clear, but I hope it all makes sense... o.O it does to us, but that's because we're writing it of course...anyway, review? Yeah.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 34: Creation**

_**Natsuko Takaishi:**_

"Why don't you seem happy?" I asked Yamato as he pretended to be interested in the straw in his empty cup. I had to admit, I'd never spent much time with Yamato, but he was my son and I could tell when something was wrong. And something was wrong.

I was trying to pretend the trip to the Digital World never happened, but since there was a digivice sitting on my kitchen counter, and a rabbit-like digimon sitting next to me it was difficult. It wasn't that I hadn't taken the trip to heart—it had changed me forever, and probably for the better—but so much had happened in the few days I'd been in there—so much action and death… and then when I came back out I found out that I'd apparently been trapped in that empty world for so much longer than it had seemed. I was frightened to call my boss, and I was scared to look in my refrigerator, and I was scared of seeing Hiroaki.

It had only been few days of freedom for me, but it had been longer for him, so he'd be even more lovey dovey than usual and I just was not ready for that. Even after only three days it seemed as if the freedom had lasted forever and now it felt like the worst thing ever was happening since Hiroaki was coming back soon.

And that brought me back to Yamato.

"I just…" He sighed, "I'm happy you're safe Mom. Really, I am. I just… I wish dad would answer his texts."

"Yamato, he'll be back here eventually." I said, secretly hoping I was wrong. Yamato made a very disgusted face. He noticed I saw I and tried to hide it, but it was too late, "What was that?"

"Nothing." He lied.

"Yamato…?" I asked.

"I—" He started.

"Can I have more water please?" Lunamon smiled up at me. I nodded and moved quickly to get the water for her. At first I'd thought that being partners with Lunamon would be as restraining as being in a relationship, but she was more like a child than anything else.

"What were you saying?" I asked Yamato.

"I was just…" he trailed off for a moment, "I don't want you and dad to be together."

"Pardon me?" I asked, sitting down quickly, "I thought you and Takeru were happy that we were together again…"

"No." Yamato said firmly, "Takeru is because he's young and naive. I was old enough to remember what happened between the two of you last time. It didn't work then and it's not working now you're both just too stupid to see it."

"Yamato!" I said, shocked.

"I'm serious." He said with a strong sense of finality, "Love is a very important issue you realize. It's everything! It's exactly what people need in their lives to survive—you know that. And you love Takeru, and myself. We love you. But you don't love Dad. I just don't… I don't like you putting yourself in a place you don't belong for the sake of it. You must know you need to break up with him. Even I can see it and I barely ever see you two anymore."

I wanted to yell at him for overstepping in a place where he didn't understand, but as I thought it through… I realized that he was right. Yamato knew more about love than I did, and he was right. I knew full well that it wasn't working between Hiroaki and myself. I needed to break up with him.

"I just think that you're not his princess." Yamato said weakly. "Everyone has their happily ever after… and this isn't it. For either of you."

"When did you get so smart…?" I asked him quietly.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm just a genius." We both laughed, but then he shook his head, "It was when you and Dad got a divorce." He was quiet for a minute, but I didn't know what to say, so I let him continue. "I realized that love doesn't always last… because everyone has stepping stones. You can't just jump to the top… you and dad were stepping stones for each other, and you settled—thank you, by the way—but because of all of that… and because of Gabumon and the Digital World… I guess somewhere along the line I just learned what love really was." He shook his head again. "I should go."

"Thank you!" I blurted before he could get too far. "Thank you Yamato…"

"No problem." He said simply. "And I'm sure Takeru wanted to be here too. We're just really busy saving the world. He really missed you Mom."

As he was leaving I couldn't help but start to cry as I realized how much of Yamato's life I'd missed. He'd grown so much—he was so mature and intelligent…

"Are you okay?" Lunamon asked me, hugging my legs for comfort.

I nodded, "Just scared to call my boss," I lied.

"You want me to rough him up for you?" Lunamon joked.

I laughed and shook my head, picking up the phone. I had a few talks I needed to take care of, but for now this was the only one available.

_**Mari Goutokuji:**_

"You should go find a boyfriend." Hideto said with a grin as I flipped the pancakes I was making or him. "You'd be a good girlfriend."

"I don't want a boyfriend." I told him sharply. "I want to end all this crazy stuff so I can move out of this house and do something worthwhile."

"Wow, okay." Hideto said with a sigh, "That was totally random and uncalled for."

"Well it's true." I growled.

"I wasn't saying it wasn't." Hideto said. "I'm just saying that we were talking about you getting a boyfriend and you just threw something totally random out in the open which makes me think that it's really getting to you."

"Well it is." I said firmly, placing the pancakes on a plate and handing them to Hideto. "Everyone is always worried about their love life, but I'm more worried about actually getting something accomplished."

"You don't want to get married?" Hideto asked.

"Of course I do" I said sharply, "I want it. Just…"

"You just can't have it." Hideto realized. "You want Willis."

Before I could respond the door had opened. I spun around and stared to the open doorway where a boy with a red face was standing. He smiled timidly at me as Hideto and I exchanged confused glances.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked boldly

"I-it's me!" The boy said in a familiar voice. Suddenly Tapirmon flew in the doorway, around his feet.

"Sigma?" We gasped together.

"No." He said firmly, sounding a lot more like himself than he had moments earlier. "He's… he's not here anymore." If I hadn't known him very well I'd have been very, _very _confused. But it was obvious what he meant. The mean side of himself wasn't there anymore… and if that was Sigma, then we really knew nothing at all about this boy.

"So… what do we call you now?" I asked him slowly.

"Kiyoko." He said with a shy smile.

"You look _good_." Hideto said brightly.

"I'm going to go throw out all the scary things in my room." Kiyoko decided suddenly, running up the stairs immediately.

Hideto looked to me and smiled, "Is it just me or does he look suddenly attract—"

"No." I shut him down quickly, and moved on. "Should we ask him what happened to make the change? Or just pretend things are normal?"

"The latter." Hideto decided. "If he wants to talk about it, he will." It was a good idea… either way, I was happy that he seemed happy. And hey! Maybe he'd not hate me as much.

_**Tatum Jefferson:**_

"What's this?" Jenna asked as we emerged from the trees to Primary Village. The sky was dark, as it had been, but for the most part the Digital World had returned on our trips. As we'd been walking the ground had gradually become more squishy which made me sure we were headed to Primary Village, which was good because I knew that there would be a monitor somewhere there that would take us back to Earth.

"This is called Primary Village." I said with a smile, motioning to the big wooden blocks and hundreds of cradles. "This is where all digimon are reborn."

"So like a field of babies?" Jenna asked excitedly.

"Pretty much." I laughed as she started running, her feet sinking through the ground. A second later she was soaring through the air, screaming and laughing at the trampoline ground. I turned to Monodramon, "Keep an eye out. Something seems off." He nodded and we both ran after Jenna.

As soon as we were down the first hill Jenna was running from cradle to cradle looking at all the babies, but as I looked in the nearest cradle I noticed it was empty. I looked to Monodramon, confused and then to Jenna.

"Where are all the babies?" She asked. I shrugged my shoulders so she decided to call out for them, "BABIES! WHERE ARE YOU! COME BACK!"

Monodramon was suddenly on edge, growling and looking over his shoulder. I turned quickly to see a streak of red flying toward us.

"Elecmon!" I shouted, causing him to slide to a stop.

"Tatum?" He asked, "Oh thank goodness! I thought you were that awful creature."

Jenna was suddenly serious, standing next to me. "What awful creature?"

"It's a fish—a big metal fish." Elecmon said nervously, "I had to move all the babies away because he kept coming back and frightening them... he doesn't like their crying I suppose."

"Well make them stop crying," Jenna suggested.

"I can't," Elecmon growled, "They're thirsty. It hasn't rained in a long time. The Digital World needs water, and as far as the rumour goes, MetalPiranimon needs to be defeated for that to happen."

"Then we're going to stop him." Jenna decided for us. A second later Monodramon was growling again, but Elecmon silenced him.

"It's just Kudamon." Elecmon said, "He's the one who helped me lead all the babies away. He's really fast so the fish couldn't catch him." I didn't even need to look to know who Kudamon was, I'd studied many, many different digimon. Kudamon was a rat sized fox, purple and white. It was similar to a kuda-gitsune in Japanese culture—it was basically a spirit fox. Kudamon stopped next to us, his black tipped ears standing straight up.

"Hello all," He said kindly. "What are we talking about?"

"You." Jenna said with a small grin, that she smiled whenever she had an idea. And I was right, she _did_ have an idea. Within thirty minutes we were all in place to play out her idea too.

In the center of Primary village was about fifty baby digimon, Elecmon and myself. I should probably have been paying more attention to the plan itself, but it was hard when I was surrounded by so many adorable babies. Monodramon had digivolved to Airdramon and was high in the air directly above the tree-line where Jenna and Kudamon stood together. Jenna had taken her boots off for this particular event.

"Ready?" Jenna called over her shoulder. We all nodded. "CRY!" She screamed. And on cue, all the babies began crying loudly—wailing really.

Jenna and Kudamon started screaming loudly and I prepared to make a distraction to save the babies should the plan not work. Which it hopefully would.

MetalPiranimon, that was the fishes name according to Kudamon, would be coming out soon... hopefully.

And then suddenly the trees were cracking and snapping in the forest. Jenna and Kudamon turned sharply and started running for the trees at the other end of the village as a perfectly accurately named metal piranha shot from the trees, a weight attached to its tail. The most prominent thing about the digimon were its incredibly sharp teeth.

It was fast, but not as fast as Jenna and Kudamon, and luckily they didn't have to run far because Jenna's plan was about to unfold even further. "Blinding Ray!" Kudamon shouted. I clamped my eyes shut as a bright light blinded the opponent. Airdramon dove from the sky, just as planned and slammed directly into the fish, tackling it to the ground where it began to flop around like a fish out of water _should_ be.

"NOW!" Jenna screamed. Elecmon ran forward ad shot his electricity toward the metal fish, which caused it to scream in pain, being a double conductor for electricity was a downfall for him.

"Wing cutter!" I yelled to Airdramon who nodded and did as he was told.

"Kudamon!" Jenna said, "Do whatever your attack is!"

"Roger!" Kudamon nodded jumping into the air. "Bullet whirlwind!" He shouted, spinning through the air and slamming into the fish causing him to burst into data.

Where he had been laying a large blue orb was laying still.

"What's that...?" I asked Elecmon as Jenna and Kudamon jumped up and down screaming with excitement. Airdramon reverted to his rookie and rushed to me. Elecmon moved forward and sniffed the orb.

"It's water." He said slowly, looking back to me.

"The water is in that orb?" I asked. Before I could give any thought to my next move Monodramon had slammed his foot into the orb, smashing it.

Monodramon was flung backward as a jet of water shot from the broken pieces of the orb and into the sky before shooting into different directions to refill the oceans, in doing so, some of the water rained down on the babies who were suddenly cheering with excitement at finally getting some water.

"Thank you so much!" Elecmon said, hugging my legs before running off to his babies.

"Jenna!" I called, "We should go home now." I turned to look at her, but her cheering had stopped, she was looking to something in her hand. "Jenna?" She looked up to me and then turned her hand so I could see the digivice that was now in her hands. A large smile spread across my face. "That's awesome!"

Jenna turned to Kudamon excitedly, but my face fell suddenly. Why had Jenna been brought here? To me, it seemed as if the Digital World needed another protector. Was it just Jenna or was it others? And if there were more... why did the Digital World need so many of us? Was something big happening?

Either way, it was time to get back to Michael...

_**Jun Motomiya:**_

It killed me to have to say it. I don't think I'd ever really been so proud of something when I first told them, and now, to have to take it all back was soul destroying. Or maybe I was just blowing things out of proportion. It didn't feel like it though.

"Spit it out, Jun," Mom told me, not unkindly. She could tell it was going to be bad. She wanted to hear it all at once, to get it over with like ripping off a Band-Aid.

"I'm not getting married!"

Oh god. I sounded like a freaking banshee as I wailed.

"Why ever not darling?" Mom asked. She didn't look as upset about the news as I thought she should. She didn't seem fazed. Was this news not bad enough for her to feel upset about? What did she think I was going to tell her? That I couldn't have kids? Or that I couldn't afford rent for my apartment anymore? I was only absolutely freaking obsessed with getting married, I could have had my arm sawed off, but as long as I was getting married, I'd get through the ceremony with a smile before I went to the hospital.

Otamamon stirred a bit in my lap. He was probably trying to get away from me before I snapped. I just hoped my parents didn't notice. They still didn't know my digimon. They thought I was just childish, and carried around a stuffed tadpole named "Frog". Mom questioned me like crazy when she found out he was one of my top priorities when I was moving. She didn't want Shuu to think I was a baby or something. I told her to stuff it, and that I got him with Shuu, which may have been a big, fat lie, because Daisuke brought him home one day and we were instantly partners. But whatever. The point is, my parents didn't know about Otamamon, because they hadn't reacted well to Daisuke's involvement in the Digital World when he first became a digidestined and fought that MaloMyotismon guy. They thought he should put all of his effort into his school work so he could be smarter like Ken. Or at the very least, into soccer, so he could potentially get a scholarship if the studying thing didn't work out.

"The Jomoe wedding was a flop," I groaned.

"They couldn't go through with it?" Dad asked.

"It's hard to get through the "I dos" when giant, killer digimon steal your baby, Dad," I said sardonically, and then froze. Both of them caught their breaths at the mention of digimon.

"That brother of yours couldn't handle the attack?" Mom asked.

"Of course he couldn't," Dad scoffed. "He can't handle any responsibility. "He couldn't handle planning for his future either. He should have—"

"Oh, hell no," I snapped. Mom stared at me with wide eyes, and Dad stopped mid sentence to send me an irritated glare. "I'm _not_ going to sit here and listen to either of you rant about what a disappointment that Daisuke is. _I_ am proud of him. He knows what he wants, and he went out there to take the noodle industry by storm. Have either of you actually been to his cart?"

"No," Dad said firmly. He was _pleased_ by this fact. Ugh.

"I prefer the other cart myself," Mom said. Of course she did. She probably went to the cart that was on the opposite side of the street, just so Daisuke would see her and feel miserable about himself.

"Well, his noodles are the most delicious thing I think I've ever eaten in my life. If you'd try them, you'd think the same. He's got a promising future in this business, and you can't even accept that. He's your _son_! He just wants you to support him," I pleaded.

"If he can't support himself, then he chose the wrong path," Dad said condescendingly.

"Not financially!" I screamed. "He wants your love and acceptance. Would it kill you to order some noodles even just _once_?"

"We can't encourage his behaviour," Dad informed me. Mom was strangely quiet. I could only hope that meant she was thinking through what I was saying instead of doing that thing where she let Dad talk for her, and she just agreed at the end.

"I can't encourage _your_ behaviour," I yelled at him. "So, you know what I'm going to do. I'll get married someday—soon—and I'm not going to tell you when that happens. If you can't get your head out of your asses long enough to see what a promising young man that Daisuke is, and buy some freaking noodles, then you _won't_ know when my wedding is, until it's already a thing of the past!"

"Jun!" Dad scolded as Mom gasped at my plan.

"I'm your daughter, but I don't _like_ this side of you. I miss the Mom and Dad that made it so easy to love them. The parents that raised me, where did they go?"

I left them with that thought to mull over, and took Otamamon into my arms. I had to find Momoe, and see when the wedding could get back on track. I really wanted my threat to mean something. If I wasn't getting married for years, then it kind of took away from the punch…

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I felt horrible that I was so happy. Miyako was taken into the Dark Ocean—which was horrible—and Gomamon was still missing—which was also pretty bad—and Palmon was _somewhere_, hopefully with Gomamon. And Iori had been attacked by Lucemon, the digimon of Pride. Ken and Koushiro had been stuck in the Digital World where they'd had to take on an entire army. And Daisuke and Iori were still heavily influenced by the sin digimon.

There were a lot of things I should've been doing. I should have hunted down Palmon—and by extension Gomamon—and taken her with me as I joined the hunt for Miyako in the Dark Ocean. Or Palmon, Gomamon, Jou and I could get a couple other people together and try and hunt down Lucemon, because we needed Daisuke to have a clear head when Daemon inevitably showed up for us.

I could've even been spending a bit of time with my mother and her new digimon partner, Minervamon, since she came all the way to Japan to see me.

But I wasn't doing any of that.

I was sitting at the desk in my living room with a big grin on my face, sorting through the papers Sora and I had left out. Koushiro didn't like a messy desk, and neither Sora nor I could seem to put anything away when we were done with them. And I knew he'd want to get to work on some research right away. He'd missed so much of it due to his bout of laziness. And I wanted everything to be perfect for him when he got back home.

He was giving me a chance to make up for how horrible I'd been, and I'd be damned if a messy desk kept me from that opportunity. The very idea of him giving me a second chance had me wanting to do cartwheels and sing out for all the world to hear and I wanted to have a pleasant surprise for him. I'd thought about baking him a cake, but decided against it. A cake would just serve as a reminder of my birthday. My lowest point. And I didn't want that, so I decided to clean the desk instead—which I usually hated doing, so I really hoped he appreciated it.

It was as I was piling up a bunch of papers that needed recycling that I noticed that coaster that wasn't really a coaster. I'd forgotten all about it. What was it that Jou called it? A floppy disk. I knew it had something to do with computers, and the guy that gave it to me seemed to think it was really important that I see what's on it. Maybe it would have some answers that Koushiro was looking for? That would be an even better surprise than a clean desk. And he'd be really shocked to see that I knew what to do with it…except that I didn't know how to use it. I didn't want to ask him though. He got really impatient when trying to teach me how to do something using the computer. I never really put the effort in though. He'd be able to do it for me the next time anyway, so why should I learn the process? I was pretty sure he _liked_ doing computer-y things for me. But I was going to surprise him.

I grabbed my purse and headed towards the library. I didn't know what to do with the floppy disk, but someone there might. Wasn't it their job to know? Maybe… There was a distinct possibility that they wouldn't though. I mean, I thought it was a coaster when I first saw it. It was practically obsolete as far as technology goes.

Luckily, the library wasn't too busy. I could see Mari's bushy, blonde ponytail a mile away. She was standing behind the front desk, twirling a pen in her hand and talking to a brown haired girl that I recognized as Yamato's girlfriend, Katsue.

"Mari, hi!" I called loudly. She glared at me and shushed me.

"You're in a library, Mimi," she said pointedly.

"Sorry," I said in a whisper. "I need help."

"I realize," she drawled. How mean!

"It's a computer question," I said. She looked disappointed. Apparently she liked me better when I was crazy jealous.

"That's Miyako's department," she told me.

"But Miyako's missing," I snapped. "And I need to figure this out."

"Couldn't you ask that boy?" Katsue suggested. "The one that loves computers. Koushiro maybe?"

"No I can't," I said firmly.

"They broke up," Mari informed her.

"Took a break," I corrected. "We're back on now. But I need to know how to get the information off of this." I pulled the floppy disk out of my purse and set it on the counter.

"That's ancient," Mari told me.

"I figured as much," I told her shortly. "But how do I use it?"

"I don't know," Mari said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Look it up on the internet."

"You don't need to do that," Katsue said rolling her eyes before holding out her hand. "Give it here. There's an old computer in the back. No one really uses it. It's only really used for cases like these."

"A lot of people get handed floppy disks by strange men?" I asked, handing her the disk.

"I just said it's hardly ever used," Katsue retorted. She stood up and led Mari and I towards a shadowed corner of the library. It was really dust back there. She pressed the power button and sat back to wait for it to boot up.

"A strange man gave this to you?" Mari asked warily. "Are you sure you should be looking at it? Maybe you don't want to know what's on it."

"I _do_ want to know, though," I said. "I've put it off too long. But he knew my name. It might be important."

"Or he's a stalker," Mari said.

"He was too nice to be a stalker," I decided.

"You thought _Genki_ was great too," Mari said coolly.

"And he was," I said simply.

"Let's see what's on this baby," Katsue said inserting the floppy disk into a slot that I never would have tried. The computer made a couple of weird noises, causing her to wince, but the screen was soon filled with the information that had been stored on the disk.

"Is that a digimon?" Mari asked pointing to the picture in the top left corner. It depicted a man leaning against the side of a Whaemon that was resting on the shore of a beach. It was clearly a picture taken on Earth. And the guy was unmistakable.

"That's him," I gasped.

"Tadao Akiyama," Katsue informed me. "It says he met Whaemon a few years back."

"When the worlds combined," I surmised.

"But there isn't all that much information about him though. It's mostly about this other guy, Hiraga Akiyama. Hiraga appears to be your mystery man's father. I don't know what he wanted you to get out of this though…" Katsue continued. She scrolled down the page, and another picture came into view. This time it was Tadao with his arms around an older man. Another memorable face, though I hadn't seen him looking so old in a long time.

"Gennai," I said in awe. What was Gennai doing on Earth though? What did that mean?

"No," Katsue said. "I said his name was Hiraga. It's this Tadao guy's father."

"Where can I find him?" I demanded. I needed to talk to him. I needed to know why he was on Earth.

"Unless you can communicate with the dead, you're out of luck," Mari informed me, pointing to a line of text underneath the photo. "He died three years ago."

"It's sad and all, but why did you get it? The floppy disk I mean," Katsue asked.

"It's important. I need to talk to him," I repeated.

"Unless you manage to go back in time, you're out of luck," Katsue pointed out. "He can't exactly talk these days."

Mari snorted. "That's impossible."

But I felt a smile spread across my face. "Thanks for the help. I've got to go. I need to find Hikari."

"Don't you want this back?" Katsue called after me. But I was on a mission. I didn't have time to go back for it. I had a plan.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

I was waiting as patiently as I could, which wasn't very patient really. I was desperate to know what was going on with Kurayami and the others on their quest to find Miyako. I'd received a text message from Iori saying 'Daisuke screwed up. Can't get through. It's up to Ken and Kura now.' What did that mean? Why was he not here explaining that to me? Because I'd gotten a separate text from Mimi saying 'get to my house ASAP.' I was also panicking because so much was happening.

My mother seemed upset that I'd told her I couldn't hang out, and that she should go figure out what to do with dad now that she's back—also she needed to go find Kamemon who she apparently lost—I'd spend time with her later—now wasn't the time.

Gomamon was gone—and even though he wasn't my digimon it scared me. Those Death Knight creatures were roaming the Digital world, and then there were the remaining sin digimon, wrath and pride—and then Daemon… Gomamon could be in so much danger. If only we had a way of locating him.

Then there was my relationship status that we'd agreed to keep secret for the most part due to conflict of timing. Everyone would offer to help, and move me from his house—but I couldn't. I needed to. But I couldn't—not for another couple of weeks… not until my finals were done. We didn't want to tell anyone because now wasn't the time to be bringing up all these pointless details—we had a world to continue saving… and Miyako. Her too… What Ken said earlier today was still haunting me. Scratches? What scratches? Why didn't she tell us?

At least Mimi seemed to have something to keep my mind off of all of that. If only she'd get there. I was waiting outside her house, wearing many layers to make sure everyone knew to ignore that random bout of lust I'd been through. Even if I did nothing overly… lustful—it was still embarrassing.

Suddenly a man was turning into Mimi's driveway, and walking toward me a long thin box in his hand. He stopped in front of me as if he were a delivery man, and yet he was wearing normal clothing besides his sailor hat. He reached out his hand and handed me the thin box.

"This is Mimi Tachikawa's house?" He asked.

"Yes…" I said slowly, "What's this?" I tried to take the box, but he was still gripping it firmly.

"This is for Mimi." He said as if it were obvious, which it really was. "I've been waiting to give it to her, but now it's time." Suddenly he began laughing. "Oh that's really funny, if you knew… whooo…" I was dumbfounded. I had no idea how to respond to him, so I just stood there like a fool with my mouth hanging open slightly. Finally he released the box. "Good luck," He winked at me and turned, heading back down the driveway, and with a small wave he was gone.

I thought about opening the box, but instead tucked it under my arm, pulling out my phone and texting Mimi.

_Hurry up!_

Within seconds she'd replied, '_On my way_'.

And so I waited, and then three minutes later she was there panting in front of me, doubled over in exhaustion from running from wherever she'd been.

"Sorry…" She said, gasping for breath, "I'm late… I was at the li…brary."

"It's okay," I said, "What did you need me for?"

"Oh…" Mimi said, holding up a finger to silence me, as she hastily unlocked her front door. I handed her the box which she glanced at and then tossed onto the couch. She led me inside and headed straight for the kitchen where she downed three glasses of water, and then finally rounded on me. "You need to take me back in time."

At first I thought she was joking, and then I figured she must be waiting to say more, but as I stood in the silent kitchen I realized, finally, that this was her entire statement. "Mimi, I… can't time travel."

"No—no you can!" She insisted, slamming her glass on the counter, "Remember? Twelve years and nine and a half months ago you took us back in time!"

"Mimi…?" I said slowly, very confused. "I don't think that ever happened."

"It _did_." She insisted. "You started talking with someone else's voice and then _bam_! We were in a flashback."

"Oh." I said in realization. "That." I hadn't been in control of that though, in fact I couldn't even remember it, and all I knew from that time was what others told me afterwards. I was upset that I'd missed out on a cool adventure through time, but happy that I could be of service. "Mimi, that wasn't me."

Mimi sighed dramatically and filled her glass with water again, and then led me into the living room. The place was spotless, which was strange since it was usually in a mess—especially as of late. She sat down on the couch, and began sipping her water. "I was just really hoping to go back in time today." She said. I almost wanted to ask why, but I was sort of lost. Mimi and I weren't usually very close—so I'd been confused before she'd gotten here, but that was nothing to how I felt now. She set her glass on the table and picked up the box she'd tossed to the couch. "Who is this from?" She asked, lazily tearing at the thin brown paper that it was wrapped in.

"Some guy," I said simply, waving it off.

"Oh my God!" Mimi gasped, "Did he look like he might have been attractive about fifteen years ago? Brown hair—weird shark tooth necklace? A sailor?"

My eyes widened slightly as I nodded, "Yeah actually."

Suddenly Mimi's ripping skills increased as she tore straight through the box, ripping it in half, and allowing the contents to soar into the air. I first noticed the note that landed not far from the couch, but the crashing sound drew my attention next. On the floor by Sora's bedroom doorway was a strange blue device. I got to my feet as Mimi reached for the note.

"'Dear Mimi,'" She read aloud, "'At this point, if you're reading this, you've finally decided to take a look at my last clue. This next clue… is sort of the prize, if you know what to do with it—' He seems a little full of himself…" Mimi made a side comment as I reached what had fallen. "'You and your friends left this behind three years ago after your fight with the Digital God Fanglongmon himself. I suppose it slipped your minds? Well here it is. Exactly what you need.'"

I reached down to the key on the floor, excitement building inside me. It was made solely of sapphires. It was designed in a strange swirling fashion, and suddenly I spun to Mimi.

'_Now it's _time_. Oh that's really funny, if you knew.'_

'_You need to take me back in _time.'

"That makes no sense." Mimi said reading the note over again, quicker this time.

"Mimi…" I said slowly, but she was murmuring to herself. "Mimi!" She turned sharply toward me and I held up the key. Her eyes popped and she was jumping over the couch before I knew it, reaching out for the key. I handed it to her, and she was already pushing past me straight to Sora's bedroom doorway.

"Mimi—" I said, scared of what would happen, but it was too late, she'd slammed the sapphire key into the key hole in Sora's door, and unlike every other one of our magical keys, it didn't wait for us to open the door. The door flew open, and through the open doorway was a seemingly endless vortex of colours, and a force drawing us toward it. "Close it!" I shouted, but Mimi looked to me, the key and then to the door.

"Can't!" She shouted, deciding against fighting the force of the door, running forward and jumping through the doorway.

"Mimi!" I shouted in a panic. What was happening? I thought about running the other way, I thought about calling for help, but it was too late, the door was closing. It was now or never. I closed my eyes and ran straight after Mimi, jumping into the vortex.

My stomach flipped as I made the decision, the door slamming behind me. Ahead of me, sliding through the colours I could see Mimi, a giant grin on her face.

"Mimi!" I screamed loudly. "Mimi this is the craziest thing I've ever done!"

"It's amazing!" She screamed back, over her shoulder, and suddenly both of us were laughing—it really _was_ the craziest thing we'd ever done—but then it was over with a thud.

Both of us landed roughly in the middle of a cobblestone street and let out a small scream of pain.

"Mimi, this is the stupidest thing I've ever done." She nodded in agreement.

"We could have thought it through better." She admitted. She then shook her head. "No. This is good. Where are we? Did we go back in time? This really goes to show—you really can do anything you want to. Tomorrow I plan to fly."

"Not going to happen," I joked.

"Maybe," She winked at me.

She did however raise an interesting question—_had_ we gone back in time? That's what everything seemed to be pointing to, and all around us stone buildings were up, and very dirty people were roaming around… The sky was dark, and the air was damp.

"His boots do _not_ match his tunic." Mimi scoffed, grabbing me around the wrist when everyone began giving us strange looks. I couldn't tell when we were in the time stream, but apparently Mimi's attire was atrocious. And mine too apparently. Everyone around us was wearing floor length dresses, or strange tunics, all of their hair was pulled back into a strange hairdo.

Mimi was pulling me through the streets as everyone began to make a fuss, but we'd already slipped out of sight, sliding between two stone buildings.

"Mimi we need to go back." I said sharply.

"Not gonna happen," Mimi said, "I need to find someone."

"Who?" She didn't answer, "When are we?"

"Uh…" Mimi looked around and placed a finger on her chin, thinking, "I'm not sure."

"Hello?" Both of us screamed loudly at the voice, we looked around but there was no one there, "Down here," the voice said, and we both looked down to see a violet tadpole.

"Otamamon?" Mimi asked.

"I am an Otamamon, yeah." Otamamon giggled, "Who might you two be?"

"I'm Mimi," Mimi said, "This is Hikari." I couldn't answer, so I was glad Mimi had for me. There was definitely something going on here. What was an Otamamon doing in the middle of an alleyway in ancient Japan? "What year is this?"

"1827…" Otamamon said, clearly confused. "Why do you ask?"

"What are you doing here?" Mimi asked, ignoring Otamamon's question, "Do the others know about you?"

"The others?" Otamamon asked, "Do you mean my family? Yes, of course."

"The humans." I clarified.

Otamamon nodded, "I know who you were speaking of. My family is the humans. Every human comes equipped with a Partner. We keep them safe from harm."

Mimi and I exchanged glances, but didn't press further for fear of setting off an alarm. Every human had a partner digimon? We were in a time, nearly one hundred years from our actual one—without the knowledge of how to necessarily get back, but I didn't care. I wanted to know more.

"I must be on my way now," Otamamon said, "Excuse me." And with that he was waddling down the alleyway toward the road.

Mimi turned to me, "If we're going to fit in, we're going to need to get new clothes."

I was scared of shopping in a different time period, but she was right, we needed to change if we were planning on learning more than what we already had. She took my hand and dragged me toward the main road, and slipped into the nearest store. She caused a distraction and I grabbed two kimonos before rushing from the store. I'd left them some money, but it wasn't the right time period for the money I'd given them. I didn't care too much because I didn't want to steal, and this way, I really wasn't.

As we were changing in the alleyway Mimi cleared her throat and said, "Remember not to change anything." She said, "Just blend in and don't talk to anyone."

"Why?" I asked, tying my kimono around the middle, and tossing all of our discarded clothes into my backpack, and tucking it in a crack in the wall.

"Because if there's one thing I've learned from that movie Koushiro was watching over and over again, it was that time is sensitive. We can't change anything." She said it so matter-of-factly that I wouldn't have dreamed of disobeying her.

As we turned back to the street I heard a loud crack. I turned to Mimi and she looked concerned too, so together we ran out into the street where a large crowd of people was facing a man with a whip held high in the air. I couldn't see what was going on so I began pushing past everyone in the crowd, leaving Mimi behind. I heard many mean things being shot toward me and I realized that women were probably still props for their husbands at this point, so I'd have to be careful.

A man stopped me by grabbing my wrist, so I pulled hard, freeing myself from his grasp and continued working my way toward the front of the group where finally I could see the man cracking a whip down onto the Otamamon we'd seen in the alleyway earlier, tears rolling out of his eyes.

The man brought the whip down again and I gasped as it slashed against the small creature's back. And as he wound up to do it again, I realized I had no choice.

I threw myself in the way of the whip and screamed in pain when it slashed across my back. I could tell I was bleeding, but I didn't have time to check because he man who was doing the whipping had grabbed me with his thick hands and roughly pulled me to my feet, and then angrily pushed me aside. I slammed against the stone ground once more, but didn't let that get me down. I dove across the ground and pulled the Otamamon out of the way as the whip came crashing down again.

"Stop this!" I screamed, holding the wounded monster in my arms.

"This is not your place to interfere." The man said coldly. "Woman, be gone."

"Is this your partner?" I asked Otamamon, and he nodded slowly. I rounded on the man again. "You awful human being!" I screamed at him, getting to my feet, "He considers you family! You're his_ family_ and you're whipping him?"

"Silence!" The man screamed. "This is how they learn. This is how they learn our human ways." The man said. "It's the only way." I was shocked to hear a murmur of agreement spread around me. "Give me Otamamon." The man said through gritted, filthy teeth.

"No!" I yelled at him. "They have feelings too!" I heard Mimi distantly yell my name, was I already breaking our one rule? Was I changing too much? Well this was for the better—I couldn't let this Otamamon be treated that way!

Suddenly there were very strong hands, gripping me tight and pulling me away from the scene.

"Mimi!" I screamed as they pulled me away from her, the man ripping his Otamamon back from me. Everyone had their eyes on me as if I was crazy—which to them I guess I was. "MIMI!"

"Hikari!" I heard her yell.

I needed to find a way back to her—but that didn't last long. Moments later the world around me was fading out until the grips on my ceased to exist, and the stone floor turned into a puddle, the buildings around us turning into a dark cave wall. All I could see was my backpack laying against the wall, and Mimi, staring at me as though I were the best thing in the world.

"You're okay!" She gasped, rushing to my side to hug me. I winced when her arm brushed against my back. She spun me around quickly and looked at it, "It's not as bad as it could have been." She said.

"I have first aid supplies in my backpack." I said with realization, and Mimi was already rushing over to it. So having an overprotective mother helped out after all.

As Mimi disinfected the wound and wrapped it up with the bandages I realized that this place was very familiar. It was just a dark cave, but the strange sensation of being in another time had gone, and I _knew_ we were in present day. But where were we…? I'd definitely been here before.

And then I knew. I'd been here when I was trapped in the Dark Ocean—Kurayami's memories had flashed around and played before me six years prior. I suddenly turned my head quickly to where the door to the Dark Ocean had been, luckily it wasn't there. Unluckily, the door to the Digital World was also gone.

We were stuck in the cave of memories… maybe this was a different world all together? Hadn't there been a few worlds yet to find? If there were nine, we had Earth, the Dark Ocean, the Land of Dreams, the Digital World… so there were five more. This could be one.

"That was awful." I said finally, after a while of silence as Mimi helped my injury. She hummed her agreement. "They can't do that…"

"But they did." Mimi said, "It happened a hundred years ago Hikari, we can't do anything about it." She took a deep breath, "but you're right. It is awful." Finally, I was able to tie my kimono back together, and put my backpack on to hide the rip in the back of it. "But you can't step in anymore. It might be hard—but you have to let it be Hikari. It could get _really_ dangerous, really fast."

"What if I can't do it?" I asked honestly, "What if I can't sit back and let horrible things happen to the digimon?"

"Then go home." Mimi said bluntly. "I feel the same way Hikari, believe me, I do. But I can't let my feelings get in the way of this. This—" She held up the sapphire key and pointed to it, "This could honestly and completely be the answer for everything. _Everything_. And I can't not use it. I'm going to find out what happened next. Are you in?"

That was a good question, but the answer wasn't difficult. I didn't know if I'd be able to hold back my feelings, or the likes, but I wasn't going to let Mimi be the only one going through time. That just wasn't fair. So I nodded. "I'm in." I decided.

Mimi grinned, "Good." She smiled, reaching out her hand. "Let's go."

I took her hand and together the two of us set off through the cave, my running shoes were soaking up an absurd amount of water though. Finally we'd walked far enough and the cave slowly began to fade away until we were back in the exact same street we'd been in before. At first I thought I'd have to run, seeing the crowd again—but they were facing a different direction, it was a different crowd.

"Blend in." Mimi whispered to me, releasing my hand and standing as properly as she could. I did the same, trying to pretend I didn't have a brightly coloured backpack hanging on my shoulders. We walked to the edge of the crowd and stood kindly, looking toward the man standing on a small make-shift stage.

As I looked around I could tell that this was much later than the last trip. The buildings were different—cleaner, more sturdy looking—the people walked with much less filth coating them…

I spotted a stand not far from where we were with newspapers piled up. I motioned to Mimi that I'd be back in a moment as the man spoke about something I wasn't listening to. I quickly ran over to the stand and held up a newspaper, scanning everywhere for the date. October 12th 1916…

I set the paper back down, nodded and rushed back to Mimi, taking my place next to her. I noticed her face was shocked as she tried to act like the others who were all chanting and agreeing with everything the man said.

"They should be banished!" The man said, catching my utmost attention. Was he talking about the digimon? "They're cruel—vile—filthy!" The crowd roared its agreement.

"Hear, hear…" Mimi and I said awkwardly.

The man continued, "And the latest story will absolutely blow your mind. If the government won't agree to exile them yet, they will after this story finally gets out. Spread the word!"

"What story?" Mimi mouthed; I shushed her and continued staring to the thin man in ragged clothing.

"Just one short week ago," The man said, "in the lonely restraints of his home a man was sitting at his kitchen table—his Partner cooking him his meal. A normal day in the life—until a neighbor reported seeing the digimon do the unthinkable." The man paused, and looked around, a sadistic grin on his face. "His partner seduced him."

I couldn't pretend I wasn't shocked. I gasped along with the rest of the crowd. Mimi and I were staring at each other in shock as the crowd vanished. A second later we were in the cave again, but this time we wasted no time going further. We said nothing to each other as we ran until the city was surrounding us again. This time the crowd was much, much larger, spread out across the entire clearing. I didn't have to go to the newspaper stand this time, as a loose one was blowing across the ground.

I looked down to it and saw the date, October 31st 1916. Only a few weeks later.

"Everyone!" A man called from the stage which had been upgraded to a much nicer one. The man speaking looked much more wealthy and clean than the last man, who was up there still, but behind the new man. "Attention! In three minutes we will perform the task. When I say to do so, each of you raise your device to the air, and together, we will vanquish them from this land to a world unknown."

I looked to Mimi, shocked. What were we witnessing here? So far we'd learned that the digimon had once lived alongside the humans on Earth—and now they were banishing them? Did that mean that this was the creation of the Digital World?

I held my breath for most of the silent wait, and finally the man cleared his throat. "Ready!" He called, and everyone stood tall, each of them clutching an old fashioned looking digivice. "In ten seconds!" The man began to count down and everyone was completely silent. "…three, two… one!" And everyone's digivices shot to the sky, lighting up and shining a beam of light into the dark sky, parting the clouds.

I was reminded instantly of the fight against Malomyotismon and the energy all of the digivices had brought to us. I looked back to the clouds and saw that, where the lights had parted them, a large portal to darkness had appeared.

A moment later I saw the digimon floating into the air. Directly behind the man, hundreds, or thousands of digimon were being lifted into the air. I was shocked—there they were… all of them heading directly into the portal.

"Hey," A man said sharply, "You too!" I thought, or hoped maybe, he wasn't talking to me, but as I looked to him I saw that he was. He was pointing to my shoulder where my digivice was clipped to the strap. I looked back to him. Should I do it? Would that affect the time stream? There was nothing wrong with this though—if this was the creation of the Digital World it also meant that this was the digimon going somewhere the humans could no longer harm them. But before I could make my decision the man was roughly grabbing at my digivice.

"Hey!" I shouted, grabbing his wrist and trying to get him off of me, but he was too strong. Suddenly Mimi had flown past me and punched the man directly in the face.

The man responded quickly, with much enthusiasm, and with a swift movement of his open palm, had hit Mimi in the stomach, sending her flying. Instead of landing on the stone streets she landed in a puddle.

We were back in the cave.

"What's even happening?" Mimi asked in a huff as she pulled herself to her feet. "What did you get from that?"

I told her my theory that they were going to the Digital World—but it didn't explain why the portal was opening up to darkness.

Mimi eventually shrugged, "The only way to find out answers is to keep going."

"Good point," I said with a nod, and the two of us were running again, down the cave like tunnel, until a wall appeared directly in front of us.

It was still dark, and the ground was stone, but dry. Behind us hung many different sets of clothing. As far as I could tell we were in a closet, with the door propped open slightly.

Mimi fell to her knees silently and peered through the crack in the door as I looked over her head. Out the door, and through the wide open doorway of a well organized bedroom, I could see a man sitting at a kitchen table, impatiently twirling a set of chopsticks around his fingers. He looked a little bit familiar—his hair was brown and clean. Maybe we'd gone further through time? Hopefully this would go over better.

"I think that would be lovely." The man said kindly, "I'd love that, yes."

"Then I'll be sure to prepare that for you tomorrow evening." A female voice said softly from somewhere off in the kitchen.

"I need to say something." The man decided.

"Please," The woman said, "Say anything you like."

"I know that you're in love with me." He said. The sound of clanging metal indicated that the woman had dropped something in surprise. "I see the way you look at me."

There was a few seconds of silence and then the woman stepped into view, and Mimi and I both gasped. She was beautiful, but was unmistakably a D'arcmon. Her clothing looked like an ancient warrior, she was wearing a red turban over her blonde hair, and had two sets of golden wings folded behind her back. She set a bowl of something in front of the man and shook her head.

"I'm not programmed with love." She declared, "I have no capability to do so." I was reminded instantly of Patamon who had told me this only a month ago.

"Yes you are." The man said, ignoring the food and getting to his feet. D'arcmon shook her head, but the man silenced her with a finger to her lips. Her face turned red as he leaned forward and kissed her. I was shocked, my mouth hanging open like a fool. I was about to look away when the front door burst open and D'arcmon and the man jumped back in fear.

"W-what's going on?" The man in the doorway stuttered.

"Leave!" D'arcmon's lover shot. "Leave now!" He ushered the man out the door and he slammed it quickly.

"This was a mistake." D'arcmon gasped, turning from the man as grabbed her wrist.

"No." He said firmly, "It wasn't."

And then the closet was shifting back into the cave.

"I'm lost." Mimi said quickly. I nodded in agreement, but decided to run it all over to try to keep up.

"A long time ago, digimon and humans lived together, but with the power of the digivices they created another land for the digimon, so they could feel safer." I started.

"Which was totally stupid." Mimi interjected.

I nodded, and continued, "and the apparent story of a digimon seducing a man was wrong—they were in love. I'd thought that digimon couldn't feel love. But maybe I was wrong…"

"Let's just go learn more," Mimi said, grabbing my hand and dragging me down the tunnel. I'd never once seen anyone so excited to learn—not Koushiro, or Ken or Willis—no one. But I had to agree wither her. As terrible as this all was it was also very intriguing.

And with a flash we were in a brightly lit meadow, with flowers blooming all around us. The grass was greener and full of more life than ever, and the surrounding trees were glistening with the sunlight reflecting off the pond. But the beautiful meadow wasn't what had Mimi's attention. He was staring directly toward a small boy who was running around, a smile on his face. Behind him sat the same man who had been at the kitchen table in the last flashback.

The man noticed us and smiled kindly, waving politely. I did the same, but Mimi was entranced by the child who had began rolling around in the grass, giggling to himself. He looked no more than three years old at most.

Suddenly the kid stopped rolling and sat up straight, turning his head toward the pond. "Oh no…" He said softly, toddling over toward the water. He fell to his knees in front of a furry animal, laying still on the ground. Probably dead.

"Don't touch it!" His father ordered, "Son, no."

"But I can help!" The boy insisted.

"No." The man said as firmly as he seemed to able to. The boy crossed his arms in a pout so his father stood up and scooped him into his arms, "We're going home."

"Who is that?" I asked slowly, staring at the boys familiar set of grey eyes.

"I think I know." Mimi said quietly as the meadow changed, once again, into the cave. "But I hope I'm wrong." She said to me. "Come on." I knew she wasn't going to explain so I ran after her, with all my questions buzzing around my head.

Who was that boy's mother? Was it possible that it could be D'arcmon? Why were we learning about all of this? And most importantly who was that little boy?

With the next flash we were standing in a musty room with many cluttered tabletops, and a giant computer propped against the wall. In the room two people were staring at the computer, so Mimi grabbed my wrist and dragged me underneath one of the long tables. I was finally able to look at the figures. One was wearing golden boots and had golden wings to match—D'arcmon, and the other was a boy—the little boy with the grey eyes. He looked even more familiar now, though he was tired, with bags under his eyes and his brown hair was in a mess.

"I don't quite understand what you're saying." D'arcmon said softy, holding her staff tightly in her hand. "What does that mean?"

"It means you'll finally be able to join the others mother." He said with a smile. Both Mimi and I gasped as one of the important questions was answered. A second later the table that was concealing us was thrown back in a fit of rage, slamming and crashing against the wall behind it, the papers flying every which way.

D'arcmon was standing over us, her staff raised, ready to strike.

"Stop!" The boy hissed, "Stop mother!" D'arcmon turned angrily to her son but agreed, and lowered her staff. The boy, who looked roughly twenty years old turned to us. "Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Mimi Tachikawa," Mimi said with a smile, "This is Hikari Yagami."

"Pretty names." D'arcmon said coldly.

"Don't worry," Mimi insisted, "We won't tell anyone anything, we're just stopping by. Just had some time to spare." Mimi looked to me and elbowed me, "eh?" She tried, but I shook my head. Now wasn't the time for jokes, even if that one was kind of funny.

I looked to the large computer monitor and saw mostly darkness, with a group of poorly animated figures clustered in the center of the empty space.

"What's that?" I asked.

"That's a new world." The boy said, "It's a place where the Partners are living freely. It's a safe place."

"The Digital World?" I asked. The boy shook his head.

"It has no name." The boy said, "What are you talking about?" Neither of us was willing to answer so he pressed forward, "After the Great Separation my mother was left behind. My father wasn't willing to let her go—but now because of that she has to live here in secret or else die by the hands of the mortals. They won't know what to do with her."

"Well they all had partners before," Mimi said, "Why would they fear her?"

"Because of the spell." The boy said, "After the Great Separation the four Queen's came down from above and placed a powerful spell across the world, and all of the humans forgot about the partners, as if they were never here."

"Except you…" Mimi said, staring to D'arcmon. "So you're trying to send her where she can live happily?" The boy nodded, "That's sweet." Mimi cooed.

"Want to watch?" The boy said, and Mimi and I nodded.

"I don't." D'arcmon said flatly as the boy ignored her and began pressing buttons like a madman. "I don't want to leave. A free world means nothing without you."

The boy wasn't even listening. He was biting his tongue which was sticking out a little as he typed away. Finally he clapped his hands together and on the screen on the computer a portal opened up. The poorly animated figures were replaced with very real counterparts of themselves. The portal had opened directly in the center of a war.

"That's not peaceful." Mimi gasped.

"What?" The boy said sharply. "This… that's not right! They should be in peace!" Suddenly there was strong wind sucking us toward the portal. Mimi grabbed my wrist firmly, and the metal fixture of a light on the wall. The boy held onto the metal table in front of him, but D'arcmon was in the center of the room. "Mom!" The boy screamed in fear. "MOM!"

"I love you!" She said with her soft voice before the portal dragged her through it, closing behind her immediately.

With the wind gone the boy was running toward the computer screen, screaming and crying, slamming his fists into it. My heart and stomach were seizing up at what I'd just witnessed—I felt so bad for the boy, but I couldn't do anything because with a flash the room was darker, messier and smellier. The boy was older now, standing behind different computers.

"What happened?" Mimi gasped.

The boy jumped and looked to us with a small laugh, "You frightened me. Hello again." He said before turning back to his computer. He looked slightly insane at this point.

"What's going on?" Mimi asked him.

"I'm creating peace!" The man said with a wild smile, "here I'll show you." He motioned about the room "That computer there is the ABC, and that one over _there_ is the ENIAC. I'm using them to create a world of peace where my mother can live happily. Want to see?"

Mimi and I both nodded and he motioned for us to come to his side of the metal table. On the screen there was a map. A large continent surrounded by water. Even though it was a rough draft of the world, there was no mistaking it now. This was the very first draft of the Digital World, and I was standing right next to the man who had designed it.

"It's like Pangaea!" The boy said, "When the continents were together, which means everyone can live peacefully. It took a very long time, but I'm happy with it, and the wars have finally stopped… which means there's only one thing to do." He clapped his hands together and ran to the other side of the room where he stepped into a tube made of rose coloured glass. He slid the metal door shut and pointed to a button on the outside of it.

Mimi hurried toward it, clearly not worried like I was. What was that going to do? This could be very dangerous—but she'd pressed the button and a red laser-like light shone at the bottom of the tube and slowly worked its way up. It was scanning him. I looked over to the ENIAC where the information seemed to be going, and saw his body appear on the screen starting at his feet. Once it reached his head I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. The scan of him was clean, rested and sane. And it was so clear now who the man was.

"Gennai!" I gasped loudly as the man stepped out of the tube.

"My name is Hiraga." He said, confused. Mimi threw a finger to her lips to silence me and I nodded. Suddenly everything that was already interesting, was _so_ much more interesting. Gennai had died for Iori who had died for me. So in turn, Gennai had died for my life, and he was standing next to me right now—I could thank him—I could do anything—but I shouldn't. I shouldn't mess with the timeline.

"Why did you scan yourself Hiraga?" Mimi asked, following him to the computer next to me. He began clicking away for a few minutes before answering.

"I can't go into the world myself." He said quietly, "The only thing I _can_ do is send a copy of myself in. My mother said a world of peace would never be the same without me… and I need her to be happy. I can't get to her. She can't get to me… this is the only way… I can only hope peace keeps."

"Well how did you stop the wars?" I asked him.

"I created ten spirits," He said, "I'll show you." He clicked a few buttons and then, on the ENIAC a set of digimon appeared, "They represent the elements, and will watch over everyone. They will keep peace for as long as they can. At first I wasn't sure how to get them to live… but I took scans of the partners in that land, and each of them were digital—which made the spirits lives much easier to create."

"What about you?" Mimi asked, "You're not digital."

"My mother is." He said softly, "I'm half digital, and so my clone should be able to survive there. Even in a reboot should that happen—he should just return like all the partners."

"You're very smart." I said in awe at what was happening. It was funny how just an hour ago I'd been fussing over my secret break-up—this was far more important and interesting. It was just the reality check I needed.

"As are you," Hiraga said to me, "I figured everything I needed out because of you. I'd have never thought that their life forms would be digital had you not suggested I call it the Digital World." I smiled uncontrollably—I'd taken a part in the creation of the Digital World—but that meant that no matter what we did, it wouldn't matter—because we'd already done it. I had to have been here when this time was actually happening, or else the Digital World would never exist as it did. "So there you have it." Hiraga said. "I'm officially launching the Digital World."

He slammed his finger down on a button and the world around us melted quickly until we were once again in the cave, this time the end of it, with a wooden door next to us.

"This is my house door." Mimi said, bringing both of us to the realization that the adventure was over. She reached forward and turned the knob, and pulling it open. Through the door was Mimi's house, the box the key had come in still laying messily on the coffee table.

"I'm not even sure what just happened to us entirely." I said as Mimi led us into her house, closing the door behind her.

"I do." Mimi said, "Gennai created the Digital World Hikari—that's the most impressive thing ever… and—he cloned himself… maybe the file is still there—maybe we could bring Gennai back! What if his mother is still around—Hikari there are so many things we should be doing right now..."

"We should start by telling the others." I decided.

"Yeah!" Mimi said, "Koushiro and Willis, they'll know what to do!"

"Yep, Koushiro _will_ know what to do." I nodded. With a grin Mimi grabbed my wrist and pulled me along to find her boyfriend.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** So much is going on! Mimi's found a time traveling key, Miyako's been taken, Marrow is after Yamato in attempts to arrest him, and Betamon wasn't real-but that's not all that's wrong. Something really big is about to go down, find out next time what it is!


	35. Timely Mistakes

**Y/N:** Mimi's part in this chapter took forever to write. I'm not saying that as if it took a week or something. It literally took a month to plow through. I just did not want to write it—and especially didn't when my computer wiped the first half of it out of existence and made me start over from scratch, resulting in a much more rushed version, but I hope you like it—and the rest—anyway. Leave a review if you can, and enjoy!

**U/N:** I actually liked writing this chapter because I really like the friendship of Taichi and Yamato which I don't really get to do too often-it's got a lot going on though... and I enjoyed Sora's as well since Catherine is hilarious... Satoe's is short, but it's also her last chapter ever, so she deserves it really, plus it sets up her final plot point, and it was kind of fun too... Anyway, I hope you like this crazy, jump aroundey chapter and you should review it :D Yay! :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 35: Timely Mistakes**

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I should have realized he'd want to see the floppy disk. It was a logical assumption to make, and I should have expected it. Koushiro hardly believed in anything that he didn't have sufficient information on. And despite both Hikari's and my own testimonies of our foray through time, he still seemed a little hesitant. I wasn't about to whip out my key and take him on a trip of his own though. I didn't have anywhere to go, and I didn't want to try using it without any sort of planning. So, I needed my floppy disk. Unfortunately, I'd left it behind at the library in my haste to get to Hikari so she could bring me through time. What a waste. Now I had to trek all the way back to the library. Two visits in one month—in two days especially—was a new record for me.

In any case, there I was, pulling the front door of the library open, praying that Mari was actually working again so that I could get my floppy disk back from her. It would've sucked big time if I'd come all that way for absolutely nothing. Thankfully, she was standing at the same desk as she'd been the day before, talking—quite blatantly, really—to her large, pink and green plant digimon, Lalamon. I cast a quick look around the library and realized it must've just been a really slow day. I couldn't believe she'd risk the digimon secret, but I didn't really know her all that well. In fact I was fairly sure the only time I'd spoken with her—aside from yesterday with the floppy disk in any case—was when she was feeding my jealousy, making me lose my mind faster than strictly necessary.

Huh.

I'd have to work out whether we were really friends at a later date though, because I was kind of in a hurry to escape the dull atmosphere of the library. The dusty books and less than riveting environment weren't really doing anything for me. I didn't know if it was all libraries, or just this one, but seriously, they could've used a paint job. A nice, pale pink would do wonders to liven up the area and put some energy into the employees and patrons alike. I had such a great eye for these things. I really ought to suggest it to Miyako… Once we saved her—there was no debate in my mind about it, we _would_ save her—I could, I guess. I doubt that would be what she'd like to hear upon her rescue though. Maybe I'd just hunt down a suggestion box.

"Oh look," Katsue drawled, catching my attention—though it wasn't very hard to do, as the dull, puke green walls weren't all that captivating. "Looks like our flighty friend has returned."

"Speak for yourself," Mari said, crinkling her nose at the idea. "She's not _my_ friend."

"I'm not either of your friends, really," I said lightly. "But I'd like to be in the future. Now that I'm not crazy and everything. It would probably be a good idea to start fresh really, though I must say, I really do prefer Katsue over my copycat."

"I'm not your copycat!" Mari gasped.

"I had a Rosemon first," I said with a smug smile. "But I'm not here to brag or anything. I don't even know why I said that. I should apologize, but since I'm not really sorry I think I'd feel guilty if I lied about it…"

"Brutal honesty, or an impulsive need to represent your crest?" Mari asked.

"The second one," I admitted. "I was lacking so much with the envy thing, I really need to be true to myself and my opinions of people. Though I don't even hate you, so I should strive to be nicer in order to secure that future friendship I mentioned…"

"Let's cut the small talk, shall we?" Katsue said with a short laugh. "You're here for this, aren't you?" She lifted up a very familiar floppy disk and I nearly threw myself at her to get it. "Not so fast, I have a couple things to tell you. Being the wonderful reporter that I am, I looked into your mystery men. I couldn't dig up anything on the guy that gave the disk to you, but I could find stuff on his father, Hiraga."

That caught my interest. I was really interested in anything to do with Gennai at the moment, having learned what a vital role he played in the creation of the Digital World just the day before. He was really a genius in every sense of the word—at least his human counterpart clearly had been.

Katsue pulled up a file on the laptop she had sitting on the counter in front of her. It appeared to be a well cited collection of several news articles and clips from various social media websites where he'd been mentioned. She highlighted one that was labeled as his obituary, and was accompanied by a picture of him as an old man. He didn't look like he had when I first went into the Digital World, but there were many similarities I could see though, his short stature, his white hair, the wrinkles around his eyes that had to be a mix of laugh lines and stress. He seemed to have a far better fashion sense on Earth as opposed the typical robes he and his many clones had worn in the Temple. The obituary itself only listed a few family members that he left behind, including Tadao—the man who'd given me both the disk and the key—and short summary of his accomplishments. I noticed that the Digital World was absent entirely from the list, and that his mother's identity proved to be a very noticeable gap in the information provided. But I already knew these things. I knew them because I'd witnessed them, and I'd spoken with Hiraga only yesterday. No, Hiraga wasn't the Gennai I knew, but he was remarkable nonetheless.

"Does this stuff help any?" Katsue asked, pulling up several photos of Hiraga through the years, some with Tadao, some alone. "You left in a hurry yesterday, so I couldn't ask what it was that you wanted to know about him. So I just put together everything I could find. Did you know he liked to fish in a lake not far from here? He won a competition for catching the largest fish in his youth. He was all over the place when he was really young, but there was a large gap of time, his twenties mostly, but his later teen years as well, when he just disappeared from the map. It caused a big ruckus and everything. The neighbours were convinced he'd either been taken—and his father was just too proud to ask for help finding him—or that he'd finally succumb to the madness they expected from him. When he reappeared, haggard but proud, a few years later, many people were actually disappointed to learn that he'd just been working on a personal project. It wasn't nearly as exciting gossip, you know?"

"How dare he ruin their fun," I teased. "He was creating the Digital World at the time. It was kind of a bigger deal than any of them realized."

"If you know all of this stuff, why'd you freak out yesterday when you learned Gennai and him were the same guy?" Mari asked kind of put out. I supposed she was expecting a bit more gratitude and awe from me, even though she barely understood who Gennai was in the first place.

"I didn't know at the time," I assured her. Looking at the pictures on the screen, I was suddenly hit with a longing to see him again. "I kind of miss him, you know?"

"People tend to miss those they cared about once they've passed on," Katsue said wryly.

"I didn't care about him though," I babbled, realizing just how horrible I'd been to him at the end. "I hated him. He was annoying and I called him _Jerk-nai_. Who does that? Apparently I do, because I'm heartless of course. And then he died because he was saving Iori. He gave his life for a kid he barely knew, _just_ because he thought Iori deserved the second chance. And I never got to apologize to him. He died instantaneously. And I kind of hoped, yesterday, seeing that he was on Earth too, that I'd get to talk to him again…but I _can't_!"

"Mimi, calm down," Katsue said awkwardly patting my shoulder as I started sobbing. I was such a baby, but it was just so sad and I was feeling absolutely awful about the whole thing. I wondered if Tadao knew that I'd been so horrible to his father, and that was why he sent me the information, to torture me for my misdeeds. I'd seen Gennai—or Hiraga—the day before and that only fanned the flames of guilt and set off a longing that I didn't realize I could feel about a guy I hadn't cared for too much. I really _missed_ him.

"This is still a library, Mimi," Lalamon trilled. "People are starting to stare."

"Snap out of it," Mari hissed. "I know you feel bad. I get it, I really do. But you can't change it. You just have to learn to live with it. He died years ago. You couldn't do anything unless you could go back and fix things so you didn't feel so guilty. But, as I said yesterday, time travel is an impossibility so I hate to say this, but you're going to have to suck it up. Maybe even go to a councillor or therapist?"

"No," I said, slowly reaching my hand into my pocket, my sobbing all but stopped now. "I don't need a therapist. I need Gennai."

"Mimi," Mari said, making me look directly into her eyes so that she knew she had my complete attention. "I can get you help if you'll let me. You can't talk to him."

"What if I told you that I could? That _we_ could?" I said, a smile working its way onto my tear stained face. "I could bring us to him."

"What are you talking about?" Mari demanded.

"She's flipped her lid," Katsue commented. "Should we call her boyfriend? Or Sora? She lives with her right? She'd be able to tell us what to do."

"Shut up for a second," I insisted, climbing over the countertop and grabbing their wrists. "Come with me." I pulled them towards the office door that was hidden behind the large counter. Mari tried to pull me away from it, insisting that it was for employees only, but I ignored her, opening the door and shoving them inside before removing my key from my pocket. "This is the answer to everything. I can go back and apologize to Gennai before he died. Better yet, he doesn't even have to die. I can save him. But you're going to need to help me."

"I'm going to call Sora," Katsue said with a nod, moving to open the door. Mari went to follow her, leaving only Lalamon on my side. She was eying the key in my hand with a great deal of curiosity.

"Wait," I said, jamming my key into the keyhole, leaving them trapped. "We're going on a trip. A trip through time."

"You sound like a cheesy sci-fi special," Katsue said, rolling her eyes. I shook my head at her cynicism and opened the door, revealing a long, dark tunnel that I knew quite well for having only known about its existence for less than twenty-four hours.

"Welcome to the Tunnel of Time," I said eerily. "Well, that's what I call it. No one has told me any differently, though I'm assuming that no one knows too much about this place at all. Hikari and I found it yesterday. And now I'm going to travel with you."

"Or maybe we'll just stay here…" Katsue said nervously. I grinned and pushed the three of them through the door, which slammed behind me, causing them to yelp.

"Where's your sense of adventure. We'll be fine," I said.

"It doesn't look safe," Lalamon told me. "Not for plants at least. Look at that tree!"

"What tree?" I asked confused. There hadn't been a tree the day before. But sure enough, as I turned to follow her pointing finger—arm…petal…leaf, _what_ was it exactly?—I saw a large tree that looked to be infected by pure evil. The bark was black and cracked, and the blossoms on its leafless branches were wilted and falling off. It made my skin crawl to look at it.

"Get us out of here," Katsue demanded.

"I'm not supposed to be on break for another two hours," Mari complained.

"I can't bring you back yet," I admitted. "We have to let time take its course. I think. I'm really new at this. Don't hate me!"

"You make it so hard not to," Mari grumbled.

"You know what," Katsue declared. "Yamato wants me to lighten up and get a hang of this digimon stuff. Show me what you've got Mimi. I'd like to see just how much I can handle before I freak out."

"Well—" I started, but the tunnel melted away around us. I stumbled, knocking into some kid that was walking down the path in the park we'd appeared in. I let out a startled apology, but was met with silence. I glared at the ground, expecting him to have toppled over, but he wasn't there. The tunnel had fully melted away by that point, and I had a really bad feeling about what had just happened. "So…how likely do you think it would be to find a kid that might've possibly slipped into the Tunnel of Time? All hypothetically of course."

"It better be hypothetical," Mari snapped.

"You do realize that a kid could be anywhere in the entire world at any time that has ever, or _will_ ever exist, right?" Katsue commented.

"It's good that it's just pretend then, right?" Lalamon said pleased.

"And if it wasn't so hypothetical…?" I said anxiously.

"Then the kid's in for an adventure, because we sure as hell aren't going to catch up with him," Katsue said with a shrug. Mari and Lalamon gasped at her, and I wished I had her nonchalant attitude about this. It happened so fast, I couldn't have stopped it even if I tried. And now that poor kid—a boy of maybe twelve or fourteen at the most—was lost in the fabrics of space and time. I really was a horrible person.

I was worse than horrible, because it never even crossed my mind that we should go after him. My mind was entirely consumed with getting to Gennai in time to save his life. Maybe my meddling with that kid would be like when Hikari told Gennai about the Digital World, and in doing so helped him to create it. That would be really cool. Also next to impossible. But it was a nice thought.

"Where are we now?" Mari asked, glancing around the park.

"Odaiba as far as I can tell," Katsue informed her.

"We travelled through a Tunnel of Time only to go to a park twenty minutes away?" Mari asked wryly.

"Or we're in the future," Lalamon said. "Or the past, but I'm betting on the future. See that sign? It says there'll be a festival here soon…"

"But the year…" Mari realized. Yep. We were definitely in the future. Not _too_ far in, but I would've been well into my thirties at this point…and I didn't like that idea.

"Should we look around?" Katsue suggested, but we didn't get the chance. No sooner had we started taking a few steps down the path, had the tunnel wrapped us back into its grasp. "Or not…"

"Where to next?" Lalamon giggled excitedly.

"Only one way to find out," I said, before taking off at a run towards the other end of the Tunnel of Time. The walls disappeared yet again, only this time I was clearly in the Digital World. I didn't recognize it though. Things seemed much brighter than they were when I was from. There wasn't such a thick layer of chaos and mayhem in the air. Just tall, lively trees, and strange towers in the distance.

There was also the murmuring of small voices that clearly thought they were far better hidden than they really were. It didn't matter in the end though, because the little ninja television sets jumped out of the bushes so fast that we didn't even have long enough to realize what was happening, let alone guard ourselves against the ropes they were coiling around us.

"We've got intruders boss," one of the television sets said aloud. A voice from seemingly nowhere responded with orders to bring us to him. I didn't like the sounds of it.

"Now would be an excellent time for the Tunnel to appear," I suggested. But the stupid Tunnel ignored me, letting all of us be dragged unceremoniously towards that one tall tower, which I realized had to be for their television signals.

"Welcome to the Shinobi Village," a television ninja told us sarcastically, dragging us to the base of the tower. I barely had time to notice the series of small, wooden huts and houses that scattered the area, half shrouded in bushes and tree branches. "You might just find your stay to be less than enjoyable."

"So…I've decided digimon just aren't my thing," Katsue said conversationally as we were dropped in a heap at the base of the tower. An older looking ninja digimon with a grey mustache on his television screen face was looking down at us suspiciously.

"Why have you come here?" he demanded.

"We don't know," Mari snapped.

"A likely story," he drawled. "But we're onto you. You won't take over our village. You can tell your master that we still fight against him."

"We don't have a master," I insisted.

"Enough," he growled. "Tell me, who are you."

"You're being mean," a small television that clearly hadn't grown up to be a ninja like the rest of his village just yet said. He was tiny and green, with inch long legs holding him up. His face was simple emoticons showing his mood.

"Quiet Monimon," the elder hissed. "I'm interrogating them. I'm supposed to be mean."

"You told me never to be mean," Monimon reminded him. It was adorable. I had no choice but to grin at the sight.

"Quiet," he hissed again, before turning his gaze on us. "Who. Are. You?"

"Well, I'm Katsue, and I'm a reporter."

The little Monimon seemed to think this was hilarious, which made Katsue look affronted—which I then thought was hilarious. "You're a reporter…and I report, reporters' reports. Get it? 'Cause I'm a TV?"

"That's a lot of reporting going on," Katsue joked awkwardly. Monimon burst into more giggles, his emoticon face changing from a typical happy face to an ecstatic one.

"Stop bonding with the enemy," the elder said.

"She's not an enemy," Monimon corrected him. "She's my friend."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Katsue insisted.

"I've been waiting for her for forever," Monimon continued, ignoring her. "I finally found her. You have to let me go, Elder."

"Go where?" Katsue and the Elder asked as one.

"Wherever they need me to go," Monimon said simply. He jumped down from his place at the Elder's side, and used a Rappa attack to leap onto our lumped pile—which didn't actually seem like a very useful attack in the long run—and got to work at untangling the knotted rope. Soon we were all standing tall once again, and he jumped—using Rappa again—into Katsue's arms. There was a soft glowing, and Katsue held out a steampunk-esque digivice. There were a lot of similarities to my own digivice, but it had a different vibe to it. One that I couldn't pinpoint. It could have been an earlier design of the digivice, meaning that we were in the past, or it could have been a trendier version developed in the future. All I knew was that it wasn't from our present.

"Great," Katsue said. "No really. Now Yamato won't have to go to prison for telling me about digimon!"

"Yamato…?" the Elder asked, something striking his memory. But before he could question us further, the Tunnel decided to help us—a little late—from potentially messing up the timeline.

"Now what?" Monimon wanted to know. "Are we going to fight? 'Cause I can't really fight. I can jump though, with my Rappa. And I can spit water with my Suppa. Or, if all else fails, I can use my secret weapon: Toppa."

"Is that like a bomb or something?" Katsue wanted to know.

"No…it's when I run away really, really, super, duper fast," Monimon informed her.

"So you just flee…" Katsue said. "That's cool. I wouldn't want to hang around a fight that I couldn't win either."

"Mimi," Mari said impatiently. "As fun as this is—by which I mean not at all—when are we going to see this Gennai fellow? You've ruined a kid's life and got Katsue a digimon. That's great an all—except the poor kid, I guess—but I really should've clocked out at work before leaving…"

"Relax," Katsue said with a grin. "You're in the Tunnel of _Time_. Time probably isn't passing while we're here. It's like an extra vacation from the repetitiveness of being a librarian. Enjoy it."

"Just hurry it up," Mari snapped. Lalamon patted her hand comfortingly and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh great Time Tunnel," I called dramatically. "Please bring us to the moment where we could spare Gennai's life!"

"That's your big plan?" Mari asked. "That's stupid."

"I wouldn't exactly call it stupid," Katsue said, looking around in astonishment. "It's working after all. There's a clown over there."

I gasped and grabbed their wrists, dragging them behind a column so that we were hidden from Piedmon's watchful eyes. I'd caught a glimpse of him though, before I shielded us. He was wearing that familiar red jacket and puffy pants. His orange hair stood on end out the back of his head, and he was staring down at Hikari, who was standing in fear. Not for herself, but for her friends. AeroVeedramon was poised, ready to attack Piedmon, having digivolved for Daisuke who'd just joined the side of good once again. MagnaAngemon had pulled out his sword, preparing for his Gate of Destiny attack. Daisuke was making horrible jokes and puns, and I knew that Takeru and Iori were out there as well, though I hadn't seen them.

I knew what was going to happen from this point on. AeroVeedramon would attack, and Piedmon would then fall through MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny, but not before he threw a sword towards Hikari's heart. But the sword wouldn't make it, because Iori—in a misguided attempt at saving a life—would get in the way of it and take the hit for himself. Then, he would lie there bleeding and dying slowly while MagnaAngemon returned everyone else from their key chain state—key chains that AeroVeedramon had rescued in his attack. Gennai would then sacrifice himself to give Iori his life back.

It had all happened before.

And it would happen differently this time. But I didn't have long to plan this out.

"Mari," I said quickly. "Put your hood up." She looked at me like I was crazy and didn't move. Her sweater was billowy though, and black. The perfect disguise. "Do it! I can't go out there and do anything, because I'm currently a keychain around Piedmon's waist. So are Willis, and Miyako and Yamato. Everyone except Jou, Takeru, Hikari, Iori and Daisuke are really. So I can't save them. But _you_ can."

"They're not going to take kindly to a girl wearing a creepy black hood," Mari snapped.

"We like Kurayami well enough and that's how we met her," I hissed. "Now do it."

She pulled her hood up, and I heard MagnaAngemon shouting out "Gate of Destiny." We had less time than I'd thought.

"Listen up and listen closely," I told her quickly. "Piedmon is going to throw a sword at Hikari. It's not Kiyoko's partner, so don't worry about him. He's going to be a goner anyway. The problem is that Iori is going to nearly kill himself in the process of saving her. You're going to go and push her out of the way before he has the chance."

"So you want _me_ to die instead?" she gasped in horror. Lalamon stepped in front of her defensively.

"No," I snapped. "I want you to save a life here. Just do it!"

She didn't waste a second. Apparently I could be quite terrifying while desperately trying to save a person's life. She rushed out into the battlefield, and I peered around the corner as the scene unfolded.

AeroVeedramon had tackled Piedmon. I saw him snatch up the key chains, silently thanking him for doing it. He got distracted, however, by Mari rushing into the open. The sword was already on its path. Iori tensed up and then he was running at Hikari, only to skid to a stop, nearly toppling over in the process.

"Who's she?" Daisuke demanded as Mari shoved Hikari out of the way and ducked under the blade just in time. Her poufy blonde hair stuck out of her hood some. And then she was on her feet running towards us with wide eyes and a frantic look on her face.

"Wait!" Takeru shouted after her.

"No thank you!" Mari screamed and turned the corner, out of their sight. They started running after her, but they didn't find us. Because the Tunnel of Time decided we should return, and we were suddenly enclosed in the dark, damp tunnel with the evil looking tree once more.

"What happened?" Katsue asked. And the Tunnel melted away quickly, revealing the most horrifying scene I'd ever seen in my life. It might've been Odaiba, but I couldn't be certain. There were crumbling remains of apartment buildings and shops. Cars were destroyed in the streets, and trees were growing from the most impossible of locations. Dust and debris were everywhere. It looked to me like the worlds had never separated. But that couldn't be right. We'd saved the world three years ago! Fanglongmon couldn't have won. And we had Gennai now. That should have saved us even more.

"Who goes there?"

All of us whipped around to see who had snuck up on us. Lalamon jumped in front of us and Monimon shook in Katsue's arms. It was a man. A man I knew to be Gennai—or at the very least, one of his Temple workers. He was holding a staff with both hands, preparing to strike us with it.

"Gennai?" I asked with a shaky voice.

"Oh, it's you, Mimi," he said, lowering his weapon. "I did not recognize you. You look healthier, less haggard. And your hair, it's well kept."

I did not like the image he'd painted for me.

"Of course it is," I told him. "Now tell me what happened to Odaiba."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" he wanted to know. I glared at him and he relented. "Fanglongmon happened. You really ought to remember."

"For argument's sake, let's say I've got amnesia," I said.

"Are these two trusted?" he asked, casting worried looks at Katsue and Mari.

"They're on my side," I assured him.

"New allies are always welcome," he said giving them a smile. New Allies? They'd been on our side for awhile now. Even when she was 'evil', Mari wasn't all that bad. And he didn't recognize her at all? That didn't bode well for us.

"What happened to your old allies?" Katsue demanded.

"Gone," he said. I choked on my breath. Gone? Just who did he mean was gone? Did he mean dead or just on vacation? Something assured me he didn't mean the latter.

"How?" I implored.

"You really have hit your head," Gennai said sadly. "Our only hope, lost to a head injury."

"Only hope?" Mari asked in a strangled voice.

"Yes," he said. "It started, I suppose when Fanglongmon tried to merge the worlds together."

"I actually remember everything up until I was turned in a key chain by Piedmon," I said quickly. I didn't want to waste time on a story I already knew.

"Ah, yes. The time when a mysterious girl swooped in and saved Hikari's life. But her presence also caused a fatal distraction. AeroVeedramon caught sight of her and got careless in his collection of the key chains. He missed three. Miyako was gone into the Gate of Destiny along with Agumon and Lopmon," Gennai said firmly.

"Not Lopmon," Mari gasped.

"Yes," Gennai said forlornly. "Her loss caused Willis to lose the will to fight. He and Terriermon were mere shells of their old selves. Perfect prey for Fanglongmon. He invaded their minds and had Terriermon dispatch of Willis, only for Terriermon's mind to break for what he'd done. He's since died, but he lived a long while with no sense of right or wrong. He killed many innocent humans and digimon alike before he was finally destroyed."

"Just like that, they're all gone?" Mari cried. I hadn't realized just how close she was to Willis, but Miyako was her best friend, so I knew that had to be really hard to hear. It was hard for me to hear too, and I wasn't as close to either of them as I once was.

"What did Agumon cause?" Katsue asked, in full reporter mode. I was thankful for her presence. I didn't think I could press for more information at that point.

"Taichi was enraged at AeroVeedramon and Daisuke for letting his partner die. Fanglongmon got to him easy enough as well, though he didn't need to do much to get Taichi to do his bidding. In his fit of rage, he attacked Daisuke, and Fanglongmon pushed him just far enough that he strangled the poor boy with his bare hands. Daisuke's partner attacked Taichi in vengeance, but it was ultimately Kurayami—who'd been under Fanglongmon's influence already—that got Taichi out of the way."

Taichi, Daisuke, Willis, Miyako, Lopmon, Terriermon, Agumon… So many deaths, and I could tell the story had just begun.

"Ken was horrified by the loss of his love, and fell prey to Fanglongmon as well. Kurayami got to him too, while Fanglongmon took away his desire to fight for his life. He was absolutely still while she killed him. She snapped out of Fanglongmon's control not long after, staring at her blood covered hands. She took her own life then, desperate to keep Fanglongmon from using her to kill any of the other digidestined."

Ken and Kurayami were gone too. He didn't mention Wormmon though, or Veemon. So they were probably alright. Or as well as they could be with dead partners. And Labramon was never found, because Kurayami died before she could find him. That wasn't fair. They loved each other so much and they never got the chance to experience that adoration.

"Those remaining were horrified by what had taken place in front of them. They'd watched as digidestined turned on digidestined, as partner turned on partner. I urged them to flee, and they did, thought most were distraught. Hikari in particular seemed to be falling apart. It was all Takeru could managed to keep her from breaking down while we escaped. We no longer had the energy or the confidence to take Fanglongmon on head first, so we secreted away to the Temple, where I hoped to have my team assist us. You in particular, Mimi, were not pleased by this new plan of attack. You hated me, loathed everything I stood for, and soon you had the digidestined divided. Those against me and those with me. Thankfully it never turned into an all out war between teammates. Unfortunately, it was ultimately Hikari's death that kept that from happening."

"No!" I gasped.

"Yes," he said solemnly. "I realize it is hard to hear, but you need to remember Mimi, you are our only hope. Hikari was targeted by Fanglongmon. She'd been on a scouting mission in the forest with Takeru and Iori when he attacked personally. Both boys and their digimon were slaughtered in their attempts at protecting her, and Hikari fell soon after, sacrificing herself for Angewomon, the keeper of the crest of light. Fanglongmon rejoiced at Hikari's death, thinking he'd finally conquered the light, but soon realized he was wrong. Gatomon was destroyed next. She made no effort to hide. She wanted to tear him limb from limb. She died before she could, though it was not a battle she could ever hope to win."

Takeru, Patamon, Hikari, Gatomon, Iori and Armadillomon. How many of my friends were going to die in this story. Tears were streaming down my face like two small rivers and I was barely keeping myself from blubbering. Mari was crying silently, and Katsue remained put together, though I could see it wasn't without effort.

"What happened after he got the light?" Katsue demanded.

"He became even stronger. He betrayed Dragomon, and destroyed him, drunk on his own new power. Sigma too fell prey to his strengths."

"No, no, no," Mari said repeatedly. No matter how scary that boy could be, she still counted him as one of her closest friends. "What about Hideto? Neo? Me?"

"You are standing right here, I do not understand," Gennai said. "But those other names, I think I may recognize them. They led an uprising of hidden warriors. Human that had kept their digimon partners a secret, and they launched a foolish attack against Fanglonmon. The Omnimon managed to stay strong for awhile, but the white haired boy and his dragon digimon didn't last long."

"He was using Dracomon," Mari realized. He never tried to command Arkadimon, because all the worlds were combined in absolute chaos. That was a small ray of sunshine in this dark, dark tale. He never unleashed an even bigger evil than Fanglongmon.

"How about Sora? Koushiro or…Yamato?" Katsue asked Gennai.

"And Michael!" I added.

"Michael was a tragedy in that the egg he cared for and the digimon within it that he raised turned his back on him. It was not his own digimon and it destroyed him in an effort to keep Fanglongmon happy. Fanglongmon was not impressed and was rid of the imposter digimon quickly. Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Gabumon, Biyomon, and Tentomon were a part of our resistance force. We're well hidden and pick our fights carefully and strategically. It is our hope that we can still rid the world of Fanglongmon. The three of them, and you, were our primary fighters. And they were picked off one at a time. Veemon, Hawkmon, Wormmon, Palmon and you are left though. And Labramon, though he has little experience with fighting."

So Labramon was around then. I was happy to hear that. What I wasn't happy hearing was that Sora and Koushiro were dead. And Yamato, but his death didn't strike me quite as deep as the other two. I loved them very much, even if I hadn't seemed like it for awhile. And now they were gone. Taken away without a moment's warning. I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.

"Y-Yamato?" Katsue asked with her voice breaking. She shook her head trying to rid herself of the emotions, trying to remain calm, collected and professional, but it was hard. I cried harder just looking at her struggling.

"That still leaves Jou," Mari pointed out, though her voice was raw from her tears.

"Alas, he is not with us either," Gennai said sadly. "His daughter was born the night Fanglongmon slaughtered the majority of our team, and we could not get to him in time. With the kerfuffle in the battle room, no one noticed Fanglongmon possessing one rogue digimon, one of Fanglongmon's captives that had been set free. The digimon caught sight of Jou and his new family and killed the newborn baby without hesitation. The poor child never even heard her name. Her mother was killed then too, and Jou took on the digimon on his own, with Hawkmon. Jou beat him, he _was_ victorious, but the injuries he'd taken in the fight proved to be his downfall. I do think though that this was a mercy for him. With his mind in the state it was, he would have been perfect for Fanglongmon to influence."

Jou. Koushiro. Sora. Every last person I cared about. My little goddaughter, Emiko, never lived long enough to take her first steps, or to play her first trick. That beautiful, mischievous little girl never got a chance for life.

"Mimi," Gennai said sternly. "You must fix this."

"How?" I begged.

"Go back and stop yourself from destroying all hope for the future," he said. "I know who you are, and where you're from. The Mimi I know is a broken individual, you have a good life yet to live. Go and fix your mistake."

"It wasn't a mistake," I said. "I saved you. I was making up for how horrible I was. I was trying to apologize."

"I understand and appreciate the sentiment, Mimi," Gennai said gently, placing a hand on my shoulder. "But sometimes terrible things must happen in order for destiny to play out correctly."

"But…but Hikari and I went back already too, and she told you about the Digital World. How am I supposed to fix that?" I pleaded.

"You don't," he said. "There is a difference in letting destiny play out and disrupting it. Hikari did not actively try and change things; she said it strictly by accident. And that accident exploded into an idea that helped form the future. You went back with a plan in mind. You wanted to change how things happened. There is a time and place for everything, and I'm not saying you cannot change _anything_, but this is one thing you mustn't change."

"You'll die though," I cried.

"And I it was a choice I made on my own," he told me firmly. "The digidestined are all needed for the world to survive. All of you, but especially the Holy—or Chosen—Three. Can you remember that Mimi. You _all_ must live to win."

"I'll remember," I promised.

"If this whole trip was a waste…will we have to go through all of time to find that kid Mimi pushed?" Mari gasped suddenly. I looked to Gennai in a panic. I couldn't find him, I really couldn't. I didn't even know what he looked like for one. Not really. He had spiky brown hair, and a red neckerchief…maybe a blue shirt…_maybe_.

"No," Gennai said firmly. "Destiny needed him to get to the Digital World, and you made it happen. Without you, Milleniummon would still reign over the Digital World."

"He never did though," I said confused.

"He did, while you were on Earth facing off against Myotismon. He took over during the years of your absence. It was Ken's first mission, and this young man was his only teammate. He will become a talented digidestined as he journeys back towards his own time. You needn't worry over him."

Thank God. I was pleased to find that _something _in this trip was worthwhile. Like Hikari I managed to accidentally contribute to the future of the Digital World. And Katsue got her digimon I supposed.

"It is time now, for you to go," Gennai said gently. I flung myself at him and cried into his chest, apologizing over and over again for what I was about to do to him. And he just kept whispering that it was okay. That it was his choice and that he wanted me to continue to live life the way I ought to. I should be happy, for him. It wasn't something I could promise right away, but he understood that. I'd be going to a second mourning period for him.

"Mimi," Katsue said, tugging on my sleeve. "Let's go get Yamato back, okay?"

"And Willis and Miyako," Mari agreed. "And Sigma, Hideto and Neo."

"Koushiro, Sora, Jou," I added.

"Takeru, Taichi," Katsue continued, listing the two members closest to her boyfriend.

"Hikari, Kurayami, Ken," Mari pointed out.

"Daisuke, Iori, and Michael," I finished. I hugged Gennai close one last time and pulled out my key. "I'm sorry Gennai, but it has to be this way." He smiled at me and waved once before I opened the gate to the Tunnel of Time.

The Tunnel seemed to know where we needed to go this time, and we were brought back to the hallway leading to the chamber where Piedmon was going to try to kill Hikari. I saw myself, Katsue, Mari and Lalamon huddled together, peering into the room. Monimon was in Katsue's arms, looking in amazement. I turned around and began to tell Mari my plan.

"Mari, put your hood up," I said. It was weird to see myself, wild eyes and excited. It was only a few minutes ago, but I'd changed so much already. "Do it! I can't go out there and do anything, because I'm currently a key chain around Piedmon's waist. So are Willis, and Miyako and Yamato." I sure knew how to hit below the belt. From this angle I saw both Mari and Katsue wince at my declaration. I'd missed that before and felt guilty about it now. "Everyone except Jou, Takeru, Hikari, Iori and Daisuke are really. So I can't save them. But _you_ can."

"They're not going to take kindly to a girl wearing a creepy black hood," Mari had said. The Mari standing next to me made a face and commented about her hair. It was really messy and big, seeming to have expanded with each trip through time.

"We like Kurayami well enough and that's how we met her. Now do it," the past me commanded. This was it. I had to stop her before she ruined life as we knew it.

"I'm going out there," I whispered.

"I wish I had a camera," Katsue said dazed, looking at our past selves with awe.

"You do," Monimon said. His face disappeared and a red circle appeared in the upper right hand side of his screen. He was going to record this. No one would've believed us if he didn't.

"Just go," Mari hissed.

"Right," I said, starting to run towards the past Mari, who'd slipped her hood on and was getting ready to run into the fray. I tackled her from behind, quickly sliding my hand over her mouth. She _bit_ me too. "Ow! What was that for?"

"You tell me to do it and now you make it so I can't," she snapped. "Make up your damn mind."

"What are you doing?" the past me demanded.

"Saving the future," I told her.

"You're ruining everything," she insisted. "Gennai's going to die now."

I turned and winced as I saw the sword impale itself into Iori's chest.

"It's for the best, really," I promised her. "He wants it this way."

She didn't look like she believed me, but it didn't matter, because the Tunnel of Time had sucked us up again.

"I can't believe that just happened!" Katsue squealed. "It's the most amazing thing ever."

"I'm just glad I wasn't responsible for the death of everyone," Mari said softly. Lalamon cuddled up to her side hugging her.

"Let's go home," I told them, leading them to the end of the Tunnel of Time, and hoping that we'd get deposited back at the library office. Thankfully, we did. The first thing Katsue did was look at the clock above the office's desk.

"It's been like two seconds," she realized. "Most exciting two seconds ever."

"_Longest_ two seconds ever," I corrected.

"Thank God," Mari sighed. "I really didn't want to get caught taking my break early."

"Doesn't your grandmother own this library?" Katsue pointed out.

"Yeah, and she's a mean ole bat," Mari replied.

"I've got to get going," I told them. "I've got to explain the time travel thing to Koushiro…but mostly I just want to see him alive again."

Katsue and Mari appeared to agree, because they whipped out their cell phones. Mari was more than a little disappointed that she couldn't call Miyako as she was trapped in the Dark Ocean—it was hard to imagine that was still happening—but her face lit right up when Willis answered, very much alive. Katsue was upset that Yamato had his phone off and declared that she had to go find him, before running off to do just that. I said my goodbyes to Mari, and ran the details of what we'd just seen in my head.

I wasn't allowed to use the key for just anything. I'd have to be careful with it from now on. Gennai made me promise to let destiny play out, but he also told me to make sure we all lived. Seeing what the world looked like when we died, I was inclined to agree with him—especially since I never wanted to go through the pain of losing them ever again.

I took my time getting home, choosing to walk, rather than take a cab, and just let my mind come to terms with everything. I kicked the stones on my walkway as I headed to the door, worried about what Koushiro would think if I told him everything I'd seen. But I didn't think I would. It was a very personal experience, and there was no harm in not telling him.

I opened the front door, expecting to find Koushiro seated in the living room at our desk, typing away at something, and instead was nearly bowled over by Palmon.

"Mimi!" she screamed.

"Palmon, you're back?" I said happily. She'd been gone with Gomamon for awhile, and I was really glad to see her. Until the look on her face registered anyway. "What's wrong, what happened?"

I didn't want to hear that a friend had died. I couldn't handle that again.

"It's Gomamon, Mimi, you have to hurry," she said in a panic. "He needs Jou, you have to warn Jou."

"Tell me everything," I instructed her as I rushed to the telephone on the coffee table and dialed the familiar numbers. "Jou? Jou it's Mimi. Listen, Palmon has something you need to hear. It's about Gomamon…"

"What's wrong?" came the frantic reply.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"How long have we lived together?" Taichi asked, dropping himself into his chair and sighing.

"A while." I responded lazily.

"How long?" Taichi said again.

"I don't know," I admitted, "Like... two and a half years?"

"Do you remember what we said when we bought this place?" Taichi asked, sitting up straighter.

I nodded simply, how could I forget.

"_Will you take it?" The realtor asked politely._

"_One second," Taichi said casually, grabbing my wrist and dragging me into the bathroom._

"_Uhm...?" I tried._

"_Listen to me rock star." Taichi said boldly, "If we buy this apartment together it can only be temporary. Promise me that we won't end up thirty years old and living together with awesome jobs and a slew of girlfriends piled up in the trash."_

"_Wow okay," I said taken aback, "That's not going to happen."_

"_But say it does," Taichi reasoned, "Say we're just casually living together, you, an astronaut rock star, and me a billionaire ambassador who rules the world parallel to ours, and we just... snap. What if we lose who we are, and end up total jerks—rich jerks with jerk-cars and jerk-lives and trophy wives—and what if we end up with a cat?"_

"_We're never getting a cat." I said flatly._

"_Promise me the rest of it won't happen!" Taichi laughed._

"_I promise you the rest of it won't happen." I said firmly. "It won't happen no matter what happens." I clarified, "But I promise you we won't live together forever." _

"_Let's set a limit." Taichi nodded._

"_What limit?" I asked, "How long we can live together?"_

_Taichi nodded. "Three years. Got it? Three years it the max. If we're not married and out of here by then there's something wrong with us."_

"_Deal." I said and we shook hands before accepting the apartment._

"Are you suggesting that there's something wrong with us?" I asked, confused, "You're joking right? I never actually thought I'd be married by twenty-four. In fact I'm probably never going to get married. Besides, I'm not even an astronaut rock star... yet. We're still working on our lives Taichi. We'll get there eventually."

"I'm not saying that." Taichi said after I'd finished, "And you're still going through with the astronaut thing?"

"I really want to win this bet." I said with a laugh, "So, duh."

"Nice!" He laughed giving me a high five. We both stayed silent for a couple seconds as Taichi thought, "It's just that... three years is almost up. I think... I want to look for a new place to live."

"You hate me." I declared.

We both laughed but he shook his head, "I don't hate you. You're still my best friend idiot. I just think..."

"Think...?" I pried I could tell there was something he wanted to say, but he was just nervous about it.

"I want to move to the Digital World." Taichi said, and I started laughing again, but stopped abruptly upon seeing that he was dead serious. "It's perfect. I work there, we've saved the world so many times... it just makes sense that I live there. Plus... if Rei and I ever... you know... get married or move in together or whatever, she would be able to walk around. Don't tell me it's not a good idea."

"It's not a good idea." I told him seriously. "It's the _best_ idea ever!" A grin spread across his face, "I wish I'd thought of it!" A moment later Taichi had thrust some poorly drawn designs in my face and I looked them over awkwardly, "The concept is good." I told him, "Just the... you... suck. At. Drawing."

Taichi nodded, "I know. I'm going to get an actual architect to plan it out... but I'll have to hire some digimon to help build it or whatever..."

"It's really cool." I smiled at him.

"I'm going to have a shower." Taichi said, "See you in half-the-time-it-would-usually-take-me-since-all-m y-hair-is-gone." Taichi was rolling his eyes as I laughed at him. Finally though he was gone...

Taichi was moving forward in his life. He was with Rei, building a home for himself, had a job that was perfect for who he was, and even got a haircut. I was still driving around on a motorcycle like some self-proclaimed bad-boy, with a strangely casual relationship, in an apartment alone with an unrealistic job. Sure everyone in Japan knew my name, but there was something about everything put together in my life that wasn't right.

It felt... lonely.

I thought about filling Taichi's soon-to-be-empty bedroom, but no one came to mind right off. Hikari was the first one to mind of course, since she was already looking for a place to stay, but we'd almost kissed, and since I was still in a loving relationship with Katsue that I didn't want to ruin, I couldn't do that. I couldn't pick her.

Takeru was living in the living room in his apartment... so maybe he'd want to live with me, no matter how lame it would be to live with my brother...

Suddenly the door opened and I turned quickly to see Katsue slamming the door and running toward me with a giant grin on her face, in her arms was a weird green box.

"You're never going to believe what happened to me today!" She said, leaping over the side of the couch and landing on her knees next to me.

"You..." I paused, "You were flashed by that weird guy next door?" Katsue shook her head her smile not faltering for a second, "You invented a new flavour of popcorn and won a billion dollars?" She shook her head, "What then?"

"You remember how you're being watched, and ready for prison...?" She asked slowly.

"Yeah...?" I asked just as slowly.

"Well—" She was cut off by a knocking at the door. "Get that." She said, "I want you to have a real reaction." I raised my eyebrows in response and went straight for the door. On the other side stood the Gennai lookalike Marrow that worked in Taichi's council.

"What do you want?" I asked sharply.

"You're sentenced to prison." Marrow grinned wickedly.

"You found your proof?" I asked confidently, even though on the inside I felt like I was going to cry. I was _not_ ready for the publicity that came from my imprisonment... if anyone ever found out.

"I don't need proof." He said slowly, holding up a piece of paper, "I've got this signed by a higher power."

I snatched the paper from his hands and read it through. It was a contract saying that I was allowed to be arrested and at the bottom, along the dotted line Taichi's name was signed in crayon.

"You're joking right?" I asked, turning to him, "You think he's a lot more immature than he is. He uses markers." Katsue laughed when I showed her the crayon writing. A moment later she was next to me in the doorway. "Plus I live with Taichi," I said, "He's literally in _that_ room," I pointed to the bathroom. "You can go check if you want, but he's naked. Your call."

Marrow was growling. Slowly he grabbed the paper from my hand and crumpled it up.

"It doesn't matter." He shot, "I don't need proof. I _know_. That's all the proof I need. I just _know._"

"Know what?" Katsue asked.

"I know he showed you the digimon!" Marrow snapped.

"Why would that matter...?" Katsue asked with a sly grin. What was she getting at?

"You're not Chosen." He growled.

"So..." Katsue said casually as Marrow roughly grabbed my wrist. "You're saying this isn't mine?" She said as she held up a strange looking digivice. My eyes widened but I said nothing. "Or this?" She spun around the green box in her hand.

"Hiya!" The digimon said with a strange smile.

Marrow's eyes narrowed in on the small television-like digimon and he released me. He let out a deep breath and spun on the spot, stalking away. I was closing the door when I heard the slam so I peeked into the hallway where I could see Marrow pulling his fist out of a hole in the wall.

I closed the door and turned to Katsue with a smile, "When did this happen?"

"_When_," She laughed, "Funny you'd ask that..." And so Katsue told me exactly how she'd gone through time with Mimi and Mari and found her digimon. "And then I realized that I love you." She said so casually that I almost didn't catch it.

"What?" I asked loudly.

"Wow," Katsue gasped, "I actually said it—oh my God!" She laughed and ran her fingers through her hair, "I love you!"

"I love you too," I shot out and then we were both laughing for some reason neither of us could really pinpoint. And then I just blurted it out as she was leading the way to the couch. "Move in with me."

Katsue turned to me and just stared.

_**Iori Hida:**_

I couldn't believe Daisuke. What a moron. No. It wasn't _just_ his fault. But I couldn't help but be angry with him. He was so full of himself. He was praising himself for getting Ken and Kurayami through the gateway with Wormmon, Labramon and Hawkmon. But what about me? Armadillomon was with Miyako when she was taken. He's my best friend. I should've been there helping to get to him. I didn't like that I had to trust his safety to Ken and Kurayami. It wasn't fair to him. He'd be so disappointed to see that I wasn't there when they got to him. He'd probably follow Gomamon's example and think I didn't care about him anymore. I really hoped he didn't.

But if he did, it was Daisuke's fault.

I was seething as Veemon led Daisuke and I back to Daisuke's apartment. We had to let Takeru know that Daisuke was a complete moron.

Damn. Wrath was getting the better of me again.

Veemon didn't wait for Daisuke before he ripped the door open and ran inside. Takeru was on his feet with a confused expression on his face as Daisuke and I followed Veemon into the living room.

"Where are the others?" he wanted to know.

"In the Dark Ocean," I growled.

"Why aren't you with them?" Takeru asked.

"The door got closed before we could," Daisuke said with a grin. "Her dad was trying to keep her from getting in, but I'm awesome and I kept him from getting to her key. So they got inside all thanks to me."

"And the door closed because of you too," I said with a scowl.

"Relax man," Daisuke said happily. "I'll get us in. Don't worry."

"And how to you plan on doing that?" Takeru asked with a laugh.

"I don't know yet, but I'm kind of freaking fantastic, so I'll figure it out," he answered. "Where's Patamon?"

"Upstairs playing with Norn," Takeru said.

"I'm the _best_ at playing with Norn," Daisuke said. He rushed up the stairs to join in the games. Veemon shook his head while rolling his eyes, but he followed Daisuke up the stairs anyway.

"Sora's on her way over, you're free to join us," Takeru told me. "How are you really holding up? With Armadillomon gone, and you're unplanned vacation and all…"

"I'm not a happy person usually," I said. "But I'm miserable now. Nothing I do makes it easier either. I'm so angry all the time. And my mom and Natsuni left me. I don't know where either one is. But they weren't with your mothers when they came from the Digital World, and your mom didn't think they were there."

"But she's not sure," Takeru insisted. "That's a plus."

"Yeah," I said. "Only if you don't take into account my behaviour the last time I saw either of them. They probably just want nothing to do with me anymore. And I can't do anything about it. I just want to punch something whenever I think about it. And no one treats me like I could be having actually problems. They still think I'm a kid and am worried about getting my homework done on time—which is something I'm actually pretty frustrated about—and not getting grounded. But I'm grown up now. I don't need to be smothered; I just need an open ear sometimes. And usually Jou fills that role, but he's so busy lately, with his wedding and his daughter and now with Gomamon."

"I know what you mean," Takeru admitted. "They won't let me actually do anything useful for the Digital World these days. Not unless a whole bunch of people are with me. They say it's too dangerous for me, all because of your "aunt" and her warning about the chosen three or holy three or whatever they want to call us. I don't like being babied. Why do you think I spent so long travelling the world? They couldn't keep me from doing things when I was gone, that's why."

"They can't protect us forever," I mused.

"No, and they shouldn't necessarily stop trying, but they need to ease up a bit," Takeru agreed.

There was a loud knocking on the door.

"Sora?" I questioned.

"Must be," Takeru said. But it seemed a little too loud to be Sora's knocking. Takeru wandered over to the door and opened it, intending to let Sora in. It definitely wasn't Sora. It was some man with a sadistic expression and an icy blue orb on a necklace around his neck. He looked a lot like Gennai did…only sort of evil.

"Who're you?" Takeru demanded.

"I am Marrow," the man said. "And I'm going to need you to come with me."

"He's not going anywhere," I argued.

"I guess I'll have to take the both of you," Marrow said with a grin. "It's more fun that way anyway. Let's go."

"Not a chance!" Takeru shouted. Marrows grabbed his arm though, and try as he might, Takeru could not shake free of his grasp. I was furious instantly—though it wasn't that big of a deal. I was always getting angry these days. I ran forward, ready to swing a punch at him, but he moved Takeru into my path. I was able to redirect my punch a bit, but I still hit Takeru in the shoulder.

"Watch it!" he called.

"Sorry," I growled, glaring at Marrow.

"What's all the racket about?" Daisuke asked, jumping down the steps. "What's going on?"

"I don't have time for you," Marrow snarled. He grabbed me by the back of the neck, and dragged both Takeru and I to the nearest computer, where he proceeded to activate the gate to the Digital World, sucking us into the other world. Without our digimon partners there to help us. And only Daisuke knew what was going on.

We were screwed.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

"I'm so happy to see Takeru again," Catherine said for the billionth time. It was a little annoying, but it was more cute than anything. She was just so excited all the time. Everything I said to her brought her back to Takeru.

"_I like the sky today," I'd said._

"_Takeru likes cupcakes." Catherine had responded._

Thankfully though, we were almost at Takeru's front door. Just a few more blocks to go. Floramon and Biyomon were exhausted, following behind us, but they could rest once we got there. Maybe... Depending on what we were going to do. I'd felt bad about not going with Ken to help Miyako, I'd just been scared to enter the Dark Ocean again. I just felt so guilty—there had to be something else I could put my effort in, so I was still helping to make up for it.

Hopefully Takeru had something.

Eventually though I was knocking on his door. It opened a second later with Daisuke standing on the other side looking panic stricken. Instantly I was scared. Something had happened.

"Sora," He said as calmly as he could, "Gennai's ghost came and took Takeru and Iori into the Digital World."

"_What_?" Catherine and I said together.

"He's a nutter," Biyomon explained to Floramon, "Always has been."

"I'm not nuts!" Daisuke insisted, "Seriously—I'm not kidding. He looked _exactly_ like Gennai and he took him through the computer. I would know. I saw it."

"Daisuke," Biyomon said, with a roll of her eyes, "Gennai has over a hundred exact lookalikes. Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?" Daisuke nodded firmly.

"It doesn't matter _who_ it was!" I said loudly, "All that matters is that they were taken at all. Are you sure they went to the Digital World?" Again, Daisuke nodded. "Well we need to get to them then." I declared, pushing past Daisuke and into his apartment.

"I can't," He said, pointing to a small girl with thin blonde hair, sitting at a table and reading a book. "I have to babysit."

"Well I can't do it alone." I said, ignoring Catherine's hand. She was there, I realized, but I needed one of the Digidestined, someone with experience in fighting. I decided I'd have to call someone. I ran through all the possibilities in my head and stopped at Taichi.

I pulled out my phone and called him quickly. It only rang a couple times before he picked it up.

"Taichi," I said quickly, "I need you to meet up with me. Do you have time? Takeru and Iori are in some sort of potential danger." I realized I actually had no idea if they'd gone willingly or not—it seemed likely since Gennai's people were all kind and thoughtful... "How about Mimi's restaurant?"

"Yeah I've got time." He said quickly, "What happened?"

I started to explain what I knew, but my phone started beeping, "One second," I said, "There's someone on the other line."

"Kay," Taichi said, "Just explain when we get there, I'm bringing Yamato." With that he hung up.

I quickly picked up the other line, "Hi?" I said hastily, "I don't really have time—"

"Sora, can we talk?" Neo asked through the phone causing my heart to flutter instantly. Oh joy.

"Yeah, absolutely." I said, "What's up?"

"Well if you don't have time, we can do this later?" He asked.

"No," I said, motioning for Catherine, Biyomon and Floramon to get moving. I waved goodbye to Daisuke and we were out the door, "That's fine, we can talk now."

"Alright," He said, clearing his throat, "You know how my policy has always been honesty? Well... I have to say something to you."

"Then say it Neo," I said firmly, "I don't want to dance around it right now, my friends might be in danger." Catherine had stopped a cab and opened the door for me. I thanked her quickly and told the driver where to go.

"C-can I help?" He asked, "Where are you—I want to help."

"Neo," I tried, but he cut me off.

"No, I'm helping. Where are you?" He asked.

"Go to Mimi's restaurant." I gave in, "We'll meet you there. Now what were you saying?"

"Well you asked for blunt, so here it is," He said, "Sora, I'm in love with you. I know it's moving really fast—since we're not dating or anything, but... the clock just paused. It's waiting for us to un-pause it after our breakup."

"The clock isn't paused," I said flatly, shocked at what he was saying, "The clock was blown up by Arkadimon when he killed my friends." I ignored the worried look the cab driver was giving me and turned my head to speak quieter. "Our relationship wasn't even real... you were... and—"

"No!" Neo shot, "It was real! I loved you so much—why do you think I dated you in the first place? It had nothing to do with my evil plan Sora. I honestly love you... and the only time I honestly feel safe from the evilness that I've been so caught up in, is when I'm with you."

"Neo," I said, "I'd be lying if I told you I didn't love you too, but maybe this isn't the time?"

"I'll just have to prove it to you." He said as he cab stopped. I paid the driver as someone opened my door for me. It was Taichi. I smiled up at him as he helped me to my feet.

"Just... okay," I decided, "Just get over here."

"I'm already here," He said before hanging up the phone. I hung up my own phone and looked down the street where Neo was hurrying toward us, Dracomon running alongside him. I smiled at him, pulling Biyomon out of the cab and sending it on its way.

"What is he doing here?" Taichi scowled at me.

"He wants to prove himself." I said sharply, "Play nicely." Taichi glared at me, but Neo was there a moment later. Yamato, Floramon and Catherine joined us and I was so thankful Catherine had come along to diffuse the awkwardness of me standing alone with three of my four ex-boyfriends. I then explained to them what Daisuke had told me.

"If someone who looks like Gennai took them," Taichi said, "Then there's only one logical place to look. The Temple."

_**Satoe Tachikawa:**_

"Who lives here?" Minervamon asked me. We'd just been kicked out of the hotel we were staying at because Minervamon screamed at the desk lady because she told her swords weren't allowed in the hotel. I could have just gone back to New York to stay in my own home with Keisuke, but there were things I needed to get done in Japan first.

"This is Mimi's house," I said with a smile.

I turned into her driveway and strode directly toward her front door and knocked boldly. I waited a moment and then the door was opened.

"Mrs Tachikawa?" Koushiro said with a gasp, "What are you doing here?"

I stepped through the door and led Minervamon into the room, past Koushiro. "I'm going to be living here for a bit."

"Mimi...?" Koushiro asked, turning to my daughter who was staring at me, her mouth hanging open a little, sitting by the telephone.

"Mom...?" She questioned.

"Don't you want me to be with you?" I asked her. She shook her head slowly.

"I mean yes!" She said sharply, before I could get hurt, "We just don't really have time right now Mom, a lot is going on."

"Well I'll wait." I smiled at her, and moving toward her couch, and sitting down. Minervamon slowly moved to sit next to me. "We can have some food fights, or whatever chefs do for fun. When you're not busy I mean."

Mimi smiled at me awkwardly before nodding. "Great." She said, and I couldn't help but smile. I was so happy to have time eventually to spend with Mimi—though calling Keisuke would be a good idea...

_**Natsuni Ando:**_

I didn't exactly know where we were going. Iori had never mentioned a digital restaurant to me. I didn't know why. It would have been the perfect spot for us to go on a date. My mother would never have suspected there was an entirely different world, and his mother wouldn't have been able to get to us in order to interrupt.

Well…before they were both transported here.

My mother was gone though, now. I was so thankful for that. I didn't think I could've handled her being around much longer. The only good thing that came out of her presence was that Mrs Hida could stand me now. She felt sorry for me, unfortunately, but it was better than absolute loathing. And she felt comfortable enough with me to confide her worries and fears for her son. That was a bonus. Of course the main downfall of it all was that she didn't know Iori and I were dating. If she did, I doubted she would have been so forgiving.

I wondered briefly if Iori was looking for us. We left without telling him. Not that we really had a choice, but still. He was probably worried about us. We hadn't been here long, but I was a bit worried that we'd be stuck here for a really long time in the long run. I couldn't miss that much school. Not with prom coming up and everything. I still needed time to convince Iori that he should go with me. That was, of course, assuming that my mother and father would allow me to attend, and still accepted that I was their daughter. Dad would, if mother didn't sink her nails into him before I could explain things to him. There wasn't much of a chance for that happening though, since she was already back on Earth, and I was still wandering the Digital World.

We'd been following Centaurumon for ages. And the closer he said we got to our destination, the slower Mr Ishida seemed to get. He was dreading his confrontation with his ex-wife and soon to be ex-girlfriend. I didn't want to ask about it though. He'd know I'd heard him and Mrs Hida talking about it. But with Goblimon walking silently by my side, there wasn't anything to keep me distracted from their words. Even when I tried to ignore them, Mrs Hida's giggling kept drawing my attention.

She was honestly giggling. The two of them were flirting up a storm, though I doubted they even noticed. I didn't think Iori would be too thrilled to know his mother was flirting with his friends' father, but I thought it was great. She'd been complaining about being lonely, and this was going to fix that problem. Maybe. I hoped so anyway. Then Iori and I could come clean about dating, and she wouldn't have anything to hold against me anymore. Besides, Mr Ishida seemed like a really great guy. Really fun. He could pull her out of that overprotective shell of hers. If they needed a push, I was totally willing to be the one doing the pushing.

"Aren't they cute?" I asked Goblimon after watching them for awhile. Mr Ishida tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and his fingers lingered for a few seconds longer than necessary. It was something Iori did sometimes, so I knew he was totally interested.

"I suppose so," Goblimon agreed, though I doubted he really cared.

"Hiroaki has a girlfriend though," Wizardmon said, shocking me. I hadn't realized he was behind me. I kind of forgot about him, since he was so quiet.

"One that he doesn't want," I hissed. "This is better for him. Healthier."

"But it's cheating…" Wizardmon insisted. I thought it was strange at first that a digimon would understand humans so well, and our customs, but then I remembered a story Iori told me about Wizardmon. He'd been stuck hanging around a television station for years. Of _course _knew about human drama.

"Not for long," I told him with a smile.

"Are we really going to gossip about them?" Goblimon wanted to know. I was right. He wasn't interested in the slightest.

"I think so," Wizardmon said uncertainly.

"I have to talk to _someone_," I sighed. But I caught sight of something over the tree tops.

"We're nearly there," Centaurumon declared.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing to the golden thing.

"A digimon, I suppose," Goblimon said.

"Not good," Wizardmon gasped.

"What? What isn't good?" Mrs Hida asked nervously.

"Don't worry about it," Mr Ishida assured her. "We'll be fine."

"I wouldn't be so sure," I called. The golden digimon turned and I caught sight of his face. It was a dragon. A golden dragon. And he looked furious.

"Maybe we should leave?" Mrs Hida suggested.

"He's at the restaurant," Centaurumon told us.

"Natsuko," Mr Ishida gasped. He started towards the dragon. "We can't leave her there."

We were left without a choice. Mr Ishida was basically our leader. I wouldn't know what to do without him, so I started running after him. When we got to the clearing, we saw what remained of the restaurant. A smoldering pile of wood. The dragon seemed to be using it as target practice, blasting it with bolts of lightning.

"What did you do to them?" Mr Ishida demanded. The dragon turned to him immediately, and a twisted smile carved its way onto his face.

"Nothing," he said. "I had so hoped to kill some humans today, but they escaped. You however, won't be so fortunate. It's my lucky day. Another set of humans for me to kill. Fewer than the last time, but I'm not fussy."

"Natsuni," Goblimon whispered, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind him. "Stay quiet. I'll handle this. You stay safe."

"I'll try," I said worriedly. He was going to fight against that giant monster, and I wasn't sure if he'd be able to do it. It was just so big and looked so strong.

Could we really win this fight?

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Jou and Michael hunt for their digimon, while Kurayami starts the trek to Miyako in the Dark Ocean. Willis makes a bit decision that results in some astounding findings.


	36. Lost and Found

**Y/N:** Sorry it's a little late. I hope you enjoy the chapter regardless though, and review if you get a chance! :)

**U/N:** I wrote Jou, Willis, Michael and Kurayami here, and I'm fairly sure only Willis and Kurayami were planned.  
You know, the more chapters that go up the more I realize how poorly scheduled the plots in this story really were. Michael's and Jou's were shortened and put here... just a lot happens, and none of it really matches with each other-actually... kind of. Because they're all looking for something...

Huh. Never mind. They kind of actually work together. Aaaaaand I hope you like it :) Sorry it's late, really I am. My sister has all the whole files and it's on her account and whatnot, so she's supposed to do it, and all I can do is remind her, which I did yesterday, I promise.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 35: Lost and Found**

_**Kae Ichijouji:**_

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I got back to Earth. Perhaps I didn't feel like I'd been gone too long, so I didn't have any idea what it was that I was getting into. I'd been gone ages according to my son and his friends, but it felt like mere days at most. The bills were paid; I didn't have a job to be worried about losing. I simply slid back into my role of housewife, and received a kiss when my husband got back from work for the day. He asked be how my trip was, and told me he hadn't been _too_ worried, since Ken assured him that I would be saved.

It was nice to know that he worried, however little it was.

I was horrified to see the sheer amount of leftover takeaway food that was piled in the refrigerator. Apparently he hadn't bothered to learn how to cook. He just bought ready-made meals and gorged himself on fast food. It was good that I was back now, to get his diet back on track. At the rate he was going, he was going to eat himself into an early grave. And I couldn't have that.

I decided to start with a nice, fresh salad and some grilled fish. It was just the wakeup call he needed. It was as I was finely chopping carrots that Coronamon ran up to me.

"Kae, Kae!" he shouted happily.

"Yes, Coronamon?" I said with a smile. It was so nice to hear the little pitter-patter of feet again. It had been far too long since I'd had a child living at home to take care of, and Coronamon needed me to do that for him. He wasn't familiar with Earth, and this time he could depend on me, like I depended on him in the Digital World.

He was the only real difference now that I was back on Earth. If it weren't for him, I might've been bored returning to the monotonous activities that made up my life. After running around the Digital World and helping defeat the bad guys, I was glad to know I wouldn't only be washing dishes and fiddling with my label maker anymore.

"Can we play a game?" he asked brightly.

"A board game?" I guessed.

"Yes!" Coronamon cheered.

"Go pick one out," I said with a smile.

He loved the games that Ken and Osamu would play as children. He thought they were the coolest things. And I liked the fact that I was finally playing them again. Ken would never touch them, because they reminded him of his brother. They reminded me of Osamu as well. But I liked to play them. It made me feel closer to my lost son, because he loved to exercise him mind with such games and teaching Ken and I through them as well.

I set my knife down and looked at the meal I'd started. Dinner could wait. I had a young digimon to entertain.

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

I was trying to focus on one point in the distance, not that I actually had any idea where I should have been focusing. I was just too scared to look around. The Dark Ocean had been plaguing my life for so long, and I had a feeling it would always be there... if only I could just find my mother and deal with all of that darkness... then I could move on from the dark world.

Though that was unlikely to happen any time soon... especially with everything going on. I felt like everything was happening at once for a reason, but I couldn't see what it was. There must have been some sort of higher power that was instructing everyone that was opposing us... otherwise it didn't make any sense why they would all choose right then to strike.

I let my eyes fall to Ken who looked exhausted already from walking endlessly through the heavy sand, but he showed no signs of giving up. Wormmon was pushing forward as much as he could, but his little legs seemed unable to carry him as fast as he needed them to. I thought it would be easier if he digivolved, but I didn't want to say anything to break Ken's concentration.

Hawkmon was in the lead, flying high above us to scout for any signs of where we should be going. Apparently the Dark Ocean was a full world—and yet I'd only ever seen this beach. Maybe that's really all there was—just an endless beach, but if so then it would take us years to find Miyako. Our digivices weren't picking up any signals... and I kept thinking that maybe she was in the water, in some underground cave... it was just too scary to think about.

Labramon was keeping up better than I was, trotting along next to me. He kept glancing up at me as if he wanted me to say something, but I didn't know what to say. There were a lot of things I _could_ have said, but none that seemed important enough to suggest.

"Ken," Wormmon said finally, breaking the silence that had started since we'd gotten to the Dark Ocean. "I think we should take a break." Ken didn't seem to be listening though, and continued walking. Wormmon sighed and we all followed Ken.

After a while Ken's face seemed to be turning red, and he was running out of breath. I could relate of course, having been walking just as much as he had, but I wasn't wearing nearly as many layers of clothes as he was, and he looked like he was ready to pass out.

"Ken," Wormmon said again, "We should really take a break. Rest?" Again, Ken ignored him. I thought Wormmon would just continue walking again, but he didn't, instead he jumped forward until he was standing in Ken's way. "Ken!" He shouted, "Ken we're stopping! You're going to fall down! You don't have enough energy!"

"Can't stop." Ken managed to say.

"What's wrong with him, do you think?" Labramon asked me.

"He won't rest because he knows Miyako is in danger." I explained, "But if he doesn't stop soon he's not going to be able to help her at all.

"Ken!" Wormmon shouted with a very different edge to his voice this time. I looked back to them quickly and saw Ken laying face down in the sand. I rushed to his side as quickly as I could and rolled him over. "He's overexerted himself!" Wormmon gasped.

I checked his pulse and found that it was racing. "We need to get him out of the sun." I said looking up to the dark orb in the sky. I looked to the edge of the beach and saw the storefronts. I'd never been in the buildings here, just the beach. It was time to step off the sand though.

Hawkmon spotted what was wrong and came down to help us, and between Hawkmon, Labramon and I we'd managed to bring Ken off of the beach and into the nearest store. It was a souvenir shop. I tried not to look around because it all disgusted me. Just the thought of wanting something to remind myself of that place was enough, but with the shrunken heads and the other awful items just made it worse.

I cleared a spot on the checkout counter for him, and we lifted him up.

"He's dry as a bone..." I said, trying to keep calm. "He needs water." I was checking everything I knew how to, but I had no first aid training, so I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right.

"I'll go get some?" Hawkmon suggested.

"No," I said slowly, "You can't. The only water here is... well, dark. We can't let him drink that."

"But he needs water, _now_." Hawkmon said, "He could die without it."

"It's not that simple though." I shot. I'd touched the water before. It had given me terrible nightmares. Dreams of death and gore—without even sleeping. It gave me hallucinations. I'd once fell in the water, and thought about killing myself just so I wouldn't have to go through what the water did. I shivered and shook my head, "We need clean water. Something else. Anything else." I couldn't let Ken go through what I had, especially since I didn't know if drinking the water would make it worse or not.

"It's just water," Wormmon said quietly, "If Ken needs it, we'll have to give him some."

I could see that I was the only one against the idea, and they had a point, I just didn't like it. I didn't want the nightmares to affect Ken—though he was sleeping... maybe it would be less vivid...

"Okay." I decided finally. I searched quickly for a cup to hold the water and found a coconut laying on the floor. I cracked it open and dumped the contents onto the floor, handing both ends to Hawkmon. "Take Wormmon. I don't want something to happen to you."

"I'll be fast." Hawkmon said with a firm nod before leading the way for Wormmon.

The second they were gone Labramon looked to me. "Are you okay?" He asked me.

"Yeah," I lied, but I knew it was no use. Labramon had always been able to see right through my lies. I shook my head finally, "No."

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"The Dark Ocean is the scariest thing ever." I started, "I always think to myself... I think, 'hey, lucky you. Karma loves you. You've done so much wrong, but its letting you off with a warning. Hikari, Daisuke and the others accept you even after all you've done. You can move on.' And then... then I end up back here."

"You think this is life punishing you?" Labramon asked.

"Yes, and no." I said, "It's like... life can't punish me anymore than it already has, so it's punishing everyone around me. Miyako... all of this is happening to her—why? Why do you think that is?"

"Because..." Labramon trailed off, "No, it's not happening like that anyway. Stop thinking like that. Life isn't punishing you _or_ your friends. It's the evil digimon that are punishing you all. Not life. You've made mistakes Kura, but you've already paid for them. You're making it up by saving the world. I've heard the stories. You were there when Fanglongmon was defeated."

"On his side..." I said weakly. "And I was on Apocalymon's side when he was defeated... I'd thought he was my partner for so long—I'm so glad you came along."

"You know why I came along, don't you?" Labramon asked. I shook my head, "Life was rewarding you for making the right decision." I smiled at Labramon and pet his ears affectionately. "Can I tell you what's been bothering me now?"

I nodded, "You're going to tell me why you've been acting weird lately?"

Labramon shook his head, "No, that's a secret. I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"That's okay," I said, "What's wrong then?"

"You're..." He sighed, "You know you're going to have to let me fight here right? You can't keep sheltering me. I promise you I'll be careful Kura—and I know this isn't the Digital World, so I won't come back if I die... but I promise you that I'll do everything in my power to protect you, Ken, Miyako and the others... if you let me."

"You can't fight." I said firmly. "I told you that. It's too dangerous."

"Kura—" He tried to argue with me, but Hawkmon and Wormmon were back with two ends of the coconut. I jumped to my feet and took one from them, turning to Ken.

I hesitated as I looked down into the dark water... Could I really just force this upon him? I had to. We'd agreed that it was for the best.

I propped his head up and his mouth open before pouring the liquid into his mouth. The coconut was drained quickly, so I turned to Hawkmon and took the second dose, pouring it down the same as the first.

I waited a few seconds, just in case and then slowly lowered Ken down.

"What do we do now?" Wormmon asked nervously, watching Ken, "Will he be okay?"

"Ken will be fine." I told them with no certainty, "He just needs some rest. It's okay Wormmon."

Hawkmon patted his head comfortingly, "As for what we should be accomplishing next... perhaps I could continue scouting for signs of Miyako?"

"That would be a good idea." I nodded. Hawkmon turned was running for the door immediately, "Be careful!" I shot before he could take off. He turned his head and nodded to me, and then he was flying away.

"So... what do _we_ do?" Wormmon asked.

"We stay safe." I said, staring at Labramon who looked away, upset. "We're going to wait for Ken to get better, that's all we really can do. If we leave him here alone we'll be doomed. We need both him and you Wormmon. You're the only chance we have..."

"I could be." I heard Labramon say quietly, but I ignored him, and pulled myself onto the counter, sitting next to Ken's feet. We waited for about five minutes before he started his nightmares with a loud scream. I winced and looked away from him. At least I knew he was alive now for sure.

"What's happening to him?" Wormmon asked, shocked. I didn't look to him, and tried to ignore him, but the panicked noises he was making made it impossible to leave him in the dark.

"The water causes vivid nightmares." I told him. "That's why I was reluctant to give it to him."

"Will he be okay?" Wormmon asked in a quivering voice.

I nodded, "He should be. The nightmares for me were just that. Nightmares. He'll be scared... that's all."

"That's not so bad then..." Wormmon said. I closed my eyes and argued his point in my head. It was that bad. It was more than that bad. When I'd said 'scared' I really meant 'mentally scared for life'. But I'd let Wormmon think that.

Eventually I slid off of the counter and sat on the floor, plugging my ears to block out Ken's screams, burying my face in my knees.

I could still hear him though, and I started humming to block out all sound.

And then the ground shook. I stopped humming and unplugged my ears, pulling myself to my knees and looking through the glass under the counter. On the other side of the counter I could see Labramon biting and snapping at a shadow that must have been drawn to us by Ken's screams. Wormmon use his netting and pinned one to the wall, but it just melted through the hold and began advancing on him again.

I turned away quickly biting my lip hard. I could barely breath. I didn't want to be there. I needed to leave. I needed to get away from the shadows.

I heard Ken screaming distantly as I tried to find an exit, but the only visible way out was through the front door, past the shadows. My eyes started watering as I continued blocking out what was happening. I needed out. I couldn't be there anymore!

"Miyako!" Ken screamed loudly, freezing me in place.

Miyako. That was why I was here. I was going to save her. I couldn't just run away from this. I had to be brave. I had to find where Miyako was hidden...

"Let them take us..." I said quietly. I knew Labramon would hear me, but the shadows had normal hearing. I'd been around them enough to know that. "They'll take us to where Miyako is." Labramon nodded and continued to fight, to make it look convincing, but finally the shadows 'took him down' and threw him out into the street outside where more shadows picked him up and carried him off. Soon they'd done the same with Wormmon, and then Ken.

Finally they came around to me and I didn't move or fight back. I stayed, curled in a ball, unable to look at them. I tried to think happy thoughts, but the moment their cold skin touched mine I started crying again... but it was for Miyako. It was all to save her. I'd just have to remember that.

_**Willis Kennedy:**_

I found myself staring at the key again. It was sitting in the middle of the cluttered table, still rusted and old. I'd left it in my apartment in Japan so I wouldn't see it as often. I didn't _want_ to see it. I didn't want to know what it could be, because I was just too scared to find out the secret behind it.

Terriermon was playing video games in the living room, trying desperately to beat my high score as Lopmon tried to pick up where Hikari left off in cleaning the place up. Ever since we'd broken up she'd been staying, unwillingly with her parents during our trips to Japan, which left this place in a state of no return—but Lopmon was trying, and that was all I could ask.

I knew I could have helped her, but the mess didn't bother me too much. I'd been living in such a clean, pristine condition in my house in America with Hikari, Tatum and Michael wanting everything spotless, and it was nice to be able to relax, and not feel guilty if there were a few dishes sitting in the sink, or if my shoes were in the middle of the floor.

"Willis, I'm throwing this out," Lopmon said, using a claw toy to hold up a pair of my underwear that she'd found in the kitchen underneath a pile of... something that I could not identify.

"Okay," I said before turning back to the key.

After a couple minutes Lopmon was climbing up onto the table and sitting next to the key. "Are you going to use it yet?" She asked, I replied by shaking my head. "Why not?" She asked. "You'll get to find what you've been looking for! You've been looking so long, aren't you the least bit curious as to what's on the other side of whatever door it opens?"

"Obviously." I said, but Lopmon knew that I didn't want to talk about it so she just sighed and sat still, joining me in my staring at the key.

After a half an hour or so of mindless staring Terriermon had joined us, asking for food.

"I'm terrible at cooking," I pointed out, "Awful—you know that." Terriermon laughed.

"That's so true!" But he continued begging for food until Lopmon and I agreed to prepare something as he danced excitedly on the table.

But before we could actually get anywhere in the process of cooking, someone was knocking on the door.

"Come in!" I called, leaning back and looking around the doorway and to the door itself, which was opening. The door got caught on a garbage bag that Lopmon had filled, but a second later the door was closing and Mari had stepped into the room. "Hey!" I said with a grin as I wiped my wet hands on my pants. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Well, yeah." Mari said calmly, "I just..." her eyes were on Terriermon who was standing on the kitchen table still and I knew she was remembering the first time she'd ever seen him, in the exact same situation. Both of us stood in silence as we remembered everything from our past together...

"_Hey lil' Willy!" Marshall had said cheerfully, pushing me roughly so I spun away from my locker and toward him. "Meet my new girlfriend. Rebecca." He motioned toward the small, shy blonde girl with her large cat eye glasses. "This is a girl. You probably haven't seen many around. Besides your mother—but let's face it—she's not much of a woman, now is she?"_

"_Hey," I said bluntly to Rebecca. _

"_Hi..." She said shyly before Marshall led her away. She looked back and shot me an apologetic glance._

The first time I'd met her wasn't the best situation, but she proved herself over time, with the time she'd made Marshall apologize to me for being a total dick-face. When she'd broken up with Marshall because of me, and told me of her feelings for me, and the very same day Terriermon had scared her off...

And then the last time we'd seen each other for nine full years was Christmas...

_"Willis, I hope you realize that you're amazing, and even keeping secrets won't stop someone from loving you. You are a perfect person. A wonderful friend... and I love you."_

_And that was when I kissed her for the first and only time._

_"I-I'm sorry..." I stuttered._

_"Don't be." She said, "I understand..." And then she'd left before poking her head back into the room one last time. "Merry Christmas Willis,"_

_"Merry Christmas Rebecca..."_

But now she was here... single. And I was single—and she knew about digimon, she had a digimon of her own—of course I still had feelings for Hikari, but we were one hundred percent over now... The virus I'd created was so many years ago, we still lived in different countries, but I had a home right there in Japan only three streets away from hers...

"What're you doing?" She asked suddenly.

"Oh, Terriermon's hungry so I thought I'd burn some toast." I told her with a wink. She laughed and pushed me out of the way.

"I'll cook." She decided, "I do enough of it for Hideto and Sig—I mean Kiyoko or whatever his name is. They tell me I'm pretty good."

"Well I'd be honoured to test their theory." I told her with a smile. She smiled back at me and then set to work, cooking and I sat back at the table and stared at the key again. I still wasn't ready to use it, and I didn't want to talk about it either, so I hastily placed it back in the thin box it had come in, and buried it with papers.

Now wasn't the time. It couldn't be.

"So what brings you here?" Terriermon asked, "Without Lalamon?"

"Lalamon is doing plant things." Mari said with a wave of her hand.

"Photosynthesizing?" I asked.

She shook her head with a laugh, "She's playing in the park or something. She leaves every day, I don't know what it is that she does."

And then we were talking and laughing together about what Lalamon could be doing in her secret times out in the garden, Lopmon sitting silently, staring at the place where the key was covered.

Finally she jumped off the table and stood on the chair next to it, turning to Terriermon, "Race you to Mari?"

"YES!" Terriermon roared with excitement, jumping off of the chair he'd moved to and hitting the small one legged table to topple sideways. I caught it from underneath, but everything that had been on top of it cascaded toward the floor, including the box with the key inside of it, the top of it flying across the room.

"Oh no." Lopmon said monotonously, "Look at that key! I hope it's not broken."

I glared at her, she wanted me to use it so bad, but I just couldn't find it in myself to be ready for those answers just yet. But before I could say that Mari was picking it up, and running it through her fingers. "Is this one of those magical keys? Like the one that Mimi has to go back in time?"

"Mimi has a time travelling key?" I asked. Mari nodded, "Huh... well yeah. It's like that I think."

"Where does yours go?" Mari asked. "The future?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I actually don't know." I admitted, "I haven't used it yet..."

"Well why not?" She asked loudly, "It could go somewhere amazing! Doesn't Hikari have one that goes to a totally different world? What if this does too? What if you've never been there? What if _no one_ has ever been there? You can claim the entire world as your own!"

"Oh my God I'm so excited!" Terriermon said quickly, "Use it! Use it!" He chanted. I glared at him this time and he stopped instantly. I turned back to Mari and took the rusted key from her, picking up the box that it belonged in and putting it back.

"I'm not going." I told them. "It's too unnerving."

"Why...?" Mari asked.

I waited a moment to find the right way to respond, but before I could, Lopmon had done it for me. "He's scared." She said, "His mom said that his dad wanted to give it to him, and since he doesn't know his dad he's scared what will happen."

"What are you scared of?" Mari asked, moving toward me and taking the box from me. "Willis, haven't you always wanted to meet your father? To know who he was? What if he now lives in this world...? Wouldn't you want to find out? Wouldn't you want to talk to him?"

"I'm scared he won't remember me I guess..." I admitted. "I... I don't know."

"You have to use it." Mari said sharply, "You can't put it off forever, and that's exactly what you're _going_ to do." She slowly opened the box and pulled out the rusted key and handed it to me. "Do it." She wasn't forcing me too, but it certainly felt like she was.

I was probably wrong anyway—but I was still scared. Afraid to use it... But they were all watching me now.

Slowly I stepped toward the front door, and pushed the key into the lock. I looked back to Mari for encouragement as my stomach flipped. I was too scared. My hands were shaking and sweaty, and my head was starting to spin, but it had to be done sooner or later...

So I turned the key.

* * *

When I opened my eyes I felt like I was flying peacefully through the sky with no worries or cares at all. The sky was a bright shade of blue that I'd never seen before, and the grass was soft and cool to the touch, more vibrant than any grass I'd ever seen.

My headache was gone as I sat up slowly, and the scar on my hand from when I was younger was gone... I looked around and the first thing I saw was Terriermon sitting by a beautiful, glimmering lake, staring into the waters almost hypnotically. Lopmon was laying, apparently unconscious a few feet from me, but Mari was nowhere to be seen.

I looked around for a quick moment for the rusted key that had brought me here, but it seemed to have decided against coming along. I quickly scooped up Lopmon and gently awoke her from her slumbers.

"Where are we?" She asked, her voice very calm and songlike. I looked around, this time further than the small patch of grass we'd found ourselves in. To the left was a large field of shining golden wheat, blowing gently in the breeze that was coming from the north. In the center of the field of wheat was a tall tree with blackening bark with some sort of exotic golden fruit. To the right was a long prairie of grass and flowers with mountains in the distance, taller than any I'd ever seen with bright, fluffy clouds dancing around the peaks. As I looked back to Terriermon I caught sight of a woman who I'd not seen before.

"I don't know." I told Lopmon hastily as I pulled myself to my feet. I slowly made my way over to Terriermon and stood behind him and the woman with long dark hair. "Hello?" I said, catching both of their attention.

"Oh hello there!" The woman said brightly, pulling her pale feet out of the water and hopping to her feet, "You're awake! It's so nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you."

I looked to Terriermon who smiled weakly before following the woman's lead and jumping to his feet. "This is a girl." Terriermon said with a sarcastic smile, "I'd introduce you, only she won't tell me her name."

The woman giggled, and waved Terriermon off. "It's not important." She said, before turning to the prairie and pointing. "That is the way you must head."

"Sorry?" I said, "Why is that?"

"Trust me." She said before turning to the water and jumping right in splashing me with the warm lake water. I watched as she swam on her back for a while, my mouth hanging open slightly. Finally I turned the way she'd pointed and stared down the prairie. She didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew that she was right. I could trust her...

Maybe it was because I didn't know this place, or even what this place was, so I had no choice but to trust her. Either way, she had to be right, so I pressed forward, through the meadow.

Every step I took seemed to bring more beauty into my range of vision. Everything around me was happy, calm, peaceful... I saw deer off in the distance frolicking playfully. I wanted to get closer, but I didn't want to scare them so I just kept moving the way the woman had indicated.

Soon there were two men, one younger than the other, walking toward us, with backpacks full to the brim. "Ahoy there!" The younger one said cheerfully, "Do I know you?" He asked.

"Probably not..." I told him shyly. "I'm Willis Kennedy."

Both of the men made faces of realization and nodded. "Have fun." The elder one said.

"Say hello to my son, will you?" The younger one said before walking off with his friend.

"Who's your son?" I asked loudly, spinning around, but when I did the two men were gone.

"This place is trippy." Terriermon said, climbing up onto my head. Lopmon nodded her agreement from her place in my arms, but she was smiling broadly.

"What's got you so happy?" I asked her calmly.

"We're so close." She said, shivering with excitement. "So close."

We walked for another five minutes, and the prairie had ended. I looked over my shoulder, confused and it appeared that I had been walking for days. I could no longer see the lake where we'd woken up. I turned back ahead of us and saw a dirt path that led into a forest. On most occasions the random paths through the middle of a forest seemed frightening—but there was something about the way the trees seemed to dance in the wind that made them seem comforting. I looked around to see if there was another obvious path to take, but the forest started so suddenly that everywhere I looked there was prairie and then instantly trees. The mountains were still off in the distance, and I could only hope that I wouldn't have to climb them.

"You going?" Lopmon asked, still beaming. I nodded and set off through the trees.

I was met by at least a hundred butterflies, each with different coloured wings, some that I didn't recognize, fluttering away in a team. I watched them in awe before continuing. The path was long and twisting, but the further I went the more animals I saw, each of them perfectly peaceful in their own nature.

"You there!"

I spun quickly to see a _very_ familiar elderly man. Why couldn't I place who he was?

"Hello!" He said brightly, waving to me, and rushing through the trees with particular speed for someone so old. "Willis! I see you've found a key."

"Who are you?" I asked. The man looked offended but brushed it off.

"How are you all faring?" He asked me.

"Good...?" I tried. What was he asking? Who was he? "We're all fine." Who was 'we'?

"I'm glad." He said with a smile and a nod. "Well, good luck." And before I could say anything he was off again.

After about ten more steps the forest ended and an ocean overtook me. In the center of it was a long stone bridge so I headed directly toward it and set off across the ocean.

"I'm really confused." Terriermon said, "I should be scared... but I'm not."

"I know how you feel..." I said quietly. Everything was all over the place and off the wall—the people were strange and hard to grasp, and I'd crossed a forest and a prairie in only a couple of minutes. Hopefully the ocean would be the same. I didn't know if I would have enough energy to go the whole way... then again, I didn't seem to be losing energy at all... I had endless energy and optimism.

"Look!" Lopmon giggled, pointing out to the ocean where a flock of giant bubbles were flying toward us. They passed overhead and inside one of them was a ten year old boy with glasses. He was laughing as if being taken by bubbles was the funniest thing in the world, and I realized... It probably would be pretty funny were that to happen.

And after a couple minutes of walking I could see the end of the bridge, and sitting at the end of the ocean, on a blanket in the warm sand of a beach sat a twelve year old girl with blonde pigtails.

I couldn't stop staring toward her until Terriermon poked the side of my head. I nodded and finished my journey over to her. The moment I stepped onto the beach she looked to me and smiled. The sun was warm, the breeze carrying the smell of the ocean was warm, and yet it sent shivers down my spine. The girl motioned for me to come over to her, and so, without thinking, I did. I walked over and stood awkwardly next to her until she motioned for me to sit down. I nodded and did as I was told.

"How are you?" She asked, offering me a roll of some sort as Terriermon and Lopmon slid off of me and sat next to me.

"I'm... confused." I admitted with a small nervous laugh. The girl giggled along with me, her laugh was familiar and comforting.

"Reasonably so," She said, taking a bite of a large purple berry. "I was just on a picnic with my father." She informed me, "He went off to take a walk, but he'll be back soon. You'll like him. He's so nice." I nodded and smiled nervously. "There's no need to be nervous!" She insisted, patting Terriermon's head lightly.

"Sorry," I told her, "I'm Willis."

"I know," She said with a wink, but she said nothing more for a while as she watched the waves wash onto the shore. "You know," She said finally, "you're on the right path now." What did she mean? "You weren't. For a long time you were lost and confused and trying to make something happen that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Like what?" I asked her.

"You know what."She said, pointing to the water. I followed her finger and gasped when I saw, in the reflecting light of the sun, an image of Mari, sitting at my kitchen table, the rusted key in her hands. I hadn't even thought of her reaction to me disappearing. I wondered if she knew I'd be coming back or not... Thinking about it though... how _was_ I to get back?

The two of us sat in silence for a while until Lopmon started pulling on my sleeve to get my attention. I brushed her off and continued watching the light dance off of the water.

The wrong path must have been Hikari... and so the right path would be Mari?

"If you could never go back, what would you miss the most?" She asked me suddenly.

"Never go back?"

"To Earth." She clarified. "What would you miss?"

"My mom..." I admitted, "Mari... Hikari—Michael and Jenna..."

"Your new siblings?" The girl asked with a smile as Lopmon pulled on my sleeve again. "They seem nice. Funny, kind of, right?"

"They're hilarious," I nodded, "A little weird sometimes though..."

"All the best people are," She winked at me as I brushed Lopmon away again. "That was a good answer by the way. You'd miss your loved ones." I nodded and she smiled at me.

"What about you...?" I asked her.

"I have nothing left there to miss..." She said, "nothing left for me really except what I was already missing."

I thought about asking her what that was, but didn't want to pry.

"Willis..." Lopmon said quietly.

"Oh look," The girl said with a smile, "There's father."

I turned to look at her father and suddenly a wave of realization had washed over me, sending shivers down my whole body as I stared toward him, remembering a time when he held me in his arms and I held his finger with my whole hand...

"Dad?" I said breathlessly. His eyes fell on me and he smiled brightly. I pulled from Lopmon's grasp and ran over to him, through the sand, and jumped into his arms, hugging him. I'd been looking for him for a long time, and then... here he was, just appearing out of nowhere.

As I pulled away from him another realization washed over me as I spun around to see Lopmon wrapped in the girl's arms.

"Alice?" I gasped. I'd been talking to my twin sister, without even realizing it—she looked a lot like me, just a girl. And younger. Why would my twin sister be younger than me?

And then everything hit me like a brick wall. Gennai. The man in the trees had been Gennai. The man who wanted me to say hello to his son—that was Iori's father, walking with his grandfather... the boy in the bubbles looked too much like Ken to be a coincidence, and the woman by the lake had to have been Jou's mother.

They were all dead though.

My dad... and Alice—they were dead.

The tree with the golden fruit suddenly entered my mind and I knew exactly where I was.

"Dad... what happened?" I asked quietly.

"Our plane went down." He said, putting his arm around me. "A few years back. We've been watching you though... we're routing for you."

I had to bite the inside of my cheeks hard to avoid crying. This was what I was truly afraid of. I'd finally found who I was looking for. Who Lopmon was looking for. Just to find that they were dead. I couldn't stop myself from hugging my dad again and he hugged me back.

"How's your mom?" He asked me quietly.

"Loud." I said with a laugh. He laughed with me, a laugh that I still remembered from my infancy. "I'm sorry I didn't come to find you... before now." I said as I turned to see Lopmon crying in Alice's arms now, unwilling to let go with Terriermon watching, trying to hold back his own tears.

"It's not your fault." He said, shaking his head. "My fault. I should have come to you sooner—that's where we were going you know. To you..."

That hurt even more than the realization that they'd been dead for ten years... Lopmon was destined to be with Alice... and ten years ago, when Alice had died she'd been taken over by the dark spirit—she'd gone crazy until we defeated her, and she died herself... the only difference being that Lopmon could come back.

"I love you Willis." Dad said as I absentmindedly began walking toward Alice.

I looked back and nodded, "I love you too." Talking was making it increasingly more difficult not to cry, but I had to try. Finally I was on my knees next to Alice, looking into her eyes—they were the same as mine, pale blue.

"Willis," Lopmon said, pulling away from her. "We found her." I looked down to her and nodded.

"We sure did." I said with an attempted smile.

"And I helped." Terriermon added, rushing over to join me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"It hurt to know that I'd never meet you." Alice said, "But here you are... besides, we'll meet again one day."

"Is that a death threat?" I joked, and Alice laughed, punching me in the arm, hard. She was a lot like me. I could just tell.

"It was an honour to meet you Willis," She said, suddenly serious. "But you have to go." I shook my head instantly, "Yes." She said firmly. "You've found what you were looking for. You've found your destiny, up here, where you don't belong. And I found you. Something I'd never thought possible. It's a miracle..." Suddenly she threw herself forward and flung her arms around my neck. I hugged her back and closed my eyes, listening to her choked breathing.

With a gasp from Terriermon I shot my eyes open and pulled from the hug. I turned around and saw him slowly digivolving to Gargomon, then Rapidmon and to MegaGargomon, standing tall and looming above us all. Then Lopmon glowed and shifted to Wendigomon, then Antylomon, and finally Cherubimon.

Then my digivice began glowing brightly, golden and bronze, and Megagargomon and Cherubimon flung through the air toward each other, colliding gracefully in midair and with a flash they were both gone, in their place was a different digimon. A warrior digimon with long blonde hair, two small wings that protruded from his shoulders, a long rapier and a red cloth belt that hung down in two strands.

"Leopdardmon..." He said calmly, looking at his knew body.

"Funny," Alice said, "Two rabbits made a cat..."

"I'm a _dog_." Leopardmon growled using Megagargomon's voice.

"I know," Alice said, "I was joking." Then she turned to me and sighed, "It really is time for you to go."

I nodded, "I know... I just wish there was more time we could spend together." She was so wise and mature, and I just... I'd waited so long, I wasn't ready to leave just yet. If this really was my destiny, then maybe I didn't have to go. I mean, it obviously was my destiny too—my digimon had finally fused because of that fact But I knew she was right.

"There will be." She said confidently, "But that's a long way down the road. If you need to remember me just sing that song." I knew which one she meant. The one I'd sung in my attic, the one Mom used to sing to the two of us, "Just remember that I'm always with you."

"Even in the bathroom?" Leopardmon asked, and I could tell that was coming from Terriermon's half.

"No." Alice said flatly.

"How do I go back anyway?" I asked her.

"Like this," She said, almost clapping her hands.

"Wait!" I shouted, stopping her. "I need to say goodbye." I turned to Dad who was walking toward us now. "I can't leave without saying goodbye."

"It'll just make it harder." Alice said, shaking her head. "Don't think of it as goodbye. Think of it as... I'll see you later."

I nodded, and swallowed the lump in my throat. "Okay. See you later then." I said to her, and then to Dad. And with that, Alice clapped her hands, and with the same amount of force and suddenness that had brought me there in the first place, I was back in my kitchen, sitting on the floor with Terriermon and Lopmon.

"Willis!"

The first thing I saw was Mari rushing toward me, and then she was hugging me, pushing me from the seated position I was in.

"You didn't bother looking for me?" I asked her with a laugh.

"Well I knew you'd come back for me." She giggled.

I looked up to her, and remembering what Alice had said leaned forward and kissed her. Mari gasped but kissed me back for a moment before eventually pulling away.

"Hikari...?" She said shyly.

"We broke up." I told her. "We just... decided not to tell anyone."

"When?" She asked bluntly.

"A couple... days ago?" I said quietly.

She shook her head. "I can't." She decided. She stood up and pointed to the oven, "Food's done." She headed straight for the door, but stopped and turned back. "What did you find?"

"I found them." I told her simply.

"I'm happy for you." She said with a smile before leaving me in the middle of my kitchen floor. But at least I wasn't alone. I had my partners with me. But they were both running for the door too.

"Where are you going?" I asked sharply.

"Well I've found Alice," Lopmon said as she leapt into the air to grab the doorknob, "Now I have to have a new mission."

"What's that going to be?" I asked her.

"We're going to find out what Lalamon does in her spare time!" Terriermon responded before both of them slipped through the door and closed it behind them leaving me truly alone.

_**Jou Kido:**_

I'd just hung up the phone.

Gomamon was in trouble.

Mimi had just warned me, and I had no time to waste. Apparently it was Pukumon who had done it. I needed to get to him... I remembered vaguely Gomamon telling me that he was near Infinity Mountain, but I couldn't go empty handed, and since I had no digimon there was only one thing I could bring.

I popped open the case full of the antidote and drew one of the long needles out, and readied it, taking the serum from the jar and into the needle itself.

"Daddy?" Emiko asked from behind me as I closed the needle into the case again, picking it up. I turned to her and smiled.

"Just stay with Mommy okay?" I told her, "I have to go, I'll be back soon."

Emiko nodded but didn't move until Momoe was in the doorway nodding at me. "Good luck," She said, before leading Emiko away. I turned to the monitor that sat on the desk in my bedroom and pulled my digivice from my pocket, opening the portal, and sending myself to the Digital World.

I'd opened a portal close enough to Infinity Mountain so I wouldn't have to walk too far—but so I wouldn't be thrown right into Pukumon's traps.

I usually tried not to do anything wreck less since I wanted to continue living, but I had no choice. I needed to save Gomamon, and there was no point denying that. Gomamon was my best friend—more than that—he was literally like a weird, different species of a brother. He'd been with me since I was twelve years old and there was no way I was going to let some rogue digimon that I'd unintentionally created take that away from me.

I was pacing through the trees, trying not to think too much about the world since it was all coming back in pieces. I wondered for a moment if the water was back—Gomamon would be happy about that if it was—not that it would matter because I was going to get him to come live with me instead. Momoe was looking for a job, I had two really good ones... we were going to get a new place. One where we'd all fit—and until then, we'd be just... snug.

I suddenly heard rustling in the trees and I froze. Was this Pukumon? I knew full well that it could have been any digimon at all, but Pukumon was around here somewhere, and that meant that it could also be him.

With a loud scream the digimon flung itself from the trees and kicked me in the chest, knocking me over and sending the case of the antidote flying, bouncing along the ground. I gasped for air as the digimon bounced up and down on my stomach. Finally I pushed it off and pulled myself into a sitting position, looking toward the green monkey in the toga.

"Monmon." I said breathlessly. Emiko's digimon. Of course it'd be the prankster digimon. "Go away." I said coldly, "I have to save Gomamon. I'll play with you later." I got to my feet and looked toward the silver case sitting on the ground by a large rock.

I took a step toward it but stopped when Monmon did the same. I stood still for a moment before taking another step. Monmon copied me again. I glanced at the case. Monmon was closer than I was—but I needed it...

I looked to Monmon and then to the case, back and forth until I decided what I needed to do, diving through the air toward the case. Monmon did the same, and beat me to the case, picking it up and swinging it around, hitting me in the side of the head.

I groaned and fell backwards, landing roughly on the ground. "I don't have time for this." I growled at Monmon who was bouncing up and down with a proud grin as he screamed like a real monkey, over and over.

"Monmon." I said firmly, holding my hand out for the case. "Monmon, give me the case." Monmon shook his head. "I need it. Monmon, please. Gomamon is in danger. I need that case."

Monmon looked to the case and then up to me, tilting his head. Was he asking me if I wanted it? I nodded slowly. "Yes." I said quietly, "Hand it over." Monmon put the handle in his mouth and ran over to me on all fours slowly. He sat in front of me and set the case down.

"Thank you..." I said, cautiously placing my hands around the side of the case. The second I touched it Monmon screamed, so I retracted my hands and he stopped screaming. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and with my tongue hanging a little out of my mouth I grabbed it again, and Monmon screamed loudly once more. I let go, grabbed it, released upon hearing his angry scream, over and over again, until finally I just picked it up.

Monmon reacted quickly and grabbed the case pulling it from me and throwing it away from us both and with another scream had leapt up onto my shoulders, blocking my view and pulling on my ears.

"OW!" I screamed, trying to pull Monmon off of my face, but that only made him pull harder. "AAUUURRGH!" I screamed, finally flinging Monmon away from me, and falling over in the process.

Both of us sat up from our places on the ground and looked to each other and then the case and started half-crawling-half-running for it at the same time.

I kicked off the ground and flew through the air, grabbing the case and slamming into the ground, rolling away from the place that Monmon had landed moments later. He started screaming again, so I started running from him, hugging the case to my chest as he bounded from tree to tree behind me.

I tried not to look back, but I found myself unable to resist. He looked mad—but I couldn't worry about the monkey's feelings—I needed to save Gomamon wherever he was.

I was seriously considering never allowing Monmon and Emiko to see each other again, when I entered a strange clearing, at first the sight confused me, but then I realized that this was exactly where I needed to be.

Tied up by some vines next to a tree was Gomamon, and sitting by a fire, his back to me was Pukumon, in all his weird puffer fish glory. I needed to get Pukumon out of the way—like now. I needed to save Gomamon—so long as his body was still intact I knew he was alive, and I knew I was capable of helping him, whatever it was that he needed help with.

I looked back, over my shoulder and sighed as Monmon flung toward me. "Sorry," I said, ducking underneath him and diving into the bush.

Monmon screamed loudly when he hit the ground, catching Pukumon's attention. I watched through a gap in the leaves as Monmon screamed—this time in a panic—and turned, running from Pukumon who was chasing him with a wild grin on his face. The second he was gone I was running from the bush and over to Gomamon.

I fell to my knees next him and rolled him over. His eyelids were fluttering—he was waking up!

I grabbed a nearby rock and cut at the vines where they'd been tied until I cut through and they fell loose. I pulled them away from him and he woke up with a start, rolling onto his feet and looking to the darkness.

"Where am I?" He asked loudly.

"Gomamon," I said with a smile. He looked over his shoulder to me and a second later was running into my arms where I hugged him tight.

"You came." He said quietly as he pressed his face further into my chest.

"Of course I did." I said firmly. "The moment I heard you were in trouble. Gomamon I couldn't let you be alone."

"You did before..." Gomamon said almost soundlessly—but I still heard him. And it hurt.

"I know." I said, pulling him out of my hug. "I'm really sorry." I told him, "I should have been paying more attention to you... I just barely have time to think anymore Gomamon. I have two really time consuming jobs—I'm a doctor _and_ a veterinarian. I guess I stopped spending time with you because I used to have to raise you—while you raised me. We taught each other and grew together, but then I had to start raising my own daughter and I stopped raising you because you're whatever the digital counterpart of a man is. You've grown up a lot Gomamon, and I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks..." Gomamon said quietly, "But it still hurts that you don't think I need you anymore."

"I know..." I said, "Which is why, _right_ now, I'm asking you to move in with me. Will you do that? I've already talked to Momoe about it. We're going to move out of our apartment and get a bigger house. What do you say?"

Gomamon looked away, but nodded, "I thought you'd never ask."

I smiled at him, but my face fell immediately when I saw the deep gash in his arm. "Gomamon..." I said quietly, staring at it.

He shook his head. "Later." He said, "Where's Pukumon?"

At that moment Monmon's screams had returned, and a moment later he was flying through the air, landing smoothly from his jump.

I turned to where he'd come from and saw Pukumon emerge a couple seconds later, his grin falling when his eyes fell on me.

I hastily turned to the silver case that sat next to me and opened it quickly, pulling out the needle. His eyes narrowed in on it and he started through the air toward me.

"**Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon!**" Gomamon had shifted into the big hairy champion self and used his shoulder to block Pukumon's attack. He roared in pain as the mega digimon's sharp armour pierced his skin.

I couldn't let the fight go on—Ikkakumon was already hurt, and exhausted to boot, plus Pukumon had two crests absorbed inside of him. I needed to get the needle into his arms—the only unprotected place on his body.

I hurriedly climbed onto Ikkakumon's back and ran along it, balancing as best I could until I was on his head. Being scared of heights—and either scared or allergic to everything else was not going to help me here, so I didn't stop running as I leapt over his head, my stomach flipping and seizing up as I fell through the air, landing right in front of Pukumon, right between his arms. I clamped my eyes shut in fear as I slammed the needle into his arm, injecting the serum into him and then throwing my hands over my head for protection.

I waited a while before taking a peek. When I did I did, I saw Syakomon—the small cloister digimon—unconscious next to the two crests he'd absorbed and a now empty needle. I relaxed and smiled until I saw Monmon's eyes staring directly at the crests. I quickly grabbed them before he could, and pocketed them.

I picked up Syakomon and turned to Ikkakumon who had reverted to Gomamon.

"Ready to go?" I asked him.

But instead of responding, he just turned his head to the forest.

_**Michael Washington:**_

After the fake Betamon had dropped the bombshell on me I'd yelled at Ken and the others to leave. I felt so guilty about it... but I couldn't help them fight against whatever had taken Miyako anyway—plus I had so much to learn about Betamon.

"_What the hell are you doing with me then?" I asked him._

"_It was a mission." He told me. "A long time ago."_

"_When?" I asked._

"_Three years ago." He said without remorse. Did he have absolutely no feelings about this at all? Why would he? He hadn't shown any sort of attachment to me before, why would he now? "When you were finally allowed back to the Digital World. Someone sent your Betamon into the waters of the Dark Ocean to investigate... and we switched places. I was hired by Fanglongmon's associates. I was to stand in his place and kill you when the Dark Masters time came."_

"_So you're actually a Dark Master...?" I asked him._

"_Yeah." He said coldly, "Wow, this feels really good to get this off my chest!"_

_I growled at him, "Where is Betamon?"_

"_In prison somewhere." Fake-Betamon said simply. I clenched my fists to avoid punching the fake-Betamon. _

"_Where?" I shot. _

"_I can take you there." Fake-Betamon said, "It's the least I can do."_

And so I was being led to _my_ Betamon by Fake-Betamon. Not that I really believed what he said. Well I believed most of it—I had to. What I didn't believe was that he was not leading me into a trap.

I was keeping an eye out for Tatum and Jenna too, since we were in the Digital World now, but I didn't expect to find them. How could I? I'd probably find a fake Tatum and a fake Jenna and have them replace the real ones and then not find out that they were gone for three more years.

I clenched my fists so tight that my nails were drawing blood.

I was the worst person ever. How had I not noticed? He'd been there for _three_ years. What had he been doing there? Was he dead? No. Digimon weren't dead. What if no one was feeding him? What if he was staring to death, only to be reborn to starve to death again? What if he was being tortured? What if he died so many times that his data actually ceased to exist? How could I _ever_ live with myself were that to have happened?

I tried to stop thinking about it—but I couldn't. I'd never _ever_ forgive myself for not noticing. I was going to save Betamon, and I was going to make it up to him. That was what I had to do. I owed him everything I had... Even if he forgave me, there would be no way I'd be able to find it in me to forgive myself.

"Are we almost there?" I blurted out, trying to think of something else instead.

"Kind of." Fake-Betamon nodded. "Why?"

"Do you really have to ask that?" I asked him.

"Well yeah, duh." Fake-Betamon growled, "I can't bloody read minds now can I?"

I growled back at him, "Well, for your information, I was asking because I don't want to wait another second in not saving my partner. I want to rescue him from whatever prison you've put him in."

"I didn't do it!" Fake-Betamon defended himself, "I was just the accomplice—the side-kick—I helped them out, but I didn't do anything to actively screw anyone over."

"That's not true." I shot, "You tricked me into thinking you were my partner for _three_ years, and because of that the real Betamon is stuck in a prison cell somewhere all alone!"

"Now let's get this straight," Fake-Betamon said sharply, "Firstly, I'm a real Betamon too. Second, I never once said I was your partner. You just assumed that I was. Your fault. Not mine." I didn't want to believe him, but what choice did I have? It was technically the truth...

I stopped talking to him to avoid any further guilt on myself. If I had no sense of self I'd never be able to continue looking for Betamon—and if I did manage to find him I'd never be able to rescue him since I'd have next to no energy.

So there we were walking in complete silence, through trees... suddenly things were starting to look familiar until I knew exactly where we were.

The coliseum stood tall and large in front of me.

"He's in here...?" I asked skeptically. Fake-but-not-technically-Betamon nodded, and motioned for me to enter the wide open gateway, but I wasn't sure if I should or not.

On one hand Betamon really could have been in there, but on the other hand... was it really worth it if he wasn't?

Either way, I had no way to tell if he was unless I went in and looked around. "You first." I ordered. Fake-Betamon gasped, and started grumbling but nodded and headed off into the gateway. I was taking my first step over the threshold when I heard someone call my name.

I spun around quickly and saw Jou running toward me. Some small digimon creature was in his arms, Gomamon was running next to him, a vine and a leaf wrapped around his arm, and a green monkey running alongside them both.

"You look like an interesting team," I said with an attempted smile, "Good to see that you've got Gomamon back."

"What are you doing here all alone?" Jou asked.

I decided I'd have to tell him about Betamon eventually anyway so I sighed, but instead of explaining I accidentally said, "Come with me?"

He could obviously see the pain and fear in my voice and without a moment's hesitation he nodded.

I suddenly felt immensely more relaxed as I turned to follow the Fake-Betamon into the coliseum and began to explain what was going on to Jou.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

Waking up from unconsciousness is never fun. But waking up in a dark, damp dungeon was worse. Worse still, was waking up in the dungeon of a castle located in the Dark Ocean. The slashes on my arms were burning, and the few from my side were aching. I was pretty sure I had sand stuck in the cuts on my arms. I needed to wash them out badly, but I couldn't I didn't have any water. Just dribbles of it that stuck to the walls and the floor making sure I couldn't find a comfortable place to sit without catching hypothermia.

I was really cold, and tired and cranky. But I was also absolutely terrified.

Armadillomon tried to keep me calm, but nothing he said really made me feel any better. He said we were in the Dark Ocean—though how he knew that, I didn't want to know—and that not one single person—shadow or otherwise—had come in to check on us since we got there. That could mean they weren't going to kill us…or that they just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I was betting on the second option.

The only thing that could rival my terror was my absolute boredom. I had nothing to do. Nothing to keep me distracted other than brainstorming methods the shadow that captured me could eventually kill me with. I was oddly fascinated with how descriptively morbid my mind was. I thought of some doozies.

Of course one of the thoughts at the forefront of my mind was always that Hikari had been the target for ages. And they'd wanted her to further their race. That thought was far more terrifying to me than any of the elaborate schemes that they could use to kill me. Slowly, painfully, without mercy.

"We can't just sit around forever, Miyako," Armadillomon insisted for the third time.

"Well," I snapped. "What do you expect us to do about it?"

"We don't have to stay here willingly," he told me.

"You think I _want_ to be here?" I asked horrified.

"No," he said quickly. "But you haven't even suggested trying to break out yet. Usually you're full of crazy ideas."

"Usually I don't feel miserable, and frustrated and scared out of my mind. I haven't gotten a full night's sleep in ages. I can't think straight, and I keep feeling like someone is watching me. I'm not the Miyako I used to be, the one I _want_ to be. I just can't find her," I cried. "She's hidden under all of my fear."

"Then I'll have to channel her for you," he surmised. "Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

"What?" I asked. But I didn't have to wait long to find out. He ran off—presumably towards the door, though I couldn't see it through the darkness—calling out "Diamond Shell!" and attacking the door. I'd seen the attack before, though I couldn't see it now. I knew he was rolling into a ball and rushing at the door. It wouldn't stand a chance against him. And sure enough I soon heard the snapping of the wood as it splintered and cracked and gave way under the force of his attack.

"Come on Miyako," Armadillomon insisted. "We've got to go."

I stumbled my way to my feet and followed his voice. Once I caught up to him—nearly tripping over him in the process—he began leading me through the dark hallways. He was right of course. We did need to _try_. I couldn't just give in and die pathetically. I'd much rather die while trying to escape their clutches. At least it would be worth something.

Armadillomon started sniffing the air. "This way. Follow my voice Miyako."

I didn't question him. He seemed to know where he was going, and that was fine by me. If it could get us out of here before that shadow came back, then I'd be happy.

It wasn't meant to be however…

"I must congratulate you," the chilling voice of the shadow said from behind me. "You made it farther than I expected. But I can't allow you to escape. The master wouldn't appreciate it much. You may have destroyed your dungeon cell, but there _are_ other locations. This time, perhaps, you'll have a guard."

"Oh no," I murmured. We'd wasted our chance, all because I'd spent too long being terrified and bored. And my arms still ached. This was _not_ my day.

"Oh yes," the shadow corrected. "The tower might do. You might even like it. There's a window that lets in a breeze. Granted, it's far too high for you to manage to climb out of it, and if you attempted to do so, you'd fall to your deaths, but it's a really nice breeze."

"We don't want to go," Armadillomon said firmly.

"I'm afraid you have no choice," the shadow said. He gripped me hard around the wrist, aggravating my already irritated wounds, and started dragging me down the hall, probably towards some stairs. "You don't have to come, but she really must."

"Armadillomon," I gasped.

"I'm not leaving you," he assured me.

"How sweet," the shadow drawled. "The power of friendship. It won't help you now. Nothing will. The master is preparing himself."

I was hoping to never find out just what he was preparing for.

"And here we are," the shadow said, opening a door and shoving me into a room that _had_ to be from the top of the tower. It was lighter here. Not bright by any means, but it was light enough for me to see that it was a small room with a thick wooden door and a small window really high off of the floor. Armadillomon would never fit through it even if he could get up that high. And I wasn't going to leave him behind—not that I would survive the drop anyway… He chucked a pile of black fabric at me, which I caught out of instinct. "Enjoy your new lodgings. Put the dress on. I'll be back when the master is ready."

It sounded so ominous. Almost as ominous as the heavy clicking of the lock that he was putting back in place.

I sighed. At least I could see now. It was far better to be trapped in a room with light. I could see everything here, and didn't have to be afraid that something would attack me from the darkness.

"I've been waiting for you."

I screamed and whipped around. So much for my theory. I hadn't noticed this woman at all. She wore a blue, elegant gown that sparkled in the dim lighting, and she had bright orange wings on her back. A crown rested on top of her short, black hair, and her skin was tinged with blue.

"Fairy!" I gasped.

"Yes," she said with a smile. "You've met my sister, I know. I've waited a long time to meet with you, Miyako. I have important information for you. But you don't need it yet. It won't help you here. It will later though." I liked the sounds of that, 'later'. It implied that I wouldn't be dying any time soon. "I will leave you with this."

"A key?" I asked, taking the intricately designed key, the head of which looked like an ornate fairy's wing.

"Use it when you are ready for answers, but for now, keep it safe," she instructed. "It was nice to see you again, dear."

"Again?" I asked. But she didn't answer. She just smiled again and vanished in a cloud of sparkling smoke. "You could have at least taken me with you!"

"She's gone," Armadillomon said. "What do we do now?"

"No more ideas?" I asked him wryly.

"I've channelled all of the old Miyako I could," he said sheepishly.

"Hopefully Ken, Iori and Hawkmon will come for us," I told him.

"They will," he swore.

"But for now, we wait," I said, turning my new key over in my hand. It didn't feel right to use it now. She told me not to. I had to have faith in this mysterious stranger with mystical fairy abilities, no matter how hard the idea seemed to grasp. I turned to the ball of material I was supposed to wear. It was black, and had lace sleeves, and looked kind of ratty. 'The Master' probably wanted me to look all fancy when he killed me, to add an even more dramatic element to the whole thing… I hoped that was right anyway…

"We wait," he agreed.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Koushiro gets called in to an emergency meeting, while Michael continues from where he left off in this chapter. Natsuni and Yoshie also play a part.


	37. Starting Again

**Y/N:** Chapter 37 already! Things are going to start getting crazy pretty soon—if you didn't already think they were. I hope you enjoy the chapter, I wrote everything _except_ for Michael. Review if you get the chance, and happy reading!

**U/N:** So I wrote Michael here, and well, I enjoy writing Michael... I hope you like the chapter and review it :D

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 37: Starting Again**

_**Yoshie Izumi:**_

There were so many dishes. It appeared that Masami was fully capable of feeding himself, but he refused to clean up afterwards. There were growths on some of those dishes that I could have sworn were moving. But I powered through it after letting him have a piece of my mind. I wasn't angry about the dishes so much as the piles of bottles and cans that littered the entire apartment. Beer cans, endless bottles with different brands and labels, an entire case of sake. It was as if he bought out the entire stock of alcohol from our local store.

His excuse was that he thought I'd left him.

As heartbreaking as that thought might be, it was no excuse for destroying his liver! I'd spent years of my life married to this man. I loved him. If I ever _was_ to leave him, I'd be sure to tell him why. But I wouldn't do that. Though he did always smell like alcohol now. No matter how many showers I sent him for, the smell still seeped out of his pores. I'd have to come up with a way to detoxify him before I decided to have too many guests over. I didn't want them to choke on the stench.

Digitamamon didn't like it as it was, and Kiyoko insisted on visiting with Tapirmon before I could figure out a way to get the scent out of the furniture. He assured me that he didn't mind the smell, but he had to. It was disgusting.

"What is the point?" Digitamamon was lamenting when Tapirmon suggested he come up with some new recipes to occupy his time. "I don't have a restaurant to serve them in."

"You will someday, and you'll need some fresh new ideas to go with the remodeling," Tapirmon insisted.

"Who said anything about remodeling?" Digitamamon wanted to know. "It was perfect as it was."

"It was nice," Kiyoko agreed. "But perhaps, if you build a more sound structure, it wouldn't be so susceptible to attack?"

"And how do you suggest I build this new, "more sound" building? I thought I did pretty good with the old one. I built it with my own two feet you know," Digitamamon snapped.

"You don't have to do it alone," I objected. "I'll help you."

"Do you have experience with construction?" Digitamamon asked.

"Well…no," I admitted.

"I'll help with the heavy lifting," Tapirmon said. I assumed he meant he'd help as Piedmon, because that little anteater digimon didn't look very strong as he floated on his cloud.

"And I'll design it," Kiyoko said softly, pulling out a large folder stuffed with papers. "I went through all of the things in my room yesterday, throwing away anything scary or evil, and I found some sketches that I drew ages ago. They were buildings. Kind of like blueprints. Sigma had me draw them of certain buildings for some reason. I think he might've been mulling over a break-and-enter plan and he needed escape routes. The point is, that I'm pretty good at drawing them. And I just started drawing without knowing what it was that I was doing. When I was done, I had a few different ideas for your restaurant, Digitamamon."

"Let me see them," Digitamamon demanded. I could tell he was trying to hide his excitement. I was touched that Kiyoko put so much energy into helping my partner. It was really sweet.

"There are different ones, and some of them aren't that great…" Kiyoko said, suddenly sounding self-conscious. I looked over the pages. There were four designs, each assigned a specific interior décor that matched the building itself. One was full of light colours, with white walls and tables, and bright yellows, greens and blues colouring the benches and the counter. There were big, wide windows covering the walls in the seating area, and it looked to be built of bricks that would be painted white as well. There was a gentle slope to the roof, and an awning over the door. It was simply labeled as 'Fun and Happy'. The next was sleeker, simply titled 'Modern'. A simple, black building, made of stone, with a flat roof that extended over the walls' edges, creating a thin strip of shade. The tables were white, with black seats, and a checkered tile floor. He scribbled in spots for abstract art, and elaborate decorations in the corners.

"I don't think either of these two really capture what I'm looking for," Digitamamon said.

"I didn't think so either," Kiyoko said softly.

"I like 'Elegant'," Tapirmon said, pulling the right papers out from under the first ones. It was filled with gorgeous, dark reds, with classy wallpaper, and a chandelier hung over the dining area. There was a fence surrounding the building made of wrought iron.

"It seems to fancy to me," I said. "He makes delicious but comforting food. It's a really pretty design though."

"I picked this one, myself," Kiyoko said, pulling a few papers labeled 'Rustic' to the top for us to see. "I added an outdoor seating area, so you can house more digimon, and I kept the wooden feel from the old restaurant throughout. The walls would be thicker, made with more than just wood, but it would look like a log cabin. The benches and tables and chairs would all be made of wood, and you could use tablecloths that looked sort of like the stereotypical picnic blankets. It's just a suggestion though…"

"I like this one," Digitamamon announced. "It's simpler. I don't want to intimidate my customers by making them think the restaurant is too good for them. I serve simple digimon. They want simple food in a simple place."

"That's what I thought," Kiyoko said with a small smile.

"Have you thought of going into architecture or interior design, Kiyoko? Something to do with buildings," I asked.

"No," he said quickly. "I don't think of the future. Ever. It's a rule."

"Your rule, or _Sigma_'s rule?" I wanted to know.

"Sigma's," he admitted. "But I didn't even finish school. I got kicked out before I could. And it's too late to catch up. Even if I wanted to, I can't."

"It's never too late," I insisted. "I'll help you, if you want that. I don't want to pressure you. I just want you to succeed."

"No one's ever wanted that from me before," he said with a happy smile. "Not in a long time at least. Back before I was a disappointment to the family."

"You're not a disappointment to _my_ family," I told him firmly. "You're an asset now."

"If you ever need help," Digitamamon offered. "Call on me and Yoshie. We'll help."

"Me too," Tapirmon added.

"Thanks," he said with a grin. "Wait until you see what I have planned for your kitchen…"

_Yeah,_ I thought. _He was going to be just fine. We all would._

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

After a quick explanation of what Daisuke had reported seeing we were all standing in Taichi's apartment where he was waking Agumon from a nap as Yamato quickly explained to Gabumon that we needed their help to save Takeru.

"Hey!" Agumon shouted, karate chopping Taichi in the head as he woke him up, "Oh sorry, I didn't recognize you." Taichi groaned and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Come on Agumon," He said, "We're going to the Digital World." Agumon could clearly sense the seriousness in his voice and nodded quickly. Taichi pointed his digivice to the computer and opened the portal, and light poured through the room dragging us into the Digital World.

We landed in the forest near the Temple, where Taichi's computer always brought us on default, and without any instruction we were all walking. Agumon nervously glanced back to Neo from time to time as he walked side by side with me. Dracomon was walking next to Yamato who was in the lead, proud to be working with the good guys for once. Taichi was on his phone, texting someone, and Catherine was absentmindedly looking up to the stars.

Soon we were at the Temple where Taichi pulled on the heavy metal doors and opened them wide enough for us to enter. Catherine and Floramon gasped at the beautiful town that resided inside the Temple walls, and I could see the gears in their minds trying to stay focused on the task at hand.

"Where do we go from here?" Dracomon asked boldly. Taichi didn't answer, and instead just kept pushing forward. Neo pulled his scarf up, covering most of his face as he walked, embarrassed through the Temple. The digimon and other Temple residents glanced toward him in shock. They didn't forget what he'd done, and I couldn't blame them. But I'd forgiven him, so I linked arms with him to show him that he wasn't alone here.

Eventually Taichi was leading us up the stairs to the council building. Three years ago this building had just been one room, but ever since Taichi had took over the place was torn down and rebuilt into a much larger area—he had to take out a bait shop in the process to make room, but he'd hired someone to rebuild the shop elsewhere. Now the building was basically just one hallway with multiple doors that led to different rooms. Like the artificial meadow where the Knights trained, or the kitchen, or the door that led back to Earth, and staircase that I'd never been down—and of course, the council room.

That's where we were, standing by the bench I'd brought from home, by the council room door.

"Agumon," Taichi said, "Go get the others from the kitchen, tell them we're having a meeting." Agumon nodded and was off immediately, running to the council.

"I texted Koushiro, but he hasn't responded." Taichi said, "We're going to need someone to fill in for him." My face lit up but he didn't even look toward me, instead he pointed to Catherine. "You're smart right? You'll be Koushiro today."

As he finished saying that Agumon was coming out of the kitchen doorway followed by Leomon, Andromon, Tinkermon, Divermon, Babamon, and Metalifekuwagamon. A moment later Benjamin was behind them, and then Ogremon and D'arcmon joined them, closing the door behind them.

Each of them gave Taichi the same look which read clearly 'Another meeting? Really?' except for Tinkermon who actually kicked him in the side of the head.

"Notice anyone missing?" Taichi asked seriously. No one else knew the council well, so the question must have been directed at me. I closed my eyes and ran through them all and then froze.

"Marrow!" I gasped, "You don't think—?"

"That's _exactly_ what I think." Taichi said flatly. "You heard Koushiro's mom's story about her time in the Digital World. Apparently Marrow showed up to destroy the building even after I told him not to like a hundred times—the person who took them looked like Gennai's people—Marrow has been trying to arrest Yamato religiously, and now he's not here."

"Will you need someone to fill in for him to?" Neo asked.

"Yeah, actually," Taichi nodded, "You're a psychopath too, you'll do great." I tried to glare at him, but he wasn't paying attention, "Yamato, you be Erif since he's not here either."

"You're kidding right?" I said flatly. "You have to be joking."

"I'm not," He said flatly, "You didn't notice? He's kind of Marrow's sidekick—why would he be here?" He clearly wasn't seeing the point. I'd been trying to get into a council meeting forever, and now I was the _only_ one being left out. "Wait here with the digimon Sora, we'll be out in a few minutes."

Yamato shot me a thumbs up and followed Taichi into the meeting, followed by Agumon, Gabumon and Catherine. Neo at least gave me a sympathetic look before following. I sighed and slid down the wall, sitting on the bench.

I didn't even bring any knitting or anything—I was going to be so bored. I debated going into the kitchen and grabbing some tea or something, but I found myself watching Biyomon show off to Floramon and Dracomon who couldn't fly.

"Marrow is out!" Taichi declared from behind the closed doors. Everyone exploded with questions and accusations, and a full argument broke out, so I ignored it.

I leaned back and rested my head on the wall and closed my eyes, trying to relax.

"Sora," Biyomon said, breaking my relaxation almost instantly, "Can we go outside? I want to show them how high I can fly."

"Sure," I smiled at her. She beamed at me and started running out the door, followed by Floramon and Dracomon.

We had to save Takeru and Iori—and Miyako. Three of us were missing now—and we were all breaking up into teams to save them, which wasn't smart, but what choice did we have? We couldn't leave them—wherever they were...

Then I heard footsteps. They weren't Biyomon's. She was still outside with the others. Only those who were part of the Council had permission to enter this building unless permitted by someone who _was_ on the Council. So who was wandering about where they didn't belong?

I slowly got to my feet and looked both ways down the hallway. The door to the meadow was closed, likely locked, and the door to outside was propped open—but whoever it was hadn't been out there, they couldn't have walked past me without me noticing.

The other direction, at the end of the hall was the door to Earth which was wide open in case of an emergency, but the door to the kitchen was open too... but hadn't D'arcmon closed it?

I walked as quietly as I could to the kitchen and peered inside, where one of the cupboards underneath the counter was propped open, completely empty. That's where the bowls were supposed to be kept—but they were all sitting in the sink, fully clean.

I was more than just a little bit suspicious, but I knew I shouldn't have continued without anyone to come with me in case something bad happened, but there was no one available.

I was back in the hallway and walking own toward the door to Earth. Had someone used it to go to Earth to do something? Marrow had clearly made use of it a couple times at least...

But then I heard something hit the ground and bounce, and I found myself turning to look down the stairs I'd never been allowed down.

I looked back to the Council door, and shook my head. There was no sense bothering someone about it, so I followed the sound as quietly as I could.

I was keeping my balance with the wall and walking with my toes on the edge of the stone steps until I reached the bottom and then I stopped. I was in a stone hallway lit with torches on the wall. I could faintly hear a sound coming from around the corner, so I followed it as carefully as I could.

Finally I spotted a door, and there was no denying that the sound was coming from within. I sidled along the wall until I was right next to the door.

I took a deep breath and slowly peered around the corner.

But there was nothing in the room, and the noise had suddenly stopped. I jerked my head back, suddenly a lot more scared. There was nothing to be afraid of. There was nothing in the room. I readied myself and then moved quickly, entering the room and moving to the back wall so nothing could be behind me.

I waited for a full minute, my heart pounding, until finally I sighed with relief and looked around. There was a multilayered podium at the other end of the room... each pillar of the podium was made of stone, and each one was empty.

I hurried toward them and looked them each over, before noticing the crest of purity on one of them...

This was the stands for the Digimentals! Someone had taken them!

"Heh heh!" I heard the familiar laugh of Erif before I turned to see him, his flaming red hair hanging in greasy tangles in front of his pale face. Over his shoulder was a mesh bag, likely filled with the digimentals.

"Erif," I said as bravely as I could. Erif was a fool, perhaps I could outsmart him... "Stop this..." He tilted his head in confusion, his face falling, "Marrow asked me to tell you that the plan has changed." I lied, "He wants you to keep them here until further notice."

For a moment it looked like he was going to do it, but then he just burst into a fit of laughter, "You think a stupid broad such as yourself can outsmart me that easily?" I froze. Since when could Erif form sensible sentences? "Shut up, and stay right here. We can't have you ruining the plan, now can we?"

I realized with a pang of fear that his hand was on the door, and I started running as quickly as I could, but he'd slammed the door sharply, and locked it from the outside.

"Erif!" I screamed, "Erif come back here!"

But I knew he wasn't coming back, he was getting away with the Digimentals.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

I was babysitting.

It sounded horribly lame and insignificant when compared with Ken and Kurayami's quest to hunt down the abducted Miyako, or Sora's frantic search for Iori and Takeru—who'd been stolen under my very nose, and I could have saved if I'd been there even just a second sooner—but it was awesome. It was also something that I was terribly good at. But then again, I was good at _everything_. I was probably the single most talented member of the digidestined. Whoever chose who we'd be, totally got more than they thought they would when I was picked out of the crowd. I was fantastic at fighting; I had a heart of gold and a wit to die for. And if that wasn't enough, I was ridiculously easy on the eyes. I was really fun to be around, and the type of guy you missed when he left. Everyone wanted to be me, and only a select few got to hang around me. I had to be picky these days. I couldn't let just _anyone_ get their hands on me. I was in pristine condition, I didn't want them rubbing off on me and taking away from my pure awesomeness. Granted, it was far more likely that I would rub off on them, making them just a little bit more amazing…but there was still that chance, no matter how small. Luckily, Norn happened to fall into the list of people that could be around me. It would be really hard to babysit her if she couldn't.

Sure, I would have liked to be off saving the day, but Norn needed me. Kurayami and Ken wouldn't have even made it to the Dark Ocean without me either. If I hadn't tackled Mr Higorashi, then they never would have made it through the gate. Yeah, Iori was really mad that I hadn't held him off long enough for him to get through, but that Gennai lookalike might've brought him to the Dark Ocean anyway, right? So it was a win-win situation. And Mr Higorashi couldn't even hate me either, because I was so awesome. The fact that he never acknowledged my existence was probably a factor in it too, but he only ignored me because he was so jealous of my fabulousness that he couldn't bear the sight of me, so I didn't mind too much at all. He didn't even yell at me for letting his daughter go into the Dark Ocean, even though he forbade her from ever entering there again—that was what made me absolutely sure he liked me.

And if I hadn't tackled him, Ken and Kurayami would never have got to Miyako, and then she would have died. Of course, since neither Ken nor Kurayami was nearly as great as I was, there was still a good chance that she would die, but I had every faith in those two to do their absolute best. And when—or if—they got her out of the Dark Ocean, it would've been all thanks to me! That's just how great I was.

I was letting Veemon cheer Patamon up in the kitchen by making ice cream sundaes. Patamon had been really put out by Sora when she didn't even wait for him before leaving. He wanted to go help Takeru too. But he didn't want to go on his own. He said something about learning the dangers of travelling alone the last time he tried, and decided he could do nothing more than wait. And boy was he impatient. He kept asking me if I had any updates. Did I look like I did? I would've told him if I learned anything. But Sora didn't seem to have any information worth sharing…or she didn't think she needed to share it. I was starting to think she forgot about poor Patamon. That was okay though, since Veemon suggested sundaes—I was going to, but he beat me to it—and Patamon's eyes lit up. He loved ice cream like no other. Well…any junk food really. We'd offered some to Norn, but she said no.

Seriously, the kid said no to ice cream.

She was a strange one. Instead of going for _ice cream_—every kid's favourite treat—she chose to sit on the couch, perched at the edge with her back ramrod straight and her feet perfectly aligned on the floor, staring at the blank television screen.

"Do you want me to turn it on?" I asked her.

"No," she said primly. "I've seen enough of the corrupt lives humans live, and wish to spare my eyes the sight of those horrible reality shows."

"Huh," I said. Like I said, she was a strange one. "What did your parents do to you kid?"

"Do?" she asked.

"You're _so_ not like normal kids," I elaborated. "You're so serious all the time. Don't you ever want to just let loose and have a load of fun?"

"I'm meant to watch, not play," she insisted.

"You're parents didn't let you have fun?" I asked in horror. I was a way better parent then them, and I didn't even _have_ kids.

"I do not have _parents_," she informed me, and then quickly turned her eyes back to the blank television screen.

"Why not?" I asked. I know that if someone else had asked, it would be rude, but I wasn't _just_ anyone. I was awesome. And the way she said it…I didn't think her parents up and died on her. She didn't even know them. Besides, Kurayami could never get any information out of her. I wanted to prove once and for all that I was the best person in all of Japan. If I could get Norn to talk, it would be enough.

"I am now tired," she announced. "I wish to go to bed."

"What?" I asked confused and more than a little disappointed. "But it's so early…"

"I have learned that humans lie when they do not want to do something so as to not hurt the other person's feelings," she informed me before rushing up the stairs.

Great. I didn't have the proof that I needed to prove that I was the greatest person in Japan. I was still very near the top of the list, don't get me wrong, but it would have been nice to be at the very top of that list.

With nothing better to do, I went to check my e-mail. Maybe Sora had sent some news through there. If not, then I'm sure my many fans—I mean _friends_—had something they really wanted me to know.

There was only one new message in my inbox. I didn't sweat it though. They probably thought their news wasn't important enough for someone as awesome as me to bother with… The one email I did get, was from an unknown address. I shrugged and opened it. No one would send _me_ a virus. There was only one line, barely a complete sentence:

_Not much longer…_

What was that about? This person really ought to have signed their name if they wanted me to get back to them. It was probably that person that wanted me to help them. They thought I forgot about them. I didn't. It just wasn't _always_ at the forefront of my mind. Norn tended to draw my attention more easily, probably because Norn was a child that needed me to take care of her, and this other person was only potentially in trouble. I mean, it could be a trap. Some bad guy thought they could lure _me_ in. They were wrong. I was far too smart to fall for their tricks.

With Norn upstairs 'taking a nap', and the digimon in the kitchen, I really had nothing to do. I know. It's hard to believe right? Someone as awesome as me, not having something to do? It was true though. So I decided two could play her little game and spread myself out on the couch for a nap of my own. I had barely closed my eyes before I was asleep.

I was immediately aware that I was now in a laboratory. I had to be asleep though, because I'd never once laid eyes on this place. There were long, metal tables everywhere, with beakers and Bunsen burners spread out on them and scientists observing the various reactions happening within the glass. People rushed from table to table, searching for information that the others might possess, every last one of them wearing long, white lab coats. At the far end of the room was a large computer attached to a contraption. Curious, I walked towards it, and was shocked to find that a beautiful woman was strapped onto it with thick leather straps on her ankles, wrists and waist. Her skin was a flushed pink, and her shoulder length, golden brown locks flowed around her head as she struggled to free herself. Her red and purple dress was long, and torn. The tiara on her head and the wings on her back are what gave her away as a fairy queen though. She wasn't the one I'd met though, the one that Iori saved.

_She_ had to be the one sending me those frantic pleas for help. I was so proud of myself for figuring it out. Now, all I had to do was figure out just where this laboratory was…I could do that right? I was good at everything…

The feeling of being watched drew me out of the dream. My eyes snapped open only to find that Norn was standing with her face inches from my own.

"What's up?" I asked her. I was all nonchalant about it, she totally didn't scare me half to death or anything…

"The Master has made a decision," she informed me.

"Wait, what?" I asked confused. "What master? What decision?"

But she didn't answer me.

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

I had been in the middle of searching through the information Mimi had provided me on the mysterious floppy disk when Taichi sent me an urgent text message demanding my presence in the council chamber. Mimi, of course, decided if it were so urgent, he wouldn't mind her tagging along. I informed her that she wouldn't be allowed to actually _enter_ the chamber, but she assured me that sitting with Sora wouldn't be any trouble, since she didn't hate her anymore. She often found ways to remind me of that fact. I knew she felt terrible about it, but it wasn't _really_ me that she needed to drill that into. I felt as though she was trying to prove to herself that she really was back to her previous self, and that she wasn't being 'crazy' anymore. She'd just tripped over a pair of Sora's boots that had been lying in the middle of the living room floor, and got angry about it, and then jumped to the conclusion that she was a horrible person for being angry at Sora, and that she was regressing into her Envy induced state.

"You'll stop me if I get too mean?" she asked as I led her through the busy Temple grounds. Palmon and Tentomon were enjoying the sights, and switched between running ahead, and falling behind as they found digimon or booths that caught their interest. I had Mimi's hand in my own, and she rested her free hand on my elbow.

"It's natural to get frustrated over quirks, Mimi," I informed her. "You're not regressing. If anything, you're _too_ accommodating these days. It's normal to get angry sometimes. Anger and jealousy are not the same thing."

"I don't want her to hate me," she said.

"She doesn't," I told her, rolling my eyes at her unnecessary fear. "Sora forgave you before Leviamon was even defeated. She forgave you before _I_ did. She doesn't hate you. I'm sure of it."

"Okay," she said with a smile. "I can't wait to tell her about my time travel adventures. Oh. What if she thinks I'm rubbing it in her face? She'll think I'm trying to make her jealous. Maybe I shouldn't tell her… But then she'll think I don't trust her, or like her enough. And I really want to tell someone. What should I do?"

"Tell her," I said with a shrug. "She had a key before you did, and hers is to Earth. It's vital really. She won't be jealous of your key, and she might even find the story of your trip with Hikari as fascinating as I did."

"Koushiro!" Tentomon called.

"Yes?" I asked him. He and Palmon had come running at us, looking excited and energized.

"Can we go play with Biyomon and the others?" Palmon asked, pointing to a small courtyard in the distance. Sure enough, Biyomon was flying as high as she could, laughing as Floramon and Dracomon cheered her on.

"Go ahead," I told them. "I'll be with the council, so just wait out here for me to finish."

I watched them go, before hurrying my pace to get to the council chamber. Mimi complained about the number of stairs, and I secretly agreed with her. I really ought to make the gate open up directly in the hallway, like Sora's door to Earth did. It would make it much easier. The hallway was strangely silent as we stepped towards the council doors. And Sora's bench was empty.

"Where is she?" Mimi asked.

"Maybe she went to the kitchen for snacks?" I suggested, though I doubted it. Sora had a bad habit of eavesdropping on every meeting. She placed her bench at just the right location that she could hear everything that went on behind the closed doors. I knew she wanted to be a part of the council, and I thought the idea had some merit. Marrow and Taichi however didn't seem inclined to agree with me. It was one of the very few things the two of them ever agreed upon. "Stay here, I'll see what's going on."

"Okay," she said, slumping onto the bench. She was already bored, but I couldn't exactly help that.

I pushed open the doors, and was met with an unusual sight. MetalifeKuwagamon and Tinkermon were stubbornly refusing whatever Taichi had declared, while Babamon looked very thoughtful. Andromon was silent—as usual—and Divermon was on his feet agreeing wholeheartedly. Ogremon and Leomon were glaring at each other for feeling the same way about the subject, despite being enemies. D'Arcmon was smiling proudly at Taichi for figuring something out, though what it was exactly, I didn't know. Benjamin was trying not to get hit by one of MetalifeKuwagamon's arms as he waved them about, and Agumon and Gabumon were on their feet at Taichi's side. None of these were the odd sight, however. They were fairly common occurrences. It was the fact that Centarumon's place at the end of the table was empty, and that Catherine was seated in my own. Yamato was next to Neo in Erif and Marrow's places as well.

"Care to explain?" I asked Taichi, raising one eyebrow.

"Marrow is freaking evil, and he stole Takeru and Iori," Yamato told me. "Taichi's trying to get them off the council."

"Is it _really_ the time for this?" Neo wanted to know.

"How _dare_ you bring that…that…monster to the council!" Tinkermon was yelling, pointing at Neo who looked very much like he'd rather be elsewhere.

"I'll bring whoever I want," Taichi told her. "And you can be damn sure I'm actually keeping the good of the Digital World in mind here. You want to keep Marrow, but he's taken two of the digidestined, and we need to know where they are. Marrow can't keep his place here. We can't let someone like him help shape the Digital World."

"And we can let the leader of the Alias III?" MetalifeKuwagamon questioned.

"He's not on the council," Taichi snapped. "He's being Marrow for the voting process. Speaking of which, Catherine is you Koushiro, so you'll be Centarumon. Get to your places; we've got a vote to do."

MetalifeKuwagamon and Tinkermon both seemed furious at Neo's presence, but they voted against Marrow anyway. It seemed they didn't like the idea of anyone that was evil having a place among us. Everyone else raised their hands when Taichi asked for the voting to begin, it was unanimous. Catherine looked rather confused and overwhelemed, and almost didn't vote, but remembered to do so near the end.

"Where's Sora?" I asked once the voting was completed. I was just standing next to the table, as Centarumon didn't have a chair to use. I felt kind of awkward, just standing there, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I did wonder though, where Centarumon actually was. He'd never missed a meeting before.

"Outside," Taichi said. "Like always."

"No," I said. "She's not…"

"What?" Neo asked panicked. I was really confused here. No one had bothered to inform me why it was imperative that we voted Marrow off the council, though I felt that it must've been really important.

"Damn it," Yamato muttered. "We shouldn't have left her alone."

"Do you think he got her?" Neo wanted to know.

"Who?" I demanded.

"Marrow," Neo snapped. "He's already got Takeru and Iori."

"She's probably just wandering around," Taichi said. "Don't panic yet."

"I'll look around," I told him.

"Go ahead," he said. "I need the rest of you to tell me anything you've noticed about Marrow. We need to find him immediately, and it's really important that you help out. I can't remember too much other than my blinding hatred at the moment."

I left Taichi to make a list of information that might be important, and rushed out of the room. Mimi looked up confused when I came running out, but I told her not to worry. I went to the kitchen first, finding a pile of bowls in the sink, but Sora wasn't there. I hadn't actually thought she'd be there, but I didn't know where to look next. She never wandered around here. She knew that she wasn't necessarily allowed to go into many of the rooms, since she didn't have the clearance.

"Koushiro?" Mimi asked when I came back empty handed. "Is this about Sora?"

"Yes," Neo said stepping out of the council chamber. "I'm not needed in there. I've never even seen the guy. Sora needs my help more than they do at the moment."

"She's in trouble?" Mimi gasped.

"Missing," Neo said, even though I was trying to signal him to shut up. He ignored me. He didn't know how freaked out about this Mimi was going to get. She was still desperately trying to make it up to Sora for her behaviour. I was right to be wary about sharing the information. Mimi jumped to her feet and let out a frantic squeal.

"We have to find her," she declared.

"I'm trying," I informed her, before stalking off down the hallway in the opposite direction, looking for any sign of her. There weren't very many rooms to search. There was a pretty good chance that she wasn't even in the Temple anymore…

"What was that?" Mimi asked, grabbing my arm, forcing me to stop moving. I hadn't even realized that she and Neo were following me. I should have. Neither of them knew anything about the Temple. They were bound to get lost if they wandered off.

"What was what?" I asked.

"Listen," she ordered. So I did. I heard a soft banging noise, the sound of a fist pounding against a wooden door, and muffled screaming.

"Sora," Neo announced. I nodded in agreement and led them toward the noise. We ended up at the staircase that led to the Digimentals Chamber. I had a really bad feeling about this. I ran down the stairs, the pounding and screaming getting louder with every step I took.

"Get me out of here!" Sora was yelling. "Taichi, Yamato! Neo! I'd even take Catherine!"

"Sora?" Mimi shouted back at her. "Are you in there?"

"Mimi?" Sora asked, no longer screaming. "Oh good. You're here. I won't even ask why. I need you to get me out of here."

"Let me," Neo offered, reaching up and unlatching the door. It was amazing just how a small piece of metal was able to hold Sora captive. Not in a good way, but amazing nonetheless.

"I've got to warn the council," she told us as soon as the door was opened. She ran up the stairs without so much as a "Thank you."

"How rude," Mimi commented, before we ran up the stairs after her. We got into the council just as Sora started talking.

"Taichi," she gasped, having spent most of her energy on trying to get someone's attention while she was trapped. "Erif has the Digimentals."

"That's not good," Mimi said shocked.

"No duh, Sherlock," Yamato told her.

"The Digimentals are the main source of balance for Earth and the Digital World," I reminded everyone. "Unless we were to lock the two worlds apart—"

"Which isn't going to happen until we have Takeru," Yamato interrupted.

"—then we'll need to recover them before the sun sets," I finished, sending a glare in Yamato's direction. "Marrow and Erif can't use them, or destroy them, or else the worlds will once again turn to chaos."

"Today is not our day," Taichi groaned. "The only plus side is that Yamato remembered something about Marrow that I didn't."

"Which is?" Sora prodded.

"That he always wore that stupid necklace," Taichi informed us. "The one with the tacky, blue orb."

"Orb?" Sora asked. I could see the wheels turning in her head as she reached the same conclusion as I did. "He's a Death Knight."

"Which is why I couldn't figure out where he came from, despite him bearing the same face as me," Benjamin concluded.

"Exactly," Yamato said. "And my mom happened to fight with a Death Knight or two in their main base of operations, if I'm remembering the story correctly. They've taken up residence in the giant hole in the ground that Fanglongmon used as his secret base last time around."

"What are we waiting here for, then?" Neo asked. "Let's get the digimon and get going!"

_**Michael Washington:**_

Jou wasn't saying anything, and I could tell it was because he simply didn't know what to say. I'd basically just told him that I was the worst person on the planet because I'd not noticed that my best friend had been replaced by an exact replica for three full years while he rotted in a prison cell.

He'd tried comforting me, but I brushed it off. I didn't want that. I just wanted Betamon.

Which was proving impossible since Fake-Betamon was leading me through the dark tunnels of the coliseum to something that simply _had_ to be a trap.

"Why are we trusting him?" Gomamon asked quietly, voicing my exact thoughts as Monmon grumbled an agreement.

"I can hear you." Fake-Betamon groaned. "You're trusting me because I have no reason to not show you the way."

"Sure," Gomamon said sarcastically.

"No, wait," Jou said, waving Gomamon off, "What does that mean?"

"It means that my mission is failed." Fake-Betamon said, not looking back, "I was supposed to keep this idiot busy for as long as I could. I managed for three years, but he was suffocating me. It means that if they haven't succeeded yet, then they won't succeed."

"Succeed in what?" I asked sharply. "I thought you didn't know what they were doing!"

"I didn't say that!" Fake-Betamon retorted.

"Well what are they doing then?" Gomamon asked. "What do you know?"

"I know that they're trying to make him forget Michael." Fake-Betamon said. Simple words had never hurt so much. Why would they do that? What if they succeeded? What if my very best friend didn't remember me? Well... that was what I deserved wasn't it? I was the worst person alive. I couldn't believe I'd done that.

"Then move faster." Jou growled with such a force that Fake-Betamon _actually_ listened. Jou turned to me and put one of his hands on my shoulder, using the other to support the unconscious Syakomon. "Don't worry," He said kindly, "We're going to find him, and he'll be fine."

"He isn't fine." I said quietly, but Jou didn't seem to hear me.

I'd always thought that there would be some connection between partners. We were so close... of course I did know something was off—but how was I to know what it was? No. No excuses. You should have known.

I found my hands balling up into fists again and I shook off the feeling.

Why would they want Betamon to forget me? So they would be one Digidestined down? Why didn't they just bring him to Earth and kill him. Be done with it? Or just keep him locked up forever? That would do the same thing. Something seemed very off—more off than it should have been... which was saying something.

"Are you ready?" Fake-Betamon asked. I didn't answer, but Jou nodded quickly.

"Just move along." Gomamon said sharply. Fake-Betamon scowled at Gomamon and then suddenly bolted straight into a wall, slamming into it, causing the ground beneath us to disappear entirely.

I wanted to scream, but I was too scared that whoever it was who was doing that to Betamon would hear me, and if they did there would be no way to save him because they'd overcome us easily. Apparently Monmo didn't have the same worries and instead began wailing loudly until with a hard _smack_ we'd all landed roughly on stone floor.

I tried to ignore the throbbing pain in my head as I pulled myself to my feet quickly. Jou had landed on his side, trying to protect Syakomon and was checking his body for broken bones. "You okay Gomamon?" He asked. My eyes flicked to Gomamon who was laying underneath Monmon who was sighing with relief at his soft landing.

"Sure." Gomamon said sarcastically. Jou hurriedly pulled Monmon off of him and then we all turned to find Betamon but he was gone. "It _was_ a trap!" Gomamon growled, "I knew it!"

"Wait—" I said suddenly. I'd heard something... I turned slowly toward the sound, my eyes closed. It was sobbing. Someone down the tunnel was crying, and there was only one digimon that it could have been.

Before I knew what was happening I was running at top speeds through the tunnel, ignoring Jou calling my name, my feet splashing in the puddles accumulating on the floor from the dripping walls and ceiling. There was only one dim light every so often down the hallway, so it was hard to see where I was going exactly but I didn't slow down until I could see bars of a cage illuminated in the darkness by a torch on the wall.

I stopped suddenly.

This was it. If that was Betamon I'd find out just now if he remembered me or not... If he didn't... would I be able to take it? If he did... what would I say...? I didn't know what to do. I stood in silence with only the sounds of sobbing to listen to.

"Betamon?" I said quietly, choosing to get it over with before Jou and the others caught up.

The sobbing stopped abruptly.

"W-who are you?" Betamon stuttered weakly, and I had to look away. He'd forgotten me. I felt my hands start to shake. What could I do? Introduce myself? What if he'd been brainwashed into thinking that I was the enemy? What if Gomamon had to kill him? Last time my partner-that-wasn't-my-partner had died I'd thought that my life was ending... Could I do it again? Then, I could see him, and my heart skipped a beat. There, scared and wet, standing in the cage, illuminated by the lights was my partner, squinting his eyes into the darkness. "Michael?"

Suddenly my heart was pounding, and I couldn't stop myself from running toward the bars of the cage.

"Betamon!" I gasped, falling to my knees in front of the cage, throwing my arms through the gaps and hugging him.

"I-is this real?" Betamon asked, breathing heavily, crying again. "Are you real? Is this... real?"

I nodded, and started crying with him, "Yeah." I confirmed, "It's real."

"I knew it..." He whispered, "I knew you'd come for me."

"I'm so sorry for..." I was choking on my own words, my heart wanted to stop, I was so ashamed, so embarrassed, so guilty... "I'm so sorry for taking so long..." I managed to say through my tears.

"It doesn't matter." Betamon shook his head, "All that matters is that you came in the end."

"No." I said flatly, with as much force as I could, "I should have come sooner—I should have... It's my fault. I will _never_ forgive myself."

"Michael...?" I turned around quickly to see Jou.

"Who is that?" Betamon asked, suddenly scared.

"It's just Jou!" I said quickly, "its okay. He's helping us." But Betamon shook his head, so I spun around quickly. Jou was standing with Syakomon still, Gomamon and Monmon were on either side of him. None of them would hurt him—why was he so scared.

And then I saw the set of eyes lingering behind Jou.

"Jou!" I yelled, "Look out!"

"River of Power!"

It was too late to warn him, and with a flash of light and an ear shattering _boom_ the wall had been smashed, crumbling, the air was suddenly filled with large clouds of smoke. I couldn't move an inch. Jou could be dead, and if he was, then it was my fault. It was my fault because he was only here because I asked him to come... he couldn't be dead.

"Jou!" I gasped, turning to the figure emerging from the dust, but it wasn't Jou. It was MetalSeadramon. The evolved form of the monster who had tricked me for so long, so that others—whoever they may have been—could torture my true partner. The digimon who had just hurt Jou, and Gomamon and even that annoying monkey digimon. Suddenly my digivice as in my hand and I was gripping it firmly. "That's it." I said with a growl. "You're going down."

My digivice heated up quickly, shining brightly, something it hadn't done in a long time. "**Betamon digivolve to... Seadramon!**"

I didn't even need to look back because I knew due to the sound that he'd broken free of his cage. "I've got this!" He said, lunging forward and tackling MetalSeadramon to the ground, biting him around the neck. Seadramon looked like he usually did; a simple green snake with a golden head; but with added scars running along his back, and his skin was shallow and faded.

He'd been tortured, and starved. He couldn't win like that. He was a wounded champion against a well rehearsed mega. I'd need help.

No.

No more letting everyone else fight the battles for me. I was going to win to win this. For me. For Jou. For Betamon.

My digivice was glowing again, and before I'd even taken note of it Seadramon was glowing again. I was sure he'd be transforming into MegaSeadramon, but he didn't. Instead he turned into a red snake with a black helmet and a lightning bold shaped horn out of his head. Similar to MegaSeadramon, but darker. "**Seadramon digivolve to... WaruSeadramon!**"

He looked stronger now, still weaker than he should have been—I could tell without even knowing what his true form should have looked like. WaruSeadramon moved swiftly and wrapped himself around MetalSeadramon and squeezed tightly, as he used his sharp teeth and dug them deep into MetalSeadramon's head.

I couldn't help but feel satisfied that he was causing him pain. He deserved it. So did I. I wasn't denying that. But he most certainly did as well.

MetalSeadramon only put up with it for so long though, deciding upon slamming himself into the wall, smashing WaruSeadramon's head against it in the process. He lost his grip and fell loose enough for MetalSeadramon to slip free of his grasp and using the metal horn on his head to cut at my partner. I winced the moment he cut his flesh—the scream Waruseadramon let out made it apparent that he was all too used to making that sound.

I couldn't help but feel defenceless then. I couldn't help but want to curl up and cry for what I'd done.

But I couldn't do that. I needed to win this first. Then I could take whatever punishment karma wanted to bring to me.

The two serpents were dancing around each other, seemingly equally matched overall. MetalSeadramon was evidentially stronger than WaruSeadramon, but much slower, so the two of them were unable to take a lead, both of them cutting at the other occasionally with their horns.

Finally though, MetalSeadramon used his tail and smashed WaruSeadramon in the side of the head, causing him to fall crashing to the ground.

MetalSeadramon looked to me and grinned, "I'm just doing my job." He said wickedly, "We need your body. We can't let you die—but in all actuality, there was no rule saying that we _needed_ your partner."

He turned his head toward the fallen serpent and shot a beam straight from the canon he had on his nose.

I found myself screaming as I was running toward the blast, sliding across the stone until I was between the two of them. I couldn't let them take him. If they didn't need him—fine. I did though. And they needed me—it only made sense that I should die in his place. It was fair. And besides, it foiled their plans.

Before the blast had hit though, my digivice was glowing once more, pure white this time.

"**WaruSeadramon digivolve to... GigaSeadramon!**" With a quick sweeping motion my partner was surrounding me. I took my first look at him and I thought he was MetalSeadramon—but he wasn't. He was a tricked out epic version of him. He looked much more futuristic and aerodynamic. And finally there were no scars on him.

The blast MetalSeadramon had shot slid right off of his armour and then the two of them stared at each other for a moment, until, at the same time they shouted their attacks.

"Giga Sea Destroyer!"

"River of Power!"

I watched in awe as the two blasts collided head on. I thought they'd explode on impact and was ready to take cover, but they connected. MetalSeadramon's blast was blue, while GigaSeadramon's was pure white. I watched as the blue slowly overtook the white.

We were losing.

It was because of me.

He wasn't strong enough... he'd have been strong enough if he hadn't been here so long... I needed to help him.

I needed to find strength.

I closed my eyes and remembered the day I met Betamon, and how I'd been too scared of him. Then the day I'd finally accepted him—that was the best day of my life. The day I met Mimi—they day I got two best friends when I'd had none to begin with. The day I'd had to say goodbye to him... and the day I thought we'd been back together—but it was the fake Betamon. The one we were fighting. The one who caused all this mess. I opened my eyes and saw Gomamon waking Jou up... but he wasn't moving.

Maybe he was dead.

I turned to MetalSeadramon who needed to pay, and with sudden force GigaSeadramon's blast overpowered MetalSeadramon's, and with a final wail, a heartbreaking scream, the Fake-Betamon was no more.

I fell to my knees as GigaSeadramon quickly reverted to Betamon. The weak, scared shell of Betamon.

I moved forward quickly and hugged him. "I'm so sorry..." I said again.

"Michael..." Betamon said, shaking his head slowly. "I forgive you." He had to be lying. There was no way he'd forgive me this fast. Especially not before he ate. He'd probably want food so bad. It was a good thing we were with Jou though—he'd be able to heal him. A digital doctor as a friend would always be good.

Jou!

I turned quickly toward him and sighed with relief. He was rubbing his head, and opening his eyes.

"Oh thank God!" Gomamon gasped, "I thought I'd have to deliver the bad news to your daughter!"

Jou tried to smile comfortingly at us all, but his head was clearly in a lot of pain.

I turned back to Betamon to respond.

"I already told you..." I whispered, "I will _never_ forgive myself."

_**Natsuni Ando:**_

Owryumon—Centarumon informed us of his name—didn't waste any time. He reared his head back and shouted "Eiseiryuoujin!" before flapping first his left wing, and then his right. Two long slashes of wind were flying straight at us. Couldn't he give us a second to think up a strategy?

"Goburi Bomb!" Goblimon shouted, creating a ball of fire in both hands that he then threw at each of the wind blades. They exploded upon contact, thankfully dissipating the attack.

"Thank god," I gasped. Okay. I needed to think. He was an armored dragon. A mega no doubt. We had a rookie, a champion and an ultimate. That didn't sound like enough. We were so going to die.

No.

Movies always had odds like this. I just needed to think up a ridiculously easy plan that can be executed without any trouble whatsoever and we'd make it out of this fight as heroes. That's what most action movies taught me anyway. The simplest strategy was often the best because it wasn't expected. The bad guys always thought the hero would come up with something seriously elaborate and then were caught off guard when they didn't think to put up a safe guard against the simplest things.

It was easy to think about this, but would I be able to put it into practice? That was the question. Being stared down by a giant thunder dragon was not helping me keep my train of thought on track.

"Trying to implement a strategy is useless," Owryumon said. "You'll be dead before you can think of one."

"You talk the talk," Mr Ishida commented. "But can you walk the walk?"

"He'd need legs to do that," Mrs Hida said with a smirk. She'd made a joke. A legitimate one. It was getting easier to like her. And there were always jokes in movie fights too. The movie was playing out in my mind. But it was still too hard to picture a victory.

"Solar Ray!" Centarumon shouted, holding up his mechanical hand and firing a yellow laser beam from it. The beam flew towards Owryumon with plenty of time for him to dodge. Instead of doing that, though, he let the laser hit him head on, laughing as it did so.

"Nothing gets through my armour," he informed us with a loud laugh.

"We'll see about that," Wizardmon challenged. Goblimon nodded and the two of them rushed the enemy. "Electro Squall!"

"Goblin Strike!" Goblimon called.

Goblimon threw fire at Owryumon, but it was brushed off without a second thought. He didn't even complain about his armour heating up. Wizardmon summoned a thunder cloud which let loose an intense lighting strike. But that only made Owryumon laugh harder.

"You think you can use lighting to defeat me? I'm the Death Knight of Thunder!"

"What do we do now?" I asked hesitantly.

"We'll think of something," Mr Ishida assured me.

"Even armour has a weak spot," Mrs Hida said, though she didn't sound too sure of herself.

"But where is it?" Mr Ishida wondered.

"His neck!" I realized. His armour flared out where his head connected with his body. It was as if he was wearing a helmet over top of the armour. The flaring allowed him to swivel his head back and forth. "If we could just get an attack underneath the opening under the helmet, we'd get a direct hit."

"They'll have to be sneaky," Mrs Hida commented.

"Or we could use a distraction," Mr Ishida decided. "Wizardmon, give him a real magic show!" Wizardmon looked confused, but nodded anyway.

"Eiseiryuoujin!" Owryumon shouted. Wizardmon took that as inspiration, and called out "Magical Game!" He used his magical abilities to turn the wind blades into rubber chickens, and then threw a handkerchief over top of them, wiggling his fingers above them. He removed the handkerchief to reveal two perfectly formed bombs that he then threw in Owryumon's face.

"You're magic amuses me," Owryumon said. He was thoroughly distracted.

"Goblimon, come here," I hissed. I was loud enough for my voice to carry to Goblimon, but not for Owryumon to hear me. Thankfully.

"Yes?" he asked, after walking slowly—and quietly—so as to not gain the dragon's attention. I whispered the plan into his ear, and he nodded with a slow smile. He went to collect Centarumon.

"Ready for act two?" Wizardmon asked. He didn't wait for an answer. "Vision of Terror!"

I didn't need much of an explanation for that attack. Almost instantly Owryumon was screaming in horror. It had to be a nightmare type of attack. Wizarmon was exploiting Owryumon's worst fears with an illusion trick. I didn't want to know what could be so horrifying to a dragon of Owryumon's size and power.

"Now!" I shouted while he was distracted. Goblimon launched another Goburi Bomb attack and Centarumon threw in another Solar Ray.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the three attacks—two Goburi Bombs and the one yellow laser—made their way to the small gap in Owryumon's armour and sunk into his skin. Wizardmon released him from his nightmare just after they hit. Owryumon froze, his eyes widening underneath the helmet.

"It's not possible," he gasped just before dispersing into data.

"Yes!" Mr Ishida called victoriously. Mrs Hida jumped into his arms. Wizardmon and Centarumon complimented each other on their attacks. And I was busy throwing myself at my partner, praising Goblimon for his victory. I let Wizardmon and Centarumon pick up the yellow orb Owryumon left behind. They shattered it and it let out a brilliant lightshow, though I didn't see any changes. Centarumon assured me though, that it had restored the element of thunder to the Digital World, and I had to admit I was proud to have been a part of the group that did it. It was way better than any action movie I'd seen.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

There's a lot of action heading your way, with Hikari, Ken and Taichi taking the lead, with a little Yuuko on the side.


	38. Finding Honour

**Y/N:** Ken intruded on the Yagami's family time in this chapter—not literally, but he's in the chapter, and it's only Yuuko, Taichi and Hikari otherwise. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, it's building up for something really big next chapter.

**U/N:** Soooooooooooooooooo this chapter has less people in it than most of them. Though, like almost every other chapter, a character was added during the writing process, and that was Ken, imposing on the family chapter. Loser. Anyway, Hikari is the hardest for me to write as, so sorry if that doesn't work right because, well, I genuinely believe that her chapters never do. Anyway. Enjoyyyyyyy and reviewwwwwwwww

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 38: Finding Honour**

_**Yuuko Yagami:**_

"Uhm, yes. Let me in." I said flatly.

"No ma'am. I can't do that." The guard said, "You are not authorized in this Temple."

"Yeah I don't care." I growled, "Let me in. _Now_." The guard pursed his lips and decided to ignored me, looking off into the distance, standing tall and proud. "Oh, real mature." I needed into the Temple. I'd lost Kamemon, and I was too scared to go back to Susumu until I'd found his partner. I felt bad for having left him all alone for so long. But I hadn't even been aware that it _had_ been that long. But now I knew that the time was messed up, so if I wasn't careful I would have made the same mistake again.

Luckily, this time I knew what the digivices could do. I knew that by using that I could travel between the two worlds. Unfortunately I didn't know how to get into the Temple without causing an alarm.

"Move bucko." Dorumon snipped. I turned to look at him as he looked up to the guard. "I'm one of Ambassador Taichi's Royal Knights. If you don't get out of my way I can get you executed. I'm on real close terms with Mr Yagami." I crossed my fingers to demonstrate just _how_ close Dorumon and Taichi 'were'. The guard looked hesitant, but eventually nodded, frightened, stepping aside and pulling the door open.

"Thank you, kind sir." I said, curtseying politely before stepping through the door and into the town of the Temple. I looked to Dorumon and smiled, "Good job!" I said, my thumbs raised. I glanced over my shoulder and sighed as the guard followed me into the Temple, clearly he was going to accompany me to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. Lucky for me, I wasn't planning on doing so.

"You're welcome!" Dorumon said, puffing his chest out proudly. I winked at him and looked around. This place was enormous. How was I supposed to find him? "Follow me." Dorumon decided. "The council knows everything that goes on in the Temple, they'll know where he is." I nodded and set off at a quick pace following behind Dorumon's endless enthusiasm as, with each step he bounced excitedly until we were climbing a set of stairs. I looked over my shoulder every now and then, the guard was still following us.

The moment we'd stepped into the council building I knew where we were. I was really bad with directions, but that Marrow fellow had taken me here once.

"I'll go talk to them." Dorumon decided, "You stay here, and I'll tell you what I find." I nodded, and before I knew it Dorumon was gone, running down the hallway.

The guard seemed more interested in Dorumon than me at this point and he set off after him, leaving me all alone. I got bored of waiting after only a few seconds and so I pushed open one of the doors. It led to the room with the long table where I'd found Taichi in the first place. The actual council room.

I heard Dorumon talking to someone in the room across the hall about where Kamemon might've been, but he hadn't come to a conclusion yet so I moved to the next door and pushed it open.

Inside this one was the meadow where I'd met Dorumon initially, but what caught my eye wasn't the grass inside the building or the fake trees, it was the small green and blue turtle who was sitting by himself in the corner, looking very sad.

"Kamemon!" I said brightly. He looked up with a grin, and jumped to his feet, instantly running toward me. I ran too, making up the difference and he leapt into my arms. "I'm so sorry for leaving you behind."

"It's okay!" Kamemon grinned hugging me tighter, "I met some really nice digimon—and one guy named Benjamin! I just thought you'd never come back... I miss home."

"Well what do you say we head home then? Maybe we can try baking again—this time we can actually finish."

"That sounds awesome!" Kamemon cheered as Dorumon ran into the room.

"Oh good, you found him." Dorumon smiled.

"Yep," I said, "Ready to go home?" I asked.

Dorumon's face fell as he shook his head. "No, I can't." He said, "I'm training you see... I can't abandon Taichi. I need to become a Royal Knight first. Then we can be partners again."

"Oh." I said, trying to pretend it didn't hurt when it really did. I'd gotten so quickly attached to the ball of energy. "Will that be soon?"

Dorumon shrugged. "No clue," He said, "But I promise we'll be partners again one day!"

I nodded and knelt down to give him a hug.

"Good luck." I said to him, patting him on the head before leaving his training room with Kamemon.

"You're sad." Kamemon noticed. I nodded and he hugged me again. "You know what makes me happy when I'm sad?" I nodded, I did know. "Broccoli cookies!" He cheered, and I couldn't help but laugh.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

I was getting the feeling that I was being ignored. I couldn't find anyone at all.

I'd cleaned the house at least a dozen times in anticipation for something to arise, my phone waiting anxiously on the counter for someone to contact me.

Were they doing something without me? I could help. Why didn't they believe that? Maybe they did. Or maybe they didn't. I didn't know. They were probably just trying to protect me again. Being one of the Holy three was pretty annoying. Just because I was important didn't mean I'd suddenly become useless. It just meant that without me the world would fall... besides—they had no honest proof that I was the Holy One. I mean, that magical book of answers seemed fairly legitimate, but still!

Also, I kept debating whether or not to just _go_ to the Dark Ocean. They'd brought a decent team, but I couldn't help but feel like I was letting them down. Iori, Takeru and Daisuke had been left behind while Ken was left to save Miyako—we were a team! An epic, slightly younger than my brother's team but still just as amazing, team. I could bring Takeru, Iori and Daisuke along with me and we could save the day. I couldn't go though. I needed to make sure that we still had a way to the Dark Ocean and back no matter what happened.

It was getting frustrating though. Gatomon was trying her best to keep me calm by telling jokes about fish but they just weren't funny enough. I really needed to be out doing something. Miyako was in danger, and everyone else was gone, so they must have been doing something to. Suddenly I realized that I was getting the Willis treatment. No one was telling me what was going on!

"I'm going to make a list." I said suddenly, cutting off a joke about a halibut.

"What kind of list?" Gatomon asked as she jumped from furniture to furniture, following me to the kitchen.

"Well," I said, pulling a piece of paper and a pencil from the desk along the way. "I'm going to try and figure out who I can help and where everyone is."

I pulled out the kitchen chair and sat down.

"Alright," I said, "Taichi. Don't know. Yamato. Don't know. Sora. Don't know—this isn't working well." The list continued similarly through Koushiro, Mimi, Takeru, Iori and Daisuke. Ken, Michael and Kurayami were saving Miyako, and Jou was going to get Gomamon.

"What about those others?" Gatomon asked.

"Who?" I asked her.

"Mari? That quiet boy?" She prompted, "Hideto?"

"Oh!" I smiled as I wrote them down. But it just made the list even more depressing writing the same 'don't know' next to each of them. "I don't even know where my own _mother_ is." I groaned, realizing that I was hungry.

"You made food for yourself every day in America," Gatomon sighed.

"I know... but old habits die hard you know?" I said, "I'm so used to Mom cooking me food." I just didn't know what to do... "Maybe I'll clean again!"

"Hikari!" Gatomon said, grabbing my arm as I tried to stand up. "Stop! The house smells like a hospital—stop cleaning it."

"Sorry," I said quietly.

"You know," She said, "I get the feeling that you're cleaning to hide what's really bothering you. You've been on edge ever since you and Willis broke up."

"Not true." I said calmly. "Willis and I are perfectly happy with how things turned out."

"Really?" Gatomon asked, "Really? Is that why you're here and not with him? Is that why you didn't write him on your list? It's okay to talk about it. It's okay to be sad."

"I'm not sad." I lied. I was sad. I had cried for three hours straight the night of our breakup. I honestly wasn't sure what to do with my time now since I'd literally moved countries to be with him. I'd spent so much time with him and him alone that I'd neglected all my other friends. Takeru, Iori, Kurayami and I used to be so close, but I'd barely seen them in so long... I wondered if they hated me. I wouldn't blame them... "I'm just looking for something to fill my time. I don't have to clean up after Willis anymore. There's no Jenna to calm down after she comes home from school—Tatum and I haven't seen each other in a while so there's no one to gossip with. I can't comfort Lopmon anymore—Terriermon isn't making awful jokes—and I just want everything to be normal!"

Gatomon sat silently in front of me on the table and nodded. "I get it." She said finally, "You miss them. But you said it yourself. You belong here Hikari. They're not going to forget you, and you won't forget them—you'll see each other less, but you'll see the others more. And you've still got me." She winked at me. She was so good at making me feel better, I only wish there was always something I could do for her in return. Instead I just pulled her into a hug. "Besides, don't you have your finals to be studying for?"

"Uh..." I froze, trying to find a way out of that one, but I was saved when someone knocked on the door, "Oops! Got to get that!" I laughed nervously and Gatomon rolled her eyes. I hurried to the door and pulled it open. On the other side stood Mari, nervously looking to her right. Her hair was in a braid today and she was wearing her glasses instead of contacts. "Mari?"

Mari jumped and turned to me, "Oh thank goodness..." She said relieved, "I thought I'd never find you. Did you know that your neighbor answers the door naked?"

"Yeah..." I said awkwardly, "We've talked to him about that, but he just doesn't care." Mari laughed as I stepped aside to let her in. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I need your key." She said without hesitation.

"You can't," I said, taken aback by the boldness of her request. Mari had never overly enjoyed talking with me, so I knew she was very serious in this matter, but I couldn't just hand it over. "Why do you need it?"

"My best friend is trapped and no one told me." Mari growled, "I need the key. I need to save her."

I couldn't just give her the key... without that key on this side there was no way into the Dark Ocean. If they were both there... there were too many variables to contemplate. But I also couldn't keep her from saving Miyako. I slowly looked to my bedroom and then back to Mari.

"Alright." I said quietly. I led her quickly through the kitchen and down the hallway, pushing my bedroom door open quickly. I picked the key off of the computer desk and turned to her, holding the white key up to my eye level and looking at her seriously. "Keep the door open Mari. Okay? You have to keep it open, or you won't be able to get back."

"Alright." She nodded, "Got it." She reached for the key and I reluctantly handed it to her. Before I'd even fully let go of the key Mari was running out of my room.

"You can't go alone!" I yelled, suddenly realizing she had no digimon with her, "It's dangerous!"

"I'm going to find Lalamon first!" Mari yelled back before I heard the sound of the front door slamming.

I slowly worked my way back to Gatomon in the kitchen and sighed, sitting down.

"You could have gone with her—"

"I could have gone with her!" I realized a second later than Gatomon had. I groaned and rested my head down on the table. "I feel useless. I just want to help do something. I'm just a lot better than everyone else, so I think they should have asked me to help. But none of them did. They probably think I'll show them up."

"You sound like Daisuke," Gatomon laughed a little, but then froze.

"No, Daisuke sounds like me." I declared, "I'm older. Therefore I came first and thus am better."

"Aren't you younger than him?" Gatomon asked slowly. I shook my head, lying. Of course I was younger than Daisuke, but I couldn't let her catch on! I was better!

"Woah..." I said, suddenly realizing what I'd just been saying, I snapped myself out of it quickly.

"Pride." Gatomon nodded, "He must be close. Come on!" Gatomon was running toward the door a second later.

As I was following her my phone vibrated. I excitedly grabbed it and read the message.

_Hey—Hideto._

That was it? I quickly typed my response.

_Hi, going to defeat the sin of Pride and save the world. Come join?_

I quickly grabbed my digivice from the counter and followed Gatomon out the door, locking it behind me.

"Can you sense him?" I asked Gatomon who was already jumping from the handrail up to the next balcony above us. She landed and sniffed the air for a few seconds, "He's escaping!" She said sharply. "Let's get him!"

"Don't you think it might be a trap?" I asked, "Maybe he's luring us..."

"So?" Gatomon asked, "We'll whip him into shape no problem."

"But..." I trailed off.

"You said you wanted to do something Hikari, this could be it." Gatomon said. I couldn't help but nod. She was right. I felt useless sitting there doing nothing—and even if this was a trap, Gatomon was very strong—strong enough to defeat a simple digimon. They were all so easy to defeat that it was actually getting suspicious...

Either way. I was a Holy One. I was apparently special—and that wasn't Pride talking. It was me. I could handle him.

"Let's go." I said to Gatomon who smile and leapt from the balcony, soaring over the edge and falling straight down to the ground below.

"It's a good thing cat's always land on their feet!" Gatomon laughed.

I couldn't do this alone though, I'd need help—and if Hideto couldn't come... My thoughts fell on Daisuke. He was the one affected most by pride anyway... I pulled out my phone and dialled his number.

"No autographs today!" He said boldly into the phone halfway through the first ring.

"Excuse me?" I tried. "No—Daisuke come. I need your help."

"I'm on my way!" He said quickly, hanging up the phone.

"You don't even know where I am!" I yelled into the phone, hanging it up angrily. I set off down the stairs after Gatomon, I figured I could just text him the details along the way.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

I didn't like way that the wind wasn't going through my hair the way it used to. It was so different without there being so much hair for the wind to latch onto. I was with WarGreymon, flying across the Digital World as we made our way towards Fanglongmon's den. Apparently, the Death Knights had decided to use that as the base of their operations. I wasn't sure why. Maybe they figured we would never guess it? Since we'd defeated Fanglongmon ages ago now, and once we beat a bad guy, we never did really go back to their hideout. It was a pretty good choice on their part now that I thought about it. Of course, they spoiled their secret when they attacked Yamato and Ken's mothers, and I was pretty sure even my own mother was there. And looking to my present company, the leftover Death Knights that called that place home were in for quite a surprise.

Koushiro was with TyrantKabuterimon—who I was told was the result of an agreement with Ken, and that I didn't need to know anything more—resting on the purple insect king's shoulder as his sixteen different wings buzzed about behind him. Phoenixmon was carrying Sora in one clawed foot, and Neo and Dracomon in the other. Her powerful wings flapping in quick succession, as she speeded ahead of us. Catherine, Floramon and Yamato were seated on MetalGarurumon's back. The blue—I thought purple, but Yamato insists that I'm wrong—cybernetic wolf slashing through the wind with his yellow, electronic wings. Mimi brought up the rear as she flew with her own partner. Rosemon's cape was fluttering in the wind behind her. WarGreymon had his game face on, and I had to put mine in place as well.

We were nearing the underground base, and I didn't like what I saw. There were hordes of digimon waiting outside, all of them lined up in perfectly spaced lines, with a larger digimon at the forefront of them all. All of their eyes were trained on us as we neared them, and they prepared to attack.

"Get down!" I ordered. They swooped down to the ground just in time. There were two groups of the opposing army that moved forwards; an array of cybernetic wasps, and six wolves with metal armor covering their bodies. The wasps shouted a battle cry of "Turbo Stinger!" letting loose a rapid-fire salvo from their wide-aperture laser cannons. Catherine screamed as one of the lasers nearly hit her in the face—thankfully, MetalGarurumon dodged. I didn't think we'd hear the end of it if she got hurt.

The wolves were up next, with a shout of their own. "Sticker Blade!" I was convinced it was going to be another stupid attack, based on its name, but the wolves launched a volley of tiny blades at us. They looked sharp. WarGreymon turned his back to them, allowing his shield to keep them from hitting me.

Then we were on the ground, running towards the others, so we could throw together a plan we desperately needed.

"I never imagined this was something I would have to deal with twice in such a short time span," Koushiro commented when we made it over to them. "Some of the digimon within the army are even the same as the last time."

"Of course they are," Neo snapped. "They're all digimon that naturally carry the x-antibody. They're resistant to the x-virus I created."

"You don't suppose that's why these specific digimon were chosen?" I asked.

"I'd say so," Neo agreed.

"So these guys mean business. They were planning ways to get around you and the Alias III if they needed to. It wasn't just the digidestined," I surmised.

"They want total world domination," Yamato added.

"And they mean that literally," Mimi moaned. "If we can't get those Digimentals back before nightfall then they'll have it. The worlds can't combine. We can't handle such a wide-spread attack again. Not with us all scattered like this."

"And we won't have to," Sora said. "We'll just have to win. Koushiro, we'll need to fuse." She paused to look to Mimi, probably to see how she was going to react. Mimi agreed instantly, saying it was probably the best choice tactics-wise. "Let's hope it still works with TyrantKabuterimon instead of HerculesKabuterimon…." Sora and Koushiro clenched their digivices in their hands and prayed that this would work. It did! Koushiro's lit up red, and Sora's purple.

"**Phoenixmon digivolve to…**"

"**TyrantKabuterimon digivolve to…**"

"**Eaglemon!**"

"Yes!" Mimi cheered. "Now let's go beat some baddies."

The digimon launched into attack mode and flew at the opposing army. Rosemon looked scary in her red cat suit, thigh high black books and her matching whips twirled around each arms. I couldn't see her eyes—I never could with her rose petal helmet in the way—but I didn't need to, to understand the other digimon's fear as she approached them. "Rose Spear!" she screamed as one of the whips in her hands straightened into a rapier and she struck the nearest enemy—one of those cybernetic wasps that Koushiro identified as a Waspmon.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" MetalGarurumon howled as he flung himself into the fray, taking down an armored wolf—a Sangloupmon. His fierce demeanor was enough to frighten the other five, but they weren't going to give up without a fight. The four wolves struggled to keep up against our hero.

"Digivolve, Floramon," Catherine suggested. Floramon nodded and digivolved into a Kiwimon, before running at the nearest rookie digimon in the army, a Ryudamon. "Pummel Peck!" Kiwimon shouted, letting loose a small army of his own ChibiKiwimon, who swarmed the small yellow dragon digimon. His Japanese-style armor was good for defense though, and although theoretically the armor should have made his speed next to nothing, he was surprisingly nimble.

"Katana Attack!" Ryudamon shouted, launching blades out of his mouth at the ChibiKiwimon.

"Dracomon…I suppose you'd better join in too…" Neo said half-heartedly. I knew he didn't particularly like his digimon partner, but his half-ass support was all Dracomon needed. He beamed at the chance to join in, and digivolved into Coredramon—a much larger, blue dragon with well defined muscles, sharp teeth and a large red horn on the tip of his nose like a rhinoceros. There were red spikes all the way down his back and long tail, and three pearly white claws on both his hands and feet. He looked dangerous, and the smile on his face at the thought of tearing enemy digimon apart was just creepy.

"Blue Flare Breath!" he called, attacking the nearest digimon, a Reptilemon. He blew a flaming blue breath at the yellow, cybernetic Velociraptor, which seemed to decompose the texture data of the dinosaur digimon's body surface, leaving his digicore open to attack. Coredramon was all too willing to take advantage of that, swinging his tail around to strike him with a loud "Strike Bomber!" The Reptilemon was destroyed in seconds.

"Mega Claw!" WarGreymon roared, catching my attention. He swung his Dramon Killer gauntlets at the cat-like digimon that was flying around his head. A TobuCatmon, if my memory served me right. His claws sunk into the cat's stomach, leaving the digimon to disperse into data.

I looked around to see that Eaglemon was trying to take on the bulk of the army with his "Mystic Break!" attack. He was firing white rays at any digimon that got too close, that reduced the enemy into nothing but data on contact.

"Keep fighting!" the larger digimon, that I'd thought was in charge from afar, called out. "I'll inform Marrow of the intruders!"

The army didn't have much choice in the matter. Even if their leader had waited before running off into a concealed doorway, they didn't have time to stop and answer his orders; they were too busy fighting against the small army of our own. Agumon and Gabumon's training was working wonders. They were slashing through the enemies with ease.

"Marrow," Yamato growled. "He's going to lead us directly to him."

"What?" I said shocked. "We can't leave in the middle of a battle. If we turn our backs, we'll get slaughtered."

"Not if most of us stay to fight," Mimi commented. "Rosemon, you stay and fight! I'm going with Yamato!"

"You are?" he asked.

"Of course I am," she said. "We'll take MetalGarurumon just in case, but Rosemon can fight. We'll save your brother and Iori right under Marrow's nose."

"Go ahead," I said. I had a battle to worry about. They were smart enough to handle this on their own. And I trusted them without a doubt. "We'll hold them off."

"On it," Yamato said. He called MetalGarurumon over, and he helped Mimi onto his back before jumping on himself. Mimi waved at Koushiro before they darted into the opening that the digimon had gone through.

"I wanted to go…" Catherine muttered. But I didn't have time to comfort her, or to assure her that they would be okay, or that they would even save Takeru. The army wasn't as strong as us, but they had something we severely lacked: numbers. Kiwimon was pecking a rookie digimon with her "Nose Mattock!" Rosemon was using one of her whips as a collar for one of the stronger enemies as she controlled his movements and had him fight against his own team members while she dealt with another on her own. Coredramon continued to use his one-two attack combination to eliminate his enemies while WarGreymon charged up a brilliant "Terra Force!" to take down three x-antibody digimon. Eaglemon continued his extermination tactic.

"This is taking a long time," Catherine commented.

"It'll take as long as it has to," Sora said. "Be glad that we're not the ones being slaughtered out there."

"I hope Takeru's okay…" she said. Did she have a one track mind? She was very nice, and very pretty, but she wasn't focussing on Kiwimon who was risking her life out there to help us win this battle. Yamato and Mimi were taking care of Takeru and Iori with the help of MetalGarurumon. Takeru would be fine.

"It's Marrow!" Koushiro announced. I turned to the hidden doorway, and sure enough Marrow was standing there continuing to masquerade as one of Gennai's clones. He was glaring at the all out brawl, clearly furious that we were winning. I stormed over to him without thinking, and punched him square in the face.

"Think about who you're dealing with Marrow," I snarled, as if my hand wasn't freaking killing me at that moment. What was his jaw made of, lead?

"It's _you_ that doesn't know who you're dealing with, Taichi," he growled, his voice dropping more and more into a rumbling roar with every word. His skin and clothing seemed to burst off of him as he exploded into a digimon that looked like a demon, skeleton dog. His giant body was made up of long, icy blue bones, and his eyes glowed bright red in pitch black sockets. His tendons were visible, holding his body together, and he had long, sharp incisors. He stood on his four legs, with a long bony tail, skeletal demon wings sticking out of his back, and two horns on the top of his head.

"Monkey Feathers," I said the first two words that came to my mind in disbelief. I'd just ticked off the wrong guy. I swallowed thickly as the giant digimon stepped towards me with his teeth bared and with the intent to kill.

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

A strangled gasp ripped its way out of my throat as I was forced into being awake. My shoulders were shaking and sweat poured down my face. It was absolutely horrible. Gut wrenchingly terrifying. I had been helpless, unable to do anything more than watch as my wife had been torn to pieces, and Wormmon killed slowly and deliberately. My mother had been put through excruciating pain. Michael was attacked and killed by the Betamon that had been masquerading as his partner for all of these years. And then I was left in absolute darkness, unsure where the next victim would appear, what horrifying methods would be used, who would commit the act. The worst part of it was the anticipation. I couldn't guard myself against the visions. The visions looked so vivid and sounded so realistic that I had a hard time holding on to the thread of belief that these weren't truly real. What pushed me over the edge was Miyako as she pleaded, not for the shadows to stop, but for me to save her. But I couldn't move. Not because I was frozen in fear, but because my body had been paralyzed. The only defense I had was that I could close my eyes to the horrific scenes. And then the shadows turned on me, tearing at my legs, trying to get to me.

That's when I was thrust awake.

Immediately upon awakening, I was aware of three things. I was still shaking in fright from the images I'd bore witness too, and I didn't think there would ever be a time where I could unsee them. I was also furious with myself for falling asleep when I had far more important things to worry about, the main one, of course, was my wife! And third…there was a god awful taste in my mouth.

"What the hell did you give me?" I had to ask.

"Water," Wormmon said from beside me. I could barely see him. It wasn't until I squinted into the darkness that I realized I wasn't on the beach anymore. I was in a shadowy room that suddenly felt really small. There were shadows just waiting in the darkness to slaughter everyone around me. I'd already seen it happen once, I wasn't going to be able to watch it again. I didn't want to _have_ to watch it again.

"Calm down, Ken," Kurayami snapped. "We're just trapped in a dungeon. Wormmon and Labramon tried the door already, but there are shadows guarding it."

"Sh-shadows?" I asked. I cursed my voice for wavering. I didn't have time to be afraid. I had a wife to save.

"Yes," she hissed quietly. "So be quiet. We're trying to think up a plan."

"On the bright side," Labramon inputted. "We're a lot closer to finding Miyako now. There's no better place to keep someone than a castle."

"And I'm sorry about the water," Kurayami said, in a much gentler voice. She must've been just as terrified as I was being trapped here. The Dark Ocean was her biggest fear too. "But you needed a drink, and I really thought the nightmares would be better than hallucinations."

"I made her do it," Wormmon said forlornly. "You were so scared. I didn't mean to make you scared. I just wanted to help you. You needed water or else you wouldn't have the energy to save Miyako. And I know how much you want to—_need to_—save her…"

"You made the right choice," I said. It was hard to get those words out, but I managed. Miyako was more than worth enduring those nightmares the water created. If I could get her out of this alive, then it could all be forgotten. I couldn't let fear of the shadows get in the way of getting to her.

I tried harder to see through the endless darkness. I could see the shifting form of Labramon as he rocked from side to side next to Kurayami who was sitting perfectly still. I could hear Wormmon tapping his feet next to me, and I put an arm around him. That left Hawkmon. Where could he be?

"I'm glad you're awake," Kurayami commented after a long silence. "We didn't have a chance of saving Miyako without you. Not only would we be useless in a battle, but we'd have to lug you around too."

"I'm _not_ useless," Labramon muttered.

I sighed. So Kurayami was still being protective over her digimon. I could understand her reasoning though. I really could. She didn't want to lose her digimon partner. But it was more than that. Labramon was one of the few truly good things that Kurayami had in her life. If she lost him, she could spiral back into the girl she was before Daisuke charmed her with his less-than desirable wit. She was afraid of letting the darkness take her again. And that was fine. Well, _not_ fine, but understandable. I would have thought, though, that she would have learned from Takeru's mistake with Patamon. Unfortunately, she was doing more than confining Labramon's abilities; she was hindering her own as well. She wouldn't allow herself to grow as a partner for Labramon, for them to work as a team. I wasn't going to be able to do this on my own. Kurayami was gambling a lot on this quest. I knew that she wanted to help save Miyako—and I was really and truly grateful for that—but if she wasn't going to be able to help in the inevitable fight…she may as well have stayed home.

I could only hope that Miyako was alive and conscious when we got to her, so that she and Hawkmon could help _me_ help _her_. It wasn't fair to put this pressure on Miyako, since she was undoubtedly traumatized by everything involving this miserable place. I didn't want to make her have to fight her own way out. While it could be beneficial in the long run for her to have fought against this shadow that took her, and thus helping with the healing process…I wanted that to be an _option_…not an obligation.

"How long was I out for?" I asked, instead of voicing my opinions. Kurayami wouldn't appreciate it, and I while I usually wouldn't have gave a damn about that, I was trapped in a small, dark dungeon with her…and she was almost as terrifying as the shadows when she was angry.

"Awhile," she said uncertainly.

"We don't really know exactly…" Labramon admitted.

"We don't have any light, so we can't judge by the sun, and none of us have watches," Wormmon told me. "I don't think it was too long though."

"Great," I muttered. Who knew how long I'd been out, and Miyako was trapped here somewhere waiting for her doom. What's worse, was that I didn't know where she was. She _could_ be in this castle. Like Labramon said it seemed dramatic enough, and there weren't many options in the Dark Ocean, but was 'likely' enough to bet the life of my wife on? I needed to know for sure.

I was distracted from my internal lamenting by the sounds of a scuffle outside the door.

"Beak Pecker!"

It was the most glorious noise I'd heard in my life. Hawkmon was shouting out an attack. I heard the shadow grunt and groan as Hawkmon pecked at him like a woodpecker.

"Take that," Hawkmon called enthusiastically. "And that, and that! And _I_ will take these."

There was a clanking sound of metal on metal as he inserted the keys into the lock on the door. The door opened slowly, and he grunted from the weight of it.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes," I told him with a relieved smile.

"You too," he informed me. "I wasn't sure where you got off to. I followed a few shadows to this place. I was worried I'd be too late. I've already checked the other cells in the dungeon. One of the doors was smashed open. I suspect it was Armadillomon's doing."

"So they _are_ here," I said. Suddenly I was eager to get out of the dungeon to face countless shadows. My wife was within my grasp. I just had to get to her now.

"I believe so. He won't stay down for long," Hawkmon said, gesturing to the shadow at his feet. The hallways were lit with tiny candle flames in lanterns on the wall. They were few and far between, but it was enough for me. Seeing anything at all was better than the darkness of our dungeon cell. "Come along, quickly now."

Kurayami grabbed Labramon, and I followed her example, scooping Wormmon under one arm. He wasn't the fastest runner, and I wasn't about to leave him behind. Hawkmon ushered us out of the dungeons, keeping his eyes peeled for more shadows. He seemed to get more energy the closer we got to finding Miyako. It was as if he could feel her close by, and was excited about their reunion. I couldn't lie. I was feeling the same thing. I was beyond ecstatic to be finding her. I almost didn't feel the exhaustion anymore.

"Shh!" Labramon suddenly hissed. Everyone ceased their movements. I was sure Wormmon was even holding his breath. "Do you hear that?"

Sure enough, there were shadows talking to one another about a big event that was taking place in just a short while. They were tasked with collecting the guest of honour. They were coming up on us fast, so we high tailed it up the nearest set of steps, hoping to lose them, and find Miyako at the same time. Luck, however, was not on our side. At the top of the stairs we took, was a small opening leading to two separate doors. And waiting for us, was a shadow. He was most likely guarding a door, but that didn't help us. To make matters worse, those shadows we'd taken the stairs to avoid, were following us up them.

"Beak Pecker!" Hawkmon cried quietly, throwing himself at the shadow as Kurayami ran towards the nearest door. It opened easily, and I took the fallen shadow and crammed him inside. Not wanting to be in the same room as him when he woke up, we ran to check on the second door.

No luck. It was locked.

Kurayami's breathing quickened as the shadows got closer to us, but the whimpering that I heard wasn't coming from her mouth, and it was decidedly feminine. It was a sound I had unfortunately become accustomed to over the past few months as Miyako continuously awoke with new scratches and fears.

"Miyako," I whispered to the door.

"Ken," Kurayami hissed. "We don't have time, we have to hide."

"Miyako!" I called louder.

"K-Ken?"

"Yes, Miyako, baby, it's me. I'm here now. Are you okay? They haven't hurt you?" I asked.

"I-I'm s-scared," she hiccoughed through her tears. "But I'm n-not h-hurt."

"Good," I said. "That's good."

"Ken," Kurayami called again. "They're almost here."

"But she's right here. We have to save her now," I insisted.

"Ken," Miyako called. "You can't h-help me if you're c-caught."

"She's right, Ken," Wormmon told me.

"But she's _right there_," I insisted.

"Go, Ken," Miyako ordered. "Find me when it's safe!"

I let Kurayami drag me into the room we'd stored the shadow in. Wormmon used his webbing attack to bind him, though we knew it wouldn't amount to much when he awoke. Apparently webbing couldn't hold a shadow if he didn't want to be held. Who knew? The two shadows had made it to the top of the stairs, and to my absolute horror headed directly to Miyako's prison.

"We've come to collect tonight's entertainment," one of them said with a vicious amusement.

"W-what?" Miyako gasped. They must have grabbed her, because she started shouting out, and I could hear her trying to get out of their hold. I heard her nearly trip down the stairs as they dragged her along. I couldn't take it. I needed to get to her. I'd take on one of the shadows myself if Hawkmon, Labramon and Wormmon couldn't handle the two of them. Kurayami held me tightly, not letting me run after her until the noises were long gone.

"They've got her again," I told her coldly.

"And we'll get her back," she said firmly.

"We don't know where they're going," I snapped. "And we don't know the castle."

"But I do."

I turned to see Armadillomon coming out of the room that Miyako had been confined in. He held Miyako's long sleeved T-shirt and jeans in his mouth. I could only imagine what Miyako must be wearing now if she was the 'entertainment' of the evening. He set the clothing down to speak again.

"I know the castle, and I know where they'll take her. I can bring you, but we'll have to be fast. I don't like the sounds of things," he told us. We agreed to hurry, and let him lead us after the shadows and my wife. I could only hope we got there on time.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Arc four (That is technically still arc two) reaches its action packed conclusion.


	39. Cold Hearted Pride and Wrathful Vengence

**Y/N:** Wow. Okay, so this is a long chapter, and I know there's a bunch of action going on in it, so I hope you enjoy it, and leave a review if you can! Thanks.

**U/N:** So this is quite the chapter, and I don't really have much to say about it, so just review if you could :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 2: Shaped By Sin**

**Chapter 39: Cold Hearted Pride and Wrathful Vengence**

_**Hiroaki Ishida:**_

We'd defeated another Death Knight—the thunder one this time. It felt wonderful to be a part of the saving the world team again. I'd let my children do it for so long it was nice to actually feel involved.

The only problem was that my mission wasn't to save the world. It was to find Natsuko. I'd been so scared that she had been killed by that awful dragon creature when he destroyed the restaurant that was still smoking. But apparently he'd done nothing to them and they'd gotten away. Goblimon assured me that their trail stopped abruptly, and Centarumon figured that meant that they must have gotten back to Earth.

If Natusko was fine, then there was no reason for me to still be in the Digital World... Mind, I didn't really want to go see Natsuko just yet. I was happy she was safe—but if she was safe that meant that I had time to think of what to say to her.

Logically I had to break up with her... I couldn't let us move forward as a couple if it was wrong for both of us. Fumiko had made me feel more alive and loved in just a few hours than Natsuko had in three years. Not that I didn't love Natsuko... I just... didn't love her that way.

Fumiko was walking with me, toward a cliff where we were planning to stargaze. Natsuni, Wizardmon and Goblimon had stayed at the restaurant to put out the flames, and Centarumon was heading back to the Temple, so we were all alone.

"Do you think you want to go home yet?" I asked Fumiko. She looked to me and smiled.

"Well," She said, "I was hoping to find a partner, but..." She trailed off, "But I think I learned the lesson I needed to learn anyway."

"What's that?" I asked her, as we emerged from the trees.

As she spoke I cleared a spot on the ground for us to sit down. "I was so... scared of being alone. I was scared to let Iori leave me because I was too old to go out too. He doesn't need me the way I thought he always would, but that doesn't matter. We still love each other very much... and I'm perfectly able to go find my place in the world. I'd thought it was too late for me—but I don't need a young face to find happiness." She stroked her pale cheek which had reverted to her younger self, just as Toshiko, Haruhiko and myself had done.

"That's very wise and magical feeling," I said with a chuckle, "I didn't learn any lessons..."

"Did you not?" She asked, "It seems to me like you found the meaning of love. That's a big lesson. A very big lesson too." I guess she had a point, but I didn't want to talk about that. I looked out to the sky and saw many different constellations. I knew the ones on Earth very well, but these ones were new to me. "The sky is very pretty." Fumiko smiled.

"Can I say something really cheesy?" I asked her. She nodded and smiled. "You're prettier." I said with a wink. Suddenly I wanted to kiss her, and I was leaning forward to do so. It wasn't until after our mouths touched that we both retracted. "I can't." I said firmly. "I need to break up with Natsuko."

Fumiko nodded, pulling herself to her feet. "I'll see you at the restaurant."She said awkwardly before rushing off into the trees.

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

I couldn't understand what the plan was. Why had they taken us? I didn't get it. The man who had taken us had clearly identified himself as Marrow, not that he'd needed to—I'd been to the Temple before. When I'd placed my digimental down for the balancing of the worlds. But wasn't he part of the Council? Okay, so clearly he was faking his allegiance. Not that it affected me too much—besides being kidnapped, dragged through the worlds and stuffed in a hole in the ground.

I was scared for Iori, rather than myself though. If I was a Holy One then Marrow would probably wait for the right moment or something similar, but Iori was just a regular Digidestined. What if they didn't need him? What if they killed him?

I slowly looked toward him and tried to smile at him. "Go away." He responded coldly. Not that I cared—he was affected by wrath, it wasn't Iori talking—but I couldn't really leave. I was in the same cell as him. Not that I would leave—not without him.

I thought about Patamon and Armadillomon and how we didn't have anything to help us fight. If we had maybe we could force them to DNA digivolve again. Sure Shakkoumon wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing of the digimon on our team, but he was at least something—then again, both of us could get our partners to a mega form anyway, so that was pointless.

I chuckled at the thought of Armadillomon's ultimate being Piximon.

"What are you laughing at?" Iori snapped.

"Nothing," I said, throwing my hands up innocently.

"Why do you always do that?" Iori growled.

"Do what?" I asked.

"That!" He yelled, "You always just laugh and be happy! We're kidnapped Takeru! We're in a prison! Be sad—angry—_something_!" I thought for a moment—was he telling me to be scared? Shouldn't he be comforting me? "It's just annoying. You're always so optimistic. Like Hikari—both of you see everything with the glass half full. Well it's not half full today Takeru! It was kicked over brutally an all the contents spilled over the prison cell that we're trapped in."

"Just take a breath," I said calmly, "Everything will be okay."

"Stop _doing _that!" He yelled, slamming his fists into the ground. I could tell by the look on his face that the contact with the stone floor had hurt, but he was trying to hide it so I didn't comment. I wasn't sure what was so wrong with being optimistic, but if he didn't like it I wouldn't bother him with it.

I spun around and looked out of the cell bars.

Marrow and the slimy sidekick of his, Erif, had locked us up in the cell, hung the keys on the wall and then left. Nothing was in the room except a simple wooden stool and the keys.

I wanted them.

I didn't care how dangerous the concept of running through the hideout, that _had_ to be the same as Fanglongmon's old base, was. I just wanted to be out of the cell and looking for safety. But I had to be careful. As annoying as the others protecting me had been getting, I knew that I _did_ need to protect myself. And Iori of course.

But still... those keys...

Not that I had a way of getting them anyway. I could have tied my shoelaces together and made a lasso... but that wouldn't reach—maybe if I used Iori's too, but it seemed unlikely.

"Did you bring your phone?" I asked Iori.

"Phones don't _work_ in the Digital World Takeru!" Iori shouted.

"Sorry," I said calmly, "Forgot."

I ignored the "idiot..." Iori had mumbled and tried to think of another way out. Perhaps someone—Daisuke maybe—would realize we were gone, come to the Digital World and find our signals. Slowly I reached into my pocket and groaned. I didn't have it with me, I'd left it on my dresser while searching for Kurayami's key.

"Did you—?" I tried asking him about his digivice, but he cut me off quickly.

"No!" He shouted, "Stop trying to look for a way out. We're doomed."

"Stop thinking like that." I ordered. "We're never doomed."

"We are _now_!" Iori snapped.

"Did you bring—" I tried again.

"Stop talking to me." Iori growled.

"Your digivice?" I continued anyway.

"No!" Iori said through gritted teeth. "Now _stop_ talking to me."

"Fine." I said flatly as a loud creaking sound filled the room. I turned again to see Erif entering the room. His long red hair was dangling over his shoulders as he walked toward us, his back hunched over. He was smiling at us with his crooked yellow teeth. I wanted to crawl to the middle of the cell so he couldn't get to me since all sides were bars, but I didn't want to show him that I was scared. Even though I was. "What do you want?" I asked him.

"Well you see," Erif said with his high cackling voice, "We were looking for the Holy Three."

"Well you caught one of us." I said sharply, but Erif ignored me.

"But there have been some recent changes in the plan." He was getting closer and closer now. "The legend says, without the three Holy Chosen Children then the world will crumble. It will fall apart. But unfortunately for us, you are all here—alive."

"So?" I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat.

Erif bent over until his face was right next to mine, the stench of his breath being impossible to ignore, choking my breathing off. "So I need to kill." Erif said in a whisper.

"You'll never get away with this!" I said sharply. I had to. It was a cliché—cliché's were cliché's for a reason.

"He already has!" Iori snapped, "Just give it_ up_ Takeru! We've lost!"

"No we haven't!" I yelled at him, finally losing my patience. He needed to not give up hope. We'd not lost. We couldn't have—I had faith, so why didn't he?

"I told you not to talk to me!"

I spun around in time to see Iori diving through the air toward me. I slid out of the way and he landed, smashing his side into the bars of the cage.

"Well this is interesting..." Erif said, twiddling his thumbs.

Iori turned on me and ran directly for me as I pulled myself to my feet, jumping out of the way again, but he saw it coming, and suddenly moved sideways, hitting me into the walls.

"Iori!" I gasped, "Calm down—"

"NO!" He screamed, "Hit me back! Hit me back and I'll stop! Just stop being so freaking annoying!"

I couldn't hit him back—he wasn't doing this on purpose. I shook my head lightly and he pursed his lips in anger, his nostrils flaring as he wound up his fist and swung it toward me, hitting me square in the jaw.

I hit the ground hard and stammered to my feet, trying to avoid his next hit which came before I could even figure out which way was up and which was down.

Iori hadn't been kidding at all when he'd been saying that he wasn't a kid anymore. It wasn't until right then that I realized how tall and strong he was, as his shoulder came barrelling toward my side, pushing me over again.

And then my back was to the cage and I was sitting. Iori lunged toward me and grabbed my hair, sitting on top of me. With one swift motion he pushed back quickly.

I gasped in pain. Was he trying to break my neck? Well he was certainly going to succeed if I didn't do something—

"Yes!" Erif cheered stupidly, "Yes kill him!"

Suddenly the pain stopped and Iori had released me. I painfully looked to him, my neck cracking as he stumbled to his feet and backed into the corner opposite me.

"Iori?" I said quietly, "You ok—"

"Don't talk to me." He said again, this time with a sense of worry in his voice. "Stay where you are."

"This is no fun."

I turned back to Erif who was sighing and backing toward the door. "I'll be right back," He said, suddenly excited again... If what Iori had done had made him excited, I certainly did not want to see what had just crossed his mind. I needed to get out of here.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"I think we lost him." Mimi said peering around the corner. Whatever that digimon had been heading to, I could only hope it wasn't my brother. I needed to get him back. Not that it would be easy. I'd gotten lost last time I was in this place—and even though Fanglongmon had been defeated for ages—three years in fact, I still couldn't help but look over my shoulder expecting to see him there—not that he'd fit. He _had_ been a giant dragon...

Mimi spun back and faced me with a nod. She put her finger up for me to wait and quickly tied her hair back out of her eyes.

"Let's go." She said with a determined grin.

Since we were in the Digital World our digivices should have worked as a GPS sort of deal, but I couldn't pick up any signals from them...

"Are we sure they're even here?" I asked.

Mimi nodded, "Where else would they be? Marrow took them..."

"And he's here," I nodded, "But that doesn't mean that _they_ are."

"Well if they aren't, then they're safe." Mimi said simply, waving off my worries, "There's no one to harm them if everyone is here."

"There's Erif." I pointed out.

Mimi looked to me, her eyebrows raised, "That bumbling idiot?" I nodded, but she didn't seem to notice, "They're here Yamato. Trust me. Where else would they be? This is literally a prison sector in a well guarded base."

"She has a point Yamato," MetalGarurumon said before taking the lead and bounding down the hallway opposite the digimon we'd followed in. Mimi grabbed my wrist and set off at a run, dragging me along with her.

Sometimes I thought life would be easier if I was a sporty person. First, the running wouldn't be nearly as painful, plus I wouldn't have been so hot. Not attractive wise, I was awesome, there was no escaping that. But my image, as a rule, allowed no shorts—and the leather jacket didn't allow a lot of room for my skin to breathe, and honestly, at that moment, I wished I was Taichi.

I burst into random laughter remembering his hair, and Mimi shot a glare back at me, so I stopped laughing and focused on saving Takeru.

"Can you sense him?" Mimi asked MetalGarurumon who shook his head.

"I can smell them though." MetalGarurumon said. "Takeru smells exactly like jellybeans."

I couldn't help but laugh again, this time Mimi joined in.

The hallways of the base were all orangey, just as they had been when we'd been running from Piedmon three years ago, a small simple light hanging from the ceiling every so often. The walls were cracked stone, and the floor was wet, and cold.

MetalGarurumon led the way through the hallways as I got mad at myself for laughing twice in such a serious situation. Takeru could be dead—but not if he smelled like jellybeans. Dead people didn't smell like candy.

Finally he slid to a stop in front of a dented solid metal door.

"MetalGarurumon!" I ordered, "Blast it open!"

Before he could, Mimi had stepped forward and pushed the door open. I felt my face turn red as she looked back and winked at me, leading the way through the creaking door. The room was large with one single cage directly in the center of it, Iori and Takeru were sitting in opposite corners.

"Yamato!" Takeru cheered as he caught sight of me. I smiled at him as he pointed to the wall behind me. "The keys are there—hurry. Erif said he was coming back."

I turned to MetalGarurumon but he was already turning to stand guard. I grabbed the keys from the wall and rushed to the gate, turning the key in the lock and pulling the door open quickly. Takeru was out in a second, hugging me, and then he released me and hugged Mimi before turning to Iori.

"Come on," Mimi said, "We have to hurry—the others are out there fighting."

Iori looked up to us, his eyes filled with so much anger.

"No." He said flatly. "Go without me."

"Iori—" I tried.

"GO!" Iori yelled, "NOW!"

Mimi and I exchanged confused glances but Takeru had run back into the cage and fell to his knees next to Iori. "I'm not scared of you." He said quietly, confusing me, and by the look on her face, Mimi as well. "It isn't you Iori. It is wrath. That's who is doing all of those things. Besides, I could take you—well I couldn't probably—but MetalGarurumon sure can."

Iori looked slowly toward the metal wolf standing guard and nodded.

Takeru took his hand and pulled him to his feet. "Let's go." He said with a nod, pulling him toward Mimi and I, and together the four of us ran to my partner who started leading the way back to the outside.

_**Jou Kido:**_

"So it was Arkadimon?" I asked, confused. We'd hastily escaped the coliseum and had run into the trees for cover. Gomamon, having watched me enough to know what to do, was checking Syakomon's wounds as well as his own to make sure they were both okay as I looked over Betamon's.

Michael was sitting, his back against the tree as Monmon sat in the lower branches, listening to everything calmly, which was new—I guess he finally understood the severity of the situation.

"No," Betamon said as I rubbed some ointment that I'd made from the herbs around the forest onto the scars where he was clearly whipped. His fin looked deflated, like it had been broken, but that would be easily fixable over time. "It was coming from him though. I don't really know though... There were a bunch of different digimon in charge—sometimes they were invisible—as if the shadows on the wall were doing it."

"The shadows are working with the digimon?" I asked.

Betamon shrugged, and then winced. "I don't even know. I just know that whoever it was wanted me to forget Michael existed." Betamon glanced toward his partner whose head was buried in his knees, checking to be sure he was still there. "They wanted me to be clear of mind so that when they took Michael's body they could have a digimon to control as well."

"Who wanted Michael's body?" I asked. I was trying to get as much information out without prying. He's been through a lot and probably wanted to forget it all, but it was important that we put a stop to what was going on.

"The shadows." Betamon said, "They said that the body they have for their master isn't good enough. They need someone better. Someone whose body can take it."

"So why Michael?" I asked.

"I don't know." Betamon said quietly. "They never told me. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." I said quickly as I gently wrapped a large fern leaf around Betamon's side. "Don't worry about it. You've done enough." I tied the leaf off and sighed, "That's the best I can do without my supplies."

"You're really good at it though," Betamon said, "I feel better already." I could tell he didn't feel fully better—but even just a little better was enough.

"You know, we digimon don't have a doctor..." Syakomon said. I turned to see him sitting, fully awake now. I wasn't sure when he'd done so, "it would be awesome if you became that. We need help sometimes too." He said looking from Betamon to Gomamon and to himself.

"They're right you know," Gomamon nodded, "You'd be awesome at it."

"Except I can't." I said simply, "That's not logical. I wouldn't get paid—I have five or six mouths to feed you know." Gomamon nodded and sighed.

"I'll stay here." He said suddenly, "I don't need—"

"Nope." I said firmly, "That's not happening. You're moving in with me and that's final."

Gomamon grinned and elbowed Syakomon, "And it's all thanks to you kidnapping me." He joked.

"I'm so sorry for that..." Syakomon said suddenly, "I couldn't control myself—thank you so much for saving me!"

"No biggie." Gomamon laughed. Technically it had been me that had done it, but I let Gomamon take the credit.

Then I remembered why we'd had to save him in the first place and I turned to Michael, pulling the crests Syakomon had dropped out of my pocket and handing them to Michael. "I believe Meiyomon would be pleased that you found these." Michael looked up and tried to smile, reaching out and taking them from me.

"I'll tell him you did it," He nodded.

"Does anyone have anything to eat?" Betamon asked.

Monmon made an excited noise and motioned for Betamon to wait a minute and then he was gone, climbing up into the trees. Betamon smiled excitedly for the meal to come.

"So how does it feel to be free?" Gomamon asked.

"Is that a real question?" Betamon giggled. Gomamon shrugged. "Great I guess. Kind of depressing. I'd always pictured rainbows and sunshine for when I got free... but for some reason the sun hasn't been up in a long time."

"Oh, someone stole the digital world you see," Gomamon said, "Since we're super awesome we've been getting it back though—I'm just kidding, it wasn't us, it was the others parents. Not Jou's dad though, he's a—"

"I'm so sorry Betamon." Michael blurted suddenly. Everyone turned to him. He looked like he was ready to cry again, and I couldn't blame him—I had no idea how he would have felt—but I could only assume it was really bad. "You're all talking happily as if nothing is going on, when we should be focusing on what really just happened to you. I... I'm just... so... sorry."

"Michael," Betamon said, moving across the grass toward him and nuzzling his head into the side of his leg affectionately, "You need to forgive yourself."

"I can't." He shot.

"You _have_ to." Betamon said boldly. "If you don't move on, then I'll never be able to, and I want, more than anything, to move on from what happened. So you have to forgive yourself. For me."

Michael was silent for a moment, until finally he sighed, "I'll try."

"Good." Betamon smiled at him.

A few minutes later Monmon was back with a large leaf thrown over his shoulder filled with berries. He plopped them in front of Betamon with a proud grin and Betamon thanked him quickly before devouring every last berry.

"Guys," I said quietly, "I made a promise that I have to keep."

Michael looked up to me, "Miyako?"

I nodded. "I'm glad you're all safe now," I looked to Betamon and Syakomon, "But I really have to go. If I'm going to marry her sister, that makes her more than just my friend now. It makes her _family_. I can't let her stay there..."

"I get it." Betmaon smiled. "I'd offer to help, but I don't know if I have enough energy to lend at this point," Betamon turned to Michael, "And I'm not sure he's up for it." Michael looked apologetically to Betamon and then buried his face in his knees again.

"I'll stay with Michael," Syakomon said with a big grin, "I'll help to make sure they're safe and hidden from whoever was in the coliseum hurting Betamon."

"Thanks," I said with a nod. I gave them a thumbs up and patted Michael's shoulder before motioning for Gomamon to follow. Monmon waved animatedly to me, so I waved back... he was pretty cute. Maybe I _would_ let Emiko keep him.

"How are we getting to the Dark Ocean?" Gomamon asked as we ran as quick as we could toward the nearest gateway.

"Hikari," I said simply, pulling out my digivice to prepare for when we found what we were looking for.

After a couple of minutes of just running we found one, and we appeared in the middle of an aisle in a computer store. Thankfully it was the one just down the street from my house so I knew exactly where we were. I burst out the front door, ignoring all the confused looks the customers were giving me.

I pulled out my phone the second we were outside and dialled Hikari's number.

The phone rang a couple times, and finally she answered it. By the sound of her voice I could tell she was running somewhere.

"Hello?" Her shaky voice said, "Now's not really a good time—"

"Don't hang up!" I yelled. I waited a second, and I could still hear her breathing so I knew she had listened to me. "I need your key to the Dark Ocean."

"I don't have it!" She said quickly, "Mari has it!"

"Where is she?" I said quickly.

"I don't know!" She shot back. "Just call her!" Hikari quickly gave me Mari's number and I hung up the phone.

"So how'd it go?" Gomamon asked sarcastically. I just shook my head and dialled the new number.

"Uhm... hello?" Mari's voice came from the phone a moment later. "Who is this?"

"Jou," I said quickly. "Where are you?"

"Jou Kido?" Mari asked, "I-I'm at the library, why?"

"I need to go to the Dark Ocean with you." I told her. "I need to help save Miyako."

"Hurry then." She said quickly, "The gate is open. I'm only waiting ten minutes."

I hung up the phone quickly pocketed it, rounding on Gomamon. "We have to get to the library. Now." I said quickly. Gomamon nodded, suddenly serious and started running. I ran after him realizing that he probably didn't know the way, which turned out to be true. He stopped at the first corner and let me take the lead. I led him down the street and across the bridge, both of us nearly getting hit by a car in the process. Eventually though, we were running up the stone steps to the library and pushing the door open, ignoring the 'closed' sign on the front door. I closed it behind us and ran into the main room. It didn't take long to spot Mari who was up on the second level, which was only a floor outlining the walls. Behind her was a large doorway, opened into a dark beach.

"Look!" Lalamon sang, floating up so I could see her too. I didn't waste any time, and ran straight up the stairs, looking back to make sure Gomamon was keeping up and then stopping by Mari.

"Took you long enough." She said.

"Eight minutes and forty two seconds." I said, "I'm not late." She rolled her eyes and motioned for me to go in. "No no, after you." I decided. Again, she rolled her eyes, but took Lalamon's hand and stepped through the portal. I followed her through and instantly felt shivers running down my spine.

Mari turned back and put a book in the doorway. "Just in case." She said, "Hikari told me to make sure the door stayed open."

I nodded and turned to the vast world of the Dark Ocean. This was the first time I'd seen the world on its own, and I had to say, it wasn't an enjoyable sight. In fact it was the exact opposite. "How are we going to find them?" I asked, crossing my arms to stay warm from the chilled winds.

"We'll follow their footsteps." Mari said as if it were obvious. I looked down and saw dog footprints, two human sets, and one that could only be Wormmon.

"Perfect." I grinned. "Let's go. They might need us."

"You think?" Mari said sarcastically, leading the way.

"I think I like her," Gomamon laughed before following along.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

My feet were pounding hard against the cracked concrete of the sidewalks. Veemon was trailing after me, but I was a much faster runner—it was one of the many things that I was better that than any of my fans, I mean _friends_—and was still half a block ahead of him. I hoped Patamon was at least a decent babysitter. There was no way he was up to my level, but I needed to know that Norn was okay…even if she was being unnecessarily creepy at the moment. And she wouldn't give me any more information to go on. Who was this "Master" and what was his decision? I figured she would finally tell me what the hell she was doing wandering around the streets, since she clearly wasn't just some abandoned orphan, but no. She told me that she was going back to "sleep" and not to bother her. She was just dumb. I didn't need her to tell me though; I would figure it out eventually all on my own, because I was awesome like that.

It was no wonder that Hikari called me when she did. She was clearly in trouble, and she needed a hero to swoop in and save her. I didn't exactly know what it was I was getting into, since I didn't bother to let her actually tell me, and I also was just running in a random direction because I didn't know where she was either. But things just worked out for me, because karma or destiny or whatever just loved me.

"Daisuke!" Veemon yelled behind me. I almost stopped, but I then I didn't because I was in the middle of crossing a road, and a big transport truck was honking its horn at me. I waved to him, and he yelled at me. I couldn't hear what he was saying, because his windows were up, but I was pretty sure he was cheering because he was so excited to see me. "Daisuke!"

"What?" I demanded, finally stopping for him to catch up. "Can't you keep up?"

"Daisuke," he said. "Hikari's in the park fighting against a really strong looking angel digimon."

"I knew that," I said immediately, even though I didn't. I couldn't let him think I was stupid. I was super smart, and I noticed almost everything all the time.

"Then why did you run past them…?" he wanted to know.

"We needed the warm up for the battle," I said. "Let's go back now."

I quickly took the lead again and rushed back a block and a half to the park. It was mostly just an open field now with a bunch of broken playground equipment, but there in the middle, was a female warrior angel dressed in a turquoise armoured dress with golden wings sticking out every which way. She was holding her javelin in a battle stance, aiming at the half-angel, half-demon digimon standing on the top of the swing set. He was blonde and had wings all over the place, two on his head, a set of five angel wings on one side and another set of five—bat wings this time—on the other, even a pair on each of his boots and one on his collar. Hikari was standing behind Ophanimon, huddled up with that tall guy with the black hair—_Hideto_. What the hell was he doing here? His two digimon were out on the field as well, only a Greymon and a Garurumon, practically useless in any sort of fight these days. Why would Hikari need his help when she'd called for me?

"Hikari!" I shouted. "The Calvary is here, you can send the newbie home."

"Daisuke," she said happy to see me.

"Nothing doing," Hideto informed me. "I'm sticking around. _I_ might be of some use."

"As a distraction maybe," I told him. Who did he think he was? He wasn't one of us. Not really. He wasn't strong; he couldn't understand his crest, pride, even though it was so simple. And he wasn't even as cool as Willis, because he only got the one crest to share between the two digimon—which were just repeats of Yamato and Taichi. He was the single most useless member of Alias III, and now the digidestined as well. The worst part though, was that he didn't know what a loser he was. He thought he was a pretty cool dude, hating on Yamato's music, flirting with all the ladies—and even some of the guys—and walking around with his wannabe careless attitude. But he wasn't cool. He was just an asshole. There was a difference.

"Play nice, Daisuke," Hikari scolded me. She actually _scolded_ me. She scolded _me_! I was the one in the right here; I was perfectly perfect in every way. Hikari didn't need anybody but me to beat this guy. She didn't even need Veemon…

"Whatever," I said with a pout.

The half-demon, half-angel laughed—probably at Hideto's lack of ability. It was just so funny to think about. But that wasn't what he thought was funny. I was. "My lovely little pet," he said. "It's so nice to see how perfectly you have accepted your pride. You've let it fester and grow, and it's amazing that you haven't even once attempted to rid yourself of it."

"Rid myself of what, sheer perfection?" I asked him with a snort. What a moron. No one would give up all that I've got just because a bad guy was complimenting them on it. Nope. That wasn't going to happen. I loved myself just the way I was.

"Daisuke," Hikari shouted at me. "Get over yourself. You're not _you_, you're being too prideful. You're supposed to be humble!"

"If you've got it, you flaunt it, baby," I told her. "And I've got more than my fair share."

"He's perfect," the digimon purred.

"No one asked you, Lucemon!" Ophanimon snapped at him.

"Daisuke, I don't like this version of you," Hikari informed me. "I need the old you."

"What you need is someone that's good enough to win this battle, and let me tell you, I've got this in the bag," I said with a grin. "Now you, Lucemon was it? It doesn't matter; I can't remember all the little people's names. The point is, you've gotta hit the road. This town ain't big enough for the both of us and all that jazz."

"Funny," Lucemon said. "I was just about to tell you the exact same thing. Deadly Roll!" He held up one hand and summoned a steaming ball of pure evil before rolling it at us as if we were bowling pins.

"Daisuke, look out!" Veemon screamed, tackling me.

"It wasn't going to hit me," I snapped. "Now you've scraped my knee. I might need stitches now. Do you _know_ what stitches do? They'll leave a scar. You've marred my perfect flesh!"

He didn't even apologize, or at the very least, respond. He just jumped to his feet and started running towards Lucemon with a loud "Vee Punch!" and started swinging both of his arms around in circles with his hands in fists. Lucemon put a hand on Veemon's head and laughed with amusement as Veemon tried and failed repeatedly to hit him. It was kind of depressing just how horrible Veemon was at fighting. I was loads better.

"Paradise Lost Punch!" Lucemon cried, clenching Veemon's head in his fingers. He launched my little blue buddy into the air and flew up after him, intertwining his fingers and bringing them down on Veemon's torso, sending him flying towards the swing set. Veemon landed on the top bar with enough speed to bend it down to the ground.

"Way to go, Veemon," I grumbled. "The swings are wrecked now. They were my favourite part of the playground. Now how am I supposed to swing high enough to survey my entire group of fans?"

"Daisuke," Hikari gasped, scandalized. "Veemon's really hurt."

I didn't say anything to her, but I was thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal. I mean, it was bound to happen. He just wasn't as tough as he thought he was. He wasn't like me. He was just mediocre. But that was fine, we were still buddies. It was actually a good thing that he wasn't nearly as great as me, or else I probably would've been cheering for Lucemon in their little scuffle. No one was allowed to be better than me, no one. Thankfully, no one was.

"Let's see how loud I can make you scream," Lucemon said sadistically as he landed on the top of the now mangled swing set. He looked down on Veemon and smiled a twisted smile. "Let's see what lady luck has in store for you. Now you have a fifty-fifty chance here. On one hand, you could die—that's the choice you want. The other hand, you are in for such extensive pain that you'll wish you died, or maybe you'll kill yourself to get away from the pain. Either option pleases me, it's _your_ comfort I worry about now."

"H-help," Veemon gasped, trying to get to his feet but he couldn't. He was in too much pain. The furthest he got was to his knees. "P-please."

"Death then?" Lucemon deduced. "Good choice. Ultimate Sacrifice!" Glowing lines started forming around Veemon, first two, then four…they were still coming, forming a cube around him. There wasn't much time.

"Garurumon! Greymon!" Hideto shouted. His digimon didn't even spare time to nod as they tore their way towards Lucemon. Greymon slashed at Lucemon with his Great Horns Attack, while Garurumon scooped Veemon into his mouth just before the final lines had been drawn. He brought Veemon back over to us digidestined, while Lucemon started fighting back against Greymon.

"Thank you," Veemon gasped. "You really saved me back there."

I saw red immediately. What did he think he was doing thanking that loser? He didn't need Hideto's help. Or Garurumon's. Or Greymon's. He just needed me, and I decided that he could do it on his own. He had the ability. Even as a rookie he was better than either of Hideto's duplicates. "I'm way better than that asshole!"

Veemon looked to me and narrowed his eyes, and Hikari slapped me across the face. Ophanimon shook her head and went to help Greymon fight Lucemon. Because Greymon was a freaking weak loser that needed the help of someone else in order to fight even the simplest of battles. I didn't even let Hikari's slap get to me, I ignored it. She didn't hit me too hard. I didn't even feel it really. I was way better at slapping my face than she was.

"Don't call him that," Veemon and Hikari ordered me.

"No," Hideto said raising his hands in surrender like the loser he was. "It's fine. I _am_ an asshole. I'm also a terrible flirt, I give horrible advice, and I let Neo push me around too much. That's who I am and I'm proud of that. Because I can admit to my faults and own them anyway. I actually care about my digimon. That's my best quality. I care about all of my friends."

His digivices started glowing with white light, and his two digivices turned a light blue. I scoffed. So he _finally_ learned his crest, did he? It took him long enough.

"**Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!**"

"**Garurumon digivolve to… WereGarurumon!**"

"Congratulations!" Hikari called with a big smile. She should have been sending that smile in my direction…no. She loved me more than him, she just felt that he needed the accolades, because he had such low self-worth. He called himself an asshole for goodness sake.

WereGarurumon rushed at Lucemon, preparing for a Garuru Kick, but Lucemon threw him up in the air and gave him the same Paradise Lost Punch that Veemon got. He took it a bit more gracefully than Veemon did, however, and immediately jumped in for a Wolf Claw, cutting at one of Lucemon's wings, making him lose a bunch of his feathers. Lucemon shrieked a sort of terrifying scream and went to obliterate him with that Ultimate Sacrifice technique, but Ophanimon saved him. She let out a great "Eden's Javelin!" and radiated a beam of purifying light from the tip of her javelin. Lucemon laughed as he dodged it, and sent a Deadly Roll her way. She almost got out of the way, but it caught on one of her feet, and she let out a pained scream. MetalGreymon didn't seem to like the sound much—even though she wasn't that well trained compared to me, and it seemed inevitable—and let loose a "Giga Blaster!" and sent one of his organic missiles from the hatch on his chest at Lucemon. Lucemon kicked it away and it landed in the sand box with a loud explosion, making sand rain down everywhere.

"Hey, guys," I called.

"What?" the two of them asked. Couldn't they see that the only one that could handle Lucemon was me? They were all being played like a fiddle.

"Oh, nothing," I said. "The attention was just off of me for too long, I thought you needed a reminder of who was the best."

"Shut the hell up, Motomiya!" Hideto growled at me. "I get it. Pride is affecting you like nobody's business, but that doesn't give you the right to put other people down. No. I might not be the best, like you claim you are, but what I am…it's _worth_ something, you know?"

"No, I don't know," I commented, but apparently it didn't matter if I knew what he was talking about, because his digivices seemed to understand. Each of the two shot a beam of light blue light at his two ultimate level digimon, and they lit up like Christmas trees.

"**MetalGreymon digivolve to… WarGreymon!**"

"**WereGarurumon digivolve to… MetalGarurumon!**"

"You know," Hideto said. "I think I've got the hang of this crest stuff. WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, it's time to fuse!"

"Right," MetalGarurumon said.

"On it," WarGreymon called.

Hideto made a big show about it too. He had his two digivices embedded in those ridiculous gloves of his. They were fingerless and had giant wrist bands attached—they were ugly. My gloves were always much more tasteful, not that I'd worn them since I was eleven, since gloves were so out of style these days. But his gloves weren't the point. The point was that he changed his stance, so that his feet were more than shoulder width apart, and thrust his two fists together, meeting with his digivices held, facing towards the battle in front of the centre of his chest. They made a sort of half-hearted light show—it was much more interesting when two different crest colours, purple and red for example, were there…more aesthetically pleasing and all—and his digimon were glowing…_again_.

"**WarGreymon digivolve to…**"

"**MetalGarurumon digivolve to…**"

"**Omnimon!**"

A white knight was the result of their fusion. A freaking knight in shining white armor. Yeah, he had an arm dedicated to each of the megas that he was made up of, but he was a knight, with a sword and a cape. He was actually cool. Not as cool as me, but a lot cooler than Veemon. I needed UlforceVeedramon as a partner to up my coolness factor.

"So what, you digivolved again," I told Hideto. "It's not a big deal. I've been able to digivolve for ages. Veemon and I can do it in our sleep. Veemon, show him what you've got. He isn't as special as we are."

"O-okay…" Veemon said nervously. He glowed once, digivolving to ExVeemon…but that was it. He didn't glow, he didn't digivolve. I glared at him. Was he trying to make a fool out of me—it wasn't going to happen, I was just too great.

"Come on, don't tell me you can't get any further," I complained.

"It's not _my_ fault, Daisuke," ExVeemon snapped at me. My eyes widened in shock. He'd never had to yell at me before. I was awesome; there was nothing wrong with me. But there was one time…wasn't there, when he refused to work with me… It was three years ago, I'd joined the wrong side of the fight; he wouldn't work with someone evil. No. That couldn't be right. I was awesome, I was perfection, and I was always right. "It's your job to understand your crest before I can do my part. You're the exact opposite right now! I'm surprised I made it this far, I actually thought I'd end up as _DemiVeemon_!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Something was stirring in the bottom of my stomach. Something my brain was trying to push for me to forget about. It was important, but I couldn't grasp it. My mind kept screaming that I was perfect without it.

Ophanimon screamed and we all turned to see her, lying on the ground, having been attacked brutally by Lucemon. She glowed and reverted back to Gatomon. Lucemon stepped towards us with a smirk. Omnimon raised his Grey Sword in front of himself, and tried to make himself look bigger, to keep Lucemon's attention off of us.

"I think we've played long enough," he said. "I'm growing bored."

"You're right," Omnimon growled. "We're done playing. Double Shot!" The sword's blade shot up into his arm, and the WarGreymon head became a cannon to match the MetalGarurumon head. He shot a ball of fire out of the first, followed immediately by a blast of ice. Both hit Lucemon's wings. The fire shriveled up one of his bat wings, and the ice froze an angel wing in a large chunk of ice.

"You will pay for that," Lucemon declared. He flew at Omnimon. The two were locked in a vicious battle, but they were evenly matched. We needed someone that could push our side over the edge. We needed UlforceVeedramon. But _why_ couldn't ExVeemon get to that level? I needed to understand, but he was so mad at me, and Hikari was mad at me. Even Hideto was mad at me, and I barely knew the guy.

"Daisuke," ExVeemon told me. "We could have won if it wasn't for—no. It doesn't even matter. You won't listen to me anyway. You won't hear a word I say. We need the real Daisuke. He's a hundred times better than you are. _He_ would be able to win this, no problem."

I wanted to scream at him, demand he take that back. I was perfection, the little voice inside my head told me as such. But what if he was right? What if I used to be way better than I am now? The voice declared he was lying, but that twisting in my stomach said otherwise.

Who was I supposed to listen to? My digimon partner? That voice? My own gut instincts? It was two against one I supposed. My gut and ExVeemon were screaming the same thing; the voice just didn't want me to listen. But _why_? Hikari told me I was supposed to be humble. But why should I be, when everyone knows that I'm the best?

"Deadly Roll!" Lucemon shouted, throwing his ball of evil at Omnimon. Omnimon used his Grey Sword to deflect it, before rushing at him with a "Transcendent Sword!"

Time was running out. I had to figure this out. I was awesome, why was it taking me so long? I screamed out in frustration, surprising Hikari and Hideto. ExVeemon was still glaring at me, and it was putting me on edge. Why was I being so stupid? I should know already! How had I gotten Veemon to digivolve in the past? I…How _had_ I done it? The voice in my head was telling me that I didn't do anything differently, but I must've. Hikari said humble… Humility! I showed humility and Veemon digivolved to ultimate, and then again later to mega. I had to be humble…

Lucemon.

I was under his influence. Hikari had been telling me that all along. I'd been warned so many times not to let it get to me, that I was strong enough to push past it. But that was just feeding Lucemon's control. Telling me that I was better than that, I let it get to me. I let everything get to me. I wasn't strong enough. I was weak. I needed help.

"Hikari," I said. "Hikari, I need you to slap me if I get out of hand."

"I did," she said flatly.

"Do it again," I ordered. "Until I don't need it anymore. I can't do it alone. I need you to keep him out of my mind."

"I—" she started angrily, but then she stopped and flashed me a grin. "You've got it, Daisuke! You figured it out."

"No, I didn't," I told her. It was ExVeemon really, and her. I wouldn't have even thought about it if they hadn't yelled at me. I would've gone on thinking that I was the best. But I couldn't be the best. Not if I didn't see something as obvious as this.

"Let's give it another try, okay Daisuke?" ExVeemon suggested. I grabbed my digivice warily. I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. I knew that, but was that enough? Apparently it was, because my digivice turned that silly peachy, pink colour and shot a beam of white light at ExVeemon, before exploding in a pink light show.

"**ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!**"

"**AeroVeedramon digivolve to… UlforceVeedramon!**"

"Yes!" I screamed. He was the coolest digimon ever. And with Omnimon at his side, Lucemon didn't stand a chance. Both my gleaming, blue knight and Hideto's white knight were standing with their swords drawn, side by side. Lucemon was glaring at me, furious, and I almost wanted to brag to him how I was able to get out of his hold, since I was so great, but seeing UlforceVeedramon's footing falter—and having Hikari notice instantly and slap me hard across the face—kept me from doing so. We were down to the final wire, and I had to keep him out of my mind just long enough to finish it.

With Lucemon finally fully distracted, Hikari was able to sneak over and collect the injured Gatomon, and I praised her efforts, trying to make up for some of the pretty harsh things I'd thought about her in my mind. Like how much weaker she was than me… _Stop_! I reminded myself just in time. I didn't have time for this. I had to support UlforceVeedramon and Omnimon in their battle. I wasn't the star of this rodeo, _they_ were.

Lucemon was starting to act wildly. He was getting desperate, and rather than take the time to contemplate a decent strategy, he was just going to try and overpower our digimon. Didn't he see that he was outmatched? I guessed not, since I was totally willing to take him on without a digimon partner involved just two minutes before then. He was just as arrogant as I was, he just hid it better. And he was going to lose because of it. I would have. I had been putting my friends and partner in trouble because of that arrogance. And I was still fighting it. UlforceVeedramon was probably holding onto his mega level by a thread as I continued to battle Lucemon's influence. But, I thought I might be able to hold on long enough for him and Omnimon to defeat the digimon of pride.

I hoped so anyway.

"Fight!" Hideto shouted.

"You can do it!" Hikari added. I silently agreed, though I didn't trust myself to talk. I'd probably go off on a tangent and ruin everything. It was better to try and turn off my thoughts and watch the battle mindlessly.

"Ultimate Sacrifice!" Lucemon screamed, throwing the attack randomly, and missing both of the digimon. Unfortunately, he got Hikari and Gatomon caught in that box of his. My heart started racing. We'd just gotten a time limit. We had to win before the attack was completed.

"Hurry," Gatomon pleaded as Hikari tried to stay calm.

"You heard the lady," Hideto said nervously. Omnimon and UlforceVeedramon jumped into action, both bringing their swords down to slash at Lucemon. Cries of "Transcendent Sword!" and "Ulforce Saber!" were heard as they took their blades and tore Lucemon's wings and left arm to shreds. He shrieked in pain, but the attack wasn't stopping, so I didn't have time to wince at the sight in front of me. I looked to Hikari and her eyes were wide and she looked to be praying for a miracle. Where was Willis when you needed him?

The only plus to Hikari being trapped in Lucemon's attack, was that he was completely open to Omnimon and UlforceVeedramon's attacks, since he was otherwise occupied. "Dragon Impulse X!" UlforceVeedramon called out, lighting himself on fire with the aura of a dragon in preparation for his final blow. Omnimon was readying his cannon, and let out a loud "Supreme Cannon!" He fired a quick—but large—shot of absolute zero at Lucemon who was instantly frozen, leaving UlforceVeedramon's attack to land a direct hit. He shot forward and shattered Lucemon's frozen body to pieces that instantly dissolved into data.

The cube around Hikari thankfully dissipated, letting her fall to the ground in relieved tears, and Hideto rushed to her side immediately. UlforceVeedramon and Omnimon reverted to their rookie forms and started cheering together. And I felt the voice that had been in my head, feeding my arrogance finally leave me.

"Are you okay?" Hideto asked Hikari.

"Fine now," she said, though her voice was still shaky. "Thanks to Daisuke."

"Not me," I said. "I would've gotten you killed. It's the digimon."

"I'm so glad you're back, Daisuke," she said with a watery smile—she still had tears running down her cheeks, though I wasn't sure if these ones were from her fear or her happiness. "You saved yourself."

That struck a chord with me. "I have to call Sora."

"What? Why?" she and Hideto wanted to know.

"She was going to save Takeru and Iori," I said. "I have to apologize, and see how that went."

"What!" Hikari shrieked. "Why didn't anybody _tell me_ they were in trouble? I should've known. I should've been there helping. Takeru's my best friend, and Iori saved my life. I have to repay him somehow. We shouldn't be keeping so many secrets."

"If you had been there, you wouldn't have been here to save me, Hikari," I told her. "And they'll be fine. I think. No. I _know_. Sora's probably gotten some sort of a team together. I have to get back home though…I think I left Patamon in charge of Norn…that just spells out disaster."

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

Marrow was advancing on me. The guy had just exploded into a giant, skeletal dog, and he was taking advantage of my shock. He wasn't giving me any time to get used to the idea, he was just going to try and kill me. I said _try_ for a reason. WarGreymon flew at him with his claws extended, shouting "Mega Claw!" My orange, dinosaur warrior slashed at Marrow's face with his Dramon Killer gauntlets, thankfully drawing Marrow's attention away from me. I had tripped backwards onto the hard ground and had to scramble to my feet in order to run away from the fighting zone. WarGreymon worked better when I wasn't within range.

I didn't know why I was so surprised. I spent so much time trying to convince the council that he was evil; I should have seen it coming. Okay, so a man exploding into a twenty foot tall demon dog monster wasn't an everyday sight, and I didn't want to know how he managed to pull that disguise off, but it shouldn't have seemed so unexpected.

"I've been waiting for a chance to slaughter you since you joined the council, Taichi Yagami," Marrow growled, saying my name as if it were disgusting. "You were a hindrance to the Death Knight's plan from the start, and I relish the thought of being rid of you forever."

"You do realize just how few Death Knights are left, right?" I called to him. If the glare he sent my way was any indication, it was a pretty stupid thing to bring up, but come on! The Digital World was practically restored. He was standing on the ground, knocking trees and bushes out of the way. His pale blue bones were gleaming in the moonlight, and stood in stark contrast to the dark night sky. What was missing? Fire maybe…I didn't know what else, but it was almost all there. He couldn't be foolish enough to possibly believe he still had a chance of tearing down the Digital World.

Apparently, he was, because he lifted one of his large, bony feet, shouted "Grave Bone!" and proceeded to try and crush me with it. WarGreymon flew down at me and covered me just as Marrow started laughing about my easy defeat. WarGreymon laid over me as a protective shield, asking me if I was hurt in a panicked and breathy voice. I assured him I was fine, and he started pushing upwards against Marrow's foot. Marrow's wicked laugh cut off immediately and he roared angrily.

"Taichi, go," WarGreymon gasped, as he struggled to keep the foot off the ground. Marrow was pushing down again, with more effort this time. I crawled out from under him and Catherine immediately ran to my side, pulling me to my feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine," I said impatiently. It wasn't her I was mad at, but until WarGreymon managed to pull himself out from under Marrow, I wasn't going to be in the best mood. Marrow didn't seem to notice I was free yet. His eyes were closed as he pushed more effort into it, only for WarGreymon to continually rise to the challenge.

While Marrow was busy, I cast a quick glance at the rest of my team. Catherine was standing beside me, hurt expression on her face at my bluntness, and casting worried glances at her partner, Kiwimon—a brown, wingless, flightless bird with long purple legs and a silver helmet of sorts. I followed her line of sight and was pleased to see that Kiwimon had paired up with some of our members, Coredramon—a champion level, large, blue dragon partner—making an excellent tag team, speeding up their victories exponentially. Coredramon would attack using his Blue Flare Breath, opening up the opponent's digicore for easy access, and then Kiwimon rushed in and used Nose Mattock, which was an attack that involved stabbing that digicore with her long, needle-like beak. Coredramon's partner, Neo was standing not too far from me, but far enough that I couldn't hear what he and Sora were saying to one another, though if the way he was holding one of her hands, and wrapping his free arm around her shoulders as she worriedly watched her own digimon's fight was any indication, I figured they'd decided in the heat of the battle to give their relationship another try.

That stuff happened more often than I thought it would. I figured it had to do with the idea that we might never make it out of any given battle, and so all sorts of 'what ifs' come rushing to the forefront of our minds. It was the reason I ran after Rei. I didn't want her to die, and I especially didn't want to lose the chance to be with her, and be happy together. Granted Sora and Neo had had their ups and downs—mostly downs these days—but I kind of figured they were headed towards this development regardless, so it didn't bother me. If she'd started dating him again immediately following his attempts on our lives, then I wouldn't have spoken to her out of protest, but I couldn't stop her now. Not when he was working so hard to win back not only her trust, but the rest of ours as well.

Not that I really had time to contemplate such things.

"Mega Claw!" WarGreymon shouted, causing me to stop my overview on our progress. I turned just in time to see that he'd imbedded his clawed Dramon Killer gauntlets into—and through—Marrow's foot. Unfortunately for WarGreymon, Marrow just started laughing. The claws had missed his bones, striking through the blackness between his bones instead. The darkness wasn't solid like I'd originally thought. "What _are_ you?" WarGreymon asked in exasperation.

"I'm a SkullBaluchimon, and you're going to have to try a lot harder than that, if you intend to beat me," Marrow said smugly.

I was stuck by a realization then—even though it _so_ wasn't the time—that he was actually really clever to give a name to himself. Everyone would know him as Marrow the SkullBaluchimon not just SkullBaluchimon. More digimon really ought to try that. Especially for villages full of the same digimon, like Koromon. It would be so much easier to locate the correct one if you could ask were Akiko or Pinky was, rather than asking for Koromon. I mean there were like thirty of them there, and they'd all answer you, because they all go by Koromon…

Seriously wasn't the time for that. I forced my brain to ignore the digmon name problem and focus on watching as WarGreymon rolled out of Marrow's reach, just barely dodging another crushing attempt. I wondered if that would be our advantage…that Marrow didn't have attacks that were useful in a quick fight, other than his stomping Grave Bone attack.

"Mega Claw!" WarGreymon called again, this time aiming for Marrow's skull, and barely denting the surface. The bones were too hard for even his gauntlets to slice… this wasn't good. It was worse news, when I saw that another wave of digimon started rushing out of the doorway Mimi and Yamato had ridden MetalGarurumon into. I hoped they were alright, but worried more about the battle at hand. There were already so many digimon out here being fought. How were they going to be able to handle more? Our digimon were strong enough to do it, I was sure of that. But it wasn't them I was worried about. Catherine, Koushiro, Sora, Neo…they were all sitting ducks. Their digimon couldn't watch them and fight at the same time. Not with this many—now more. How many digimon did the Death Knights convince to fight for their cause? It seemed so surreal.

"Not so fast, buster!" Rosemon shouted. I turned to watch her snap her free whip out at a Sangloupmon that was sneaking up behind Koushiro. Her other whip was still wrapped around the neck of a Reptilemon, who she was using to fight off more of her pursuers. Unfortunately, she didn't notice the Ryudamon that jumped on her from behind with a loud "Katana Attack!" He fired a blade from his mouth and it hit her directly between her shoulders blade. This was what I was worried about. We needed to stand together, so we could watch each others' backs—either that or continually move so they couldn't actually target us…. Rosemon screamed and let go of the Reptilemon and Sangloupmon, crashing hard into the ground.

"Rosemon!" Koushiro shouted with wide eyes. Mimi was totally going to kill him if she wasn't okay.

"Mystic Break!" Eaglemon swooped in, shooting a white ray at the Reptilemon, Sangloupmon and Ryudamon, reducing them to data in seconds, before continuing on his way to head off the new additions to the X-Antibody army.

I should've called Hikari and Willis before heading to the meeting. I hadn't wanted to waste any time, but I really needed to work on planning. We could have had three other digimon to help us. Daisuke might've even been helpful—if he wasn't being too arrogant today, anyway.

Rosemon got back up, and was roaring mad. She threw her hand up in the air and called Forbidden Temptation, which caused a storm of rose petals to swirl angrily around the nearest cluster of four enemies. They were destroyed instantly, and she started running towards some new targets. Coredramon and Kiwimon were being bogged down by enemies, barely keeping up. Kiwimon was hit and fell to the ground, struggling to get back up despite the pain. Coredramon started tackling the digimon to keep them away from her while she tried to recover. Eaglemon wasn't keeping up as well anymore, clearly growing tired from holding his digivolution for so long. He split into TyrantKabuterimon and Phoenixmon after growing impatient, so they could cover more ground.

"Need a hand?"

I turned to see Centarumon galloping to my side, his mechanical hand raised as he shot his Solar Ray time and time again.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. It wasn't that I wasn't glad to see him—because believe me, I was—but I didn't know why he was so far from the council, especially since he missed my emergency meeting.

"I've brought some reinforcements," he declared. I saw what he meant immediately, as Goblimon launched himself over my head, and bashed a TobuCatmon in the head with his wooden club. Wizardmon—who'd been missing from Knight training lately—ran in after him, summoning thunder clouds and lighting with his Electro Squall. Yamato's dad was there too, coming in after the three digimon, leading Iori's mom and Natsuni into the fray.

"It's dangerous here," I told them, horrified that they would come to join _this_ battle. It wasn't just one or two digimon like the stories our mothers told of their adventures. There were loads of them. And they didn't have too much experience.

"We know, Taichi," Yamato's dad told me.

"We saw the fight, and the digimon," Iori's mom said. "We rushed right over."

"We figured you could use some help," Natsuni told me with a shrug. "And we were right."

"Be careful," I told them. I wouldn't be able to convince them to leave, and we needed their help, so I gave in, and sent them to it. I had to help WarGreymon now in his fight against Marrow. I didn't even have time to be glad that they were all still alive and accounted for. "WarGreymon, any luck?"

"Not yet," he said, panting from his efforts. "I can't figure out a weak spot."

"I'm working on it," I told him. He nodded and threw himself at Marrow again, who tried to snap at him with his teeth, but WarGreymon was too fast for him. Marrow's strengths seemed to lie in the fact that he was nearly impenetrable. He didn't have useful attacks, just a tough shell. And the darkness holding his bones together wasn't tangible… Come on Taichi, _think_! Nothing was coming to mind, at least nothing useful. I decided it would be best to distract him and hopefully get an answer to a question that had been bugging me. "Where's _your_ backup, Marrow? Where's Erif hiding? Did your sidekick chicken out?"

His eyes grew confused and he cast a quick glance around the battle and came up just as I did, empty. Where was Erif? The reality of the situation sunk in for me right then. Erif wasn't just a bumbling sidekick, he had to have a secret agenda. I couldn't for the life of me guess at what horrendous activities he might be up to at that very moment. I'd only seen him as a fool for so long, I couldn't imagine him with a brain that was not only functioning, but clever.

Did he even _come_ here? He had the Digimentals. He _had_ to have come here. We didn't have time to go and hunt him down with them. If he brought them to Earth—and we'd already established that thanks to the door in the Temple, it was a very real possibility—the worlds wouldn't stay parallel and would fuse again. My head was starting to hurt. I was trying to focus on too many things at once.

Damn.

My distraction was working better on myself than it was on Marrow, who'd already positioned himself to use his Grave Bone, stomping attack on me again. I was going to run—really I was—but I was grabbed from behind and pulled out of the way before I could.

"Careful, Taichi," MetalGarurumon said in his gruff voice. What was he doing here? Did that mean…yes! Yamato and Mimi rushed out of the doorway closely followed by Takeru with Iori trailing behind them at a considerable distance. I sent MetalGarurumon out to help the others, who were finally catching up with the armies numbers. Rosemon was working with Wizardmon, while Goblimon, Centarumon and Coredramon were fighting side by side. I panicked for a second before I saw that Catherine was cradling an injured—but not dead—Floramon in her arms. Phoenixmon and TyrantKabuterimon were working diligently, and MetalGarurumon had joined them.

The battle was turning around.

"Good to see you, Takeru, Iori," I said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders. Iori shrugged me off agitatedly, and I backed away. Someone was in a growly mood. "You're dad's here, Yamato." Takeru and Yamato's eyes shot up immediately, and they smiled when they saw him. They seemed to forget there was a battle going on around them as they rushed over to him. They didn't hug or anything, but it was still a nice little reunion. "Iori…"

"What?" he snapped, and then winced at his harsh tone. The kid was still struggling with wrath. I had to remind myself that before I snapped back at him.

"Your mom is here too," I told him. He looked up, hopeful and noticed her standing next to Yamato's dad. He also seemed to catch sight of his friend Natsuni—who was in a hilarious getup of torn up clothes. He hesitated before slowly going over to join them. He at least, seemed aware of his surroundings, and was able to get out of the way of a stray attack that almost hit him. His mother buried him in a hug the second she caught sight of him, and Natsuni patted his back awkwardly as she looked at his mother nervously. She decided to just go cheer Goblimon on instead. She'd have time for a real reunion later.

"Taichi," WarGreymonn called. "I think…I think I can do it."

"Then what are you waiting for?" I asked. He nodded, preparing himself.

"Taichi," Mimi said from my side. I'd forgotten she was there at all. "Erif was the one that locked them up. He's the guy that has the Digimentals, right? Takeru didn't say that he left with an armful of Digimentals, so they should still be here. We should look for them soon."

"We'll find them after we win the fight," I assured her.

"Great Tornado!" WarGreymon shouted, spinning himself around until the wind created a cyclone around him. He angled the tornado and flew at Marrow. Typically, the tornado was enough for him to break right through to the other side of the digimon. I doubted he'd make it through Marrow's shell though, and wondered what his plan was. He squeezed through the space between Marrow's bones and stopped while inside of Marrow. I laughed as it finally clicked in. He was going to fight from the inside out. Marrow couldn't stop him this way.

"Terra Force!" WarGreymon's muffled cry came. At first I saw nothing, and absolutely nothing happened. Marrow was even laughing, amused by WarGreymon's attempt, but then something changed. In the pure darkness between Marrow's bones came a spark of light that soon grew into a large reddish orange ball of fiery energy. It was WarGreymon's attack! It kept growing and growing until it was pressing against the inside of Marrow's ribcage. Marrow let out a yelp, and then a scream before he exploded. This time though, instead of simply shedding his human disguise, he became a shower of data, leaving behind only the orb necklace he'd always worn. WarGreymon fell to the ground and landed—not gracefully exactly—on his feet, and kicked the orb towards me. I picked it up and weighed it in my hands. It was cold to the touch.

I decided to take Mimi over to Sora, Neo and Catherine, while WarGreymon joined the other digimon with the battle against the army. Koushiro soon joined us, and Yamato, Takeru and the others followed soon after.

"Hey, Neo," I said. "Catch." I tossed the orb at him and he had to let go of Sora to actually catch it. Sora looked embarrassed to have realized he'd even been holding her the whole time. I'd tease her about that later. We still weren't done here.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A part of the Digital World, trapped," I told him. "Break it to set it free. You'll really have joined the team when you've helped save the Digital World, rather than destroy it."

He shrugged his shoulders and threw the orb down to the ground at his feet. It cracked, and then the crack grew bigger as light burst from it, released an icy cold wind as it left the orb to join the Digital World once again. Ice then, I realized.

"Two more," Koushiro commented.

"One," Yamato's dad corrected. "We beat the thunder dragon just before we came here."

"Good," Sora said happily.

"Right, well, Yamato," I said. "You're in charge here for now. Mimi's going to bring me into the base to see if we can hunt down the Digimentals. Takeru, Koushiro, you're with us." Mimi led our group into the base, and I took one last look at the battle. We had almost won. No casualties this time, which was a plus. Better than a plus, it was fantastic. Just the Digimentals were left to get, and then I could go home and sleep for a week.

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

Armadillomon was right. He did know the castle. I didn't know why I couldn't bring myself to believe him. It might've had to do with the fact that Iori had never been to the Dark Ocean in his entire life, so logically thinking, I should've assumed that the same was true for Armadillomon. I didn't want to waste time asking him for clarification though. My wife was in danger, and we were still on the wrong side of these very thick, very heavy wooden doors.

"What's the plan?" Hawkmon asked nervously. I could tell he wanted to just barge in there and get to Miyako the same as I did.

"We don't have one," Kurayami sighed. "I think digivolving would be a good idea right now, though, Wormmon."

"Right," Labramon said with a grin, only for Kurayami to glare at him for his attempt. He recoiled like a wounded puppy. "I just want to help."

"You can't," she snapped.

I decided to ignore her. I didn't have time to listen to someone that wasn't willing to participate. I should have just asked Hikari to come instead. At least Hikari was a trained fighter that wasn't afraid of letting her digimon digivolve. _She_ knew that a digivolved digimon had a better chance of surviving a battle against a foe. Kurayami however was still insisting on keeping Labramon just that…Labramon. The poor guy was in for the fight of his life too, since he was just a small rookie. Maybe the sight of her precious partner struggling to survive on the battle field was the push she needed to just let him digivolve… I didn't like that though. There was still a chance she'd continue to refuse, and Labramon wasn't going to follow her instructions forever. He wanted to help Miyako, and he was sick of waiting on the sidelines. He wasn't going to be fighting with a clear head either. He was going to be trying to prove himself to Kurayami. If he slipped up, even just a tiny bit, he'd been scooped.

"Ken?" Wormmon questioned, waiting for me to prepare my digivice.

"Right, sorry," I said and pulled my digivice out of my jacket pocket, holding it firmly in my hand. It started glowing immediately, and Wormmon changed into Stingmon, then into JewelBeemon and finally into the new and amazing GrandisKuwagamon. "Be on your guard."

"We will," GrandisKuwagamon said.

"Don't worry about us," Armadillomon ordered. "Worry about keeping yourselves safe."

"Iori would never forgive us if we let anything happen to you, Armadillomon," I informed him.

"He'd have to," he said cheekily. "It's his crest. And he knows that's what I'd want."

"Stop it," Kurayami said. "I don't want to hear it. You aren't going to die. You can't."

"It's a very real possibility," Hawkmon told her. "Unless Miyako is in the frame of mind—or at the very least conscious—I can't digivolve, and Iori isn't here. Rookies don't stand a chance."

I nearly commended him for subtly scolding her about her harsh orders for Labramon, but Kurayami didn't seem to notice, so it was a bit disappointing. Labramon scowled, and stepped lightly towards the door, pressing his ear to it.

"They're starting…" he said.

"But what are they starting?" I wanted to know. He didn't have an answer for me. We needed to know what we were getting into though, so I managed to pull the door open just a fraction. We all piled on top of each other so we could get a glimpse of the room. It was a large—freakishly large, probably because Dragomon had been so big—stone chamber that was set up in such a way that I immediately though it was a throne room. The only light was cast by large fires lit in pits in the floor, which also lent some heat to the room that would've otherwise been freezing. There were also torches places at various locations on the walls for overhead lighting. It was all very medieval. There was a large, stone altar in the centre of the room, and sitting upon it in a heap was my wife. Her violet hair shone in the low lighting, and she looked very pale—thought that might've in part been because of the black gown with lace sleeves that was covering her body, drawing the colour out of her skin. Her hands were covering her face, so I wasn't able to see her eyes, but if the loud sobbing was any indication, she was crying her eyes out. Not that I could blame her, with her present company. She was surrounded by at least a hundred shadow creatures, all looking upon her in interest. But the worst part, was that at the head of the room, perched on Dragomon's throne was the worst being possible. It was the very digimon who had been chasing me and trying to destroy me for ten years. Daemon. His red and white robes were unmistakable with their inscribed markings down the front. The golden talisman was still around his neck, and that black hood still hid his face. He had purple wings branching out from black limbs and large, curving horns out the top of his head.

I hated him. More than I had ever hated anyone before. How _dare_ he steal my wife? He wanted _me_. He should have gone after me. Had he been the one orchestrating her nightly attacks? Was he the one that ordered whichever shadow it was to come and tear her arms apart, slowly causing her to lose her mind in fear? He had to have done it. He wouldn't have been here otherwise.

"Hush," Labramon ordered me. I hadn't realized I'd been growling. I was furious. Why was I so furious? I _knew_ what I had to be furious about, but I usually kept a fairly calm head in preparation for a battle, and there was sure going to be one. Love does weird things to a person, I supposed. Miyako was in there and I wanted her with me, and I was going to do anything that it took to get to her.

"Welcome," Daemon said. His voice drew my attention immediately. So much hinged on what he said. We didn't have a plan, but I knew without a doubt that when he finished speaking, we would attack. We were out of time. We were going to have to wing it. "We have a guest of honour tonight, the wife of Ken Ichijouji! But what to do with her…what to do…"

"We could use her to further our race!" one shadow suggested. Miyako let out a loud, scared wail at the suggestion. It was all I could do to keep myself from running out there and obliterating him. He wouldn't lay a hand on her.

"No," Daemon snapped. "That is a lost cause. You've tried and failed so many times. I've waited too long for this moment, to _finally_ be able to destroy Ken Ichijouji, to waste this opportunity in such a pointless way. I was thinking more of how to…_kill_ her."

Miyako's sobbing had turned hysterical, and I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I slammed the door open in a rush of strength I didn't think was possible—I blame adrenaline—and stormed into the room. GrandisKuwagamon rushed after me, glaring at the shadows, just daring them to try and attack me so that he could destroy them. "You won't be doing anything with Miyako!" I declared.

"Ah, Ken," Daemon said with sadistic pleasure. "You've arrived, just as expected. I must say I'm a bit disappointed you didn't wait another minute, I would have thoroughly enjoyed killing the young lady, but no matter. There'll be time enough for that once I've rid myself of you. Perhaps I'll even let you watch as I kill her."

"Grandis Scissors!" GrandisKuwagamon shouted, launching himself at Daemon and crossing his arms at his elbows. He then slashed at Daemon, as he uncrossed them, the two slashes cutting in a straight line like scissors. Daemon's robes fell away, having been shred to pieces. And Daemon just stood there laughing the whole time. He reached up with the purple hand on his right arm, which was decked out with bright red claws, and tore his mask off of his head. His face was as hideous as it was terrifying. He had a feral smile, showing off his many pointed teeth, his curved horns stood out in stark contrast with his black spiked hair and furry body that was such a dark red that it looked almost black. His right arm was completely covered in the fur, while his left was only furry until his elbow before it branched off into a long, vein covered, purple arm with the same red claws on his fingertips. His pecks were also furless, and coated with demonic markings. His left shoulder had a gold star outline tattooed into his skin, and his feet were large and purple with red claws as well. His wings were freer now, stretching out beside him, with large red spikes along their black framework. The purple wings were tattered looking.

"Are you really prepared to fight against me, Ken Ichijouji," he asked tauntingly. "Or will you give up like a nice little child."

"GrandisKuwagamon, attack!" I shouted, sending a glare at Daemon.

"Gran Killer!" GrandisKuwagamon shouted, trying to impale Daemon with his Gran Killer gauntlets. Daemon jumped into the air above him.

"Don't just stand there," he commanded to the shadows. "Obliterate them. But remember, Ichijouji is mine!"

The shadows swarmed GrandisKuwagamon, and though he was putting up a brilliant fight, he wasn't able to get any of his attacks to land on their intended target: Daemon. He couldn't do this alone, there were far too many shadows, and he was the best chance we had of not only saving Miyako, but getting out of here alive.

"He needs help," Hawkmon shouted.

"Then let's give him the help we can," Armadillomon said. He rolled himself into a ball and rushed at the nearest group of shadows, knocking them down like bowling pins with a loud shout of "Diamond Shell!"

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon called, taking his feather off of his head and throwing it towards the shadows. It spun injuring six of them before it completed its journey until it was back in Hawkmon's hands. The only downside to either of their attacks, was that the shadows were just temporarily distracted. They weren't defeated.

"Kurayami," Labramon pleaded. "I need to help!"

"No," she shouted. "You can't. You can't digivolve and you can't fight."

I sent her a dirty look and then ran into the fray. If Kurayami wasn't going to let Labramon fight, then I was going to have to try and make up the slack. I wasn't going to be able to protect her though. If she wanted protection, she had a very eager digimon partner to take up the job. I had a battle to win, even if I had to use my own two fists.

"You're wrong!" I heard Labramon scream at Kurayami. "I'm a digimon, and I'm going to fight whether you want me to or not!"

"Please just stay here," Kurayami pleaded, but it was too late. Labramon was running through the shadows, and lit up in a glowing light.

"**Labramon digivolve to… Seasarmon!**"

A champion was way better than just my fists. I was proud of Labramon too, for standing up to Kurayami. I got that she was scared, probably not only of losing her digimon. I was sure she was terrified of her crest as well, but enough was enough for Labramon—or should I say Seasarmon? Seasarmon was a strong looking digimon with a loud snarl. He looked like a cross between a fierce dog and a noble lion. There was a literal gold, spiked mane around his neck, gloves on each of his four paws that were made up of what I was sure were clouds, and his tail was fluffy, and as big as his body was. He had a horn like a unicorn's on his forehead resting above his busy eyebrows.

"Tee Dia!" he shouted, firing countless arrows of pure sunlight at the shadows that were getting the better of GrandisKuwagamon. They dissipated immediately thanks to the sunlight, and GrandisKuwagamon took advantage of his new freedom in his movements by slashing at Daemon's face, cutting off the tip of one of his horns. Daemon growled angrily and slashed back at him with his own claws.

I got distracted from watching the battle by Miyako's scream. A shadow was attacking her—probably taking advantage of Daemon's fighting to abduct her for the shadows' own needs. I sprinted towards her and tackled the shadow off of her. It punched at my head, and hit me directly in the jaw. I fell back on the ground, and the shadow came crawling towards me.

"Evil Inferno!" Daemon shouted, shooting a high-temperature hellfire at the shadow, burning it out of existence. "I warned you, Ichijouji is mine!"

"Claw Chopping!" Armadillomon called, striking his opponent with the elongated claws on his forelegs, while Hawkmon attacked his with a series of pecks at high speed, like a woodpecker with his own "Beak Pecker!"

"Tee Dia!" Seasarmon growled, shooting more sunlit arrows towards the shadows, this time to a group that was encroaching on Kurayami.

"Please stop fighting," she pleaded, crying now. "You can't. You _can't_."

"I'm not evil," Seasarmon informed her. "If that's what you're worried about. Darkness isn't evil. Accept that Kurayami. We need you to accept that."

"I can't," she cried. "It's evil, _I_ am evil!"

"You have a choice to make," Seasarmon said. "Either you accept your crest and let me fight, or you let your friends die."

"There _has_ to be another way," she said.

"There isn't," he told her, though it sounded harsher than it was thanks to his growling voice.

"But, but," she stammered. "How do I know I won't make you evil? How do I know that Ken and Miyako and the others won't have to destroy you?"

"Because your crest isn't bad," he said. "You have to find the balance between your fear and your potential. You told me that Gennai said your crest was about balance, and that Hikari was sure it was about coming to terms with your emotions. Balance your fear and your courage, your light and the darkness inside you. Be content with yourself!"

"I-I," Kurayami stuttered, but I could see she was trying. Seasarmon's ultimatum was the wakeup call she needed, and it was just in time. GrandisKuwagamon was being bogged down by shadows again, though I _did_ see a few of them sneaking out of the chamber, escaping from Seasarmon's arrows of pure light.

I had more pressing things to do than watch as she struggled with the balance that was her crest, my wife was still sobbing three feet away from me. I pulled her into my arms, and glared at the shadows that wanted to take her. None of them would dare attempt to hurt me, not after Daemon's demonstration.

"Fighting doesn't make us bad," Kurayami decided. "Not if we're fighting _against_ the darkness and beating the bad guys."

"Exactly," Seasarmon said happily Kurayami's digivice turned black and let out a burst of white light that hit him and he started to digivolve once again.

"**Seasarmon digivolve to… Cerberumon!**"

Kurayami let out a scared gasp. I could see why. With his sleek, formfitting black armor over his dark brown fir, he looked like a big, black demon dog. He had two extra faces coming out of his shoulder blades, and a set of large, metal claws that stuck out of the armor on each of his four paws in addition to his own natural claws. His long tail looked like it could take down an enemy with only a small flick and his teeth were sharp and bared. He looked like that three headed dog that guarded the underworld, Cerberus. He was a hellhound, a creature usually associated with demons and darkness.

"I'm still not evil," he informed her, easing her mind. I was actually proud of her. Despite my initial impatience with her, she managed to pull through in the end. Cerberumon growled low, and then launched himself into the crowd of shadows, spewing a red, hot jet of flames out, letting it abolish any shadow it touched. He announced the attack as "Emerald Blaze!"

The shadows that had been plaguing GrandisKuwagamon went to help their brethren with Cerberumon, and at last he and Daemon were on even ground for this fight. Just as GrandisKuwagamon was preparing another one of his Gran Killer attacks, Daemon cursed.

"They've defeated Lucemon," he snarled aloud, though I doubted he was actually speaking to me.

"Who's Lucemon?" I wanted to know.

"None of your concern," he snapped.

"One of your sinful digimon then," I said with a smirk. "Was it pride or wrath? They're the only two left."

"You imbecile," he growled at me. "_I_ am the digimon of wrath. I will not be defeated by the likes of you."

"That's what the rest of your team said too, and look where they are now," I taunted. Now that I had Miyako in my arms, crying into my shoulder, I felt confident enough in our chances of winning. If I could get Miyako to calm down a little, I was sure that Hawkmon would have been able to digivolve and help take care of whatever shadows Cerberumon left behind—although he seemed to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.

"Cerberumon!" Kurayami called as he faltered, his front legs buckling beneath him. "You can do it!" But I could see that he couldn't. There were just too many of them, and Hawkmon and Armadillomon weren't enough to make a difference. He needed more juice, I just had to have faith in Kurayami's abilities, and pray she could demonstrate her newly balanced emotions enough to get him the strength he needed to digivolve.

"I'm scared, Cerberumon," Kurayami cried. "But I _know_ that you can do this. We're a team, even though I haven't once acted like it. I wouldn't let you fight, but I wanted to keep you safe. I'm not going to let the fear of losing you take you out of the running anymore! I believe in you and the abilities I can help you get. Just…digivolve!"

"I believe in you too," Cerberumon told her. Her digivice burst into a black light that was almost lost among the shadows, and Cerberumon was digivolving once again! She was a quick learner, I'd have to give her that. It took me years to learn my crest well enough to get Wormmon to mega, and then even longer to convert that mega level into the GrandisKuwagamon that he was now.

"**Cerberumon digivolve to… Anubismon!**"

A giant, blue dog-human with long black hair tied in a low ponytail emerged from the bright light caused by digivolving. He had markings that looked ancient across his skin, and bright, white pants that were loose tied around his waist tightly, with a loose piece of cloth dangling down the front. He had red and gold bracelets around his wrists, a gold armlet around each arm just below the shoulder, and a bright red neckpiece resting on his bare chest. He wore gold shoes with white wings branching off of them, and had a pair of gigantic gold angel wings protruding from his back. There was something subtly scary about him, but he wasn't evil, I could tell as much just by looking at him. He was different than Apocolymon, who Kurayami had thought was her partner for so long. He was angelic, but dangerous in a way that Angemon and Angewoman were not. Anubis was the god of the dead in Egyptian mythology after all.

"No!" Daemon snarled. "You aren't meant to be this powerful."

"If you didn't wait ten years, letting us all gain strength, and attacked me when I was just eleven like you claimed you would, you wouldn't be having this problem!" I called to him.

Anubismon raised his hands in front of him and turned his head up to the sky, calling out "Amemit!" A large, demonic beast emerged from the ground as if Anubismon had summoned him, and launched itself at each of the shadows, devouring them whole.

"It's time to end this!" I told GrandisKuwagamon with a grin. He nodded, and flew at Daemon with a loud "Grandis Scissors!"

The demonic beast continued to eat the shadows as GrandisKuwagamon slashed at Daemon, but Daemon used his "Hammer Knuckle!" technique to slam GrandisKuwagamon down to the stone floor below, and flew over to me, ripping Miyako from my arms. "It was nice doing business with you," he said with a sadistic grin before carrying her towards the door. Armadillomon tried to get to him to stop him by using his Diamond Shell attack, but he missed him by a foot.

"Not so fast!"

Jou was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, glaring at Daemon, with Mari looking frazzled but angry at his side. Gomamon digivolved into Plesiomon within seconds, and spewed a jet of cold water at Daemon, stopping him in his tracks. A Rosemon—that could only be Mari's partner—stood next to the pair, with a long, rosy pink cape covering her white cat suit, with thigh high, heeled, black boots, a white rose helmet and two black vines twirled around her arms that she used as whips. She took one of those whips and shouted "Ivy Hug!" wrapping it around Miyako and pulling her out of Daemon's grasp. He growled angrily.

"You're not getting away today," Jou told him. "Ken? Do you want the honours?"

"GrandisKuwagamon?" I questioned.

"It would be my pleasure," he said with a pleased tone and he raised his gauntlets for one last tussle. "Gran Killer!"

He flew at Daemon and it almost seemed to be in slow motion, as he imbedded his claws in Daemon's unprepared chest, and ripped right through him. We'd defeated the last of the sin digimon, and I was finally rid of the threat Daemon had posed for ten years now. Miyako and I were free. Anubismon's demon was still gleefully devouring shadows, and all that was left for us to do was to get out of the Dark Ocean, hopefully—my fingers were crossed—for the last time.

_**Jou**__** Kido**__**:**_

"Jou?" It was Momoe, her voice coming the second I'd opened the door to the apartment. I stepped in, letting Gomamon in before me, and looked to her. She was standing in a very large t-shirt, ready for bed, her hair was a mess and she looked panicked. She sighed with relief when she saw me. I never really noticed how hard it was going to be on her for this ordeal. I only thought about everyone actually involved—but Momoe, and maybe even Emiko—my brothers... maybe dad... all of them were probably worried that one of these times I just wouldn't come home. "You're back." She said with a smile. Her eyes fell on Gomamon and she grinned, "Hey Gomamon, how's life?"

"Jou's making me move in," Gomamon shrugged nonchalantly before moving across the floor.

"Well come in," Momoe smiled, making me realize I was standing in the way of the others. I stepped forward and a second later the others were coming in. Lalamon, Hawkmon, Wormmon, Armadillomon, Ken, Mari and of course, Miyako. Momoe squeaked and rushed forward, throwing her arms around her sister who was still shaking from her experience. "Miyako!" Momoe cried, "W-what happened?"

"Well..." Miyako said slowly, pulling up the sleeves of the weird lacy black dress she was wearing to reveal the deep cuts and scars on her arms. Momoe threw her hand to her mouth and gasped. "It's a long story."

"Sit down," Momoe insisted to everyone, "I'll make some hot chocolate or something, we can all relax. You all deserve it. You look so cold."

"Well the Dark Ocean isn't a happy place." Ken said quietly.

"I can't imagine so," Momoe agreed, "Nonetheless, thank you for saving her." She said to Ken, then looking to Mari and I, and the digimon, "All of you."

"Kurayami helped," Ken said with a smile.

"She's really brave." Wormmon added, "She had to face her biggest fear to do so."

"Remind me to email her." Momoe said to me, "I have to thank her—better yet, I'll do it in person—where is she?"

I shrugged, "No Idea, she just left once we got back. I didn't question it." Momoe nodded and then rushed off to the kitchen before clearing some of Emiko's toys off of the couch to clear some room. "Wait right there!" She called.

Miyako kissed Ken for a moment and then snuck off into my bedroom, likely to steal some of Momoe's clothes to finally get out of that bizarre dress. Ken dropped the pile of her old, dirty clothes into the garbage in the corner as Mari hugged Lalamon close to her chest and curled up on the couch silently. Wormmon and Hawkmon pulled some cushions off of the couch and sat on them, making themselves at home.

I slipped out of the room, and into the kitchen, hugging Momoe from behind. She turned and smiled at me before kissing me. Suddenly she froze. "Damn it Jou." She said flatly, "What's wrong?" How could she tell so easily? She knew me far too well.

"Momoe," I said quietly, "I'll be back, I promise."

"Jou, don't go." She pleaded, grabbing my sleeves.

"Momoe, I have to go see if everything in the Digital World worked out." I told her, showing her my phone which had at least thirty messages from Mimi telling me to get my butt to the Temple so we could fuse our partners. Unfortunately I'd been busy saving Gomamon, Betamon and Miyako—I couldn't be in so many places at once, but now I had to go, just to be sure.

And I certainly couldn't tell her that I was going to Fanglongmon's old hideaway—the place where she'd been captured for two days—the place we'd almost died and she'd had to give birth to our daughter.

"Jou..." She sighed, looking away. She finally looked up to me and stood on her toes, kissing me. "Go say goodbye to Emiko. I promised her you'd kiss her goodnight." Momoe said almost coldly, but I knew she was just trying not to be worried. She turned back to the kettle, boiling hot water. I kissed her head and then hurried down the hallway and into Emiko's room where she was curled up in her bed with Bearmon.

I leaned over and kissed Emiko's forehead. "Goodnight Emiko." I said quietly, to not wake her. Bearmon opened his eyes and nodded to me before relaxing again.

I smiled at him and hurried back to the living room where Miyako was wearing one of Momoe's sundresses. She was sitting with Ken and Mari, all of whom were being very quiet as Wormmon, Armadillomon and Hawkmon chatted amongst themselves.

"Gomamon," I said, motioning for him to stop checking out his new home. "Come on, we have to go. The others could be in danger." He nodded and rushed toward me as I started leading the way to the office.

"I'll come too," Ken decided.

"Don't." Miyako pleaded, grabbing Ken's chest. I understood how she felt. She didn't want him to go after having gotten back to him finally. I couldn't ask them to split up and I certainly couldn't ask Miyako to come after what she'd just been through.

"No," I said, "You all just relax. Ask Momoe to set up the couch into a bed—there are a few air mattresses too. You can all just relax here tonight. I'll be back later."

Ken nodded firmly and wrapped his arm around Miyako as she rested her head on her shoulder. Mari looked up to me and smiled, giving me a thumbs up at the same time as Lalamon—who didn't actually have a thumb, but did the action nonetheless.

And then we were going, into the Digital World.

Gomamon and I burst out of the portal at the edge of the forest by the destination point. I could already see the gaping hole in the ground where Fanglongmon used to live, but I was busy scanning my surroundings instead.

There were fallen and injured digimon everywhere I looked, but the battle itself was seemingly over. The lack of Mimi and the others frightened me though.

"There's someone!" Gomamon called out suddenly. I turned sharply to see where he was already running. It looked like Yamato's dad, and Iori's mother... and Natsuni! I was running after Gomamon before I could think about what I was doing, and I jumped over a wounded digimon before slamming my feet down and scaring them. Goblimon and Wizardmon readied their weapons as the others all screamed and spun around. "Hey!" Gomamon called defensively.

"Sorry," Wizardmon said, lowering his staff.

"What's going on?" I asked, and Mr Ishida didn't waste a second filling me in on what was going on. Mimi, Taichi, Iori, Takeru, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Neo and their partners were all searching for "some guy" who I figured had to be Erif. The battle had broken out all over and Taichi's colleague from work was destroyed in the mix.

"And Iori made me wait here." Natsuni said, rolling her eyes.

"Well he just wants to keep you safe dear," Ms Hida smiled to her. Well they were both safe. Iori hadn't even known where they'd been a few days ago, but now they were here—they hadn't just left him, they'd been in the Digital World. That was good news.

I looked around and sighed. Even if these digimon were evil—they were still here, which meant they were still alive—but none were moving, and thus they had to be badly hurt. I'd have to start mending them... I couldn't exactly let them die there, suffering.

"There's Sora," Gomamon pointed out. I looked up and saw Sora walking hand in hand with Neo, both coming from the trees—I figured they must have been looking for Erif in there—if not making the most of a life or death situation and working out their feelings for each other. Either way, I wasn't totally on board with their relationship, but it wasn't my call. "What are you doing?" Gomamon asked me.

I had already fallen to my knees next to a smaller digimon, and rolled it over, checking for the flow of its data. "I can't let them lay here to die." I told him, "I'm going to heal them."

"But they're evil digimon." Mr Ishida said flatly.

"Yes, and they're alive." I scolded him, "If they were humans you wouldn't be sitting here surrounded in their bodies, would you?" I couldn't help snapping at him, there was so much that needed to be done, and any of them could die at any moment.

"But they aren't humans." Ms Hida said, "I mean, most digimon are lovely—but these ones were trying to kill us."

"I still need to help them." I told them flatly.

"Then I'll help." Natsuni decided, "Goblimon too. What do you need us to do Doctor Jou?" I grinned at her, but before I could say anything the others were all agreeing that they'd help too.

Finally, it was Wizardmon who really stepped up to the plate. "I have an idea." He said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a necklace of a large red key. "The key to my land of spells and secrets." He said with a grin. "Witchenly."

I raised my eyebrows at him and looked slowly to Gomamon with a big smile. If that was what I thought it was... then this was our next big world. I subconsciously scolded myself for not asking around beforehand, but it didn't matter now. Wizardmon had a key. He pulled it hard, breaking the string keeping it around his neck, and he tossed it to me.

"There's so many spells in there—they'll help." He assured me. "I'll go with you. I'll cast the spell. These digimon will be fine before you know it."

I smiled at him and plunged the key into the air, turning it in an invisible door. A big redwood door appeared out of nowhere causing Ms Hida to squeak a little in fear. I turned to her and the others, "Go around and make sure these digimon are okay. I'll be back."

I turned to the door and reached for the knob, but before I could turn it, my phone vibrated. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it.

"Jou!" It was Mimi, "We found Erif—where are you?"

"You found him?" I asked, shocked, "Well—I'm busy. Tell me later."

"No, you need to get to the restaurant." She said, "We're having a meeting."

"I'm busy." I told her again, "And Miyako, Ken and Mari are with Momoe relaxing finally."

"You saved her?" Mimi gasped.

"And Gomamon." I told her, "And Betamon."

"Jou that's great—but seriously." She said, "it's important."

"Later." I told her, hanging up the phone. These digimon's lives were at risk, and _that_ was more important. I looked to Gomamon and Wizardmon and held the door open for them, letting them lead the way in.

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

I'd left the others at the library. Miyako was crying uncontrollably and moving between hugging everyone around her. Hawkmon was still on edge, making sure to watch for anything that might come to harm Miyako, Ken was smiling like a fool, happy to be done with Daemon, and happy to have Miyako back. Jou was trying desperately to let Miyako let him check her out in case something bad had happened to her, and Mari locked the Dark Ocean door as Gomamon and Lalamon stood just as awkwardly as I had been.

But it was time for me to go. And so I had. I'd helped save Miyako, and I wanted to go home now. Labramon and I had gone through a lot today. I'd finally managed to stop being so afraid of the dark. Figurative darkness—I wasn't actually scared of the dark. When I'd first learned of my crest I'd been told that it was dangerous. If one were to find a perfect balance then the crest would shine, and if not, then darkness would consume everything.

It was... well, a frightening concept. But thanks to Gennai, Hikari, and of course Labramon, I'd finally figured out how to do it... and of course I was still afraid of losing Labramon, the only thing I knew for sure wouldn't leave me ever, but I was proud of him, and I knew he was proud of me.

I looked up to the door in front of me and sighed. Slowly I knocked on it and waited. It was my father's house. He hadn't answered last time, so I hadn't expected him to open it then, but he did.

It swung open quickly and he wrapped his arms around me, pleased that I was safe. I couldn't help but be reminded of my relationship with Labramon there—except I smelled better.

"Dad..." I said slowly, "I'm ready now."

It had been going on for years. I'd wanted to know about my mother, and about her past, but it was too frightening... but with Labramon, nothing seemed nearly as frightening anymore.

Dad pulled out of the hug and looked down me before nodding calmly. He motioned for me to step inside and so I did. He led me to the kitchen as if I was on a tour, which was strange since I'd lived in that house once too.

Finally we were sitting together, ready to tell the story.

"Do... you mind if I give you some privacy?" Labramon asked, sitting next to me.

"You can play in the Living room." Dad said to him, "That ball you like is still in your toy box." Labramon lit up like a child on Christmas and was gone, bounding out of the room.

Dad turned to me, and without any prompting or questions, he started.

"Your mother chose the Darkness for you." He said as if it were a simple sentence. "She chose to let the demons watch over you and keep you safe. She chose to let them live your life and not you so that you would never know pain or sadness." I looked down, remembering the first few years of my life and all the fear that surrounded me. I'd never felt emotions until that day Jou had seen me in the woods in the Digital World. "Without pain you would be invincible, and you would never die." Dad stood up and turned to the kettle on the oven which had started whistling loudly. "Want some tea?" He asked, checking his teeth in the mirror above the sink. I nodded politely and he smiled at me before busying himself with the beverages. "As time went on though, you were getting more and more dark—she was scared of losing you and so—" His voice choked, "That night..." He said slowly, "I remember walking in on her... she was in the garage—summoning... something."

"Dad?" I asked, looking over my shoulder in fear, just to be sure I was safe. "Are you okay?" There was so much fear in his voice. "What happened?"

"She took the shadows from you Kura." He said, turning to me and handing me a cup of tea. I could see how shaky his hands were though. "She... she summoned all the darkness from you, and asked them to take her instead." I didn't know what to say, or even what to think. "And I told her to stop... I told her that I couldn't live without her... and then she—" His voice choked again. "She turned on me... with those black eyes... I can't ever get them out of my mind. She came to me—her body shaking... I... She was gone. She was no longer your mother... after she hit me, I woke up and she was gone. I'd never seen her again."

"How could someone be so susceptible to the shadows?" I asked quietly, I was trying to keep my voice strong, but it was impossible. I was scared now. I hadn't even _been_ there and I was still fairly positive that the mental image would never leave my mind. But my question still stood. Even I hadn't been taken that badly, so how could someone so kind be susceptible like that?

"She was opening up to them." He said, "To save you."

I nodded, though it still didn't really make sense. Labramon barked in surprise for a second before that boy with black hair appeared in the kitchen, standing next to my father. I checked to see if he noticed, but he didn't.

Who was this boy? Why was he always following me? I decided to ignore him.

"Why did she chose the darkness in the first place?" I asked.

"To keep you safe—I told you that." Dad said.

"But why would she be so worried about my safety?" I asked.

"Your brother." Dad said simply, "You already know that. He died the year you were born." I nodded. I suppose that made sense. "Hit by a car." Dad said before taking a quick sip from his tea.

"He's lying." The boy said flatly, looking just as confused as I was.

I nodded in agreement. "He is." I decided.

"Sorry?" Dad said quietly.

"You're lying." I said flatly. "What really happened?"

"That's what happened." He said, "He was hit by a car as your mother was crossing the road with him."

"So why wasn't she hit too?" I asked sharply. Dad suddenly balled his hand into a fist and angrily wiped everything from the table with a scream.

"Stop this!" He shouted.

"You promised to tell me everything when I was ready!" I said loudly. "Tell me!"

"No!" Dad screamed through gritted teeth, standing up and knocking his chair over.

"Get him to say it." The boy begged, "Please. I need to know."

I didn't think about why he needed to know because it didn't matter. _I_ needed to know. "Dad. Just say it."

Suddenly Dad had fallen into his chair and thrown his hands over his head, crying, "I'm so sorry!" He cried out, "I'm so... sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you—or the police—or anyone! I'm... She... I went out grocery shopping, and when I came back... he was dead. She'd killed him."

Suddenly the boy, still standing next to my father gasped, and I was no longer in the kitchen in my father's house.

I was in the bathtub looking up at my mother who was crying as she held her hands around my throat, pushing me under the water as I was gasping for breath. I couldn't breathe—and then there was darkness.

I was back in the kitchen a second later turning to the boy who was screaming, his hands clutching the sides of his head.

"She killed him?" I said breathlessly.

"Yes." Dad nodded. Suddenly Yukai was kicking everything in his path, grabbing things off of the shelves and throwing it down in a fit of rage. "What the hell is happening?" Dad gasped, but then a vase had smashed into the side of his head, knocking him out cold.

I jumped to my feet and turned to the boy who was screaming and throwing things in a fit of rage.

"STOP!" I screamed, "STOP THIS! Why are you doing this? What is wrong?" He turned to me, tears streaming down his face. "You're acting like a child!"

Suddenly I was no longer staring at a young man, but instead a child of no more than three years old, with the same dark eyes and hair, still crying and still holding the magnets he'd ripped from the refrigerator.

"What—?" I gasped.

"He's your brother."

I turned to see Labramon staring at the young boy as well. Suddenly the realization washed over me. He'd just heard how he'd died. He'd been so scared at the time. So scared that he'd wiped the memory from his mind. My dead brother was in front of me now. I spun on my heel toward him and fell down to my knees, hugging him as best I could as he sobbed uncontrollably.

"Yukai..." I said quietly.

"Kura I'm scared." He cried. Suddenly he stopped crying with a gasp. He was literally frightened now, not just about what he'd just heard. I heard a whimper and I turned to see Labramon falling to the ground. I got to my feet and ran to him.

"Labramon!" I gasped, he was still alive though. I stood up and turned to Yukai, but he was gone. And then, with a great force someone had thrown me through the kitchen, slamming me against the back wall. I turned quickly but there was no one there.

My breathing was short and quick as I slowly stepped forward, trying to escape.

I turned to the mirror behind the sink and screamed at the sight of the black haired woman standing over me.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

The final arc starts with a chapter that's organized a bit differently than the others have been, with Taichi, Sora, Yamato, Takeru and Hikari as our narrators. It's lighter than these last few have been as well.


	40. The Break-Up

**Y/N:** I didn't have much to do this chapter, but I remember being really excited for it. It was one of the very first chapters we had planned for this story, back when it was just a possible idea we were tossing around in our heads…and now we've made it to chapter 40 of our third, long multi-chapter story! Things aren't too exciting here in terms of fighting, and information. It's mostly character driven, but it's fun. Review if you can, and thanks for reading!

**U/N:** So this is the lighter chapter, as promised, if you consider it lighter... We-mostly me-tried to do a whole, back and forth between five different characters in this one, and I'm not totally sure it worked especially since the mood I was in when I wrote it... it was just really passive. So I don't hold this chapter too high on levels of wonderfulness. But before you read it you should know I was listening to "the scientist" by Coldplay on repeat, and also just remember that everything will be explained :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 40: The Break-Up**

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" Rei asked with a giggle as I pushed her wheelchair through her apartment. It had taken a lot of convincing, but I'd got her mother's permission to snatch her for the day. Mrs Saiba really hadn't wanted to lose sight of her daughter these days. It had been a long time since the Arkadimon battle when we found Rei and brought her home, but her mother didn't want her to go missing again. Rei could usually get her to agree to anything, but this was a surprise, and so I didn't want Rei knowing about it at all—which, of course led Mrs Saiba to believe I was kidnapping her or something.

"We're just going to my new house," I assured her. Not that she knew where that was, or what would be awaiting her there.

"And how are we getting there exactly?" she asked. "My bedroom doesn't exactly lead outside."

"I just wanted to talk for a bit, before we leave. Do you think you can handle the suspense?" I joked.

"I'll have to endure it, won't I?" she said with a laugh. She must've noticed my nerves, and her mirth faded to curiosity. "What's up, Taichi?"

"It's just a question is all," I said anxiously. It was a big moment, and it was too soon. I knew it was. But I needed to know the answer now, before the location of my new house came into play. I didn't want that to be the deciding factor. "It's a big one."

"You're not asking me to marry you are you?" she gasped in horror. I was more than a little offended by her disgust.

"Am I not good enough?" I asked.

"I love you and all, I really do. But we're not there yet. Don't rush things, okay?" she said hastily.

"I'm not asking you to marry me," I told her with a cheeky grin. "Nothing _that_ big. I just wondered if, you know, someday, you might want to move in with me."

"That's still pretty big," she said nervously. I knew I should have waited, but there was a part of me that doubted. I knew she loved me, she told me all the time—which was awesome—and I loved her—something I probably didn't say enough—but I didn't want the fact that I was moving into the Digital World to influence her decision when the time came. I knew we'd move in together at some point, but I didn't want it to be because she could walk if she did. It was important to me that she was happy, but I wanted her to come because of me. Was that too much to ask?

"Not now or anything," I said. "It's too soon to ask that I think. We've only been dating a couple of months, but I needed to ask."

"Why'd you ask so far in advance then?" she wanted to know.

"You don't have to answer. It was stupid," I assured her.

"No," she said quickly. "I can see it happening. I can. But _someday_, not now. We'd have to convince my mother to give me up anyway."

"Cool," I said happily. "Ready to see your future home?"

"I suppose, if I must!" she said dramatically, putting her hand to her forehead and sighing. "Let's see the place I signed up for. I really should have demanded to see it first. I love you and all, but I need to know if it's wheelchair accessible. Of course, as the boyfriend of a chair bound girl, you really should have thought about that when picking the place out."

"It's not going to be a problem," I promised. "Now close your eyes."

"Can't I wait until we're closer to do that?" she asked, but she closed her eyes anyway. I picked up a decorative scarf off of her dresser and tied it securely over her eyes. She started giggling again, and I quickly set up the gate on the laptop I'd snuck into her room, before launching the two of us through to the Digital World.

"Taichi?" she called as the lights faded away. "What just happened? Are we going to leave soon?"

"Yeah," I told her, stifling a laugh. "We're going."

I pushed her chair over the rough forest ground as lightly and as carefully as I could. That didn't stop her from hypothesising that we ran over her cat, or asking why it was taking so long to get to the front door of the apartment though. It took twelve and a half minutes to get to my newly completed—as of three days ago—house. It was large, almost comically so, but not a mansion or anything. It kind of helped that realty in the Digital World was practically non-existent. No one was bothered by the size of the house I chose, which was great, because this party was going to have a lot of guests, and I'd need the space. If everyone showed up, and they all promised they would, there would be twenty-six people and twenty-nine digimon. That was quite the roll call, even for us. We didn't usually have everyone in one place like this. And our meetings just tended to involve digidestined. This was going to have the entire extended group as well. I could only pray that everyone got along.

I reached down and removed the scarf from around her head. "Surprise!"

"Oh, oh wow, Taichi," she gasped with amazement. "No wonder we didn't get to the door. This is the Digital World, right?"

"Yeah," I said, holding a hand out, anticipating that she'd want to stand up as soon as she could. I was right.

"You live here now?" she asked. "It's beautiful. And you're right by a lake."

I'd chosen what I'd considered the most beautiful location possible. I had to pick something close enough to the Temple, since I worked there and everything. I couldn't just decide to live on File Island when the Temple was on the Continent of Server. I ended up next to a shimmering lake. There were trees nearby, and a big empty field that the digimon could play in—or Daisuke and I could start up a game of soccer. The house was covered in white siding, and had a black, shingled roof. It was simple looking, but also welcoming. I didn't want it to be too intimidating. I couldn't see myself in something too fancy.

"Wanna take a look inside?" I suggested, leading the way up the stone walkway. The thick wooden door opened to a bright open space. I was hoping to eventually get the room furnished and actually utilize the space, but for now there was an old couch, a table with mismatched wooden chairs. There was a television set sitting on my old bedside table in one of the corners hooked up to a VCR machine that my parents wanted to get rid of. A stack of video cassettes was nearly toppling over next to it. There was a pretty awesome light fixture though. It was like a chandelier, but it wasn't delicate glass. It was wrought iron.

"Wow," she said. She was trying to be enthusiastic, but she couldn't help but notice how empty it was. Who could? "It's so…"

"I'm working on it," I assured her with a laugh. "Agumon and I worked on unpacking stuff in my bedroom and the kitchen mostly. I don't own a lot of furniture though. It was mostly Yamato's at the old apartment."

"Taichi?"

I turned to see Agumon bounding down the stairs—presumably from my bedroom—with two flying devil digimon behind him. I was glad to see he'd managed to hunt them down. I'd been worried they wouldn't make it, and they were practically Rei's partners, the only difference between their friendship and mine and Agumon's—aside from the number of years—was that Rei didn't have a digivice.

"Taichi, you're back!" Agumon cheered. "And you brought Rei."

"Of course he brought Rei," Pal said. "It wouldn't be a surprise party without her."

"It's not a surprise party anymore…" Pul said, glaring at Pal.

"A party? For me?" Rei asked happily.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "It was a surprise for your birthday. I know you're having a party with your friends tomorrow, but I have a meeting, and can't make it. So I thought, why not throw a party of my own? I hope you don't mind that it's mostly digidestined that are coming. It's kind of a hard place to get to otherwise…"

"Its fine Taichi," she said with a grin. "It's more than that. It's the nicest thing ever. And I love your friends. I'd like to think they're my friends too."

"Good," Hikari's voice came from behind me. I turned to see her walk through the door I'd left open. "Because we _are_ your friends. And Taichi, you're an idiot. You're supposed to bring the guest of honour _after_ the guests arrive, so they can jump out and surprise her."

"It's easier this way," Gatomon pointed out. She was carrying a small box wrapped in pink, polka dot paper and a giant pink bow. "Where do you want this?"

"There's a table in the next room," I supplied. "Hikari, the food goes in the kitchen."

"Oddly enough, I would've figured that out on my own," she said with a laugh and searched down the hall for the kitchen. I really should have put up signs. It would have been easier. Rei started bouncing around the living room, looking at my furniture, and she did a cartwheel in the empty space. Pal, Pul and Agumon grabbed her hands and dragged her upstairs to explore a bit more. I shook my head and laughed at their enthusiasm.

"It's nice, Taichi," Hikari complimented me. "Even if it _is_ a little big."

"Thanks, Hikari," I said, throwing my arm around her shoulder and pulling her in close.

"Knock, knock!" Sora called rapping her fist against the doorframe. "Anybody home?"

"Come on in!" I called.

Sora came in, balancing a tray of food in one hand so that her other hand could be wrapped up in Neo's. He nodded in my direction and gave Hikari the gift he was carrying. Biyomon came flying in after them, being chased by Tentomon, Palmon and Dracomon. They flew past me without stopping. Mimi and Koushiro finished the short train of guests, also passing Hikari their own gifts.

"I'll take these," Hikari said with a grin, snatching up the offered gifts.

"It's very…spacious," Sora said, looking around the house.

"For now," I laughed. "Wait until everyone gets here."

"Do you have an outlet nearby?" Koushiro wanted to know. "My laptop is dying and I really need to finish my research for the meeting tomorrow."

"Put your laptop away," Mimi ordered. "You're here to celebrate with Rei, not work. Speaking of Rei…?"

"Upstairs," I told her, and she dragged Koushiro after her, stopping only to shove the food she'd brought into Neo's startled arms. Sora rolled her eyes and took it from him, stalking off in search of the kitchen, leaving Neo and I alone. It was awkward, I wasn't going to lie. But not because he'd once been evil and tried to kill us all. It was awkward because I was dating his sister, and he still didn't seem to think I was good enough for her. I could understand that though. I couldn't approve of Willis, no matter how much Hikari claimed to love him. I knew there had to be someone better out there, even if no one could actually reach the standards I'd set for her. And Neo really had relaxed quite a lot this past month. Sora was as happy as she was before their breakup, sickeningly in love and all that jazz. It was almost as if Neo _hadn't_ tried to kill us all. Except for the fact that he kept trying to make it up to us. No. Not to _us_. To Sora. But it didn't matter to me, so long as he was on our side.

"Hello everybody, the party can start now, I'm here!" Daisuke cheered loudly as he burst into my house. I really needed to close the door. People just kept barging in.

"Daisuke," Kurayami snapped. "It's Rei's party. You're not the guest of honour. I thought that Pride had been defeated."

"Calm down," Daisuke said exasperated. "I'm being funny."

"No," she said coldly. "You're _trying_ to be funny. But you're failing."

He stared at her, shocked that she'd be so mean. It wasn't her usual behaviour, that was for sure, but I'd seen her be a lot worse, back when she was trying to kill us, so I wasn't too worried. Takeru walked in behind them, hand in hand with his girlfriend, Catherine. He and Yamato had so much in common. They both dated girls that I'd been with first. Yamato with Sora and Katsue, and Takeru with Catherine. And okay, so Katsue and Catherine hadn't been real relationships or anything, but I'd been on a date with each of them. But I digress. Takeru came in with his girlfriend, who was holding her Floramon's hand as well, with Patamon flying around them, and Veemon with Labramon at their feet. Katsue followed after them, cradling her Monimon in her arms, and carrying a bag of food that she hadn't made herself. I was really glad to see that.

"Yamato's coming later," she told me, answering my question before I could ask.

"Cool," I said. "The digimon are all over the place. Everyone is really. Just do whatever you want."

"Will do," she said. Hikari had come back, and collected more presents and directed the others to the kitchen with their food. I couldn't understand why Mom always complained about playing host at family gatherings. It was really easy.

Rei came bounding down the stairs with a big grin and came to a stop at my side. "Hi Neo!"

"Happy birthday," he said letting her hug him tightly.

"It's not my birthday yet," she teased. "Taichi, it's amazing here. We were playing tag upstairs. There's enough room up there to play tag. It's great!"

A polite knocking came from the door and I saw Iori standing there with Armadillomon and Meiyomon at his side. I waved him into the house. "Hello. Happy birthday, Rei. I was under the impression, however that this was a surprise party?"

"Oh shut up," I groaned. How many people were going to point out how dumb I was? Hikari had been pretty specific about it. Iori didn't seem to care about my rudeness, which was great, since just a month ago he might've literally ripped my head off for saying the same thing. He was a lot more pleasant to be around without the Wrath influence of Daemon—which I didn't see coming—hanging about.

"Natsuni will be along shortly. She wanted to bond with Goblimon, so they're taking a quick stroll in the forest," Iori said. But before he'd finished speaking, Natsuni came up to the door, quickly knocking, even though I'd already called for her to come in. After a very formal greeting, I sent the three digimon off to play tag with the others, and Natsuni headed to the kitchen, and Iori wandered to the gift table, where Hikari and Katsue were talking.

I almost had enough time to sit down before the next group of people arrived. Emiko came running in the still open door, with Miyako running after her giggling just as loudly as her niece was.

"Emiko, you have to knock first!" Jou called out, but Emiko wasn't listening.

"Miyako should know that as well," Ken commented. He was wearing the same smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face. Ever since Miyako was saved from the Dark Ocean, things had been looking up for her. The scratches stopped showing up in the mornings, and they were finally able to start the healing process. She had a lot more energy, and she wasn't jumpy anymore. She was just overly cheerful and bouncy. She was kind of like Rei when Rei got to the Digital World and could walk again. She didn't know what to do first and was therefore trying to do it all at once. But I'd take happy Miyako over scared and depressed Miyako anyday.

Momoe was standing behind Jou, next to her Bearmon. Bearmon was carrying the food, and Gomamon was rolling on the floor laughing at Emiko and Miyako's enthusiasm. Wormmon and Hawkmon were already running towards the other digimon.

Willis came next, twenty minutes later, dragging Michael, Betamon, the twin digimon, Tatum and her Monodramon with him. I expected him to immediately attach himself to my sister, and was pleased when he didn't. Hikari's eyes met his a grand total of once, and she fled the room instantly. I didn't know what was going on, but I didn't have time to contemplate it, as new voices were heard from the doorway.

"This looks like the right place."

"That's because it is, moron."

"Be nice, Hideto." Sigma—no, _Kiyoko_ now, I reminded myself—was standing with Hideto and Mari, who weren't pleased with one another. Hideto looked completely at ease, but the other two looked like they'd rather be anywhere else, but here. Their digimon waited by their feet, sensing their partner's discomfort. It was sad that they didn't feel like they belonged yet, but I was sure they'd find their places eventually.

"Hey, Taichi!" Takeru called from the other end of the room. "Where'd you get the sword?"

"What?" I asked, looking to the wall that he was pointing at. There was only a single decoration in my entire living room.

"It looks familiar," Hikari commented.

"Well, you know, it's Piedmon's," I said awkwardly.

"You stole Piedmon's sword?" Hideto asked me incredulously, glancing between the Club Sword mounted on the wall and Kiyoko who was staring at me with wide eyes. His Tapirmon merely looked confused.

"Not that Piedmon," I said quickly. "The one that nearly tried to kill my sister and got Iori instead three years ago. The sword stuck around after he disintegrated into data. We used it as a weapon against the shadows that were trying to kill us. I just ended up with it afterwards. It looks cool on the wall though. It's like a trophy. Some guys mount moose heads on their walls, some choose digital swords."

"You kept the sword that tried to kill me?" Hikari gasped.

"Better yet, it's the focal point of the room," Katsue commented.

"I don't have everything set up," I snapped. "It's the only decoration I got to. I'm not an interior decorator. I don't have a vision for the place. I thought the sword looked cool, that's all. If you want me to take it down, I will!"

"I like it," Hideto commented. "It's a sign of your past victories. Have I mentioned that I really like your haircut?"

"No, actually," I told him. I was finally coming to terms with my new hairdo, and I was starting to enjoy it. Everyone took me more seriously now. I could actually accomplish stuff at my meetings now that they didn't think I was a buffoon.

"Taichi, can we watch a movie?" Agumon called from the top of the stairs.

"Do whatever you want," I told him. He put on an action movie and nearly all of the digimon joined him in watching it. Only Betamon stayed away, and only because Michael wouldn't let him leave his sight.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

I could barely think over the excited buzz of the girls around me.

Mimi, Momoe and Miyako were by the large island counter in the middle of Taichi's preposterously enormous kitchen, sorting out the food everyone had brought. Hikari had dragged me into the kitchen because every other girl other than Rei was in there, and she thought it was unfair to not have me there.

Natsuni, Katsue and Catherine were talking to one another, sharing stories about Yamato and Takeru, as Tatum and Hikari were talking in a much more serious tone that I couldn't hear because they were far too quiet, and Kurayami, Mari and I sat silently at the table, watching the others and waiting for something to do. I was excited for Rei's party, I'd known her a while, and yet never been invited to a birthday party for her—apparently she never really had one because she was too scared that no one would come or something similar. Her confidence was clearly boosted because of Taichi. They built each other up—that was the structure of a good relationship. Plus I was dating her brother which made her sort of like family. It was weird, dating Neo again. It was so different than before... it was like all the things I loved about him were multiplied by ten, and I knew he wasn't evil for sure this time, and I felt so comfortable around him. I'd never fallen for someone so fast either. It was pretty strange.

"This is delicious!" Mimi declared loudly stopping all conversations as she licked her finger clean after having used it to scoop up some sort of sauce. "Who made this?"

After craning her neck to see what Mimi was talking about Mari raised her hand lazily, "I did."

Mimi looked to Mari, a little annoyed, but then grinned brightly, "It's very good."

"Thanks," Mari blushed slightly and hid her face.

"Don't hide," I laughed, "Compliments are common between friends Mari!" She looked up slowly to the rest of us who were all smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile back.

Mimi went through the rest of the food, everyone having made something homemade except for Katsue who was a terrible chef. "I could have brought some," She said with a laugh, "If you wanted to eat charcoal."

"It's true!" Catherine giggled, "She once cooked for Takeru, Yamato and I, and I thought I was biting through cement!"

Katsue's face fell, hurt, "That's mean."

"I-I'm so sorry," Catherine stammered.

"I'm kidding," Katsue laughed, nudging Catherine playfully.

Tatum and Hikari stepped away from the rest of us and continued talking to one another for a while, still very quiet.

"Iori's mother helped me make this," Natsuni said, motioning to a freshly baked loaf of bread. "I think she's _really_ starting to like me, which is good." Why was that good? Why would it matter if her friend's mother liked her...? Something was off, and being the eavesdropping super secret spy that I was, I was going to find out what it was.

"How do you think Rei is faring out there with the guys?" Miyako asked, grinningly foolishly. Ever since she'd been rescued from the Dark Ocean her nightmares had been getting better, and apparently she'd not woken up with any significant scratches or anything –and since then she'd been smiling endlessly.

Everything seemed to be over—Marrow had turned out to be evil, and so we'd destroyed him when he tried to use his army to destroy _us_, we'd saved Miyako from the Dark Ocean and defeated all the Deadly sins. Nothing at all had happened in a month—or nothing that anyone was willing to speak about.

The last time someone had anything to say at the weekly meetings was when Hikari yelled at everyone for not telling her that Takeru and Iori had been kidnapped at all. Besides Jou and his random stories about wizards or something. But that just furthered my theory that something was wrong. Jou was going insane, and I could tell that we weren't through with what was going on. When we'd defeated Malomyotismon, or Apocalymon, or Fanglongmon... there was just a sense of finality...

But maybe it was that Arkadimon was still out there—wherever _there_ was.

"She's probably doing fine," Momoe said with a small smile, responding to Miyako's question, "Her and Taichi are overly happy together, and it's a big house so she doesn't have to get too close to any of them and smell their stench." Everyone laughed except for Kurayami and Mari, both of whom seemed to be in a particularly bad mood for a long time.

"And she has Emiko to keep her company," I pointed out. I tried to ignore the surprised look on Momoe's face. Clearly she'd lost track of her daughter, but it rarely happened, so I couldn't hold it against her.

"Hikari, just tell them." Tatum practically growled suddenly, much louder than she'd intended to be, clearly. She noticed us all looking to her and her face turned red.

"Tell us what?" Mimi asked, setting down the rag she'd used to clean the table top. "What's going on?"

"It's hardly even a big deal." Hikari said quietly, "I just... Willis and I—"

"You're getting married?" Miyako gasped with excitement.

"Don't be silly," Momoe said, shutting her sister down, "They're too young."

"Willis is the same age as me," Miyako said, "I'm married..."

"Oh, well maybe they are then." Momoe said, avoiding her sisters confused look.

"No," Mimi said, ignoring them both, "They're moving."

"I am." Hikari nodded, an suddenly I knew where it was going.

"You broke up." I said quietly. Hikari looked to me and nodded. "That _is _a big deal Hikari—when did that happen?"

"A month ago." Hikari admitted.

"And you're just telling us now?" Miyako asked sharply.

"Well I couldn't tell you or you'd all think it was weird that I was still living with him." She said quickly, "Which it was, but I couldn't leave until my finals were done—and now they are. I'm done school for the year and am now moving back in with my parents until I can actually find a place to live."

"I need to move out!" Natsuni said before anyone could say anything, "I'm sorry for your breakup, but I'm just saying, my parents kind of hate me right now. Maybe we could find a place together?"

"T-that would be fantastic!" Hikari nodded quickly before Miyako had moved forward and hugged her. "What's this for?"

"You're sad." Miyako said, "I can tell." Hikari awkwardly hugged her back, and within a few seconds the rest of us were hugging her too. I could tell she was embarrassed, but she still felt comforted. When we finally pulled away Miyako grinned, "But I'm so happy you're moving back to Japan." She said.

"Me too," Kurayami said. She must have been ecstatic about it because that was the first thing I'd heard her say all night. Hikari smiled at her and finally relaxed, pulling out a stool an sitting down. "Who cares about relationships anyway," Kurayami said, shaking her head, "They just complicate things. Which is funny because most of us are in relationships."

Natsuni began laughing loudly, "Yeah—most of us! _Most _of us! But not all!" Why was she so nervous?

"So," Katsue said, "I know this is Rei's birthday party and all, but..." She looked over her should and then back to us with a smile, "I think Yamato is going to propose to me!" Suddenly everyone was happy—even Kurayami and Mari managed to smile a little. Everyone was so happy, congratulating her... So why wasn't I happy? Why did I feel so angry? Because Katsue was not right for Yamato. Sure they were both sarcastic, witty and hilarious—sure she was a reporter who could spread word about his band—sure she made him happy...

But they weren't right together.

"Where is Yamato anyway?" Mimi asked, "I haven't seen him today."

"He's coming later," Katsue said, "He said he had to pick something up."

"What makes you think he'll propose?" I asked, sounding even more unimpressed than I was.

"Oh," Katsue said, "It's just a feeling. Well, that and he's been saving his money, and said something really special was coming up, and I even caught him reading a wedding magazine!"

"That's great." I lied. "He proposed to me once."

_Omigod. Sora you idiot! Why did you say that?_

"And you said 'no'." Katsue pointed out, "I think I'm going to say yes... honestly, I never thought I'd get married—it just didn't seem like it was right for me—and even though Yamato and I have only really been dating for four months... I think it's really _real_. You know?"

I nodded, lying again.

"Well let's hope your wedding goes better than mine." Momoe said, shaking her head.

"And mine." Miyako added.

"And mine." Tatum said, "I mean I haven't had mine yet, but I'm just assuming." Everyone started laughing again.

"When are you going to do your wedding again?" Catherine asked, "Providing you haven't already done so...?"

"No," Momoe said kindly, "We picked a day, the cards should be out soon though."

"Well?" I asked excitedly, "When is it?"

"December," Momoe said, "First day of winter."

"That's going to be so pretty!" Mimi squeaked, "Your bridesmaids can wear light blue and you wear white and everything will look like a winter wonderland!"

"But we're getting you a real dress this time!" I declared.

"Well we wouldn't want her to go naked," Miyako winked, finally picking up a tray of foods and heading out to the living room.

_**Takeru Takaishi: **_

I was sitting with Ken, Jou and Emiko in the large, domed room, sitting on the comfiest most squishy couch I'd ever been on. Taichi really had made the right decision picking a place in the Digital World to build his house, and it sort of annoyed me that I hadn't done it first. I thought about changing it to me for my books—but Hikari said that I shouldn't change things, so I wouldn't do it.

Maybe I'd just... be the second one to get a house in the Digital World... or maybe not.

"And it's really true what they say Emiko," Ken said with a nod, "True love is a very real thing. It doesn't develop over time. You _uncover_ it over time. You'll know the difference one day. And when your prince or princess arrives, you'll just know."

"She's two years old." Jou laughed. Emiko smiled brightly but shook her head, trying to figure out just how old she really was. In three months she'd be three years old, I needed to start thinking about what to get her!

"For example," Ken said, "Miyako," He motioned to Miyako who was coming to us with a tray of meats, cheeses and crackers, "Please move so I can show Emiko my princess."

Miyako started laughing so hard that I actually had to take the food from her so she didn't throw it somewhere. Apparently Ken's joke had been absolutely hysterical to her for some reason. She did eventually calm down though, and sat down in Ken's lap.

"I was kidding," Ken said finally, "Emiko, this is my princess."

"No!" She said loudly, "That's my aunt!" Miyako laughed again, almost as hard.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Just in a good mood." She smiled at me patting my head.

I nodded, confused as to exactly what was going on with her—but that always seemed to be the case. At first I was confused because she was simply too smart sometimes, then I wasn't sure if she was dating Ken or not, then I wasn't sure if their engagement was a joke or not—but it wasn't and it turned out great—the relationship, not the wedding, and then her whole demon attack... I'd gotten lost somewhere in there, and now she was just always happy... for some reason. Maybe because the scars on her arms were healing significantly. She wasn't even wearing gloves anymore, an although the marks were still visible she seemed much more at peace with them.

"So Jou," Miyako said, "Momoe said she didn't get that last job—how are you going to buy that new house?"

"It's..." Jou trailed off, "We just will." He finished. Jou and Momoe had found a house that was finally not the apartment three floors below Yamato's, and they'd been relying on Momoe getting a job. Jou had two jobs though, so they'd have enough to scrape by until she finally got one.

"Or you could wait," Ken said simply.

"I can't," Jou said, "With Gomamon, Bearmon, Emiko, Momoe and myself—there isn't enough room in the two bedroom apartment."

"What about Monmon?" Ken asked.

"He left again—haven't seen him for a week." Jou said, "I'll just work overtime. It's the honourable thing to do. I have to make money to support my family alone, and until we can work through my med schooling bills that'll be difficult."

"How is it the honourable thing to do?" I asked, "Wouldn't it be... better for you to do what you wanted, and what was best for you?"

"Sometimes you have to do what's best for others," Jou said with a shrug, "Eventually things work out for you so long as you always do what is honourable."

"It's true you know," Miyako pointed out, "I would know. It's my crest afterall."

"And how do you know what is honourable and what isn't?" I asked.

"You ask Iori," Miyako joked. I looked to Iori who was twiddling his thumbs impatiently, watching Koushiro, Taichi, Rei, Kiyoko and Willis play a board game loudly on the other side of the room, eventually he stood up and stalked out of the room, walking past all of the digimon who were crowded around the floor by the television. "No, I'm kidding. You just know Takeru. The honourable thing is always evident if you look for it."

So I had to look for the honourable thing?

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Hello," I said brightly to Natsuni who was standing outside Taichi's house. I'd not seen it finished, but had been there a couple times over the past month, and honestly it looked amazing. Natsuni looked to me sharply in fright and relaxed when she saw it was just me.

She waved to me nervously, so I smiled at her, confused an opened the front door without knocking. Iori was in the doorway trying to get through, and we ran into each other.

"I'm so sorry!" Iori gasped, "Excuse me."

"It's okay," I said, stepping aside and holding the door for him. I stepped into the house, letting Gabumon in before me, and closed the door again. The guitar I'd bought for Rei had got caught on the door, but I managed to pull it through. The first person I saw was Sora who was walking directly toward me. "Hey Sora!" I smiled.

"Hello," She said quickly, "Can't stay and talk, I'll be back." She side stepped around me and pulled the door open, but stopped, turning to face me, "I heard the big news though, congratulations. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks," I smiled as she closed the door behind her, stepping out into the night.

"What big news?" Gabumon asked. I shrugged my shoulders. Honesty I didn't know. As far as I knew nothing significant had happened recently. I was _almost_ done writing my next album—but hadn't started recording it—my astronaut training wasn't due to finish until the end of the month...

"No clue." I said simply.

"Oh hey!" Rei smiled at me. She was standing around a board game that Koushiro had just won—I knew she didn't like sitting when she didn't have to, but that was just ridiculous. "I wonder what it is!" She said to the guitar shaped present. "I hope it's a puppy!" She joked and smiled, "Thank you though."

"Where do you want it?" I asked.

"The room with the other presents." Taichi said sarcastically, pointing over his shoulder to the dining room. I nodded and stepped into the dining room and rolled my eyes. Rei hadn't even moved in yet, so it was literally just Taichi and Agumon living in the house and the dining room was bigger than my entire apartment, a comically large table stretching from one end to the other.

"Ridiculous." I said, shaking my head.

"The other digimon are watching a movie," Gabumon said, "Do you mind if I...?"

"Go ahead," I said, and with a smile he was off.

I decided to put the present on the other end of the table since it was so large and I thought it would be a good way to subtly make fun of his enormous house. There were three doors into the dining room, one that led to the stairs that would go upstairs... like stairs do, one that led to the Living room and one to the kitchen. As I was setting the guitar down on the table the one to the kitchen opened and Katsue walked through, at first she didn't notice me but then she glanced over her shoulder and then smiled.

"Hi!" She smiled, "When did you get here?"

"Literally ten seconds ago," I said with a smile, stretching my hand out. She took it and I pulled her in for a kiss. "How was your time being all alone?"

"Well there's roughly twenty people here see," Katsue pointed out, "And the same number of digimon... unfortunately I wasn't alone."

"I'll take that as... you missed me." I decided.

"Deal," She said, kissing me again.

Before I could say anything else the door from the stairs had opened and Mari stormed into the room followed by Willis who was talking to her, and within two seconds I could tell it was a serious conversation. Mari looked like she was ready to cry, and Willis was trying to explain himself. I turned to Katsue who was already looking to me. Slowly and awkwardly we ducked down behind the table so they couldn't see that we were there.

"I think," Willis said, "That we should be together. You and me. Willari!"

"That's the same as your name was with Hikari," Mari snapped. Apparently word about the breakup had finally gotten out. Hikari had told me she was moving in with her parents the following weekend, and I'd agreed to help her find an alternative place to live.

"Fine—Marillis." He decided, "Mari... I've been in love with you for a long time."

"A month." Mari corrected, "You just broke up with Hikari—you loved her too."

"Yes." Willis nodded, "I did—but I loved you first. You can't tell me you don't feel the same. I know you do. You have to."

"I don't _have_ to feel anything." She shot, "But—no! I don't know. I don't know how I feel. I need some time."

"Mari," He said, "You've had time. A lot of time. I've been holding on to the memories of you for far too long. I need you to make a decision."

"I don't know if I can do that." Mari told him.

"Midnight." Willis said, "You tell me how you feel by midnight. If you say that you love me back, that's great. If not, I'll stop bothering you forever, and I'll finally close the door on us."

"Willis..." Mari sighed, but Willis had left the room. Mari groaned and pulled out a chair, sitting down on it.

I looked to Katsue with fear. We couldn't leave now, she'd know we'd heard the whole thing—which we shouldn't have done. I felt so awkward having heard that. I'd have to just pretend I didn't know what they were talking about—no—that made no sense—I'd have to pretend I hadn't heard—I didn't work well under pressure. How did Sora eavesdrop so well?

Katsue and I sat quietly, holding hands, half under the table until Mari finally got up and left the room. I jumped to my feet and then pulled Katsue up after as the door to the kitchen opened again and Sora entered the room.

"I lost him!" She gasped dramatically.

"W-who?" I asked, but she didn't answer, instead she spun on her heel and followed Mari out of the room. I looked to Katsue who just shrugged before leading me to the kitchen—thank goodness, I was starving.

_**Hikari Yagami: **_

Kiyoko, Hideto and I were standing in the hallway by the kitchen silently. Every single time Kiyoko got near me everything became awkward. Always. I didn't know why though.

"Well... bye." Kiyoko said abruptly, walking off, into the Living room again.

"He's adorable," Hideto said with a small laugh.

"That's true," I agreed.

"So are you though," Hideto added very suddenly.

"Thank you," I said, shocked. Hideto seemed to enjoy complimenting people so often that it was hard to accurately differentiate between him simply complimenting someone or flirting with someone. I liked to avoid thinking about it though since I was never really sure. He was smiling at me though, like a lot. He was just standing there, looking at me with his amazing eyes and his sparkling teeth... "How have you been?" I asked, trying to hide the fact that I was blushing.

"I've been good," He said with a smile, "I kind of like the peacefulness of everything going on though."

"Me too." I agreed with a quick nod and a sip of the juice in my hand, "I think we're finally getting close to the that never ending peace that the legends seem to talk about."

"I don't think there ever really can be ever lasting peace." Hideto said with a shrug, "I think there always has to be a sort of balance."

"I suppose that's true," I said, "But maybe we're getting to a place where the balance isn't necessary. Maybe one day everything finally will be perfect."

"Do you really believe that?" He asked.

I thought about it for a moment, and couldn't seem to figure out if I did or not. I believe that I wanted it—more than anything else in the entire world I wanted it. I wanted to not have to fight anymore to keep the peace—I wanted it to just stay with us, but for some reason that seemed more unlikely that Daisuke sitting down and reading the dictionary for fun. So no, I didn't believe it... but I did believe that the greatest evils would one day be out of the way, and the balance would be kept still, and thus, peaceful.

"No," I said, summing up my thoughts into a single word.

"Didn't think so." Hideto murmured as Taichi and Rei walked past us, "Hey! Rei!" Rei spun around, a smile on her face.

"Hey Hideto," She said happily.

"Always weird seeing you walk..." He said quietly.

"Hey—stop being depressing." She ordered. "You look good though."

"You too." Hideto said with a nod before turning to Taichi, "You too—Yes. Yes you do look good."

Taichi stared at him awkwardly, "Thanks...?"

"Your hair is awesome." Hideto said.

"Thanks." Taichi said, still awkward.

"And your ski—"

"Okay!" Rei said, clapping her hands together, "I'm going to go dance for the first time since my accident. Stop interrupting me," She said it so cheerfully, but I could tell there was a very serious tone to her voice, and then she was gone.

"She used to dance a lot." Hideto said, turning to me. "Do you dance."

"No," I admitted, "I've never been good at it. What about you?"

"I'm quite good actually," Hideto said, getting uncomfortably close to me. "I could teach you?" He was so close now that I could feel his breath on my face.

"I'd like that..." I said shyly, my face turning red. Suddenly Hideto was closing the distance for a kiss and I reacted quickly, ducking out of the way and slamming into the opposite wall. "Nope." I said firmly, "Can't do that."

"Well rumour has it you're not dating Willis anymore," Hideto said simply, "Unless you have another boyfriend...?"

"No." I confirmed, "I just... relationships aren't my thing." I told him with a nod, "Besides, I'm not sure I really understand my feelings."

"I do." Hideto nodded, "If you ever want to understand them... give me a call." I was going to accuse him of being a know-it-all since there was no way he could possibly know my own feelings more than I did, but I didn't have time because the second Michael entered the hallway, Hideto had spun and left.

"There she is!" Betamon cheered excitedly. He and Michael literally never left each other's sides anymore, which I understood. If I'd gone through what he had I'd feel the same.

"You're looking for me?" I asked.

Michael nodded, "I need you to talk to Willis." He said, "You're moving out in three days Hikari... you're officially closing all doors—and as his brother, I really need you to end the awkwardness before you go. I really need the two of you to be friends again."

"I understand," I nodded, "I've been meaning to do that for a while." Michael nodded and then led Betamon toward the kitchen, leaving me alone to find Willis. It wasn't hard though, he was in the living room, standing with his back to the wall, his arms crossed across his chest. I took a deep breath, readying myself for whatever was to come. Apparently Willis hadn't noticed me, so I tapped his shoulder.

He spun around quickly and tried to smile, taking my hand in one of his and placing his other one on my waist.

"Oh, we're dancing?" I asked.

"I just thought—" He started to pull away but I pulled him back.

"It's fine." I nodded, looking around the room. Rei and Taichi weren't there, they must have been called for another urgent crisis, causing Rei to wait longer for her dance. Neo was sitting with his arm around Sora, who was looking around like a maniac, searching for someone. I saw Gatomon by the television and she rolled her eyes at the sight of us dancing.

"So you weren't going to dance?" He asked, trying to break the awkwardness. I replied with a simple shake of my head. "What did you need then?"

"Well..." I said quietly, "I wanted to apologize for everything being so awkward."

"Me too," He said quickly, "It's silly to pretend we're not comfortable around each other. We dated for a long time."

"Exactly," I smiled at him, "And since I'm moving out," his face fell instantly, "I wanted to make sure we were on good terms because I really will miss you Willis—I_ do_ miss you, since we never talk anyway. I want to make sure that we're still going to be friends."

"Hikari," He said in a low voice, I was sure he was going to say that he couldn't handle being friends but his face suddenly broke out into a massive smile, "I've been hoping you'd say that. You can't stop being important to me any more than pizza can stop being delicious."

"I didn't know you cared so much."I said, looking away from him as we spun on the spot slowly, music playing loudly from Taichi's surround sound speakers. I thought for a moment about how the digimon were hearing the television, but it wasn't as important right then.

"You are one of the most important people in the world to me Hikari," Willis said as if it were the most obvious fact in the world, "All the things you've done for me... you helped me find my crests, you made me tons of friends here, you were my first legitimate girlfriend, and you helped me find my sister."

I couldn't help but frown at the last point. He refused to tell me anything about what happened. All he'd told me was that she wasn't around anymore, and that he'd finally found her.

"You're important to me too Willis," I said, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek before he spun me around, laughing.

_**Takeru Takaishi: **_

Catherine was laughing at a joke I'd just told her—but it was weird because it wasn't funny. Yamato had told me once that if a girl laughed at everything you said that meant that she really liked you. I didn't know how to believe that since he'd not had much experience with girls at the time—in fact zero experience, but it turned out to be true. Assuming Catherine really did like me that was.

I turned to Mari who was sitting next to me, staring directly ahead at the dance floor where Jou was dancing with Emiko, and Mimi was dancing with Koushiro, but I knew that wasn't what she was focusing on. Her eyes were trained directly on Hikari and Willis laughing with each other and spinning each other around, dancing like fools.

"You okay?" I asked Mari. She looked to me with a cold stare and then got up and walked away, straight through the dance floor and into the kitchen. "What's her problem?" I asked Catherine.

"Well she loves Willis I think." Catherine said.

"They're dating though," I said, "She has to get over it."

"No, they broke up!" Catherine said, "A month ago!"

I turned quickly back toward Hikari and Willis and suddenly knew exactly how Mari felt. Hurt, heartbroken, angry, jealous, sad... all at once. So it wasn't okay for Hikari to be left in the dark about my kidnapping, but it was okay to leave me, her supposed best friend in the dark about their breakup for a full month? Especially when I'd been so supportive of their relationship... sometimes... lately... a bit. So not really—but still! Why was she dancing with him then, if they'd broken up? She was dancing with him as a friend—I could have done that—or Iori, or Kurayami... not Iori. He wouldn't do that. Or Kurayami. So me, I'd do that.

I would.

Sudden giggles brought me out of my trance as Taichi dragged Rei out onto the dancefloor, and spun her around briefly until a loud smash caused her to jump.

I turned to the source of it and saw that Yamato had knocked over a vase.

"This room is big enough for _elephants_ to get around in." Taichi said sharply, "And you broke a vase?"

"You don't need that vase anyway," Yamato joked, "It doesn't go with your drapery." Taichi rolled his eyes but laughed anyway as Rei rushed off to get something to clean up the mess.

"I'll do it!" Taichi insisted, rushing after her. As he was leaving the room he ran directly into Iori and the two spun around, "Sorry Iori!" Taichi shot, rushing after Rei.

"I'm sorry," Iori said politely, moving forward and sitting on the couch across from Catherine and I. "Hello," He said brightly. I smiled at him but said nothing because a second later Sora was sitting next to him, leaning forward, her face right next to his.

"So it's really nice out," Iori said, "The moon is really bright. I mean, partly because the sun never comes out so the moon is always bright, but—hold on one second," He turned to Sora, "What the hell are you doing?"

Sora looked away, whistling, pretending she had done nothing at all. Iori rolled his eyes and looked to the door with a giant smile. I followed his eyes and saw Natsuni smiling back at him with a wink.

"I knew it!" Sora declared, clapping her hands together and pinching Iori's cheeks. He pushed her off of him and stood up quickly.

"Knew _what_?" Iori asked.

"Nothing!" Sora said with a knowing smirk. Whatever it is that she knew she'd probably tell Mimi and Mimi would tell everyone else... that seemed to be how things worked usually.

"Sora," I said with a glare, "You only get like this when something is wrong."

"Wrong?" Sora said, sitting up straighter, "Nothing is wrong." She jumped to her feet and stormed off, so I let her go. She'd tell me when she was ready... if that time came. It would.

I jumped when Catherine's smooth hands locked with mine, and then turned to her with a smile. "Would you like to dance?" I asked her as her face lit up with excitement.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

"Sora!" Neo called, "Wait!" I spun around and came face to face with him as he ran up behind me.

"Hey," I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me, "What's up?"

"Well we were in the middle of a conversation see," Neo laughed, "And then you, and I quote, 'simply had to exploit a relationship'."

"Well it was well overdue." I laughed as he kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry though, what were you saying?"

"I was saying that I wanted to go for a walk with you!" Neo smiled at me, "I have something I need to say."

My mind was instantly whirring and trying to figure out what it was. What could it be? What did he want to say? I was literally going insane—and it wasn't just because of that. I wanted Yamato to not propose to Katsue so bad that I'd been getting a little weird.

"Okay," I said, trying to keep my outward appearance as cool, calm and collected as I could. Neo smiled, wrapping his scarf tighter around his neck and grabbing my coat from the closet. It was the first time in a while that I wore a coat that I hadn't made myself. After that mess-up with my fashion career I just... lost interest. I lost the drive. My dream broke—but that was okay. I had a new dream now. And that was Neo.

Neo opened the door and held it open for me, so I slipped outside. It looked like a summer night, the light from the moon reflecting on the pond that Taichi had built his house near, but it was still a little cold. Apparently Neo thought the same because he wrapped his arm around my shoulder to keep me warm before leading me off of the well made deck.

"It's really beautiful," I pointed out.

"Just like you," He said, touching my nose. I would have pointed out how cheesy it was, but I really liked the lame romantic-ness.

"So Yamato's going to propose." I said bluntly. Neo looked to me and shrugged.

"Good for him," He said.

"Not really," I said, "I always saw him with someone... who wasn't Katsue." It was true. I just really, _really_ didn't like that girl.

"Well that's not your choice," Neo said, "nor your concern."

"Plus they're too young." I decided randomly, "he's a proposal slut! He proposed to me you know, two proposals and he's not even twenty five yet!"

"Sora," Neo said, "let's talk about something else."

"Sorry, it's just really bothering me." I sighed as Neo pulled his arm from around me.

"Still not your place to poke your nose in." He muttered.

"Do you have a problem with me poking my nose places?" I asked sharply. I wasn't mad or anything, but if he did then we would have had a problem. That was pretty much what I did with my life as a hobby—and sure it was immature, but it was also who I was.

"No." Neo said, "Just, don't meddle with his relationship."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Sora, because it's not yours." Neo said. "And do you really think he's too young?"

"Yes." I said firmly, "And I know it's not my relationship, but he can't just marry someone he doesn't belong with. I'm officially against all weddings." Neo nodded and turned back to Taichi's house. "Wait. Where are you going?"

Neo kept walking but looked over his shoulder, "This walk clearly was a bad idea." He decided.

"Neo, wait," I said, "I'm sorry. What did you want to say."

"Well I can't say it now." He said.

"Yes you can!" I said quickly. Neo stopped and looked to me with a nod. I felt awful for what I'd done, whatever it was. He clearly didn't want to talk about that, so I shouldn't have been pushing it so much. "I'm sorry Neo," I told him, "I'm just really on edge today and I don't know why."

"It's okay," He said, pulling his hands from his pocket and dropping something. He bent over to pick it up on one knee.

"What did you want to say?" I asked him.

"I wanted to ask you to marry me."

I looked to him as he looked up at me with his eyes practically glowing in the night. In his hand was a shining diamond ring held at arms length toward me. He was smiling hopefully—but I couldn't say yes. I'd just decided that Yamato was too young and I was the same age. I couldn't be a hypocrite. But I'd never had an age restriction before.

When Yamato had asked me three years ago I wasn't afraid of getting married too young—Miyako and Ken worked it out quite well—I was worried about him planning my whole life out before I could get a say in it. I wanted him to be spontaneous, an here Neo was, being just that. I had nothing planned in my life, and was desperately grabbing for something solid, something that would be there when I lost my footing while living my new life.

That was Neo.

"So...?" He asked me. I hadn't realized I'd taken so long. I was suddenly nodding and running toward him, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him.

"Yes!" I said, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Neo sighed with relief, his face lighting up as he got to his feet. "I'm so happy you said yes," He said, and to me that was just stating the obvious but he wasn't done, "But there is one condition."

"Condition?" I asked, scared.

"You..." Neo trailed off before shaking his head, "You can't be friends with Yamato anymore... Or Taichi."

I didn't know if he was serious or not for a moment until his face expressed what I was looking for. He was dead serious. How could I choose between one of my oldest friends and my boyfriend? Neo was important to me, but so was Yamato...

Then again... Yamato would never be the man I grew older with... he was planning to do that with Katsue... but Neo could be. Neo _could_ be that man.

And so I knew what my decision had to be.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

Katsue rolled her eyes at Daisuke who nervously made a joke, staring toward Kurayami who was looking toward her feet, sitting in the corner. Something was going on with those two, but it wasn't any of my business. This was a day for fun! It was Rei's birthday! I could vaguely remember the first birthday party for her that I went to. It had just been the two of us with Neo, and our parents talking about the baby inside my mother... I didn't remember much—I was only three years old.

Iori and Natsuni got to their feet and walked away from Daisuke's circle, meaning no one else could leave—it would look too obvious and mean, but he was really off his game. Emiko, it seemed, was the only one enjoying his jokes, so he turned his attention directly to her, and Jou thrust her into his arms, taking Momoe's hand and slipping away. Ken and Miyako stayed for the jokes to be nice, which meant, so long as Daisuke didn't look to us, Katsue and I could get away.

Apparently Katsue was on the same page as me because the moment Daisuke looked away she had jumped to her feet and was pulling me from him. We ducked behind Koushiro and Mimi who were arguing about whether or not dancing in public was a good idea, needless to say, Mimi was the one_ for_ the dancing, and sighed with relief—we were free.

At that moment the kitchen door and the front door opened at the same time, two couples stepping through, each holding hands. From the kitchen there was Taichi and Rei, excited to finally be able to dance, and from outside there was Sora and Neo. I was more focused on Sora whose eyes were trailed on me with both fear and sadness.

"Yamato," She said, her voice faltering. She pulled her hand from Neo's and looked to him with a small, nervous smile. "I need to talk to you. You too Taichi."

"B-but—" Taichi looked to Rei, but she shook her head.

"It's fine." She said passively, releasing Taichi's hand, "We have all night." Taichi kissed her cheek before turning to Sora who had grabbed my wrist and started dragging me to the kitchen.

"I'll be right back!" I called to Katsue. She smiled at me, and then turned to find something to do in the meantime.

Soon Sora was sitting on one end of the island counter, and Taichi and I were on the other.

"I..." She was sad—what had happened. I was already prepared to beat Neo into the ground for hurting her, but I'd have to wait for her to actually say what he'd done first. "I was just outside with Neo."

"Noticed," Taichi said quickly, sitting on the edge of the seat and eager to get back to Rei to dance with her.

"And... we were talking," She said slowly.

"Okay, yeah, you're dating, that's not a surprise." Taichi said quickly.

"And then he asked me to marry him." Sora said finally. Taichi had suddenly sunk into his seat, more interested than he had been before. Personally I felt like I had been beaten repetitively all over my body, and didn't want to hear any more, too afraid of what her answer would have been. "And I said yes."

"Sora..." Taichi said his face very serious. Maybe I wouldn't have to voice my opinion—maybe Taichi would say it for me. "That's great!" He was smiling then. Apparently we thought very differently. It was a good thing he'd moved out because I wasn't sure if I could have lived with him and not yelled at him for that. Taichi was standing up to hug Sora but she held her hand up to stop him.

"There's more." She said. Taichi sat down looking just as confused as I felt. "Neo told me, that... if I were to marry him, then I could no longer be... be friends with either of you."

"What?" I blurted out, unable to contain myself.

Taichi put his hand on my shoulder to calm me, "What did you say?"

"Well at first I thought he was crazy." Sora said, "At first I was going to yell at him and tell him that we were a family. There was no way I could _not_ be friends with the two of you. You both mean so much to me—and Taichi—I honestly can't even remember my life before you. But then I started thinking about it... I realized that he had a point. There's so much tension and chemistry in this kitchen right now... I could see where he was coming from."

"I get it." Taichi said, though I could tell he was very sad. He was trying to be supportive of his friend. And that was easy enough for him to do—he was dating Neo's sister, they'd still see each other all the time. But I wouldn't. And I wasn't supportive. I wasn't okay with it. I didn't like it at all.

I tried to voice my opinion, but my voice was so dry and I just couldn't get any words out.

"But," Sora said, placing her hands flat out on the table, "I couldn't live without either of you. And so I told him we couldn't get married... and we broke up."

It took everything I had not to smile or jump for joy. Of course I was sad for her—how could I not be? But I was still so relieved—so happy.

Taichi was suddenly hugging Sora with a mix of gratitude and sorrow, but I couldn't stay any longer. I got to my feet and turned, storming out of the kitchen and into the hallway. I was pushing open the front door when Katsue stopped me.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"I just need air." I told her dryly. She nodded and grabbed her coat, following me outside. I waited for her and then the moment she was by my side I spun and started walking toward the pond. My mind was going crazy and I didn't even know why. I couldn't figure out what was so important about what had happened. There was no change in my life—just now Sora was no longer dating Neo—the man who had tried to kill her only two months prior.

"You look distraught." Katsue said suddenly, grabbing my hand and stopping my fast paced walking, "What happened in the kitchen? What did Sora say?"

"She broke up with Neo." I said bluntly.

"So?" She asked with a smile, stepping closer to me, "Neo's terrible. That's a good thing." She put her hand on my cheek and looked up to me, "Come on. Let's go somewhere more romantic."

"What?" I asked, "Why?"

"J-just because." She stuttered, blushing.

"It's not just that though." I told her, "She broke up with Neo because he asked her to marry him—and if they were to get married she couldn't be friends with me anymore."

"So she picked you over Neo?" Katsue asked, "That's a good choice in my opinion."

I nodded, but turned to look at the water where the stars and the moon were being reflected, causing the light to dance almost magically around us. "I just couldn't breathe. I was so scared that she'd pick Neo over me..."

"But she didn't." Katsue said, putting her hand comfortingly on my shoulder.

"But she could have." I snapped. Katsue retracted her hand as I sat down in the grass. She got down onto her knees next to me and was quiet for a few minutes as we stared into the water.

"You aren't going to propose to me tonight, are you?" She asked finally.

I looked to her, confused, "No," I said, shaking my head.

She nodded and turned back to the water, sighing. "My mother used to tell me that the stars would align for everyone when the time came." I looked up to the stars and saw them all scattered about. I couldn't make heads or tails with what I saw, just a jumbled mess. Like my head. "I thought the stars were aligning with you. I thought you were the one to take me out of the mess I'd gotten myself into."

"Katsue...?" I asked, looking to her as she got to her feet. I could see a single silent tear streaming down her face.

"I'm breaking up with you." She said strongly. I wanted to object, but I still couldn't form words. "I really hope you get her someday Yamato." Katsue put her hand on my shoulder and then turned toward the trees.

"What do you mean?" I asked her as she walked off. She didn't look back though. "Katsue!" I called after her until she was out of sight. I turned back to the water and sighed. So much for a good day.

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

"You are very good at dancing!" Catherine laughed as I spun her around again.

"So are you," I laughed, it was a joke of course—we were both terrible, but that's why we were having so much fun. We were both so... bad at it.

The song ended then and Catherine looked up to me with big eyes, "Want to sit down?"

"I think I'll dance one more time," I said with a grin.

"Oh, with who?" Catherine asked excitedly. She closed her eyes and crossed her fingers, "I hope he picks me!"

"Hello miss," I said, taking her hand, "May I have this dance." Catherine giggled as I pulled her closer to me

"Why of _course_ you may!" She said. We were laughing again for a moment, as we started into the dance, but eventually the laughing stopped and the dancing became very serious, like those around us. Taichi's living room was big enough, with so much open space that the others were all out of hearing distance of our conversations, which was a relief because of what came next. As Catherine was looking up into my eyes she sighed, "I love you Takeru."

At that exact moment though someone had grabbed my arm and dragged me sharply into another corner of the room. Finally I was able to spin around and see that it was Yamato.

"What do you want?" I asked sharply.

"I'll make it quick!" He said defensively, "I just found out what it was like to have someone keep something from me. It was only for a few seconds, but when the truth came out—it hurt. Really bad. And I thought I was going to die. So I just... before I wait too long—"

"Just say it." I said flatly. "Just do it."

Yamato nodded, and looked up to me. "About a month ago I almost kissed Hikari."

Before I could stop myself, I had balled up my hand into a fist and punched my brother as hard as I could in the chest. He coughed loudly and clutched his chest.

"I think I'm _actually_ dying this time." He gasped.

I was calm again though as I tried to steady him, and in all actuality I had no idea what had caused me to get so angry in the first place. "Sorry about that..." I said slowly, "but why would you think I wanted to know that?"

"Because I know what it's like to have something you love be impossible to get." He said as he inhaled deeply. When Yamato was steady again he patted me on the shoulder. "I'm going back outside though."

"Why?" I asked.

He pulled a harmonica out of his jacket pocket and shrugged, "Just need some time to think." And then he was gone, leaving me to spin back around and find Catherine who was waiting for me. I rushed back to her and said, "Now where were we?" I took her hand again and began dancing slowly.

"You were about to tell me that you loved me too." Catherine said. Right. Suddenly the realization of what she'd said had washed over me. She _loved_ me. And now she wanted me to love her back. I wasn't very old. Did I even truly know what love was? Had I ever honestly felt love?

Did I love Catherine?

No.

What had Ken said earlier? _'True love is a very real thing. It doesn't develop over time. You uncover it over time. You'll know the difference one day. And when your prince or princess arrives, you'll just know.'_ Now, I wasn't looking for a prince—just a princess. Was Catherine that princess? Did I feel the true love I was supposed to feel with my true love... with her?

No.

What had Yamato said to me just a moment ago? _'I just found out what it was like to have someone keep something from me. It was only for a few seconds, but when the truth came out—it hurt. Really bad.' _I found myself turning toward Miyako, who was dancing with Jou, the two of them laughing at one another. Honour. I had to look for the honourable thing... I couldn't keep the truth from her... and she wasn't my princess. That _was_ the truth, and the honourable thing would be to tell her that.

"Catherine..." I said slowly, "I need to talk to you."

"What's wrong?" She asked slowly and quietly, looking around nervously. I guess she could tell what was coming already.

"I'm sorry." Was all I said, and she knew what was going on.

"You don't love me." She said with a nod, her nostrils flaring as she wiped under her eyes to catch any stray tears before they ruined her makeup. "And now you're breaking up with me?" I nodded slowly. "Takeru... breaking up with someone in such a public setting right after they tell you that they love you isn't really socially acceptable."

"I-I'm sorry..." I stuttered, "I just... you're not... _the one_."

"Oh, I understand." She said with a nod, "I'm not happy about it... but I suppose I get it."

"Do you want to talk about it...?" I asked slowly, not really sure how relationships were supposed to end. Was it really even a relationship? We'd just hung out a lot really—never even kissed...

Catherine hugged me and then pulled away, shaking her head, "No, I don't." She then turned to all of the digimon and held her hand out for Floramon who was already looking her way. "I understand." She said once more as Floramon ran toward her, "Goodbye Takeru."

"B-bye..." I stuttered as she smiled at me, then turned and left the room.

I threw my head back and bit my lip.

All I wanted at that moment was to be alone. I found myself following Catherine out of the living room, but instead of going outside I stormed up the stairs and found the nearest room, which looked like Taichi's bedroom, and sat in a corner in the darkness.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"It's almost midnight!" I heard Mimi say excitedly as she passed through the kitchen, "Look alive Sora!" As she stepped into the dining room where I was sitting next to a guitar Yamato had poorly wrapped for Rei's birthday. "You too Hikari! It's officially Rei's birthday in five minutes!" She grinned at me and then bounced out of the room.

How could I 'look alive' though? I was far too sad to do that. I didn't even really know why. Hideto told me he knew my feelings better than I knew them myself, which honestly didn't seem to be too difficult. I'd just made so many mistakes in my life... So many—and I didn't understand how to move forward from them all.

"Hikari?" Rei's voice pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to see her and Taichi holding hands and looking down to me. "Are you alright? Do you want to talk?"

"I've got this." Taichi said with a nod.

"No, go dance." I said, waving them off.

"We'll dance after you're happy." Rei nodded, patting Taichi's shoulder, "Good luck," She whispered into his ear before turning from the room. Taichi pulled out the chair next to me and sat down, sliding the guitar out of the way. We sat silently for a moment before he decided it was time to start.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Does this have to do with your breakup with Willis that you didn't tell me about for some reason?" I didn't respond, so he nodded and continued, "You know... you and Willis were never really right for each other. He was your stepping stone—but not the final one. You did the mature thing by breaking up with him Hikari. It's best for both of you."

"It's not just that." I said finally taking part in the conversation, "I... I just... I don't get my feelings. I don't understand myself."

"Well that's obvious." Taichi said with a small laugh. I shot him a glare, but just the way he was laughing was too comforting to actually be mad at him. "You're a flirt and you don't even realize it. You don't understand what power you have over guys."

"What do you mean?" I asked him slowly.

"I mean that you attract more guys than a strip club." Taichi said bluntly, "You don't even see it happening which is pretty funny. But I guess someone had to tell you eventually."

"Tell me _what_?" I asked, "I don't get it."

"Think... Willis." Taichi said, "And Daisuke, Takeru, and Hideto."

"And Marshall." I said, realizing where he was going with this.

"And Dragomon," Taichi joked.

"And Yamato..."

"What?" Taichi asked sharply.

"Nothing!" I said quickly.

Taichi shook his head and moved on. "Doesn't matter. What does matter is that you need to stop being so flirty and girly around every guy around you. Look inside yourself and figure out your feelings, because if you can't do it, than no one can." Taichi stood up suddenly, patting my shoulder.

"Thanks Taichi." I said, nodding, "Now go dance with Rei," I smiled at him. He smiled back and then turned to find her.

Taichi was right about a lot of things, I decided as I stood up as well. He was right that all of those boys had been on my hook. I'd been accidentally—unintentionally using each and every one of them—well not Marshall or Dragomon—but still. I was the worst kind of person. He was right that I needed to figure out my feelings, but he was wrong about one thing.

I looked to Hideto, who was leaning against a wall with Kiyoko standing next to him. Willis blocked my view for a moment.

"Where's Mari?" He asked excitedly.

"She went home bro," Hideto said before leading Kiyoko away from Willis.

Taichi was wrong when he said that only I could figure out my feelings. Because Hideto could help. And I was going to need all the help I could get.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

The party was not nearly as happy as I wanted it to be. Maybe it was just me? Sora nearly gave me a heart attack—even though I was trying to be understanding—when she said she agreed to marry Neo. I realize I was supportive of their relationship, but I was sure they should have waited longer than they did. The real kicker though, was when she fooled me into thinking we couldn't be friends anymore. I kind of wanted to punch Neo in his smug face when she told us his ultimatum. I was ridiculously pleased to know I meant more to her than Neo did. Yamato did too, but I didn't care so much about that since there was a rumour going around the house that he was going to propose too, only to Katsue. Why the hell wasn't I informed about that? And since Yamato wasn't going to do something this big without telling me first, where did the rumour come from?

I hadn't seen Takeru or Catherine in awhile, and when I asked Jou, he said that he'd seen Takeru go upstairs to my bedroom. I couldn't even guess at what might be going on up there—though I comforted myself with the knowledge that they hadn't kissed one another yet.

I'd just left Hikari to mull over my advice, and felt kind of bad about it since I'd left Willis in the same room looking like someone had just run over his puppy. And Hideto was there to, and he was one of the boys I'd warned Hikari about. Thankfully that Kiyoko kid was there too. He didn't even like Hikari's presence, so I didn't have to worry about him trying to date her.

Daisuke had finally given up his comedy routine, and was just dancing with Emiko—his sole audience member—now, who was asleep on his shoulder. Kurayami didn't seem quite as mad at him when she saw the scene, but I didn't think she was exactly happy with him either. Ken and Miyako were dancing next to the pair, and Jou was with Momoe off to the side. Even Iori was dancing with Sora, who'd dragged him out to the dance floor, probably to interrogate him over something or other.

I really needed to find Rei.

She wasn't in the living room with the rest of the gang, and she wasn't curled up with the digimon in the corner who were watching another movie—the few that were still awake in any case. I managed to hunt her down in the kitchen, where she was leaning over the counter, piling up assorted treats onto a platter to bring out to the guests. I wrapped my arms around her, surprising her enough to make her let out a small yelp.

"You're not supposed to be working on your birthday," I whispered in her ear.

"Someone has to," she said with a smile. "And I don't mind. It's not any trouble. I can just whizz in and out of the kitchen, Taichi."

"I'll do it later," I promised, pushing the tray out of her reach.

"Taichi," she complained.

"None of that, birthday girl," I teased. "I've got something very special in mind for you."

"Whatever could it be?" she asked lightly. I walked over to the windowsill, where I had a small CD player sitting. The radio on it didn't work, since I was _way_ too far out of range for any of the signals, but I pressed a button to start up the CD I'd last listened to. It was loud and didn't have a very good beat for dancing, but it was going to have to do.

"May I have this dance?" I asked, bowing down and holding out my hand.

"I don't know…" she said looking cautiously to the door. She was expecting someone to walk through it no doubt. I was too. No one seemed to want the two of us to dance, they were always interrupting. I took two steps towards the door and slammed it shut.

"It's just us, now," I promised, taking her hand in mine, pulling her close so I could hold her waist with my other hand. She gently placed her hand on my shoulder and rested her head against my chest as we swayed to a much slower beat than the song suggested. I didn't mind though. It was really nice to finally be able to have this moment with her. Well, it was…until she started bawling.

"What did I do?" I asked. "Did I step on you?"

"N-no," she sobbed. "I j-just really l-love you for th-this, T-Taichi. I've wanted to d-dance for so l-long!"

"I know," I told her softly, hugging her closer to me. "I don't look _that_ oblivious, do I?"

"K-kinda," she joked. I rolled my eyes over exaggeratedly, and leaned down to kiss her real quick.

"Happy birthday, Rei," I murmured.

"Best. Birthday. Ever," she insisted, before kissing me again. I was really happy in that moment and I hoped that the others were too, because it was just too perfect of a night to _not_ be.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Some groundwork is laid for the upcoming, tumultuous climax later in the final arc.


	41. Counselling

**Y/N:** I'm tired.

**U/N:** Happy Birthday world :D

Two chapters ago Iori said the cellphones don't work and then Jou and Mimi used them-that's a little joke about how in like chapter 11 or whatever it was when Matt used them we had a little controversy between us and the reviewers, so you. It was just a little joke. I feel like anyone who asked could have had them boosted up by Koushiro to be able to work :P

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 41: Counselling **

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

After Rei had opened her presents it was time for everyone to go home. It was late, and we had to be on lookout because we all knew—well I could only assume the others knew, but it seemed they must. We all knew though, that that everything was far from over. We were in a calm before the storm. Perhaps Daisuke and I knew more than anyone.

"_Where is Norn?" I'd asked a month ago, walking into the apartment, I turned back to Daisuke who was sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. In front of him was a printed out email that was from the person who needed his help. Slowly he looked up to me and shrugged his shoulders._

"_She said..." Daisuke stopped talking to phrase it correctly, "Her master has made a decision, and then she left."_

Between Norn's mysterious master, the person after Daisuke's assistance, Arkadimon, and the ghost of my mother, there was just... so much that was not over here. Not yet.

Daisuke's hand was shaking as he placed it in mine. We waved goodbye to everyone who was at Rei's party and left the room with Labramon and Veemon. The relationship between all four of us had been virtually the same. Veemon remained mostly confused, but remained steady, ready to help when needed, Labramon was trying to make up for keeping the secret of my brother Yukai being the ghost that had been following me around, and Daisuke and I tried to hold onto a relationship that was just blocked from moving further due to the fear and confusion both of us had that was holding us back. I hadn't seen my mother since that day—nor had I seen Yukai for that matter, but that meant nothing.

I'd gone so many years without seeing my mother, just because I hadn't seen her in a month didn't mean she was gone. I knew there was more there. She was... so different. So dark.

_There, in the mirror was my mother, and I couldn't help but to scream at the sight of her. Her eyes were so black... so dark. Her blueing lips curled into a cold, dead grin and the icy breath coming from her mouth ran all over my neck. _

_I was unable to move. I wanted to run away, grab Labramon and my father and just... leave. But I couldn't do that. Either out of fear, some form of magic, or the cold itself, I was frozen in place._

It was exactly like that for a long time. I couldn't focus on how much time had actually been passing, and instead found myself staring into her eyes. It wasn't even the look that she had been giving me. It wasn't the purpley-red veins that spread across her pale cheeks. It wasn't the cold, lifeless breath, or the voice that wasn't hers—it was what that voice had said. _"I'm coming for you my darling. One day soon we'll be happy together. We'll be a happy family, just like I promised."_ Every single night since then I'd had to bury myself into Daisuke's arms, too afraid of being alone. And when Daisuke worked late at his noodle cart I would stay up late with Takeru, drinking coffee and watching sappy romantic comedies until he came home. Takeru didn't seem to enjoy it too much, but he was at least understanding—Labramon fell asleep to easily, and Veemon was always out with Daisuke, and what with Norn having picked up and left, Takeru was my only option. He was a good friend—though I imagined every friend would be good in that situation, or else they wouldn't be a friend at all. Not in my books anyway.

But even if I knew all of that, there was still something that seemed off about everything going on.

Staying up late with Takeru gave me plenty of time to theorize with him about what went on, and other than Daisuke he was the only one I'd told about my mother, Norn, my brother or anything really. He'd helped me come to the true question though. And that was, why doesn't everything fit? In his first adventure to the Digital World it was like stepping stones, the gears were sent by Devimon who was working for Myotismon, then the Dark Masters were working for Apocalymon. The second time around, it was all Ken, then they found out Ken was working for Arukenimon and Mummymon who had been being manipulated by Myotismon in the long run. Then when I was their foe it was the Crest Digimon ruled by the Sovereign, and then Apocalymon again—tying them all together. The ruler of the Sovereign was Fanglongmon, and then Dragomon—although seemingly random, truly did fit in the storyline in the long run. So why didn't anything work this time?

_Why doesn't everything fit?_

The Death Knights who were mostly destroyed at that time were working for whom? No one? Then what were they doing? Daemon, who had been chasing Ken for ten years finally chose to attack, Neo and his Allias III, and Arkadimon, my mother and Norn. They all seemed so off and random. In some ways it made sense, but only if I were to look at them as separate issues. But if they truly were separate issues why had they all chosen the same time to strike?

Why was the Digital World recruiting so many digidestined? What was going on so suddenly that we couldn't handle it like we had in the past?

And _who_ was Norn's master?

"You alright?" Daisuke asked me as I subconsciously began to squeeze his hand tight. For the most part we'd been silent when it came to our time together, so I hadn't even noticed that I'd been thinking long enough for us to leave the Digital World and land in out apartment. Now, being fully aware, I'd noticed that we'd left Takeru behind, though he knew the way back so I wasn't too worried.

"I'm fine," I said, smiling up at Daisuke.

He nodded and released my hand, stepping to the kitchen. I heard him bring out the kettle. He was going to make some tea to help me sleep, as was the usual routine lately when he was home.

"Daisuke," I said quietly, staring toward Takeru's room that was made up of curtains mostly. Daisuke had poked his head out of the room in a second with a hopeful smile. "Should we move Takeru's things into Norn's room now?"

"If you think that's a good idea," He said with a quick nod. When Norn had first arrived Takeru was still gone, so he'd gotten the short end of the stick when he'd returned. We were unable to let Norn sleep on the couch, it wasn't fair she was too young, and literally homeless, so when he came back we set up a room for him in the living room.

"I think it's time." I said before turning to Labramon and Veemon, "Will you two help?"

"Sure thing!" Veemon cheered, rushing over to Takeru's bedroom area. Labramon nodded and followed along. The two of us hadn't spoken much either since I'd figured out my crest. I was happy he'd snapped me out of the funk I'd been in, but it was still so difficult to find a way to talk to him without resenting one another, and if we did manage we'd end up talking about what had happened in my father's kitchen.

Daisuke came back from the kitchen and headed to Takeru's room so I followed behind. Together we packed up all of his things, which I knew he wouldn't mind since he'd been asking to move into the room for a while. Daisuke had kept telling him to stay where he was, convinced that Norn was coming back or something. I had a feeling that deep down Daisuke really thought that Norn was going to be with us forever. Either that or that she had something to do with the mystery person asking for his help.

I let Veemon and Daisuke take all the things into the room, while Labramon dragged Patamon's dog-bed along as I settled on taking the curtains down, and cleaning the area around the bed, which we'd have to decide what to do with.

Just as I was dumping the contents of the dustbin into the trash, the front door began rattling, and then I heard a groan. Soon there was knocking. "I forgot my key..." Takeru's voice came from the other end. "Please open the door..."

"They're probably sleeping Takeru," Patamon said. I moved quickly and pulled the door open and tried to smile, but failed especially due to Takeru's state. He looked like he'd had the worst night of his life.

"Oh good," He said with a sigh of relief, patting me on the shoulder and stepping into the room. He turned to his bedroom and then froze, "Do I get a room now?"

"What's wrong?" I asked accidentally. "I-I mean—"

"It's okay," He told me, sitting down on the stripped bed, Patamon landing softly beside him. I looked over my shoulder, convinced someone was watching me but then rushed over and sat next to Takeru. "I just thought I'd be further in life." He said with a sigh, "I mean, I know everyone feels this way sometimes, but... I just... I always thought true love would be waiting for me, just out of school, I thought I'd figure out what I wanted to be, do that, and have a happy family."

"You're like, twenty years old Takeru," I tried, but he cut me off.

"Yeah, I've lived twenty years and have nothing to show for it." He sighed.

"You found love with Catherine, right?" I said with a shrug, "you want to be a writer—the family will come into play later."

"Broke up with Catherine." He said bluntly, "My writing sucks."

When had he done that? Last I'd seen the two of them were dancing together... it must have happened while I was too caught up in my head during the party. "Even so," I said simply, "Catherine was your first girlfriend, right? You'll get there Takeru—and I'm sure your writing doesn't suck."

"Want to read it?" he offered, getting to his feet and pulling out, from between the mattresses, a battered manuscript of his book. He handed it to me and I looked over the first page quickly.

"This is a new version of it." I noted. I'd read what he'd written before, and apparently the advice I'd given him was the same that everyone else had. "Is this what you've been doing when you run off to the library?"

He nodded, "Miyako helped me here and there."

"Well this is really good Takeru." I said with a smile, "I don't see what the problem is. With a few edits this will be wonderful."

"You've only read the first page." Takeru said softly trying to hide the obvious smile creeping onto his face.

"I have confidence though," I smiled at him. That wasn't true—I had confidence for _him_. I still wasn't even really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted something that could help people, but I didn't want to be a doctor or a nurse, or a police officer—and certainly not a fireman. But I wanted to help people... and so all that was left in plain sight was a therapist, but could I really take hold of everyone else's problems and fix them if I couldn't fix my own?

"Oh hey," Daisuke was back in the room with a smile, "We moved all your stuff, which you probably... already noticed."

"Is my bed in there too?" Patamon asked excitedly.

"By the window, just like you like it!" Veemon cheered, popping out from between Daisuke's legs, almost knocking him over. He nearly dropped the large box he was holding trying to balance himself.

"Oh goody!" Patamon hopped off the bed and set off at a run toward the bedroom, desperate for sleep.

Takeru tucked his manuscript under his arm and got to his feet, "What's in the box?"

"Norn's things." Daisuke said with a heavy hint of awkward. "Not sure what to do with it all really." He stepped over top of Veemon's head and strode toward the coffee table, dropping the box there. "It's all random junk we can't even use."

Takeru, Veemon, Daisuke and I spent the next half hour or so, going through the box of things that we should have gone through when she left. It felt weird to be going through her things, especially since I felt as if she could show up at any moment.

We piled up all of her dresses and the rest of her clothing with her collection of rocks for things that we didn't need. I kept all of her drawings, too attached to them to let them go. Finally, in the bottom of the box was a separate box, an antique wooden cube with intricate carvings all over it.

"What is it?" Takeru asked as Daisuke pulled it out.

"You should open it!" Veemon said excitedly. Daisuke nodded and did as he was told, unlatching it and pulling it open. At first the look on his face made me think it was empty, but he reached in and pulled out the heavy metal key that Norn had been carrying around.

"What's that?" Takeru asked quietly.

"It's Norn's house key." Daisuke said, dropping it back in the box. "She said it was the only piece of home she had left."

"Well we can't very well throw it out." I decided, snatching the box from Daisuke. I hastily picked up Norn's drawings and then spun on my heel. "We can take her clothes to be donated or something, and the rest of this we'll keep." I was standing by the kitchen door now, which led to the only staircase. "I'm going to bed now—Daisuke... can you come before something finds a way to have me killed? Or... worse."

Daisuke smiled comfortingly and nodded. "G'night Takeru." Daisuke said, "Lucky you gets all three digimon on the same floor as you."

"Lucky?" Takeru joked, "Obviously you've never heard Veemon snore."

"Nah," Daisuke said, "I can't hear him over myself. I'm a louder snorer. We had a contest once." I wondered for a moment how they had judged it, but shrugged it off. I was sure they were creative enough to figure it out. Daisuke led the way to the bedroom, so I turned around and waved goodnight to Takeru before looking down to the things I'd kept.

I placed them on the counter and sighed. Why couldn't I throw them away? What good were they to me? It didn't matter. I decided I'd go to sleep and figure out what to do with them in the morning.

_**Michael Washington:**_

I slowly closed the door to the party. The only people still in there with Taichi and Rei were Mimi, Koushiro, Neo, Hideto and Kiyoko. Although I knew I'd have to add Neo, Hideto, Kiyoko, and Mari to my list of people to befriend eventually, I just wasn't in the mood, and throw in Taichi and I barely knew anyone. Tatum had already gone home, leaving me and Betamon virtually alone, so I'd bid the others farewell and left after wrapping up a couple pieces of cake to bring home since Mimi had made such a gigantic cake.

The moment I was outside I was met by the cold breeze of the night, rushing through the leaves in the trees and the grass on the ground, crossing over the pond. Everything smelled so wonderful. I'd still not gotten used to the Digital World being back in place—not that it really was. There was still no fire, and thus, no sun, but when there was nothing, there was... well, nothing. There was no scents, no air—no _anything_. So the familiar smells of the Digital World were warmly welcome.

"You want to go home?" Betamon asked.

"Whatever you want," I told him. It was as if I could never make up for what I'd done. I felt better than I had before, with Betamon spending a full month trying to convince me he was still happy as long as we were together, but I found it hard to believe since he had been tortured for three years. Plus it was even harder for me to stay calm since there was apparently something that wanted use of my body.

"Well personally, I don't care what we do," Betamon said dramatically, "But I couldn't help notice that cake you've got there."

I chuckled and nodded. "Let's go sit down somewhere and have a picnic." I offered.

"That sounds smashing," Betamon giggled. Betamon and I used to have picnics all the time... though the evil fake-Betamon had screwed with that tradition by making my life a nightmare, but the real Betamon and I were finally back together and there was nothing more I could ask for.

We had just sat down by a tree close to the pond when I heard the voices in the trees. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I spun to face the darkness. Betamon was standing guard already, but I used my hand to steady him. I didn't want any unnecessary fighting, he didn't need any more injuries in this lifetime.

"Hello?" I said as calmly as I could, hoping that whoever was out in the darkness wasn't as mean as anyone who would usually be sitting in the darkness. I heard a few hisses and then silence. "Hello?" I said again.

"Michael..." Betamon said cautiously, "Maybe we should get out of here."

I nodded and grabbed the cake, but froze when I heard a voice in the trees. "I smell cake."

The voice was familiar enough for me to recognize. "Lalamon?"

"Michael?" Lalamon's voice sang. I turned to Betamon and motioned for him to follow me into the trees. I was at ease instantly after that. It was just Lalamon, and probably Mari. My suspicions were proven to be true when I spotted the two of them sitting by a tree, mostly shrouded in darkness. I stopped in front of them and smiled, sitting down. "What are you guys doing out here?" Lalamon asked.

"Well," Betamon said, "We were having a picnic, care to join us?"

Mari and Lalamon exchanged glances that were practically a telepathic conversation and then they both turned as one to nod to me. I grinned and offered them a piece of cake. Lalamon fluttered forward and took the piece of cake before floating back to her place and ripping the cake in half, handing the larger half to Mari. I let Betamon eat the second piece to himself. He offered some to me, but I wasn't very hungry anyway. After a while of silence I figured one of us had to say something.

"So what were _you_ guys doing out here?" I asked.

"We were just talking." Lalamon said.

"About stuff." Mari continued.

"What kind of stuff?" Betamon asked bluntly.

Mari and Lalamon turned to each other again and as one, shrugged their shoulders. Mari turned to me an sighed, "Just about me I guess." She was silent for a moment as she took another bite of the cake and then handed the rest over to Lalamon who had just finished her own. Lalamon took it with an excited hum and began eating more cake. "It's stupid."

"Nah," I said, "You can say it."

"You're a guy," Mari said pointedly.

"Ohh she got you," Betamon joked, clearly confused. I turned to him and tried to show him that I was confused too, but was too lost to even express a proper emotion.

"I just mean that you don't care." Mari sighed, "Guys always pretend to care so they can get on the good side of a woman. Well it's not going to work Michael Washington," She said pointing her finger daringly at me. "I know what you're up to."

"I have a girlfriend." I said simply. She didn't respond, and instead looked down toward the ground, reaching up and grabbing the end of her side pony-tail, stroking it nervously. "I'll tell you what," I said, "I'll tell you something about myself, make me all vulnerable and stuff, so it'll be easier for you to say what you want to say."

"Sounds exciting." Lalamon said, her mouth full of cake.

"Let's do it then," Mari agreed.

"Alright," I nodded. I closed my eyes and tried to think of the perfect thing to tell her, something about myself that she didn't already know that would show her how vulnerable I really was. She, as well as everyone else knew about Betamon, so I dug deeper into my past and found only one real solution. "My mother... was killed by a digimon... thirteen years ago... my dad tried to be a good father, but he was always working, or travelling and leaving us with a nanny. Life would have been better had I not been so scared of Betamon when I'd first met him... but that wasn't the case. I was left to raise Jenna on my own really since the nannies all sucked." I stopped, and then laughed silently for a second, "It's funny... even as I tell you that I know it's a lie though. After maybe two years... Jenna started raising herself. She was so strong and independent—but I wanted her to know mom so bad that I actually started acting like her... I would say things she'd told me, lie to her about stories in my past that had actually happened to Mom... I just really wanted Jenna to know what it was like to be around Mom. She would never remember her since she was so young when it happened..."

I could have continued, but that was enough of my back story. I wasn't looking for sympathy, but I knew it was coming by the way Lalamon and Mari were looking to each other. I raised my hands to silence them but they ignored me.

"I didn't know." Mari said quietly.

"You seem so happy all the time," Lalamon pointed out, looking to Mari in shock.

"It's called acting." I said with a shrug. "I don't like the outer shell to show how much pain really goes on inside."

"That's why you always smile?" Betamon asked quietly. I looked to him and nodded, realizing that even at that moment I was smiling. My smile fell instantly and I broke eye contact with him. Hadn't he known that? Maybe we didn't know each other very well, I'd have to change that.

I looked up to Mari and nodded, "Your turn."

"Right," She said, her lips tightening as she stared me in the eyes with a fiercely brave look. "Mine isn't as... heartbreaking as yours." I nodded, telling her that it was fine, and she moved on. "A while ago... about nine years ago, my parents kicked me out of their home... because I wasn't... I wasn't the person they'd hoped to see when they looked to me, so I had nowhere to go, no friends to stay with... I was alone. Lalamon was... well she was there, though we didn't talk."

"Ever." Lalamon continued, "All we'd do is sit in silence and watch each other move. It was weird, but we got to know each other on a more personal level that way."

"Anyway," Mari nodded, "I ended up living with my crazy grandmother who was disowned by the family as well. She ran a library here in Odaiba. Getting the money to come from America to Japan was tricky, but when I did, I was stuck with my grandmother. All because... well, Willis." I wasn't exactly sure how Willis fit into that scenario, but I let it slide since she didn't bother to explain it. "Neo came along and told me that he wanted me to work for him... and why would I deny him that? It was at least something better to do than working with books day in and day out. That was when Lalamon and I finally started to communicate with words, because Neo made us. He told us that the reason he wanted us on his team was because we were so in sync."

"We were closer than any partners had ever been." Lalamon agreed. "Or so he said."

"Well we are kind of awesome." Mari said, poking Lalamon playfully, causing her to giggle. Suddenly Mari's face fell and she turned to me. "My grandmother died a couple weeks ago." Mari said bluntly. I didn't even know what to say, it had just come out of nowhere, but she continued, so I didn't have to say anything at all, "The thing is though... I was so scared to go to the funeral. I was... I was scared to see my parents."

"How did it go?" I asked, noting her pause.

"It went smoothly." Mari said quietly, "Because they didn't show up. No one did. Lalamon and I were the only two who came to her funeral. I mean, I know Hideto or Miyako—or maybe even Kiyoko would have come with me, but I didn't want to..."

"She didn't want to draw attention to a weakness." Lalamon said, climbing up onto Mari's lap.

I was honestly hoping one of them would continue again. She'd warned me that the story wasn't going to be heartbreaking—but it was. She'd lied. That was one of the saddest things I'd ever heard, and I hadn't lived a life of sunshine and happiness myself.

"That's so sad..." Betamon said quietly.

Mari nodded to him and shrugged her shoulders, "She was far more interested in her books than anything else. I buried her with her favourite one..." Mari trailed off for a moment before coming back into focus. "The point is, she was alone. Her husband had left her in favour of her children who hated her... she was alone. I mean, she had me... but I'm alone too, with just Lalamon. And... If I'm the lonely one, that means that Lalamon will be alone at my funeral. I'm... I'm scared of being alone Michael."

"Mari," I said quickly, leaning forward and grabbing her hand, as her gaze faltered finally, "When you die—which won't be for a long, long time, we'll all be there. Even Iori—and he hates everyone."

"But you'll only come because I have a crest." Mari said. I tried to protest but she cut me off. "There are other digidestined you know. Like... Maria. She's from America—I met her once. Apparently you met her too?" I nodded, "Would you go to her funeral?" I slowly shook my head, "Exactly. Because I have a mysterious random crest which is literally known as one of the four 'Dark Traits' you'll all show up to my funeral."

"Mari," I said, shaking my head, "This is the first conversation I've ever had with you I think, and honestly, you're one of the most interesting people I've ever met. You're so strong, and so passionate. It's insane. I'm coming to your funeral whether you like it or not. Wow that was a weird sentence." Mari laughed a little, "And so will Hideto and Kiyoko of course—the kid is a little prone to anger, but I know he secretly likes you. At least a little bit." Again, she laughed, "And Willis." And her laughter stopped there. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No." She said quickly.

"She was supposed to tell Willis if she loved him." Lalamon said quickly, "He told her that she had until midnight to make a decision."

"So you ran away?" Betamon asked.

Mari nervously looked between the three of us and then nodded. "I can't make a decision. All my life Willis has been in the back of my mind—but at the same time... it's never worked out. So why would it now?" She sighed, "besides I haven't decided what I want to do with my life yet. That comes first. I come first. I'm not some sappy damsel in distress. I'm not going to let some guy shape my life. Everyone always goes on about how they had to choose between love and career. Well I'm stuck on career versus career. Love will never oppose my career."

"Well that sounds pretty lonely." I said quietly before remembering how Mari had just been afraid of being alone. I suddenly wanted to punch myself repeatedly in the face for accidentally making a rude reference to it, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Maybe," She agreed. "But my parents always wanted me to find love and focus on that—but I never wanted that. I want... two people. Two, _whole_ people in a relationship. Both of their lives laid out in front of them. Both of them on the way to the top of the world—I want their lives to naturally intermingle. I want... true love. I don't want to have to pick between my love for a man, and my love for myself. I don't think it's worth it." I had to admit, she had a really cool way of seeing things, though I didn't know how that would work out. Tatum and I had been together for a while but we both had separate lives—similar lives and yet still separate, though we'd grown that way, that wasn't what Mari was speaking of. "Anyway. It doesn't matter—what matters, is making the decision. I need to figure out if I should to go America, or stay in Japan—if I should go into culinary arts, or some sort of art..."

"Well," I said, clearing my throat, "I'm not sure I'm the best person to give you advice, but... just taking inspiration from the way you see things... perhaps, if you have to choose between two and are unable to do so without strife, then neither are calling for you. Something out there must be calling your name Mari... you'll find it... and _him_ one day."

Mari smiled at me, seemingly put at ease which was nice, I was glad to have helped in any way at all. Suddenly both Mari and Lalamon stretched out their arms and sighed in complete unison as if their brains were hardwired together.

"I think it's time for bed," Lalamon said, looking up to Mari.

"I agree," She nodded before turning to me, "Thanks for the cake... and everything. It was nice talking to you guys." Mari flashed a smile to Betamon and then patted me on the head with a wink before giving us the final farewells and then leaving us alone in the trees and the darkness.

"She's very different." Betamon said pointedly, "Not like the other girls in our group."

"Not at all." I agreed, but I couldn't help but admire that about her. She was definitely meant for something big, I just couldn't figure out what it was yet, and it wasn't my place to do so. It was hers.

As I was getting to my feet I heard someone breathing behind me. Instantly any happiness and hope I'd had from the talk with Mari was gone as I whipped around to see who it was, but there was nothing—no one there. I turned to Betamon and he nodded, he must have felt it too. With that, the two of us turned and got out of there. Whatever it was, I didn't want to stick around to find out.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

"Has anyone found a suitable replacement for Marrow?" I asked, somewhat hesitantly. I wasn't looking forward to having another potentially evil member of our council, but everyone was insistent that we keep our numbers the same. That meant, of course, that we needed two replacements, but no one seemed overly concerned with Erif at all. To make matters worse, Babamon and MetalifeKuwagamon were very wary of believing me when I claimed that Marrow was pure evil and needed to be replaced following his death.

"_Marrow is dead," I had announced as I burst into the council room. They groaned at my appearance. Apparently it hadn't been nearly long enough for another meeting. But it was really important that I give them an update._

"_What makes you so certain?" Babamon asked._

"_I killed him myself," I said proudly. _

"_With my help of course," Agumon pointed out._

"_It was mostly him, actually," I decided. "But he's dead."_

"_How dare you kill a fellow council member!" MetalifeKuwagamon raged. Ogremon prepared to fight, in case I attacked him next. Tinkermon hid behind Babamon, screaming that I should get rid of the old hag first._

"_Calm down," I shouted over the din. "I'm not going to kill you. Marrow was different. He was evil!"_

"_What evidence do you have to show such a claim?" Babamon demanded, holding her ground._

"_Well…he was a digimon!"_

It wasn't my brightest moment. It had taken ages to convince them that I wasn't the evil one out to destroy all of digimon-kind. Benjamin had actually taken my side of things right from the start and managed to convince them that he wasn't a real member of the Temple, despite his disguise—though even Benjamin couldn't explain to me how he managed to fit in the disguise. He was way too big for it to make sense to me. Koushiro tried to explain his theory, but I didn't care enough to try and figure out what he was trying to say. It was D'Arcmon that finally swayed them to my side when she announced quite plainly that Marrow was the Death Knight of Ice and I should be commended for my service to the Digital World, rather than attacked for it. I didn't get an award though. Just another thing to pile on my to-do list—which I mostly just shoved at Koushiro—as I was now in charge of hunting down Erif, who was now the assumed Death Knight of fire. The final one. The one that, once defeated, would restore the passing of time to its rightful speed and save me from the wrath of the council that hated my meetings.

Thankfully, I'd moved into the Digital World, and spent so much time there working on building my house that despite the month that passed on Earth, it was only a week in the Digital World. A whole week, meaning the council should actually have information for me at this point in time. I was ridiculously excited to go to work that morning.

"I've searched all through the Neverland Sector, and haven't found anyone worthwhile," Tinkermon offered. "Though I have found that there is something off about the air back at home. That's never a good sign. The Neverland Sector is full of magic, and is very sensitive to the goings on of the Digital World. Do you know of anything that could be causing the trouble?"

"Arkadimon, maybe. There's also Erif out there somewhere," I commented.

"There's always the chance that it's someone or something we've yet to encounter," Koushiro suggested. "There's been a distinct pattern of such things in the past."

"That's great," Benjamin said sarcastically. I could tell that the bout of peace was getting to him as much as it was me. I wanted the fighting out of the way. I hated waiting for it. "We could be attacked by anything at anytime. Very detailed."

"Have you learned anything from the Temple's researchers?" Centarumon wanted to know.

"No," Benjamin said moodily. I wouldn't doubt it. They only seemed to have prophesies to look through anyway. They clearly didn't understand what a research team was supposed to do. I didn't think most of those prophesies could be any use these days either, since they'd already come to pass.

"I do not think it is just Neverland," D'Arcmon said softly. "Neverland is merely feeling the effects most severely."

"She's right," Divermon agreed. "The water is back, and it should be wonderful, but the heat is making it near impossible for the aquatic digimon to return to their underwater homes."

"The water is hot?" Agumon questioned, and received a nod in return.

"That makes little sense," Ogremon countered. "The desserts are filling with snow as we speak."

"Don't tell me the weather is as out of control as the time is," I groaned. Couldn't we ever catch a break?

"I'm quite pleased with the status of the insect digimon at the present time," MetalifeKuwagamon inputted as if reading my mind and supplying me with a small thread of good news. "Now that the age old feud between HerculesKabuterimon and GranKuwagamon has been dealt with, they have all calmed down greatly."

Koushiro preened at the mention of his digimon, and actually looked away from his laptop screen. It was strange that he'd brought it with him. He typically paid attention to the meetings, rather than typing away as he was now.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"Running a scan of the Digital World," he told me. "I'm analyzing the weather patterns to see if I can determine a source. So far all I've found is sporadic storms and hot spells. I can't even fathom what the scan is trying to tell me about Neverland."

"Nothing new then," I sighed. I did a quick run-through of our unfinished business. Arkadimon was still out there, there was a chance that there were still armies in training—which I doubted, but the chance was still there—Erif was still wandering around continuing the mission of the Death Knights. Those were only the enemies that I knew about. I really needed to get the digidestined together and see if there was anything else they weren't telling me.

"The excessive heat troubles me," Andromon commented. "The factory is overheating, and production had come to a near standstill."

I wisely didn't tell him that the production level hadn't changed then. The factory put things together only to tear them apart again. It didn't really do anything worthwhile, except keep Andromon—and probably a few other machine digimon—entertained.

"Where is the heat even coming from?" Leomon asked.

"Uh…" I said, looking to Koushiro, who was focused completely on his computer again.

"It's not from the sun, that's for certain," Babamon complained. "My data is feeling weak from the lack of UV rays. Plants need the sun to thrive! I've been receiving near constant complaints. Taichi, is there an estimate of how much longer my plants and I will have to wait to finally see the sun again?"

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I haven't seen Erif in a month—or a week—whatever. I haven't seen him since Mimi and I got the Digimentals back from him."

"And you have no idea where he could have headed?" Gabumon asked quietly from his place beside Agumon.

I paused. Could I even answer that? I had to think.

_The hallways were depressing, and there was a lot of orange. I didn't think I'd ever have to be back there, especially since the last time I'd been there my sister nearly died. I didn't have a lot of good memories involving Fanglongmon or his palace, except for his defeat, and now, Marrow's._

"_They were in a cage this way," Mimi told me in a hushed voice, pointing to the left. We took off down the hall, stopping only briefly at the cell room that our friends had been held captive before rushing further down the hallway. _

"_Where to?" I asked._

"_Shh!" she hissed. "Listen."_

_I held my breath to ensure that I wouldn't be responsible for any sound other than my pounding heartbeat. Footsteps. Fast ones, hurrying down the hallway just in front of us. I grabbed Mimi's hand and dragged her behind me as I ran at the sound. She tried to convince me to stop. To use my head. But I wouldn't listen. I'd heard Erif walking in and out of meetings for nearly three years. The shuffling and stumbling wasn't something you forgot. It wasn't until then that I was able to open my mind to the possibility that it was all an act. He was playing the bumbling fool, just so he could slip under my radar. Or worse, he was just like Marrow, and was only clumsy because he wasn't in his own body to begin with._

"_It's him," I informed Mimi._

"_Okay, so now what?" she asked. She looked like she wanted to run out there and just grab him. Maybe she wanted to force him to give up the location of the Digimentals. I couldn't blame her. I wanted the same thing._

"_Sneak up on him?" I suggested. She didn't hesitate. She started creeping into the hallway and I had no choice but to follow after her. I think her judgement had been skewed in her haste to get this over with. She wouldn't normally have rushed head first into a possible battle._

"_I can hear you," Erif drawled as we stepped closer to his back, his bright red hair was laying limp on the top of his head. He didn't even turn to see if he was talking to himself or not. How could he have known? "It isn't wise for young humans to fight against me alone."_

"_Yeah," I snorted. "Not wise for you."_

"_Think what you will," Erif snarled. "Our aims _will_ come into fruition."_

"_Maybe, maybe not," Mimi declared. "But if you don't give us the Digimentals right now, you're not going to live long enough to find out."_

"_A death threat? How clichéd," Erif commented. He finally turned to look at us, revealing the large black bag he was clutching to his chest. The Digimentals._

"_You know what else is clichéd? The bad guy not knowing when to give up," Mimi snapped._

"_He's too stupid to know any better," I told her._

"_You think that know," Erif laughed. That didn't make me feel any better. If anything, it made me feel worse. Angry._

_I ran at him, pushing him to the ground. The bag of Digimentals slid across the floor to Mimi's feet. She looked at it, then over to me._

"_Take them and go!" I instructed, struggling with Erif on the floor. He didn't want to let me win, that was for sure. His fingers dug into my wrists as if they were claws. I screamed and kicked him as hard as I could. I wasn't going down without a fight. I looked to see that Mimi hadn't moved an inch. "Get the hell out of here! Get those to Sora or Koushiro. And get WarGreymon!"_

"_R-right," Mimi stammered, rushing down the hallway and out of sight._

"_She won't be getting your friends," Erif assured me, tossing me off of him and trying to run after her. I launched myself at his legs, causing him to topple once again. "Get off of me. You're just humiliating yourself."_

"_Oh yeah?" I asked. "Then why are _you_ the one that's embarrassed?"_

_He didn't like that, and kicked me in the side of the head._

Things were a little fuzzy after that—a blow to the head could do that—but Mimi hadn't needed to make it to the others, because the battle had ended. They were already in the hallways searching for us. Erif had growled and disappeared. I couldn't for the life of me remember which direction he'd travelled in. But we spent hours searching for him. He seemed to vanish.

"No idea," I said. "But he'll turn up. If the heat is really out of control, wouldn't that mean he had to be in the Digital World?"

"Unless there is another causing the world such stresses," D'Arcmon told me. "And that could be the case. Erif is not strong enough to do this on his own."

"Great," I said with a sigh, slumping back into my seat. We were back at square one, not knowing who we were fighting against, or why they needed to be fought in the first place. What was Erif's motive? Or Arkadimon's? I didn't know. And I couldn't think of a way to find out.

_**Isao Kido:**_

"Goodbye sweetheart," Aimi said, "I'll see you next time." And with that she closed the front door. Shin had just been over with some girl who I'd never met before, she seemed nice.

I smiled at Aimi and moved to the dining room where I collected the remaining dirty dishes, bringing them to the kitchen.

Aimi came in after me as I started running the water, putting some things away, tidying up the room.

"What did you think of her?" Aimi asked me.

"She's kind," I said simply.

"But?" Aimi pried.

"No but." I told her, "Just a sweet, polite girl. With a large nose."

Aimi laughed, "Her nose was rather large," I smiled with her.

"But too good for Shin." She decided suddenly catching me off guard. I turned to her confused, hoping I'd heard her wrong. "I see him with a short hairy girl." Was this actually happening? "I guess that girl must have really low self esteem to be seen with a boy like Shin. Probably because of the tomato she's had injected into her face in place of her nose."

"Pardon me?" I gasped, still unable to find a footing in the conversation.

"A least Shin has done better than Shuu," She said, "Jun is a nice girl, but too loud and opinionated—and you know what? Shuu isn't a doctor. What a shame. Maybe he isn't smart enough."

"Shuu _is_ smart." I said.

"And Jou!" She roared, "Don't even get me started—"

"That's enough!" I shot loudly causing her to jump, and smile, why was she smiling? "Jou has an array of issues, but he's one of the most down to earth people I've ever had the joy of meeting. Shuu is the smartest person I've ever met, and although he's not using his brain the way I'd like him to, I'm glad he's doing what he sees fit—and Shin is a very weird boy whom I love very much, and I don't appreciate you speaking of them like this. And Jun is also very nice and mature and _why_ are you still smiling?"

Aimi stepped slowly toward me and wrapped her arms around my middle. "I'm sorry I had to say those things to get you to admit what you felt."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm saying that I'm happy you've finally come to your senses." She said quietly, painfully reminding me of something from my past. "I'm very sorry for saying what I did though."

"I have to go," I said, reaching back and unlinking her fingers from behind my back. I pushed past her and headed straight for the door.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Too late to figure out who is next, but it's dramatic and things are heating up.


	42. Predictions

**Y/N:** I didn't write a single part of this entire chapter…so not much to say on my part...

**U/N:** Sorry that these are going up so late lately... and always, we've both got a lot of things going on, me just a lot of college prep and stressful frustration, and my sister has loads of work going on. I'm only twenty percent sure who is in this chapter, and this chapter was SO hard to write because for some reason all of the plot that was scheduled for this... was already done or non applicable xD But I think I made it work.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 42: Predictions**

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

"Do you think we'll ever be safe and happy?" Patamon asked, looking up at me as he tried to use his spoon to eat his cereal. I shrugged my shoulders in a simple response. It was a good question really. It had been so long since I'd felt at peace. And even then it was just a calm between two storms. It was a never ending battle. I just wanted to be at ease.

Exactly the opposite of what I had felt the night before. Trying to sleep in the old room of a creepy mysterious girl who ran away saying nothing more than that the master had made a decision was really unsettling. Thankfully both Patamon and Labramon had slept in the room with me, which made me feel much safer—plus Veemon was on the couch in the room just beyond the door.

"Do you sometimes feel that Norn lived with giants?" Daisuke asked from the other side of the table.

"What do you mean?" Veemon asked.

"Well the key to her house is just so big." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders before picking up the bowl of soup in front of him and drinking it. Kurayami chose that moment to come into the room, pulling out a chair and sitting down nervously. It was the same routine every day lately. She'd come along and barely say a word—the previous night when she talked to me about my book was more than I'd heard her talk in a month.

"What's everyone doing today?" Patamon asked with a giant grin. That was probably my favourite thing about him—he'd always smile no matter what was going on, no matter how sad he was. He'd always smile. Always.

"Gotta work," Daisuke said as he placed his empty bowl into the sink with all of the other dishes he was supposed to wash the night before but didn't. He suddenly punched the air in front of him and grinned, "I'm gonna beat that other noodle place off the block."

"Daisuke," Veemon said, "You're in a cart, they have a very fancy restaurant."

"So?" Daisuke asked.

"RUN 'EM OVER!" Veemon roared with excitement as he and Daisuke began jumping up and down yelling loudly. Patamon turned his attention to Labramon who just tilted his head, and looked to Kurayami.

"Hello?" Patamon asked, leaping onto the table and trotting over to her. "Kurayami?" She jumped and looked to him.

"What?" She said coldly. Everyone was quiet for a moment and she looked away, "Sorry..."

"What are you doing today?" Patamon asked again.

"Probably..." Kurayami trailed off, "Maybe... Oh I don't know."

"That sounds like fun." Patamon said with a giant grin, "I bet Labramon, Veemon and I could help you out?"

"I wanna go with Daisuke!" Veemon protested loudly.

"You can't," Daisuke said apologetically, patting Veemon's head, "You're a weird dinosaur creature."

"And you're a..." Veemon scrunched up his face in anger, "A... a big hairless monkey thing!"

"Clever," Labramon said sarcastically.

"I wasn't insulting you Veemon, just that you can't come." Daisuke said sadly, "Sorry..." With that, Daisuke spun around, grabbed a ring of keys off of the hook by the kitchen door and was gone. The moment we heard the front door close Veemon had pulled himself into Daisuke's empty seat.

"What about you Takeru?" He asked me. "What are you doing today?"

"I'm going to find someone to read my book and edit it." I said simply, "I picked Hideto."

"You'd better be ready for a whole lot of sarcasm." Veemon pointed out. "He's a mean one he is."

"That's part of the reason I picked him," I said, "That, and the fact that he wasn't there for the whole thing so him reading it would be entirely unbiased." I got up and piled my dishes on the already precarious pile before heading to the door to the kitchen. "You want to come?" I asked Patamon. He shook his head and pointed toward Kurayami. "Alright." I smiled at him before leaning back and out of the room.

The walk to Mimi's restaurant was uneventful except there was a man who peed on a fire hydrant, and I was pretty sure that half of the people crowded around a street performer who had swallowed a sword, had fainted. But mostly I just hummed my brother's music quietly and walked in peace, watching the clouds. Finally I pulled open the side door to the restaurant and slipped my shoes off at the mat before going to sit down at the counter.

The girl who worked there that I still didn't know the name to took my order, which was weird since I knew the only other two people who worked there...

"Hey, Takeru!" I turned and saw Jou waving to me with a smile. Iori, Hikari and Willis were sitting along the bench at the table he was at, and Mimi was sitting across the table from Jou. I turned quickly to the waitress and told her I was moving so she nodded and smiled at me. I quickly slipped off my chair and sat down with the others who seemed to be having a fairly good time.

Gatomon was the only digimon there, apparently the others had prior engagements. Lopmon wanted to on an adventure to find a nice place to sit in the wind, so Terriermon went with her, Palmon was forced to stay at Mimi's house to help clean up the mess she'd made, Armadillomon had promised Natsuni he'd have a picnic with her and Gomamon was attempting to bond with Emiko who really just liked to pull on his ears.

"So what were you all talking about?" I asked, stealing one of Mimi's fries since my food hadn't come yet, and I was hungry.

"Just the past," Mimi shrugged, "How we always come out on top."

"Not on top yet." Iori said as though he'd been saying it over and over again.

"Oh boo," Mimi waved him off, "You're just paranoid. We beat Daemon, we beat the Death Knights, and we beat the rest of the deadly sin digimon."

"You're forgetting Erif." Iori and I said together.

"Thank you," Iori said dramatically, pointing to me. The chair next to me was pulled out and I turned to see Miyako sitting down. No one said hello or anything so I figured she must have just been in the bathroom.

"Hey," I said quietly as the others continued arguing. She turned to me and tried to smile. She glanced over her shoulder and then back to me.

"Hi," She said before looking down at the table and becoming very quiet.

"So what?" Willis was saying, "You don't feel like it's done—that doesn't mean that it isn't done."

"But it's _not_." Iori growled, "There is Erif—who may or may not be the Death Knight of Fire. Luckily all our parents are back on Earth now, but that means we can't just pass Erif off."

"You all should stop arguing," Gatomon suggested, but everyone ignored her so she rolled her eyes and leaned back into Hikari who she was using as a chair.

"With all due respect Iori," Mimi said, "Wasn't it _your_ aunt who said to leave them alone? Didn't the Digital World have a plan for them?"

"And it did." Jou defended Iori, "Like Lalamon said, the Digital World had a plan for our parents. Their destiny was to become digidestined and defeat the Death Knights."

"Exactly." Mimi nodded.

"But," Jou continued, "They didn't defeat SkullBaluchimon. Taichi did. Maybe two of our parents failed at completing their destiny—I bet it is my dad."

"And my parents?" Miykao asked, "Or Daisuke's—or Sora's maybe?"

"The point is," Jou said, "Erif is out there and we can't rule him out."

"I... personally think," I said, clearing my throat, "That there's more than just Erif. Can't you feel it building to something?"

"No," Mimi said quickly.

"Exactly what I've been saying." Iori nodded, "I guess DNA digivolving really connected our mind process." He joked, I grinned at him as we looked to the others to see their responses.

"I guess..." Hikari said, though I could tell she was trying to pretend it was over more than anything.

"I think there's more..." Miyako said firmly.

"I agree." Jou nodded.

"Fine," Mimi sighed her agreement, "Either way." But we all looked to Willis together to see what he thought of the matter as well.

Willis shrugged, "I never know what's going on."

"That's not true," I tried.

"It is." Willis said flatly, "Honestly, you all confuse me so much. Half the time you down play things to such extreme levels that I think they're over with and then—BAM! They come and bite me in the behind."

"Well what don't you know?" I asked, "I've got a pretty good understanding of things, I've been through it all hundreds of times while planning my book."

"Actually..." Willis held up his finger and reached down into a backpack I presumed at his feet, pulling out a binder and slamming it on the table. He opened the front of it and cleared his throat, "What's the deal with Devimon?"

"Tried to kill us." I said with a shrug. "Like... thirteen years ago? Patamon digivolved for the first time and sacrificed himself to win."

"Alright," Willis nodded, "Okay... speaking of... deaths—is no one still curious about Agumon's death? Koushiro said something was weird with his egg."

"You said you were_ sure_ he'd be fine." Hikari shot.

"Well I'm not." Willis shrugged, "He seems to be though—but doesn't anyone want to know?"

"Sure," I agreed, "But it'll come out eventually."

Willis groaned and looked back to his papers, flipping through them, running his finger down the list, "Aha!" He decided, "What happened to Machinedramon?"

"Which time?" I asked, "First time he was defeated by WarGreymon."

"Second time I got him." Miyako grinned.

"Hmm..." Willis nodded, apparently content. "Myotismon?" Gatomon practically growled at just the sound of the name. "Oh... kay, what about Kurayami's mother?"

I was entirely unable to answer that question... I didn't know... how to. I didn't know the answer. I looked to Hikari who I was sure would know the answer, but she just shrugged her shoulders, and in turn, I did the same.

"So no one cares?" Willis asked, "It's just weird how you all keep everything from everyone."

"Oh, like you haven't kept anything?" Iori asked.

"Sure I have." Willis nodded, "Because everyone else keeps things from me."

"And what have you been keeping?" Jou asked lazily.

"Well," Willis said awkwardly, looking toward Iori. He looked back and shrugged his shoulders, "Nothing really. Just that _I_ created Diaboromon!" He was lying. There was more...

"We knew that." Mimi sighed, "I guess it's only fair if I tell you _my_ secret... I can time travel."

"Right." Willis nodded, "That's cool, make fun of me."

"No, seriously." Mimi nodded quickly, "I found a key that takes me back in time."

"And I found one that takes me to a land of witches."

"Alright," Willis laughed, "Well you guys have fun with that. I have a key that takes me to Sesame Street, and Narnia."

"At the same time?" Mimi asked.

"At the same time." Willis nodded. "I've got to go though, so... bye guys."

"I'll go with you." Jou said quickly.

"Me too!" Iori shouted, jumping to his feet and following the others out the door.

Mimi got back to work then and Hikari, Miyako and I sat awkwardly for a few minutes before Hikari stood up and patted my head before carrying Gatomon over to the counter, and sitting down by Mimi and Hideto, the latter of the two was trying to get away, carrying a tray with a hamburger and a milkshake. He locked eyes with me apologetically, telling me he was sorry that he couldn't exactly get my food to me. But eventually he did. He set it down and then sat down across from me.

"I think... Patamon has your phone." Hideto said with a laugh. He showed me the text message he'd been sent and I couldn't help but laugh. It was very confusing, but after decoding it I found that Patamon was informing Hideto of my request for him to edit my book. Hideto seemed genuinely pleased to be doing so as well.

"Sounds awesome." Hideto grinned, "I can finally learn where the epic chemistry started off."

"What chemistry?" I asked him, but he was already walking away. "_What_ chemistry?" He didn't answer so I turned back to my food and turned to offer some of my milkshake to Miyako, but in her place was an empty chair. I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. Iori was right... there definitely was something else out there, but at that moment there was no real way of knowing what it was, so my milkshake was ultimately more important.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"Takeru's all alone." I sighed, turning to Mimi who was scrubbing the counter. I'd offered to help her but she'd told me that it would be a bad idea since she'd feel bad if she didn't pay me and she didn't want to pay me, so I let her do it herself, after insisting I didn't need to be paid.

"Well that's because we called him over, and then all ran away." Mimi said simply. "Look at him though—he's drinking a milkshake. When is he happier?"

"When he's eating chocolate." I pointed out, picking up my glass of water.

"True." Mimi agreed with a grin. "I'm surprised he's not fat." I snorted into the water I was drinking in a fit of laughter at the bluntness of her statement. "So you going to stick around here?"

"No, I'm meeting with Yamato in a couple minutes." I said using a napkin to wipe my face.

"Which is exhausting." Gatomon added from my lap. I looked down confused and she just shrugged her shoulders. "I just mean that the two of you are so weird together, it's hard to wrap my head around it."

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." I said.

"No no," Gatomon shook my offer off. "I'll come."

I wasn't really sure what she meant by 'weird together', but I'd have to just take it and run, because at that moment Yamato had walked into the diner. His hair was swept out of his face, and his hands were in his jeans pockets. I jumped to my feet and almost dropped Gatomon, but caught her at the last second, and then ran over to Yamato with a smile.

"Not wearing leather today?" I asked, raising my eyebrows jokingly. "I guess I'll make do."

"It's hot..." Yamato said weakly, his face flushing as I grabbed his bare arm and led him toward the side door where my shoes were kept. "Is Takeru in there?" He asked, "I thought I saw..."

"Yeah," I nodded, slipping my shoes on, "He was sitting with Miyako and Hideto last I checked.

"But I just saw Miyako at the bus stop..." Yamato said quietly.

"So she left," Gatomon said, waving her claw, "What's so weird about that?"

"Nothing I guess." Yamato shrugged his shoulders as he held the door open for me.

"Thank you, sir," I joked, hopping through the door and into the sun. Yamato was right, it was _very_ hot out. The sidewalk looked like it was ready to melt away, and there were children sitting across the street holding ice cream that was flowing almost as quickly as a river. "It's only the end of May!" I said quickly, "Why is it so hot?"

Again, Yamato shrugged, and then suddenly he groaned, and turned away, putting his hand on my shoulder, trying to lead me along with him. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man with a microphone running toward us, followed by a man with a camera.

"Yamato Ishida!" The microphone-man yelled out. Yamato groaned once more and turned toward him with a half-hearted smile. "I'm from Teen Dream web show!"

"Of course you are," Yamato said, biting his lip.

"We were looking for a scoop," The man said, "Think you can give me one?"

"I'll give it a go," Yamato nodded.

"Great, great." The man nodded and smiled wickedly, "How's the new album coming along?"

"People keep asking me about that," Yamato shrugged, "No clue. Haven't started. Don't have the time or inspiration."

"Ouch." The man said quickly, nodding before once again thrusting the microphone into Yamato's personal space bubble. "Who's this?" The man asked, jerking his finger toward me sharply, almost poking Gatomon's eye out.

"This is my friend, Hikari." Yamato said simply. "My best friend's sister."

The man furrowed his brow and grinned into the camera, "A special friend?" The man asked, "We hear you broke up with your long-time girl-friend Katsue?"

"Where did you hear that?" Yamato asked.

"Is that true?" I asked suddenly, butting into the interview. Yamato had broken up with Katsue? No one told me that—I'd heard that Sora and Neo had broken up though. When did this one happen?

Yamato nodded to me quickly before the man said sharply, "Katsue works with us at Teen Dream—or have you forgotten already."

"No," Yamato said sharply. "I didn't. Now I really should get going, thank you." He bowed his head politely to the man with the microphone and then put his arm around my shoulders, leading me away again.

"Nice cat." The man with the camera said sarcastically as we passed him.

"Meow." Gatomon said even more sarcastically. When we were out of hearing range Gatomon looked up to Yamato and sighed, "Your life must be exhausting."

"Nah," Yamato said, "They don't usually bother me. I think they were more just interested in the fact that I'd broken up with Katsue."

"When did that happen?" I asked suddenly. I didn't like being kept in the dark so much. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it happened yesterday, Hikari." Yamato said, "I haven't told anyone. I spent all last night helping her pack her things from my apartment, and then... we just... said goodbye." I felt really bad for him—I knew how a breakup would feel, but I'd had time to ease myself out of it, while still being around and being friends with Willis, which in a way made things harder, but I felt as if cutting him out completely, as Yamato and Katsue had done would be much harder.

"You're living alone now?" Gatomon asked.

Yamato shook his head, "I've got Gabumon, but he's pretty quiet most of the time."

"I could move in," I suggested suddenly, "I need a place to live, you're living alone, we get along great, I mean, if you don't mind—"

"But I do mind." Yamato cut me off suddenly and flatly. It hurt to hear, I thought it was a great idea. I really wanted to get out of living with my parents again, and we were getting closer and closer as friends. "Sorry," He said quietly, "I just... I think it would be inappropriate, due to what happened last time we were alone in that apartment."

Oh. Right.

"I get it." I nodded, "It's okay, I'm sure I'll find somewhere to live, and I'm sure you'll find a way to use all that extra space."

"You can keep some of Kamemon's things," Gatomon suggested with a roll of her eyes, "That turtle comes home every day with a new thing for his collection."

"What does he collect?" Yamato asked.

"Everything." Gatomon and I said together.

The three of us eased up a little and began talking and laughing together as we walked down the street, following the ads Yamato had found about apartments being for rent. Apparently there were a couple in his building, but I couldn't afford those on my own, and there was apparently one or two in Ms Takaishi and Ms Hida's building, but again, they were too pricey, so we stayed away from them.

But we stopped looking for apartments when I spotted a few familiar faces sitting under a tree in the shade by a duck pond in the park.

Kurayami was sitting under the tree, curled up, her arms wrapped around her knees, Labramon lay beside her as Patamon and Veemon played with a single duck in the pond. I figured they must have chased the others away.

I led Yamato over to them and sat down in the shade next to Labramon, whose ears perked up before he turned and growled at Gatomon. Gatomon hissed back causing Kurayami to start, turning sharply to face us.

"Oh it's you," She said quietly.

"How are you?" I asked. I was worried about her, she seemed sad, or scared, and I didn't know how to help. I'd been so close to her for so long, and then moving to America screwed all of that up because I'd had zero time to spend with her... or Iori... or Takeru really. I needed to make it up to them, and I needed to be their friends again.

"Good." Kurayami said coldly, "You?"

"Good as well..." I said quietly.

"I'm good too guys." Yamato said after a second of silence. I elbowed him in the arm, but smiled anyway. I set Gatomon down so she could go play, but instead she leapt up into the tree and found a comfortable branch to lay down on. "How about that weather...?" Yamato tried to start a conversation, but I ignored it.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked Kurayami.

"Evil." She said bluntly.

"Wow," Yamato said with a nod, "Subtle. What's your plan this time around?" Again, I found myself elbowing Yamato, but as I looked back to Kurayami I saw that she was smiling, apparently Yamato understood her humour a lot more than I did myself... perhaps it really _was_ a good thing I'd become friends with him.

"Not me," She said, relaxing her arms a little, "Just all... evil. Evil in general."

"Why?" I asked.

Kurayami looked to me and then straightened her legs into the grass, and leaned back against the tree, brushing the hair she'd let grow past her shoulders out of her eyes. The purple streaks were still bright and bold. She closed her eyes and then said, "Norn—"

"The little girl at your house?" Yamato asked.

Kurayami nodded, "She left." No one had told me that either, but I didn't say anything, and let her continue her train of thought, "before she left though, when we'd first met her she'd told us all these stories about the nine great evils, and about the nine different worlds." Kurayami looked to us now, "Daisuke and I just thought they were stories to be honest... but the words she said when she finally left..." Kurayami looked to the pond and cleared her throat, "Her Master had made a decision. It made... It made me think that she truly did know more than a child should. I think... I think she was right. She knew what she was saying."

"So there are nine great evils to fight?" Yamato asked quickly, "You mean like there are two more deadly sins?"

"Well we've defeated nine Death Knights—perhaps that's what it was about?" I suggested, and Yamato nodded, agreeing with my suggestion, but Kurayami shook her head quickly.

"One evil from each of the nine worlds." Kurayami said.

"We don't even know what the nine worlds _are_ though." Yamato objected.

Kurayami started listing them quickly as if she'd been thinking them over often, "Earth, a digital Empire, a world of Darkness, and one of Light and Love, a land where dreams come true, a land of secrets and spells, one where time has no meaning, a world that interrupted the world in between."

"That's nine?" I asked, running over them, "So the Digital World, Earth, the Land of Dreams, the Dark Ocean, the Time-tunnel that Mimi and I went through—"

"You and Mimi went through time?" Yamato asked sharply, but I ignored him.

"That leaves the world of light and love," I said, "the world that interrupted the one in-between, which to me sounds an awful lot like where we fought Apocalymon—and... the world of spells."

"I know that one." I looked up to Gatomon who had spoken. She was leaning over the edge of her branch and looking down to us. "Wizardmon told me about it. He used to live there. It's called Witchenly. It's a land full of witches and wizards." That sounded an awful lot like the story Jou had been telling us all recently...

"Well then we're really just missing two." I said quietly, thinking hard, trying to figure out what they could have been. The world of Light and Love was next to the world of darkness in the list, as though they were apposing. And if dark souls went to the Dark Ocean, then light souls would go to the land of light and love... it sounded like Heaven to me, but none of us could possibly get a key to Heaven.

Except Willis... that rusted key had to lead somewhere. _"I've finally found her." He'd said, "It's thanks to you." "Where is she?" I asked, but he responded simply by saying, "She's not around anymore."_

Did Willis have a key to Heaven?

"It's Heaven." I said, I was sure it had to be. "The other one—I have no clue at all though... does anyone have a key?" Kurayami shook her head as Yamato shrugged his shoulders. "Well now that we have most of the worlds, who are the evils?"

"Apocalymon." Kurayami said quickly, adding her old partner to the list. "Like you said, the land in between. Fanglongmon."

"Dragomon," I added quickly. "Maybe Myotismon?"

"Daemon lasted a while," Yamato suggested, "Maybe him? Devimon, perhaps? Diaboromon—he was really strong."

"Wizardmon fought against Wisemon with the other earthlings three years ago," Gatomon added, "He was pretty evil. He almost killed Ken and Sora's mothers."

Yamato suddenly had an idea, clapping his hands together he grinned, "Milleniummon!" He practically shouted, "Gabumon told me about someone in the council saying something about Ken defeating someone named Milleniummon and then forgetting about it! Sounds like a time digimon if you ask me. Plus—plus!" He was really excited, "Neo told me that Milleniummon was a great evil who ruled over the Death Knights before his falling out! The Death Knights have altered the time in the Digital World, right? They made our parents younger, and made time there go really slowly."

He had a very good point—and he was probably right, suddenly I was excited too! Kurayami, Yamato, Gatomon, Labramon and I began trying to figure where each of them would go, and after about half an hour of arguing and debating we'd come up with a fairly straight forward answer.

The first evil, of Earth had to be Diaboromon, Willis had created him, and he was affecting the internet on Earth's side.

The second evil, of the Digital World had to be the self proclaimed God himself. Fanglongmon.

The third evil, of the Dark Ocean—was there really any doubt that it would be Dragomon? It simply had to be... but that didn't explain why we weren't done with the Dark Ocean yet...

The fourth evil was a little trickier, but since we'd only ever defeated one enemy in the land of Dreams it had to be him. Malomyotismon.

The fifth evil of Time was Milleniummon, as Yamato had explained. Yamato also figured out the sixth evil, suggesting that perhaps we weren't the only set of Digidestined able to defeat the great evils. The sixth evil, the evil belonging to Heaven was Lucemon. The fallen angel.

The seventh evil, of the In-Between was Apocalymon, and the eighth, which caused the most debate, we decided had to be Daemon, of Witchenly. Gatomon had the final say, but as Kurayami pointed out, just because we decided it didn't make it true, so we'd decided to keep the other options open as well.

Unfortunately, for the ninth evil, we didn't even know the world itself, but I couldn't stop my mind from wandering through our adventures... who could it be? Had we ever been to a different world and not realized or remembered? Was there any other evils?

Labramon bolted up into a sitting position which stopped my thinking in its tracks. His ears perked up as he sniffed the air. Veemon and Patamon even stopped playing in the water, slowly looking around, they sensed it too. I looked up to Gatomon to see if she did as well, but she was staring straight down into the bushes. I followed her gaze and saw them rustling, moving faster and most hastily until finally a digimon wandered out—hurt.

"Wizardmon!" Gatomon gasped loudly, not wasting a second, bounding from the tree and across the grass to where her friend had fallen onto one knee. I was on my feet a second later, rushing toward him, vaguely aware of others following behind me. I fell to my knees next to him and caught him as he fell. "What were you doing in there alone?"

"I..." Wizardmon coughed loudly, "I was just on a walk."

"Was my dad with you?" Yamato demanded to know, "is he alright?"

Wizardmon shook his head, "He's at home." Yamato sighed with relief, and released my shoulder that I hadn't even noticed he'd been clutching.

I looked over my shoulder to where Patamon, Veemon and Labramon were looking out into the trees of the forest and directed my eyes back to Wizardmon. "Who did this?"

Wizardmon looked up to me and then closed his eyes tightly before taking a deep breath and saying, "Arkadimon," And then he fell into unconsciousness.

_**Willis Kennedy:**_

"You don't have to tag along, if you don't want to." Jou told me, "I was really just using you as an excuse to leave the argument."

"That's okay," I said with a grin, "I've never hung out with you two really, it's an interesting change."

Iori looked to me with raised eyebrows and then continued staring ahead. I couldn't figure out if he hated me or simply disliked me, but either way I was trying very hard to watch what I said around him. The three of us were walking down the sidewalk, searching for a house for Jou. He'd apparently had three in mind, and we'd already been to two of them. Apparently he was ready to buy a house. I thought that was crazy, since he was the only one working in a family of three humans and two digimon, but there wasn't enough room in their two bedroom apartment. I offered to help pay as well, but he'd denied me, and then again when I said it could just be a loan.

The first house was apparently in a bad neighbourhood—which was all based on the fact that there was a particularly angry child running around in circles in the middle of the street. The second one was 'too dangerous' because the stairs were too steep and he had his baby to think about. Emiko's third birthday was in two months, I was pretty sure she could handle some big, scary stairs, but she wasn't my kid, so I let Jou continue to look for his dream house.

Finally though, we came up to a very nice looking house. It was quaint, but not small, made of stone with ivy growing up one side of it. We were standing in the driveway, and Jou was already biting his lip with anticipation.

"Don't get too excited," Iori warned, "Jou, this is a really expensive house."

Suddenly the front door burst open and a real estate lady poked her head out with a grin, motioning for him to come inside. But the second he took a step to the door something had flown out of nowhere and hit him hard in the side of the head. Iori and I caught him before he fell over and straightened him out.

Jou rubbed the side of his head and looked to the basketball that had hit him. He slowly turned to look over the hedge where a woman was leading a small child around, an fiery look in her eyes.

"I am, _so_ sorry." She said, running her fingers through her hair, "He's a little devil this one." She turned to her son and growled, "Apologize right now."

"Sorry." The kid said quietly as he tried not to make eye contact.

"It's alright," Jou laughed, "I've got a daughter, I know what it's like."

"You do?" The woman asked, "What's her name?"

"Emiko," Jou said practically glowing with how proud he was, "She's nearly three."

"Oh?" The woman asked, "Azura here just turned three last month! Maybe they can have a play date?" A man at the porch called for her just then and she apologized and waved to us before rushing back to her husband.

"Emiko has never had a friend before..." Jou said quietly, walking up to the real estate lady who was still waiting by the front door. "I'll take it." Jou said flatly.

"Jou," Iori said sharply, "No he won't." He said to the woman. He grabbed Jou's arm and dragged him into the driveway, so I followed after awkwardly smiling to the lady. "Jou, this house is _way_ too expensive for you. Momoe doesn't have a job yet."

"But I want it." Jou said simply, looking over Iori's shoulder to the house. "I don't care about money. I want a nice house so Monmon can move in. I'm doing this for Emiko and Gomamon, so no matter how much I have to work... it will be worth it."

"Think about _you_ for a moment though," Iori said sharply.

"I don't want to." Jou said, waving Iori off, "I always think about me. Screw particular planning and careful deliberation. I'm buying _this_ house. We'll be in dept for a while, but once Momoe gets a job it won't be so bad. We'll get by."

"What if she can't get a job?" Iori asked.

"She... can." I said suddenly. "I... I mean, I think. She knows how to use a computer?"

Jou nodded, "She went to college for computer engineering!" Jou was putting too much weight on me here already. I couldn't guarantee her a job, but working with the government in a protection agency keeping the Digimon at bay... there was always room for more people... especially since a couple had just quit so they could raise their family. There was an opening... and I was pretty high up—they'd take my word...

"I'll see what I can do." I told him, just to be sure he wouldn't be too let down if it didn't happen.

"See Iori?" Jou grinned, "Things are working out already!" Iori glared at me, but followed Jou as he took a look around the house itself. It was very nice, really. Lots of hard wood, a really epic looking fireplace, four bedrooms—which I wasn't sure why he needed, but maybe he wanted more kids? When we left the house Jou was grinning wildly.

"I'll stop by your place later to go over the details," The real estate lady said before waving goodbye and getting into her car that was waiting on the curb.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Well usually Iori and I go talk by our tree once a week." Jou said, "we could go there?"

"It's Tuesday though," Iori said, but the look Jou gave him made him shut up instantly. It wasn't even a mean look, it was an, 'I really want to go' look. And so we did. It wasn't far, and besides, we'd have to go anyway, Jou had promised to walk Iori home and apparently the tree was right outside his apartment building.

I saw on the other side of the hill, a little ways into the grass, a blanket was spread out and Armadillomon and Natsuni were sitting on it together. But I really didn't care, becuase when we climbed the hill to look at the tree I realized how wrong it was. The bark of the tree was pitch black, as were the leaves, as shining red berries grew in clumps.

"This looks beautiful." I said sarcastically.

"It's been getting worse and worse." Jou sighed. "No one cares though—but I can guarantee you this isn't some basic tree poisoning. Something weird is going on here, and I was wondering if you knew what it was. You... well, you're a genius right?"

"Jou," Iori said, "Even genius's won't know what this is. I don't think this is a common occurrence."

"Iori's right," I said, glancing the tree over again, afraid to touch it. "I have no idea."

Iori nodded and pointed to me, thankful to be right I supposed, and then turned to the tree, "The berries look poisonous though." He said. Slowly he reached forward to stroke the bark with his index finger, but the moment his body touched the tree his body went very stiff.

"Iori?" Jou and I asked together. His eyes clamped shut and his head turned from the tree, as if trying to get away, and then with a jolt, he was flung backwards, away from the tree where he slammed into the ground, landing on his back. I looked to the tree in shock as Jou gasped, and rushed to Iori's side, but what caught my eye was the streak of red flying from the branches, landing smoothly on the grass.

It was that Erif guy everyone had been talking about. I set off after him instantly, but Jou stopped me. "Willis!" He said with intense urgency to his voice. I spun around quickly and saw that Iori was on the ground, writhing—in pain? He looked like he was having a seizure. "I need your jacket!"

I turned back to Erif where he was leaping over Natsuni and Armadillomon's heads before running into the woods. I bit my tongue in frustration and ran back to Jou quickly, practically ripping my jacket off and tossing it to him. It was really hot anyway. He bunched it up and placed it under Iori's head as he it slammed constantly into the ground.

"You just need to give him space." Jou said sharply. I nodded and did as I was told, practically shaking myself.

"W-what's going on?" I asked.

"A seizure I assume." Jou said, his voice more confident than the worried look on his face. A moment later Natsuni and Armadillomon were by his side both gasping at what they saw.

"Is he okay?" Natsuni asked, looking to Jou who didn't answer her. Finally though, Iori stopped moving very abruptly and Jou waited a few seconds before lunging forward and checking his heartbeat, and for breath.

"He... should be fine." Jou said, his voice finally giving in and quivering. Jou started to manipulate Iori into the position he knew he should be in after a seizure, but Iori's eyes shot open and he sat up quickly. Not even a second later Natsuni was hugging him tightly around the neck.

"What happened?" Armadillomon asked. "I saw Erif—"

"There's an army." Iori gasped, his arms shaking as he tried to hug Natsuni back.

"What army?" I asked, wiping sweat from my brow as I tried to relax.

"A—an army of... digimon?" Iori said, "They... it didn't look like a digimon though..."

"What didn't?" Armadillomon asked. "What was it?"

"It was a _giant_ army... of the same thing. He was all over... millions of him." Iori said quietly.

"Who was it?" Natsuni asked, finally pulling away from him. Iori only shrugged shoulders as a response, and he was followed by a full minute of silence. "Well whoever it is... they probably mean business." Natsuni decided. "I want to help you guys fight. I'm sick of being on the sidelines. Whenever this army arrives, I'll be right by your side." Iori looked up to her and tried to smile, but she was hugging him again.

That was sweet and all, even though I was pretty sure they weren't dating—but Natsuni and her Goblimon weren't going to be able to help us fight of a million of the not-digimon that Iori had seen...

We'd have to start training. Practising. Getting stronger... because we were in for the fight of our lives.

_**Isao Kido:**_

Aimi had used me. Literally _used_ me. She manipulated my feelings and practically forced me to admit them out loud. And I was angry. But not angry enough to stay that way for too long. Even though she'd manipulated me, she'd only done it so I would admit that I loved my children. Which I did. Even if they didn't turn out exactly the way I'd wanted them to.

I knew I should have already been back with Aimi, telling her that I was sorry for leaving…

But something she'd said…

'I'm happy you've finally come to your senses.'

"_Sir?" The minister asked me, "Sir? Do you?"_

_I snapped back to attention, standing in front of my whole family, and Mariko's whole family, in the exact moment of the marriage. My marriage._

"_Do you take her to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The Minister asked. I turned to Mariko and saw the look of panic in her eyes. By my very nature, the rule I lived by was to always tell the truth. And I simply couldn't lie anymore. _

"_I'm sorry." I said quietly, shaking my head slightly before turning and running down the aisle. Mariko's brother jumped up to stop me, but I pushed him easily out of the way as I burst through the doors at the end of the aisle, flying out of the church and looking down the street where Asami was sitting in the park nearby. "Asami!" I called, but she didn't hear me._

_I started running toward her, until I hit the end of the street. _

"_Asami!" I called to her. She looked up and jumped to her feet. _

"_Isao?" She asked, "What are you doing?"_

"_I'm sorry!" I yelled to her from across the street. "I… I'm sorry it took me so long to realize this—but I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone." Asami smiled broadly and started toward me. _

"_I'm happy you're finally come to your senses." She said, and I stepped onto the road, running toward her. With a loud screeching noise Asami let out a scream as a car nearly hit me. I jumped back a little as the car came to a complete stop. The driver blasted the horn angrily and I ran into Asami's worried arms, and kissed her. _

"_I love you." We said together._

"Loving someone else doesn't mean you've let her go." A familiar voice said. I looked back quickly and saw Unimon, standing in some trees at the side of the road. "Isao, Asami knows you still love her. She knows you love your sons. Who are you trying to hide this from?"

"You for starters." I said sharply, "Do you have a compulsive need to stalk me?" Unimon nodded so I rolled my eyes, "I'm not hiding anything."

"You are." Unimon said flatly. He was right. I was trying to hold onto Asami—I loved her. I couldn't let her go. I couldn't let our dream go. Our dream to have our children be successful. Our dream to be together forever. "Isao…" Unimon said, stepping toward me slowly, "Your dream was to love Asami, and to have her love you. Both of you dreamed for you to be happy. Both of you dreamed for happiness for your children. All of those things are true. Do you remember the last thing she said to you?"

"_I love you Isao." Asami had said to me, "Remember that. Remember love… and love again."_

The memory painfully flashed into my mind.

"Aimi knows you still love your wife." Unimon said, "She accepts that and loves you still."

And I knew he was right. It would be hard… but everything seemed to be falling into place really. I loved Asami… I loved Aimi—I loved my children—and Aimi's children were nice too… Unimon was right.

A flash of light appeared in front of me, a yellow orb suspended in midair and concealed within floated a small greyish white device with a small screen.

"What's this?" I asked Unimon.

"That's your digivice." Unimon responded. "You've finally reached the place you need to be."

"I have?" I asked, shocked. Did this mean I'd lived life right?

"Not quite…" Unimon said softly, "There's just one more apology that needs to be made."

"Aimi." I nodded, but Unimon shook his head, and I then I knew exactly who it was.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

More drama is coming at you next chapter, and things are gearing up for the end…big time!


	43. Coming Clean

Y/N: I wrote everything except Sora this time. The break from not writing anything last chapter didn't last very long…but that's okay! I really enjoyed the parts in this one, though they all involved learning a lot of information, some more important than the rest. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and review if you can. Thanks!

U/N: basically I didn't write much in this chapter, but at the same time... I did. What? Exactly. Juuuusssst read it :P I hope you like it! Or... not? Or whatever. TAKE YO PICK PEOPLE. I'm in such a bad mood HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Review?

Title:Digimon Adventure 05

By: Yukira and Urazamay King

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds

Chapter 43: Coming Clean

_Miyako Ichijouji:_

It was unsettling. The bus I mean. It was full of people, crammed into the bus like sardines in a can. I was lucky enough to have a seat, though one man was giving me the stink eye for not offering to him. And, if it had been another day, I might've. But I was exhausted. I didn't think feeling so free and happy could take so much energy.

I didn't mean to fall asleep.

I just closed my eyes for what I thought would be a second, and the next thing I knew it was late evening. The sun was setting, and the bus was still humming beneath me. I glanced around the once crowded bus and was shocked to see that it was completely bare. The only other person in the vehicle was the driver. The setting sun cast an orange glow in the bus, and the hairs on the back of my neck raised. Something wasn't right. How had I managed to sleep for hours on a bus? Shouldn't someone have woken me just by talking too loudly or something? And what was worse, I couldn't fathom why were there no other patrons on the bus? It was evening; people were getting home from work or heading out for a night with friends. But apparently tonight wasn't going to be like that. I was going to be alone on a freaking bus with the creepiest bus driver I'd ever seen. He was such a creep when I'd gotten on the bus. I didn't really want to have to talk to him, but I needed off of the bus. I didn't know where I was, but I really needed to get back to Mimi's restaurant. I really shouldn't have left. I was _going_ to get some housework done before I had to head back, but now I'd wasted the entire day sleeping on a bus.

"E-excuse me?" I called softly, kind of hoping he didn't answer.

He didn't.

He did, however turn to face me, taking creepy to an entirely new level. I was met with a blank canvas of skin, instead of a face. My skin crawled, and I felt a scream threatening to escape when he let go of the wheel to stumble towards me. I scrambled to the back of the bus, watching him hobble down the aisle.

"Okay Miyako," I told myself. "Calm down. This is actually impossible, so you're probably still dreaming. Right? Right. Oh god. It's not a dream. He's still coming. Think. Think! What do you do? Can I survive if I just jump out of the bus?"

I didn't have any answers for myself, and the faceless bus driver that was slowly but surely making his way to me didn't either. But I knew someone that did. Probably not the answers I needed at the moment, but she did say to use the key when I was ready for answers. And I was beyond ready for that escape. I just needed to get past this guy first. I took a deep breath, and glanced at the man that was now mere feet away from me. I jumped onto the nearest seat, and clambered over the backs of the seats in front of it, desperate to get past the man before I could stumble down the aisle again. He lunged at me, but thankfully missed by a lot since I was faster than he was. I ran down the aisle to the driver's seat, and slammed on the breaks, flinging the bus door open as quickly as I could. The streets were just as bare as the bus was. The sun cast large shadows on the ground as it continued its descent. My skin was really crawling at that point. I didn't like the shadows, and I was already freaking out about the faceless man. Wasn't this supposed to be over? I wasn't supposed to move from one horror story to the next. I was supposed to be starting my happily ever after!

I heard the faceless man tumble down the stairs of the bus, but when I turned to catch sight of him, there was nothing there. Just the shadows from the sun. My heart pounded faster, and I ran from door to door on the street, desperate to find one that was open. I had to escape the shadows. None of the doors opened for me. I ended up running into a 24/7 diner, ignoring the glares of the waitresses and the cashier—who insisted the washrooms were for paying customers only—and running into the women's washroom. I slammed the door to one of the stalls closed. The fluorescent lights were blinding, leaving no room for shadows to encroach. It was perfect.

I pulled the key out of my pocket, taking a moment to marvel at the thin, wing-like handle before jamming it into the door of the stall. I wasn't sure it would work, what with the door not having a keyhole, but I figured that Koushiro managed to make a door in thin air, so I had a pretty decent chance.

It worked.

There was a bright explosion of blue colour as mystical light glowed around the door's edge. I took a second to smile to myself. It was gorgeous, and it didn't seem even remotely threatening. I pulled the door open without hesitation, and stepped into a fantasy world. Seriously, it looked like a woodland palace. I was met with beautiful sights. Tall trees, wooden houses, vines, flowers. Everything seemed to be touched with magic and nature.

"You've kept me waiting."

My head snapped in the direction of the voice, and I grinned as I caught sight of the wonderful fairy I'd met in the Dark Ocean Palace. Her short dark hair seemed to be bluer than I remembered; her skin too was touched with the colour. Her sparkling gown was blue as well. Her crown was golden however, with a bright orange jewel that matched her wings.

"What?" I asked.

"You are not unintelligent," she said rolling her eyes. "I expected you much sooner than this. You waited a long time. Come. We have much to discuss."

"Have you been waiting for me this entire time?" I asked, feeling bad for keeping her waiting. It had been an entire month after all.

"I needed to, yes," she said impatiently. "Come I say. We must hurry."

I let her lead me through the streets of this magical world after I'd hastily shut the door I'd opened. I didn't want to. I'd heard all about what happened to Ken and Koushiro when they'd done the same thing, but this fairy woman insisted on it. She told me she'd get me home when I needed to go, and that this way I'd be safer from the shadows that were chasing me. I couldn't argue with that logic—and the magic in the air was kind of putting me in a daze—and did as she asked.

My attention was caught immediately by the beautiful people scattering the streets. They were all fairies with various shapes and colours of wings. None looked as elegant as the fairy leading me however. It was probably the crown on her head. The other fairies stopped whatever they were doing when they caught sight of her just to bow, before continuing on their way.

"Now," she said as she led me up a complicated assortment of stairs. "We do not have much time. The end is drawing nearer. I should not have left the time of our visit up to you. I ought to have set an exact date. I do not know how this information will benefit you at this point."

"Any information is good information," I told her. Koushiro, Willis and Ken would be able to pull something out of any information she could give us. And if not them, Hikari, Kurayami and Iori might. They usually pulled conclusions out of seemingly nowhere, and were often right about them.

"Fair enough," she said, taking my arm and pulling me through the first doorway. It appeared to be a meeting room of sorts, with a large, oval table and wooden chairs. Grape vines were weaved in and around the chairs and table, and poppies grew in the window boxes. A chandelier was hanging in the middle of the ceiling, and looked like perfectly formed icicles and was decorated with roses.

"Now, where to begin," she said. "There is a lot of information. I do hope you can keep up."

"I'm more worried about remembering it all," I said, a little miffed by her assumption. I wasn't stupid. She's already said as much. I could probably keep up no problem. She waved her hand and a thin, pale leaf appeared on the table next to a pen. She pushed me towards the chair in front of it.

"Take notes, by all means," she said. "Now, down to business. Do you know who I am?"

"A fairy," I told her with a shrug. That was as far as I figured. "Maybe a princess?"

"Queen, actually," she informed me. "There were four of us, all sisters. We took over the rule after throwing our father out of power. He was ruthless, evil. It needed to be done. We brought together our powers—all strong, but vastly different—and it was just enough to be rid of him. I am the Winter Queen."

"And your sisters are the other seasons," I surmised, jotting down a couple of points.

_-Four fairy queens; all names for seasons; killed their father, the king_

"Correct," she said. "Though there are only three of us left. One sister, the Autumn Queen, was not happy with her new role. She was a wandering spirit, and had found happiness in a far off realm. She wanted to return there, and we didn't want to stop her."

"What realm?" I asked, jotting down another small point.

_-Only three left_

"Yours," she said with a soft smile. "She cast off her wings and met a human man, whom she loved dearly. They were married, and she bore two children. The children are unaware of their mother's origins, and may never learn of them, as my sister died in an attack. Digimon invaded Earth and she was killed."

"Wow," I said. It was pretty heavy stuff, and I didn't know what to say. Was I supposed to be enraged? Confused? Sympathetic? Would any of those anger this queen? I was with a stranger in a strange land. I couldn't afford to get her angry with me. But something about the story seemed slightly familiar. I couldn't put my finger on it though.

_-Only three left; one killed by digimon attack on Earth_

"Time has healed the wound to the best of its ability," she informed me. "But I am not here to gain sympathy. I am here to explain. She died, and therefore escaped the fate of us other three. We were captured, interrogated for information pertaining to the 'Holy Three'. I prefer the term Chosen, because that is what they are. We chose them, and as such, became the obvious targets for those trying to gain knowledge of their identities. One sister, the Summer Queen, has already been saved. You've met her."

"Iori's 'Aunt'," I agreed.

"The other, the Spring Queen, she is not so fortunate as we were. I was barely detained. I was just waiting for you to come to me. But Spring…why has she not been found? She has been pleading for help, but it has not come," she told me.

"Who took her, I c-could try—"

"No," she commanded. "Her rescue has been foretold, the timing is all that remains a mystery. The humble child must save her."

"Daisuke…but he's practically useless," I commented. "He's too busy worrying about Norn."

"I've seen as much, yes. Perhaps you _could_ push him in the right direction?"

"I'll try," I promised.

-_Get Daisuke off his lazy bum to save Spring!_

"Fanglongmon, the Shadow King…the one called Erif," the queen continued. "They all tried to extract the information that I will be sharing with you now. You were warned to protect the Holy—or Chosen—Three. You nearly failed so many times."

"No. That's not true," I insisted. "Hikari, Takeru and Willis are fine. It was touch and go for a bit, when Takeru was kidnapped with Iori, and the three of them were taken by a shadow in the battle against Arkadimon, but they _are_ fine."

"The Holy Three are fine, yes," she said. "But you are confused. Hope, Light and Destiny are not the Holy Three. They were not the ones we chose."

"W-what?" I gasped.

-_Koushiro's magic book of answers was wrong!_

"Summer, Spring and Winter each chose two children to bear a large fate. Our first choices failed, they became tainted far before they could prove useful, so we needed to choose again. Wiser this time," she told me. "When Tenacity didn't work, I chose for Honour. Spring failed with Pride and chose Humility instead. Summer wanted Desire, but found hope in Forgiveness when that proved false."

"I…I…_Me!_" I screamed. Really? How was that supposed to be a good thing? She was smiling at me as if I'd won the lottery, but all I could think about was the fact that everything that had happened to me, all the night terrors and the scary marks and kidnappings and anxiety attacks…they were all _her_ fault. "Why me?"

"Because you were what I was looking for. We do not have time to discuss this. You need to keep Forgiveness and Humility safe as well. Forgiveness is nearly always in the line of fire. He does not pay heed to his own safety. Humility needs focus. You need bravery," she told me. "This is not why you were called."

"Hold on," I said quickly. "This is big news for me. I was your second choice right. Who was your first?"

"I already told you. Tenacity, Pride and Desire were chosen first. They were failures," she snapped impatiently.

"The Alias III," I gasped. "They found each other anyway."

"And nearly destroyed their own replacements in the process," she snarled. "They do not know how important it is that you live. You are destined for great things."

"What though, what can I possibly do?" I wanted to know.

"There are great evils in each world. It is foretold that the three we chose will play a large part in destroying that evil and restoring peace to the multi-verse," she said simply. "We chose you because we saw you could handle it."

"I don't know about that," I muttered.

_-Daisuke, Iori and me, the chosen three; supposed to defeat a great evil…or more…nothing_too_important…_

"You must believe in yourself, or all of this is for naught," she told me fiercely.

"O-okay!" I shouted, jotting it down.

_-Believe; self-confidence_

"It was fortunate, that your enemies only learned of the falsities that you believed when it came to the identities of the Chosen Three," she said with a smile, pleased that I agreed with her. "You must take care who is present before discussing such important facts."

"What do you mean? We only talk with each other," I protested.

"Incorrect," she sniffed. "You speak in a public location, and invite others often. Faith brings his girlfriend and child, Hope has brought his female companion, Forgiveness brings his friend and his digimon brother. The members of Alias III were present at various meetings before you realized they were feeding the information gathered to their leader."

"But they're on our side now," I whined.

"But Sigma is not," she snapped.

"I thought he was a good guy now. Really sweet and everything. He's building a restaurant for a digimon for God's sake. How is he evil?" I cried.

"Sigma never was, and never will be on your side," she informed me. "He is not the human boy you believe. He was a shadow, the remnants of a once powerful creature. He has haunted your dreams, taken you captive. _That_ is Sigma, and _that_ is who you fed information to. Desire was just a host for him. He wants the Holy Three, and you thankfully gave him the wrong identities."

"If we gave him the wrong identities, then why was he after me in the first place?" I demanded.

"You are important. Honour is the one crest that was shown by all six of the original digidestined. It's the crest that bound them together as a team. By taking away Honour, your enemies hope to achieve chaos in your ranks. They feel as though taking it away will leave your team helpless, easy to destroy and take over. You are also the wife of Kindness, who Daemon had a personal vendetta against. It was inevitable really, that you'd be targeted," she told me.

"What does Daemon have to do with any of this?" I wanted to know.

"I'll get to that," she told me. "Now I must speak of the crests. Take notes now."

I groaned and jotted down a few notes on what she told me of Sigma and Honour, before looking at her and tapping the pen impatiently. She smiled softly and launched into another lecture. I wondered if this is what it felt like to be in University. All the lectures and expectations. I kind of wished I'd gone, just to know for sure.

"Ages ago for the Digital World, but fewer years for Earth, there were six children taken to save the Digital World. They fought with great determination and their Spirit Evolutions were as feared as they were celebrated. But the time came for the children to leave, and as such it was believed that the Digital World would fall once more into chaos. As a preventative, the children left a part of themselves behind, imprints of their very selves to help keep the peace they fought to obtain. You know these imprints as the crests. They worked for a time, as the Digital World reformatted itself into the world you know today. But evil was rising once again, and the crests could not handle the fight on their own. The Temple worked tirelessly until they managed to hunt down the locations of various children they suspected to be the Digidestined. Gennai went out to speak to each of the fourteen children they had located, though he could not do so all at once. Some took time. Soon, the Digital World took notice of its plight, and sent for the children. Seven of those children answered the call immediately. Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Purity, Faith, and Hope. Light soon joined the cause. Kindness had a journey of his own, separate from the others with Trust, and Darkness fought alone. Destiny, Honesty and Strength did not hear the call."

"I know their story. Not Kurayami's, but she's a private person. And Ken can't even remember his, but I know the other one. You don't have to tell me," I pointed out, having stopped jotting information down when she decided it was story time instead of giving me the lecture I wanted.

"Of course," she said stiffly. "The point is, these children left behind these crests. Destiny and Miracles were not something they could leave. They already existed and had helped those children in their own quest. Courage, Hope and Humility. Friendship, Light and Desire. Strength, Trust and Pride. Purity, Love and Tenacity. Knowledge, Faith and Forgiveness. Darkness, Kindness and Honesty. Each group represented your predecessors, with Honour representing them all."

"Got it," I said, finishing off the jot note. This was something that might actually interest the others in a Not-Important-To-Saving-The-World sort of way. I was also curious if any of them remembered Gennai speaking with them. He handpicked each of them, while the fairies picked the other six members. Trust and Honesty though…those were new. We didn't know who they were yet. "Now, can I hear more about these evil people? This is interesting, but it's not super important. You said we were running out of time."

"It is important, you just do not see it yet," she said sadly. I rolled my eyes. I didn't care yet. Maybe later, but she said there was a time limit, and I'd like to hear more about the bad guy that kept trying to kill me, and Daemon and other evil things.

"There are nine worlds and as such, there are nine great evils," she said. Her voice had taken on an ominous tone that caused my skin to crawl.

-_Nine worlds; nine evils_

"Each evil is destined for an individual world," she said. "I could have you decipher clues, but I fear you would mangle my clues as badly as you did my sister Summer's clue about the Holy Three. There was a reason she chose Iori to tell, a reason she cares so deeply about him. Of _course_ she meant him, not three completely different digidestined that she had no real interactions with!"

"I get it, we're stupid. What are the evils?" I snapped.

"Fanglongmon was the Digital World's evil, and he has thankfully been taken care of. The Land of Dreams that my sister, Summer, now cares for, has already lost its great evil as well. MaloMyotismon, whom you defeated in that very realm," she told me.

"And he was the one we were needed for?" I asked kind of pleading for it to be true.

"No," she said, rolling her eyes at my disappointment. "Apocolymon has been defeated twice now, and hopefully will stay gone this time. He was the great evil of the In-Between."

"The In-Between? Is that where we are?" I asked.

"No," she told me. Clearly she didn't like interruptions. "You've never been there, though one of you possesses the key to reach it. Daemon was similarly the evil of Witchenly, a realm that no one believes Faith has seen."

I nodded my head and scrambled to write this down under my note about Fanglongmon and MaloMyotismon.

-_Witchenly (real place!), Daemon; In-Between, Apocolymon—find out who has key_

"Lucemon, the first fallen angel has been defeated now, and Destiny and Miracles have found their peace with one another in the Land of Light," she continued.

_-ask Willis about Land of Light, Lucemon's evil for there…_

"That's not enough," I pointed out when she stopped talking. "That's only five. You said there were nine."

"I said nine great evils, that does not mean there are only nine to know of," she told me. "But you are right. Three have yet to be defeated, and the fifth, Milleniummon the great evil of Time has been dealt with by Kindness and Trust, though he was never killed."

There was that Trust again. If only Ken could remember his past adventure. I'd have to tell him what I knew. It was up to him and Michael to figure out where this kid was so they could give him his crest. Maybe Wormmon would know…

"That leaves the Dark Ocean, Earth and here," I pointed out. "But we've already beat Diaboramon twice on Earth, and Dragomon for the Dark Ocean. And maybe that Wisemon guy that some of the parents beat…he could be from here?"

"Listen when I speak," she said, rolling her eyes again. "The final three have yet to be defeated, though there are five for you to beat before this is done."

"That's not fair," I whined.

"Life is not always fair," she insisted. "Earth's great evil has not yet come to pass. But you needn't concern yourself over it. It is not your battle. This one belongs to Trust and his own team that have yet to arrive."

"That's a relief," I said with a big sigh. I didn't want to wait around for some evil to come after dealing with this. I was done with fighting. I'd keep fighting of course, until this battle was done, but I was tired of it all. Tired of life-or-death situations, tired of nightmares and anxiety attacks, I just wanted it to be done.

"The Shadow King of the Dark Ocean, however is still very much alive. You defeated Dragomon, but the Shadow King escaped. Dragomon, at one time, invaded the Dark Ocean, to take control of it for himself, and succeeded. But the Shadow King was not pleased by this, and he took control of Dragomon's body and lived that way for years, escaping only when that body was killed. Desperate for the power he'd learned to love, he found another body to possess. But this body isn't fitting for him. He sends his shadows on a search for a body that can handle him. The child, at the wedding, she is a target. She was born when the worlds were combined, and therefore she is genetically programmed for the Dark Ocean just as she is for the Digital World and Earth. My dead sister's children are options as well. They must all be kept safe."

"How can I keep them safe if I don't know them?" I asked, writing down on my paper. How was I going to tell Jou and Momoe that their daughter was a target?

"You know them, announcing this information to the others should be enough," she said simply. "It is Sigma that you must put more focus on, however."

"I thought he was the Shadow King," I said meekly. "You said he was a shadow."

"He is. He was once a powerful fairy, and my sisters and I foolishly thought we could destroy him when it was not our destiny to do so," she said sadly. "And for our overconfidence, you have suffered greatly. Had we not tried, he would not be the shadow that he is now. He would never have been able to possess young Kiyoko, never have captured you, tortured you mind and body. And for that I am sorry. But that is neither here nor there."

"When you say you destroyed him…" I said, glancing at my earlier jot notes.

"I mean to say he was my father, yes," she said simply. "The Shadow King and Sigma are top priorities. But you must not exclude Arkadimon, for he is more of a threat than any and all of the great evils combined. He is a glitch, he's not supposed to exist, but does so anyway. And as a glitch, he has taken it upon himself to destroy everything he can get his hands on, regardless of the world in which they are from."

"You're saying he's the boss man," I said. "He's the one pulling all the strings?"

"Yes," she said. "And he'll continue to do so. He had all of the great evils wrapped around his finger and they didn't even realize. He implanted ideas in each of their heads, gave them goals to strive for. He supplied each with minions of their own. When he realized they weren't enough to win individually, he started pulling them into teams. Fanglongmon with Dragomon—possessed by the Shadow King. And then later the Shadow King with Daemon and Sigma. Daemon made a deal with the Shadow King, he would find a body for him to possess so long as the Shadow King brought Kindness to his demise. The Shadow King hired Sigma to attack you, to mutilate you, to break down your mental barriers and separate you from the other digidestined. Then he took you, a lure for your husband. Everything is interconnected now. You cannot think of each enemy as an individual, but as a member of a team that are willing to do anything and everything to win. Even the so called Death Knights are under Arkadimon's command, as they were once Milleniummon's minions. Marrow strived to complete his missions without alerting the Council, but it was for naught. He was caught, but his accomplice lives on. The sole survivor of the Death Knights. He still works for Arkadimon. You cannot count him out of the battle. They will try to catch the Chosen Three harder than ever, and I want you to keep the three of you safe, but I don't want word to get out. It is safer for the enemies to continue thinking that Light, Hope and Destiny are the ones they want."

"I'm not going to let my friends die because I have to be safe," I snapped. "That's not fair to them."

"But the worlds fall if you die," she intoned. "Without you to fulfill what is destined of you, then the enemies will win. Do you want that?"

"I'll win the fight without losing my friends," I sneered.

"If you can, all the power to you," she said lightheartedly. "Do you have your list of enemies?"

"Arkadimon, the Shadow King, Simga, Erif…" I said slowly. Surely that was all right?

"Only four…" she murmured. "Oh yes, how could I forget? Yggdrasil. Heed his name, and even fear it. He rules the In-Between, and he desperately wants to rid the world of all darkness."

"So he's a good guy?" I guessed.

"Wrong," she insisted. "He plans on ridding all the worlds of life, so that nothing can disturb the peace. He declares Arkadimon, the glitch, a nuisance, and has been trying to be rid of him for ages. As long as Arkadimon has existed."

"So we beat Arkadimon, and then he won't do anything," I surmised.

"Wrong again," she said. "He's already moving. You cannot stop him this time. Not without defeating him. Promise me you will defeat him."

"I-I can't!" I protested.

"Then promise you'll try," she insisted.

"I'll do my very best," I swore.

"You must go now," she said. "I've wasted time enough on this. You know what you need to know. Now you must share this knowledge, and move towards the peace we've seen in prophecies."

"If it's prophesized, it will happen," I said rather pathetically. I was clinging to the hope that that was true, purposefully ignoring her when she shook her head and sighed at my childish actions. "Does Yggdrasil have his own minions?"

"You will see," she said simply.

"Great…" I said sarcastically. She was just so thoughtful with her knowledge. "How am I getting home? I closed the gate, I can't leave now."

"You will travel my way," she said. She took my arm and led me back down the complicated series of stairs, and brought me to the edge of an extremely small pond. It looked more like a large puddle. "This is the looking glass. There is one in each world so that my sisters and I could travel between them with little trouble. We created them for the Autumn Queen who insisted on living outside of our home world, on Earth. I can bring you anywhere you need to go."

"Mimi's restaurant," I said firmly. "I've got some explaining to do."

She smiled, and touched the puddle, before throwing me through it.

_Hideto Fujimoto:_

What was I even doing with my life? Not that I really cared, but I hadn't even tried to come up with anything better than waiting tables for Mimi. I cooked sometimes too, so that was something. But really, what could I offer the rest of the Digidestined if all I did was wait tables? Mimi provided a meeting place for everyone, Yamato was a freaking rock star, he probably had so many connections. Hikari was going to teach the future generation and Taichi was the ambassador for the Digital World. I could only console myself with the fact that Mari and Kiyoko weren't really doing anything either. Kiyoko was being an architect in the Digital World, but that wasn't really a thing at this point. Mari was brainstorming ideas, but neither of them had started to gain the education they needed to complete their new dreams. I wasn't too far behind…but I was still behind.

But I didn't really care either. Well, a little bit, but not too much. I still had time. I wasn't crazy enthusiastic about school or my future like the rest of them seemed to be. Only Miyako was in the same boat I was. She at least showed signs of wanting out though. I sighed, running my damp cloth over the corner table I was clearing.

"Hi, Hideto," Hikari said nervously from behind me. I laughed. I knew she'd come at some point, I just hadn't thought she'd wait so long.

"What can I do for you?" I asked her with a sly grin.

"I just wanted to know if we could talk."

"Why not," I said, throwing my cloth at the table and pulling out a chair for her to sit in. "My digimon are in the kitchen, if Gatomon wanted to…"

"Good idea," Hikari said, signalling for Gatomon to leave. She rolled her eyes and jumped from Hikari's arms before rushing into the kitchen. "What do I want?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?"

"No, I need you to tell me," she sighed. "I'm just tired of trying to figure it out on my own."

"I could have told you that's what you wanted to do," I joked.

"Funny," she said sarcastically. I lowered myself into the seat across from her, and played with the cloth I'd dropped. "So what are you going to tell me?"

She seemed so small and confused at that moment, I had to tell her something. But she needed to know about my true nature first. But how could I bring it up?

"Are you having second thoughts about your breakup? Because there's a long list of things I could tell you that might change your mind," I pointed out.

"Like what?" she said tiredly.

"Like the fact that Willis is already in love with Mari at this point, and is disappointed that she didn't say she loved him back…so you'd just be a rebound this time around," I said with a shrug.

"That's good to know," she said.

"You also wouldn't be moving to Japan if you were with him, you know that. You'd be making yourself settle for America when that's not what you want," I added.

"I know that much," she sighed.

"Okay…there's no real way to beat around this bush," I decided after a few seconds. "I need you to understand something about me, before I tell you what you want. I manipulate the crap out of all sorts of relationships."

"Like…?" Hikari asked.

"There are several I've dealt with in just the past week or so," I admitted. "Takeru and Catherine for example."

"What did you do to them?" she demanded I tell her.

"Well…they weren't right for each other," I said slowly. "I just made them see that."

"That's not fair, Hideto," Hikari whined. "They would have made it there on their own, don't meddle with stuff like that."

"If a couple of well placed comments was all it took to dismantle the relationship, then it wasn't stable in the first place," I said, dismissing her concern. "Takeru wasn't really into it. Everyone could see that. Except Catherine, him and…you apparently."

"What did you do," she demanded. "I need to fix this."

"It's no big deal," I said with a shrug. "I talked to Takeru about it at the beach once. Told him what I do. He seemed to think it was dumb, but I just make people's lives better. I break up failing relationships and put them with the right person, if I can. It's funny as hell. Believe me."

"What. Did. You. Say?" she growled.

"Someone's getting defensive. Are you upset that I ruined your friend's relationship?" I teased.

"Hideto!"

"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "I said like twenty words to Catherine, and talked to Takeru that one time on the beach."

"What did you say?" she cried in exasperation.

"That's between me and Catherine," I said with a smirk.

"_Hey, Catherine! Wait up."_

"_You're one of Takeru's new friends, oui? One zat used to be evil," she said, stopping in her tracks and flipping her long, curled blonde hair over her shoulder. "I didn't theenk you and Takeru were close."_

"_Closer than you'd think," I said with my standard smirk. "I've been observing the two of you lately."_

"_Zat is not creepy at all," she said sarcastically._

"_Calm down," I said holding my hands out in surrender. "I just wanted to let you know that he is serious about your relationship, even if he doesn't seem it. He's really invested in finding the right moment to move things forward. And now, you didn't hear it from me, but I think he's getting ready to drop the 'L' word. It's a big deal for him though, and I think he's a little scared. It might even help if_you_said it first. That is assuming you feel that way."_

"_Zat is none of your business," she snapped, but she looked thoughtful, and that was enough for me. I stuck my hands in my pockets, shrugged, and headed down the street away from her._

"Was it bad?" Hikari asked softly. "I don't want you to have ruined their relationship entirely. Did you do something bad?"

"I lied a little bit," I said rolling my eyes. "But it's her own fault for believing me. I mean, do I look like I'm Takeru's best friend? I'm not the guy he'd confide in. He's got a brother for that."

"Good," she said. "Well, not _good_ but I mean—"

"I know what you mean," I said with a laugh. "And you're pleased with the results, don't lie."

"I am not," she insisted. "I liked Catherine…"

"Just not with Takeru," I retorted. "They were the most boring couple you'd ever seen, right?"

"That's it, that's all you did. Lie to Catherine?" she wanted to know, ignoring my question.

"I may have manipulated a conversation to get him thinking once too…" I added sheepishly. "But really, all it did was get him thinking about things. I'm manipulative Hikari. You need to see that."

"Oh?" she asked.

_I was bored. This party was for my best friend's little sister. You'd think that would mean someone would pay attention to my presence, but no one seemed to notice me. That was a point in my favour though. I smirked when Takeru and Catherine walked hand in hand through the front door. He'd taken her for a walk, showing her around Taichi's new garden. She had a big smile on her face, and when she met my eyes, she smiled even wider. Interesting… she was going to take my advice. Well…I'd just have to get the ball moving._

"_Excuse me one second," I murmured to Kiyoko, who was in the middle of saying absolutely nothing. It was this awkward thing he did lately. He couldn't hide behind his hair or mask, so he just rocked back and forth not meeting anyone's eyes. He also seemed to cling to Mari and myself whenever we were in a large crowd. Apparently he felt comfortable in our presence, despite threatening to kill Mari so many times in the past. Whatever._

_I wandered over to Jou and Ken who were standing near the couch, with Emiko at their feet._

"_Hey," I said loudly. "Here's an idea. True love, is it real or not? Does it grow over time, is it instantaneous? Also, honour and it's place in love. Talk amongst yourselves."_

"_Well," Jou started but I put my hand up._

"_I don't care. You're conversation was just boring me," I told him. "I have to get back to Kiyoko. Maybe Takeru has something to input?" And I turned and walked away._

"It was harmless," I told her.

"Don't you have better things to do?" she asked with a laugh.

"I could go clean some tables, if you'd prefer to be alone," I offered.

"No," she said quickly. I laughed. "Tell me about another relationship you destroyed."

"I thought you didn't approve," I said.

"I don't," she swore. "But it's interesting. You're so subtle."

"You might get a kick out of the Yamato and Katsue debacle," I suggested.

"You didn't," she moaned.

"They had it coming too. And only talked to Katsue, who is a "hard hitting reporter" so if she believed me it wasn't my fault either," I laughed. Katsue was too easy to fool.

"_What do_you_want," she sneered as I plopped myself down next to her. "Genki, isn't it? The super-fan."_

"_I'm not a super fan, I'm actually the president of his hate club," I said casually. "And it's Hideto. Listen, I don't know how good of a sleuth you are, but I've got some news for you."_

"_I'm listening," she said. She couldn't fight her curiosity. I knew that, she knew that. It was a part of what made her a decent journalist—she called herself a reporter, but really…she just wrote things for an online tabloid magazine…so even journalist was pushing it._

"_I think Yamato is going to propose to his girlfriend," I declared._

"_Oh?" she said, clearly intrigued. "And why tell me?"_

"_I thought you knew his girlfriend," I said with a shrug. "I didn't want to tell her outright, but maybe, if you told her…"_

"_I'll do that," she said. There was a wicked glint in her eyes. She thought she fooled me, but I had the upper hand here. How could she really think I didn't know who she was? I'd only seen her and Yamato practically hanging off of each other all the time. "So, what makes you think so."_

"_It's just this feeling I have," I assured her. "Well, that and he's been saving his money. And he said that something really special was coming up. Any other time, and I would have thought it was about his new album, oh my God; it's going to be such a snore. But this time, I even caught him reading a wedding magazine."_

"_Thanks for the tip, kid," she said—as if we weren't the same age!—and patted my knee before heading off to go do something. I didn't care enough to figure out what it was exactly._

"I liked her though," Hikari sighed.

"Me too, she was fun," I told her comfortingly. Katsue outdid herself at the party when she repeated my words, practically verbatim to a room full of babbling females. They were all so happy, except Sora…which was great, for me.

"But she wasn't the right fit for our super famous, rock star," I said firmly.

"I thought you hated him," she said.

"I don't," I told her honestly. "I just hate his love songs and heartbreaking ballads."

"Are you sure you didn't talk to Yamato?" Hikari wanted to know. "Tell him something to make Takeru angry with him? Because Takeru punched him really hard yesterday…"

"No, that was just a happy coincidence," I laughed. "It was hilarious."

"You didn't do anything with any of my other friends though…" she trailed off, waiting for me to agree with her statement. But I didn't. I couldn't. I may not be Neo, but it was typically funnier for me to be brutally honest. "Who?"

"Sora," I said, and winced when she glared at me. Apparently—or from what I gathered of her proceeding rant—Sora was thrilled to be with Neo, and they were finally happy together and how dare I go and mess that up. Did she not see what I saw? What seemed so obvious to me? Sora couldn't give her all to Neo, the same way that Yamato couldn't give it to Katsue, or Takeru to Catherine. They were all still hung up on their past. There was someone in the way of their connections with their current significant others. And if you were still in love with someone else…was it even fair to try and give yourself to someone else when you'd just end up hurting them in the end? No. So I was right, not that Hikari cared enough to let me explain. Finally though, she ran out of steam—which I was more than thankful for as the few remaining customers of the night were glaring at me as if I was obviously in the wrong—and stared at me before levelly asking me just what I did this time.

"It was similar to the Katsue incident," I said, shrugging. "It wasn't hard. I swear, I'm the only person Neo will hang around these days."

"And you went and stabbed him in the back," she hissed.

"Saved him from later disappointment," I corrected. And I firmly believed that in this case, it wasn't a lie to make her feel better. If Sora's response to Katsue becoming Yamato's bride was any indication…

"_I think Sora and I have reached a wall," Neo told me one afternoon. "We're at a standstill."_

"_Yeah, I understood you the first time, you don't have to explain things twice," I told him, throwing a ball against the wall of my bedroom. Neo was sitting on Mari's bed at the other end of the room. There was a curtain to divide our space, but it was pulled against the wall that day. Sigma had firmly declared that he got a room to himself the day that we moved in, much to Mari's and my chagrin. It didn't make sense, but at the time he was kind of psychopathic and terrifying, so we didn't argue. We were just too used to the arrangement to change it at that point in time._

"_This is when you tell me what to do," Neo snapped._

"_Which of us is in a stable relationship?" I asked. "And which of us has never lasted more than a month?"_

"_What would you do?" he demanded._

"_I don't know, ask her to marry me?" I sighed, rolling my eyes._

"_Really?" he asked hesitantly. "Because I've been thinking about that, and I came to the conclusion we weren't ready."_

"_You are," I said firmly. "She'd totally say yes. The only issue is her ex-boyfriends. They're always hanging around. Taichi's dating your sister now, so he's not as big of a problem, but still…he and Yamato practically hang off of her when they're together."_

"_You think she'd stop hanging around them if I asked her to?" he asked sarcastically._

"_If she said yes to a proposal I'd assume she loved you enough to do just about anything," I said chucking the ball at the wall with more force than necessary. It hit the frame of a painting Mari had put up, and it promptly crashed to the floor. "I'm telling her you did that."_

"_Do what you want," he said simply. "I think I've got a ring to buy…"_

"You didn't do anything except give him a severe case of heartbreak," Hikari scolded. "You're his best friend. You're supposed to have his best interest at heart."

"I did," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Do you think he and Katsue could get along long enough to date?"

"What?" she asked in horror. "You can't do that. They're both currently heartbroken. Leave their love lives alone. You only cause problems."

"You're the one asking for my advice," I reminded her. "Granted my advice to Neo almost actually worked…"

_I was in the kitchen, thankful to get away from the crowd. Kiyoko finally felt comfortable enough around these people to play a board game or two with them, which was great. But the digimon had gotten to the food tables, leaving them completely bare. So in order to eat, I needed the kitchen. There were plenty of trays still waiting on the counter, and I was taking my pick at the different sandwiches that they had to offer when I heard the door slam closed. I bent down to "tie my shoe" and noticed Sora had dragged Yamato and Taichi into the kitchen. She glanced around the room frantically, and relaxed upon seeing they were alone. Unfortunately, Yamato and Taichi were by one end of the island counter, while Sora waited on the other. I couldn't even breathe too loudly or they'd catch me. She told them about how she'd just been outside with Neo, and that she needed to talk to them about something he asked. The boys were growing impatient with her roundabout opening._

"_And I said yes," she concluded. My heart nearly stopped. She said yes. Even after he'd decided to keep her from her friends? Was I really that wrong in my observations? I heard Yamato's breathing increase, though he didn't exactly say anything suspicious._

_And then she dealt the blow I'd been waiting for. The guys were speechless for a few seconds._

"_What?!" Yamato had gasped. He even sounded like the recipient of unrequited love, despite their desperate attempts to move on from one another. It was almost sad._

"_What did you say?" Taichi wanted to know._

"_At first I thought he was crazy," she started, and she continued on that stream of thought. At first. Meaning she didn't think that anymore. I was wrong. I was never wrong! I was just about to jump up and demand she fix the mess she'd made when Taichi decided to be the bigger man._

"_I get it," he said. Yamato was absolutely silent, but I could feel the horror and despair and hatred radiating off of him. The poor, sad, fellow._

"_But, I couldn't live without either of you. And so I told him we couldn't get married…and we broke up."_

_Yamato left shortly after to "get air" or something, and Sora sent Taichi off to find his girlfriend so they could finally have their dance. She stayed behind. I stood up slowly, and saw that her back was to me. I grabbed a sandwich and took a big bite._

"_That could've gone better," I told her. She practically jumped out of her skin as she turned around to face me._

"_Where did you come from?" she demanded to know._

"_The same place most humans come from," I told her slowly._

"_You didn't hear all of that…did you?"_

"_Not at all," I said. "Though I must say, you do have a flair for dramatics. If fashion isn't your true calling…maybe you could pursue acting."_

"Do you ever do anything just to benefit people," Hikari whined. "You said you could help me."

"I tried to help Willis out," I offered. "But Mari's a moron and didn't take my hint."

"Oh," she said softly. Clearly she was upset that I was trying to get her ex-boyfriend with a different girl. She didn't understand that I was trying to get her with her own best friend either though.

"_Hideto," Mari hissed, dragging me and Kiyoko to the corner of Taichi's outrageously large living room. "What should I do?"_

"_That would depend, of course, on what it is you're talking about," I told her plainly, rolling my eyes at her._

"_Willis," she whispered. "He wants to know if I love him. I'm supposed to tell him by midnight tonight. What should I do?"_

"_Tell him," I shrugged. "You love him. You don't need my help to figure that out. If you really love him, just tell him. There's no point in waiting. If you don't tell him, you never know what could happen." She let out a muted scream and scampered away, leaving Kiyoko and I in the corner alone._

"_Really?" Kiyoko asked hesitantly._

"_Why, you want advice too?" I asked._

"_No," he said quickly and actually left to go join the group playing board games by himself. I rolled my eyes. Everyone was acting strangely anyway._

"But she didn't tell him," I summarized. "She ran away. And now she moans around the house wondering what would have happened if she did, and hoping she has the chance again later, when she thinks of herself as a whole person, or whatever she means by that."

Hikari nodded and looked to the table top. I threw the cloth at her and she glared at me.

"You don't need my help," I told her. "You wouldn't ever be able to believe what I tell you. Not now that you know how manipulative I get. And then you won't think your feelings are real, because I told you what they are. Just find them on your own. They're really obvious though…so it shouldn't take too long."

"You're right, of course," she said with a strained smile. Obviously she still wasn't pleased by my past actions. "Just tell me one thing. You didn't say anything to Willis or me to break us up…did you?"

My mind instantly flashed to a moment where I had been sitting with Willis…

_Willis was laughing at his twin rabbit—though one claimed it was a dog—digimon tried to escape my two yellowish lizard digimon—though one masqueraded as a dog with his furry coat—and kept failing. We were discussing the perks of having two digimon, as opposed to having just the one like the others. We ended up talking about everything under the sun. He was easy to talk to…mostly because no one ever told him anything, so we were on the same level. No one told me anything either, since I used to be evil or whatever. It wasn't even a big deal; I didn't know why so many people were still upset by it._

"_What do you even do for a living?" I asked as he told me a story of how Lopmon got lost when they moved into his current house._

"_It's confidential," he said sheepishly. "Sorry. What about you? Any big plans for your future?"_

"_I don't know where I'll be in even five years, let alone my entire future. That's such a loaded question," I told him. "I guess I'd like to think I might get married someday. I don't know who it'd be, but I'm sure I can find someone I can relate to. Or maybe I won't, and I'll just get a lot of cats."_

"_No career goals?" he asked._

"_None," I said honestly. "What about you? Where do you see yourself in five years? Still with Hikari?"_

"_Good question…" he said. "America, definitely…but I may have to get back to you on the rest of it…"_

But I wisely kept all of that to myself and shook my head, lying through my teeth instead of resorting to the brutal honesty I loved.

"I didn't need to."

_Taichi Yagami:_

Miyako was late. Was it really too hard to ask that everyone show up at one time? We really needed to have this meeting. There was so much that I was unsure about, which I was sure meant that no one knew enough to really do anything about anything. I tapped my fingers against the table top angrily. It really hadn't helped my mood to see that my sister had been conversing with Hideto of all people when I walked into the restaurant. If she was going to move on from Willis, that was great. But really? _Hideto_? She couldn't have chosen someone who hadn't tried to kill us all at one point?

We'd crammed three tables together, creating one incredibly long one, so that we could all fit together. Hideto—cretin that he was—was sitting at the end of the long table, while I glared at him from my seat at the head of the table. Ken was to my left, with a seat for Miyako between him and Iori. Jou sat next to Iori, with Yamato and Takeru next to him. Mari followed after, with an empty seat between her and Takeru, and with Kiyoko on her left—who was next to Hideto. Hikari was on Hideto's immediate left, with Michael next to her, and Willis beside him. Mimi, Koushiro and Sora were grouped together. Kurayami was to my right, with Daisuke between her and Sora, rounding out the table. Our digimon were exploring the kitchen at Gatomon's insistence, since she'd been playing around in there with Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon. Just another reminder of Hikari and Hideto's growing friendship. Jou pointed out that it probably wasn't sanitary to have the digimon roaming the place where all the cooking is done, but no one seemed to care—Mimi only gave him a promise of sterilizing everything before she served anyone else.

Oh yeah. Neo was sitting at a table just to the side. It was kind of awkward to have him there at all, what with the ultimatum he gave to Sora, but he knew the most about the evil the Digital World was currently facing, and so he was needed. He refused to sit with us however, taking every opportunity to glare at Yamato—who he clearly blamed for his and Sora's breakup.

I continued to tap my fingers against the tabletop, waiting for Miyako to finally arrive.

"She might not be coming," Ken sighed, glancing at his watch before returning his gaze to the doorway. "She's been kind of out of it lately. She could've fallen asleep doing housework…"

"Whatever," I decided. "You live with her. Can I trust you to actually tell her this information?"

"Obviously," he said, rolling his eyes.

"No, not _obviously_," I snapped loudly. Everyone's eyes turned to me immediately. "It's never obvious with any of you. How can we work together and function as a team when we are always keeping each other out of the loop? I don't care so much about dates you go on, or movies you watch, but when it concerns the Digital World, or any of the worlds really, I think we need to share the information a lot better."

"You're telling us that?" Yamato asked me incredulously, tearing his eyes away from his brother's hamburger which he'd been eying up pretty heavily for the past two minutes.

"Yes," I intoned.

"Pot, have you met Kettle?" Sora asked sarcastically.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"You never tell us anything!" Yamato shouted. "You are always off at those meetings with your council, but you never say a word to us about what you discuss. Not unless it's going to cause immediate effects."

"You didn't even warn us about the Alias III until it was almost too late," Sora offered.

"And the Death Knights, we didn't know anything about them until after most of those orbs were destroyed, because you didn't tell us," Mimi added.

"I'm not the only one at those meetings," I growled.

"And we're not saying you're the only one at fault," Jou shrugged.

"I offer information to anyone that asks for it," Koushiro defended himself. "No one _ever_asks me. So I don't tell anyone."

"I tell you when it's necessary," I ground out. "That's more than some of you. I bet every last one of you has a secret that you've been keeping from everyone else. It's not just me."

"But you're the one that's complaining about it," Iori pointed out.

"I have a suggestion?" Kurayami offered. "My therapist told me to try it one time. It's an exercise meant to build trust within friendships."

"Go for it," Daisuke encouraged. I rolled my eyes. I could only imagine what stupid thing she'd have us doing. She picked up her fork—which she'd yet to use, since Mimi declared she was too tired to cook for us, and Hideto decided his shift was over after serving only half of us—and held it up.

"When you hold this fork, you tell people something you've never shared with the whole group," she explained. "For example, I've never shared the fact that I'm being haunted by my dead brother, who has only recently learned how he was killed, and his killer—my mother—has been coming after me as well."

That was met with absolute silence.

"That's something you should really tell people, Kurayami," Hikari told her gently. "It's not exactly something you should be going through on your own." Kurayami shrugged and passed the fork to Daisuke, who was on her left.

"Oh, okay…" Daisuke said nervously, trying to come up with something to share. "I'd be a terrible father?"

"What?" Takeru asked, sounding disappointed in Daisuke choice. He was probably hoping for something better…or maybe he knew something about Daisuke he thought was more important to share.

"Yeah," Daisuke said excitedly. "See, I took in this poor orphan girl, while Takeru was touring the world, and I kind of gave her Takeru's bedroom so that he only had the couch when he got back. But that doesn't matter. The point is, she woke me up to tell me that her master made a decision, and instead of talking with her about it or something actually productive, I ran off to help Hikari because I decided that no one could help her as good as I could. Granted, I actually helped defeat Lucemon at the time, but I left Norn with only Patamon as a guardian. Needless to say she wasn't there when I got home. She was kind of creepy, but she was just a little girl, and she's probably dead by now, since she didn't seem to understand the world or how things worked…and she left her old house key behind anyway."

"Was she the one that told you about all of the worlds, Kurayami?" Hikari asked.

"Yes," Kurayami said simply.

"See," I said. "Good to know. There was a creepy girl that could've given us answers earlier."

"I actually told you all about her once, but you ignored me," Kurayami pointed out.

"Okay…" I said slowly. "Next person."

"Give it to me," Jou decided, even though Sora, who was sitting next to Daisuke, was next in line. "I was attacked by wizard-like digimon in the land of Witchenly."

"Give it a rest Jou," Ken said, having obviously heard this many times.

"It's true though," Willis and Hikari announced together.

"Finally," Jou said with a laugh, pulling out a large, purple key from his pocket. "I told you it was true."

"Did you find anything useful there?" I asked.

"No," he said sounding disappointed.

"I'm next," Sora declared, grabbing the fork from Jou, who was across from her. "I kind of have an embarrassing habit of kind of…listening in on conversations and events."

"We know," I told her.

"You can't imagine how relieved I am to admit it, even though it's really embarrassing and I'm sorry if I offende—wait, you know?" she gasped.

"We know," everyone chorused together.

"Well then," she said, put out. She tossed the fork at Yamato. "Enlighten us with _your_ great wisdom."

"I don't know," Yamato said shrugging. "I just ate Takeru's hamburger, but only because he wasn't touching it."

"I was waiting until other people got food," Takeru snapped grumpily, having not noticed at all that his hamburger was missing. "I was trying to be considerate."

"Your loss is my gain," Yamato snickered, handing the fork to Takeru.

"Catherine was my first girlfriend," Takeru informed us. "But I went on a date with Mimi a long time before I ever started dating Catherine, and we decided to never speak of it…again…"

"Until now, I guess," Mimi said rolling her eyes. Yamato stared at his brother incredulously, and Sora glared at Mimi for never having shared such information. So far, nothing was all that useful in terms of saving the world.

Mari reached over the empty chair between her and Takeru to take the fork before announcing "I actually don't like most of the people in this room. Also, one of my best friends—I'm not naming names here—has caused me frequent nightmares since the moment we met." Her eyes slid towards Kiyoko who looked sheepish.

"In response to that," he said softly as she handed him the fork. "I feel as though I should admit to having very detailed step-by-step plans memorized that involve killing each one of you in a way that the police would have to declare accidental."

I swear, you could have heard crickets chirp had they been there.

"Not that I'd ever use them, and they aren't even _my_ plans, they're Sigma's," he said in a rush. "I shouldn't have said anything…"

"Probably not," Hideto said, snatching the fork from him. "I have nothing to hide. I tell it as I see it, and don't bother to keep secrets unless someone asks me to."

His and Hikari's eyes met and some sort of understanding flowed between them. He better not be secretly dating my little sister—and keeping it a secret because she asked him to. That would not be okay with me. If they were going to date, they should be honest about it. She was already on thin ice as it was, since she failed to inform me of her breakup with Willis for _four weeks_.

"Today, Wizardmon informed me that Arkadimon is back, and he attacked Wizardmon," Hikari announced as she stole the fork from Hideto.

"What!" several people shouted, myself included.

"You weren't planning on keeping that to yourself, were you?" Mari asked.

"No," Hikari insisted. "I was just waiting for the meeting to start, and then I just waited for my turn. I was going to tell you. It was too important not to."

"Right," Michael said. "I don't have anything as exciting or important. Um…does everyone know I have a sister? Because if not, that's something. Her name's Jenna and she's a pain. If that doesn't work, I'm still looking for people for two crests, if anyone was wondering."

"That was insightful," Willis joked, taking the fork from his step-brother. "Iori, you're dad says 'Hi.'"

"My dad's dead," Iori told him, glaring at him sharply.

"I know, I saw him," Willis said shrugging nonchalantly. "I saw lots of people. Your grandpa was another one, I saw Gennai, I think I even saw Jou's mom…"

"How?" Jou asked shakily.

"With this key I have," he said with a shrug. "It's not something I'd use again—too much responsibility and pressure, but it brought me to them."

"I don't believe you," Iori said, clearly trying to keep a lock on his emotions. He'd been handling his grandfather's death fairly well recently, and obviously didn't like the reminder.

"If you don't believe that, I can't exactly tell you about my job, which is a big secret I've kept. It's confidential. But I _can_ tell you I got it for nearly destroying the world with a digimon that I created…" Willis said casually.

"And I killed all of you accidentally when I went back in time to save Gennai's life," Mimi said as if she was finishing his sentence. Of course that made it seem like neither was an honest confessional.

"And then you tackled me to keep it from happening again," Mari growled. "I still have marks on my knees."

"Oh you do not," Mimi told her airily. "Stop being dramatic."

So…apparently that happened? When did Mimi gain the ability to travel through time? Everyone else seemed equally as miffed by this, but we'd have to ask her at a different time, since she passed the fork to Koushiro who looked at it unsure.

"I…" he started, before stopping.

"Just say something embarrassing," Sora instructed.

"I still count every word I say and count it towards my total," he finally decided, his face flushing bright red. "It became so ingrained in my mind that I did it automatically. And I somewhat enjoy the idea that it feels like I'm winning the competition."

"Iori's turn!" Sora announced, snatching the fork and reaching as far as she could to hand it to Iori, who glared at both her and the fork.

"I still count my words too," he said, smirking at her. "Just so that I can beat Koushiro—who I knew was still counting."

"Damn," Koushiro muttered. I totally pictured him adding one word to his total right then too. I snorted.

"That's not the right one," Sora whined. "You were supposed to say something else."

"Like what?" Iori asked with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow.

"How about that creepy aunt of yours," Daisuke suggested. "The one that magically knows things we need to be warned about, like protecting the Holy Three?"

"That's the fairy queen I rescued, moron," Iori told him. "I just didn't want to tell the Alias III members—who I thought were uninvolved strangers at the time—that I knew a fairy queen. They would've thought I was crazy."

"That's not it either," Sora growled. "I've been trying to get confirmation since yesterday, Iori. Just tell me what I want to know."

They glared at each other, locked in a battle of wits for four minutes and twenty six seconds before Iori caved, glaring at her for winning the battle.

"Natsuni and I are dating, despite my declarations against such acts," he grumbled. "And have been for nearly three years."

"YES!" Sora cheered, jumping to her feet. "I was right, I _knew_ it!"

"You're kidding me," Takeru insisted, looking at Iori with a serious look on his face. "Because that can't be true. If you'd been dating someone, you would have told me. We're DNA partners. That's something you share, right Iori?"

"Sorry?" Iori said sheepishly. And even though I knew that Takeru was still put out about the whole thing, he laughed at Iori's expression. Hikari seemed just as miffed though.

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" she wanted to know. "I was only in your grade at school because I was sick for so long. I should've picked up on it."

"We were really careful…" Iori said before abruptly. "It's Ken's turn. Let's find out what he has to say!"

Hikari's narrowing glare assured me this wouldn't be the last time they spoke about this.

"I really want to know what Miyako is up to," Ken joked. "But I also kind of want to walk up to someone and say "I'm gonna get you," only to do next to nothing for the next ten years, but die before I can do anything at all about it. I'm sorry, but I still think it's really funny. Daemon was dumb. Hey, Iori… I'm gonna get you!"

There were several bursts of laughter at that, before every eye turned on me.

"What?" I asked.

"Your turn," Mimi informed me.

"Okay," I said wryly. "Sometimes I sneak into Daisuke's bedroom at night, and put on the goggles before sitting in the corner where I watch him, and debate which of them snores the loudest. Answer: Kurayami."

"Be serious Taichi," Sora pleaded.

"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "Tinkermon and D'Arcmon think that the temperature fluxes are due to an upcoming rising power that we'll have to be on the lookout for."

"_See_!" Yamato declared. "That's what I'm talking about. Those are the kinds of things you should tell us about _before_ they progress too far to do any preparation for."

"What can we do anyway? We have literally no idea what it is that's coming…" I pointed out.

"Is no one curious as to what secrets I might be withholding?" Neo drawled, sounding rather amused by all of this. I had to admit, I forgot he was there. And I didn't particularly care about what he had to say either. Yamato clearly didn't either, because he was glaring at Neo for daring to speak at our meeting.

"I don't typically trust people who've tried to kill me," I told him with a smirk.

"Don't you?" he asked.

"No," I declared. "So you know what? You can just leave."

"I guess I'll be going too," Kurayami announced.

"Me too," Ken agreed. Hideto, Mari and Kiyoko awkwardly got to their feet. Yamato, Michael and Daisuke followed suit.

"I'm not sure I was ever _evil_ exactly, but I tried to kill Takeru…" Iori commented, joining the others heading towards the door.

"If we're counting that, I killed all of you," Mimi gasped, jumping to her feet as well.

"And I created Diaboramon, who tried to destroy the entire world…" Willis added.

"Hold on," I said quickly. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."

I was amazed actually, just how many of our numbers had tried to kill us. Were there really so few of us that didn't do anything evil?

"Everyone sit down," Sora demanded. "Neo can talk if he wants to."

That was not a popular opinion, and several people made that fact known. Yamato groaned audibly, Mimi whined about not wanting to know what went on in his twisted mind, and I may have told Sora where she could stuff it.

"I don't want to share," Neo said. "I'll just let them try and beat Arkadimon on their own."

"Neo, we need you," Sora insisted.

"God Sora," Daisuke said. "We don't need him. Why are you clinging to him so badly?" Kurayami slapped him for that, and Sora winced at his accusation.

"Seriously though," Jou said. "You do defend him far more than anyone else…not that that is necessarily a bad thing."

"Like hell it's not," Yamato growled.

"Why are you all attacking me," Sora asked. "And pick your words carefully. You don't have the sin digimon to hide behind."

"Neo, just tell us," I said tiredly. "She won't stop until you do, and I'm actually curious now. Rei and Sora both swear you're on our side. I might as well get used to it…again. You can't be _all_ bad."

"Thanks for such kind words," Neo said sarcastically. "I actually have somewhere I'd much rather be at the moment, so I'll leave you all to your misguided attempts at teamwork."

He waved at us and slinked out of the restaurant.

"Look what you did," Sora complained. "He's our best chance, and you pushed him away!"

"We don't need him," Yamato insisted. "We're better off without him."

"You need to grow up," Sora snapped. "All of you do, because this is serious. It's not high school, with petty fights and alliances. This is real life, and a little bit of information could quite literally save our necks."

Then she stood up and stalked off after Neo, leaving us all speechless, and to be frank, I was a little ticked at her. I was trying to accept Neo, but he kept making it harder to do. Rei insisted that Neo and I could get along if we tried, and—since she was my girlfriend—I was trying to make her happy. But he probably didn't have anything useful to say anyway, that's why he left when put on the spot.

Not that it mattered, because Miyako slammed the doors open, and rushed to the table, clutching a pale green piece of paper—which I later realized was a leaf…and not paper at all.

"I've got something to tell you. A lot of stuff actually," she announced before freezing and staring to Yamato, then to Mimi. "H-Hold onto your hats folks, this is going to be a bumpy ride. Now tell me…what do you know about fairies?"

It looked like _someone_ was taking things seriously. And I could tell by the look on her face that we were finally going to get the answers we needed, even though it came from an unlikely source.

_Sora Takenouchi:_

"Sora!" Miyako called from down the street as I was running the opposite way, "I have something important to say!"

"I'll just hear it later!" I shouted to her.

"But it's important!" Miyako shot.

"Later!" I insisted. She threw her hands up in defense and then spun around and headed straight into the building.

I didn't have time to deal with that—Neo didn't deserve to be treated the way the others had taken to treating him. He was a good person, and just because we'd broken up didn't mean I stopped caring about him. I'd spent so much time with him that it was stupid to assume I'd just let people walk all over him like that, or that I wouldn't defend him. Neo wasn't evil. Well he _was_ but then he wasn't anymore. He changed just as Kurayami had, and Ken, and Mari, Hideto, Kiyoko... even Yamato had. He looked at life the same as all of us now, and they just couldn't see that, for no reason at all.

I had to find him now though, I needed to make sure he wasn't too offended, I wanted to be sure he was okay. I knew how it could feel to be humiliated and called out in front of everyone, and it hurt.

They all just liked hurting each other.

They were all so heartless lately!

All Mimi ever did was complain about her mother, and Koushiro was too busy with his studies to help her out. Taichi was so cold to Neo and to everyone, Yamato wouldn't talk to anyone, Hikari and Takeru were both mad at Iori for keeping secrets—those damned secrets! Everyone kept secrets, everyone kept everything to themselves, and they were all so self absorbed.

Michael found out Betamon had been taken, but instead of asking for help he'd run off on his own to deal with it all. We were a team. Sure we had our own troubles from time to time, but as a team we could work through them better.

Plus everyone seemed to be even more consumed than usual in their own issues, and no one was realizing how immense this upcoming battle was. It was truly the biggest thing I'd ever felt, and it wasn't even there yet. The air was cold at the time, but in the air I could practically taste the danger coming closer and closer. I didn't know what it was, but I'd never been more scared in my entire life.

"Neo?" I called out, unable to stop myself, the fear taking over. "Neo, where are you?"

My eyes shot from side to side, down the street from the corner I was at. The cold air seemed to be growing crisper and more solid as the wind blew around me, keeping my tired eyes awake. The sky was dark, and the moon was covered by a thick layer of clouds leaving the only light to see with to be the flickering streetlights at intervals down the road.

Neo had only left the restaurant a moment before I had myself, he couldn't possibly have gotten too far away. I just needed him to come back to the meeting so everyone could apologize and so we could put all of our issues aside until this battle was done.

I was one to talk...

I was always going on about my love life... but to be fair, it truly did affect my abilities to fight... but I think I finally did understand what was important and what love really meant. Neo had put me in a really tough situation just one day prior... and I picked my friends, people who made me feel loved, who made me feel safe, and who didn't force me to pick between them and someone else. Love was so much... it was acceptance... it was...

Who was I kidding? I had no idea what love was.

No matter how many times I would come to the conclusion that I knew what love was, I would find out soon after that I was wrong. Why should I even try? I would always be wrong.

If I were to be faced with a battle I'd never be able to make Biyomon digivolve...

"Neo!" I shouted suddenly, trying to find him, the thoughts in my mind bringing me back to the feeling of fear. "NEO!" I screamed as loud as I could.

The hand that wrapped itself around my mouth at that moment was cold and stiff. I bit hard and screamed into it, flailing myself out of the hold I'd been put in, spinning sharply and finding myself face to face with Neo.

I was relieved, but was already in tears.

I was scared...

Neo stepped forward and hugged me lightly, as I started to cry into his chest.

Everything was going wrong. I could look at someone my age and they're figuring out their lives. Each of them... but not me. Since the age of eleven I'd been having adventures of life or death, always keeping me on edge, all my friends were along for the ride, I had nowhere to land from my adrenaline highs, I had nothing in my future figured out, I couldn't figure out the most straight forward of crests, and I'd had the very worst year ever.

My friend's grandfather had died, my boyfriend was evil, we broke up, I almost found happiness, but I lost it because I was stupid, my dreams had crashed and burned, my friends had put up a hate group against me, my digimon partner almost died, two of my friends partners _had_,I'd almost had to find a new place to live, my parents left to the digital world without telling me, I'd not had a moment to breath since February when Neo had told me he was truly evil, I'd quit my job and not been able to find where to go next, my fiancé of five seconds broke up with me because I had to either have a happy life of love, or have friends and I couldn't pick between them, and now a war was coming so obviously that I could practically already hear the screams and cries of everyone I loved...

I was scared.

"Sora..." Neo said very quietly, "It's going to be okay."

"Stop." I said through the tears pouring down my face. "Stop saying that. Everyone needs to stop. It's not going to be okay!"

"It is—" Neo insisted.

"It's _not_!" I screamed. "Neo, you know it isn't! I know you. I know you know better than that. You can feel it too—I know you can feel it."

"Sora," Neo said.

I shook my head and stared directly into his eyes, standing a foot away from him, "Look at me. Look me in the eyes and tell me everything is going to be okay. Honesty is your policy, isn't it Neo? Tell me. Go on." Neo stared into my eyes with a burning passion, locked in a battle of wits and stubbornness, but eventually he was forced to turn his head. "I knew it. You can feel it too. Something is coming Neo... something big, and..."

"And you've been crying a lot." Neo pointed out. "I heard you crying the other night... is this why?"

I nodded, "I just... I needed you to see it too." I said, still sobbing, "No one else can see it! They won't admit to it anyway—they refuse to see it coming."

"They see it coming." Neo said stiffly, refusing to look to me. "Even the fools see it coming." I knew full well that Neo referred to regular humans as 'fools'. "They're all ready to hide... they can feel the anticipation. I was in a walk in the woods the other day and all the animals were stalking up on food, Sora. You're not alone. Never think that. You're never alone."

"I am now." I said quietly.

Neo placed his hands on my shoulder and shook his head. "No." He said. "You are not alone."

Neo and I didn't say anything then, but instead we just started walking. I wanted to go back to the meeting, but I was too embarrassed. I'd gone out to convince Neo to come back, but instead he'd just ended up comforting me, and if I went back with tear stains all over my face everyone would start asking questions.

I was caught up in my own personal problems. I was such a hypocrite.

When Neo spoke again we were walking along the tree line in the park, watching a family of ducks swimming in the pond in the darkness. "Sora," He said, practically in a whisper, "Can I tell you something...?" I knew what he was asking, just by his body language. He was asking me if, since we were no longer dating, he could tell me something personal without me judging him.

"Absolutely."

He slowly turned to me and locked eyes with me, his eyebrows raised and his lip quivering, "Don't tell anyone..." He said quietly, "But I'm scared too."

At that exact moment a loud crack sounded from the trees next to us. Both of us shot our heads toward it and stared into the darkness of the woods. As we stared, quiet and still, the entirety of the forest was still, and even more quiet than the two of us.

It was hard to focus on the forest with my heart beating quickly, and the sound of Neo's hasty breath was making it hard to keep a hold on reality.

_Crack_

Neo grabbed my wrist in a second, and began pulling me sharply, running with me from the trees and toward a different tree sitting near the pond. We were behind the tree in a second, out backs slammed into it and were breathing heavily again.

"What is it?" I asked as quietly as I could.

"A—" Neo cut himself off, throwing his finger to his lips and hissing softly. I was standing as close to him as I could to keep hidden as well as was possible, listening to the woods.

_Crack_

There it was again, it was so loud, echoing even. But the stripping rustling sounds that followed the successive 'crack's' made it clear enough that the trees were being pushed aside with such a force that they were snapping in two and falling to the ground.

Something was in the trees, listening to us, walking. Coming toward us. Something powerful. Something big.

_Crack_

This one was much closer, right on the edge of the tree line. My heart was beating so fast and hard at this point that I could hardly hear the grumbling breathing noises of whatever had emerged from the trees. Suddenly though, it let out some foreign squelching yell, calling into the night sky loudly.

I threw my hands over my hears as Neo tightened his hold on me.

Then the scream was fading. The call was getting further and further away, and that meant that whatever had been making the noise was too.

Neo and I waited in silence for a while until finally I let my muscles relax, leaning against the tree. Neo let his arms fall to his side as I risked a glance around the trunk of the tree to see what it had been.

My muscles clenched up instantly as I came face to face with a shining white head as tall as I was, with two beady yellow eyes staring directly at me. The jaw opened wide and let out the familiar scream as my entire body fell weak. I could barely stand with the fear and panic running through me.

The head retreated quickly and Neo had grabbed my hand and was pulling me away again.

I looked over my shoulder as I saw the long winding neck attached to the tall head slither back into the giant body of the massive digimon we'd grown to know as Arkadimon. His jaw opened and two claws shot from his mouth, metal claws attached to two cords, and they were flying toward us.

"Sora!" Neo grunted, pulling me sharply out of the way as they shot toward us quickly, gauging into the ground where we'd been standing.

The claws got up quickly though and launched toward us again. I jumped into the air as quickly as I could, the claw shooting under my feet, but Neo wasn't quick enough and it grabbed his ankle, pulling him sharply and quickly. He lost his balance almost immediately and fell, face first to the ground, pulling me with him.

He released my wrist, but I grabbed his just as quick, unwilling to let him go. Arkadimon was stronger than I was though and was pulling us both through the dirt and dew covered grass.

I found a footing though and kicked off from the ground, flying through the air toward the thick black cord that controlled the claw. I grabbed it tightly and stomped on it, forcing it to release Neo's ankle.

He spun around, his eyes filled with panic—and that's when the second claw got me. It wrapped tightly around my neck and hit me with such force that I had flown into the air.

I found myself gasping, desperate for air as I clawed at the metal clasps held around my neck. I finally settled with holding tight to the cord, hoping not to be hung—I needed down... I was running out of breath.

"Arkadimon!" Neo shouted, throwing his arms up desperately, his voice strained, "Let her go! It's me you want isn't it? Drop her! Let her go! Please! Please you have to!"

I tried to tell Neo to stop—to run—but before I could, the claw had released me, and I was falling ten feet to the ground where I landed in a painful heap, my shoulder breaking most of the fall. I groaned in pain and rolled onto my back. It was no time to worry about wounds, so I tried not to focus too much on it.

I jumped to my feet and stood shakily, turning to Neo who was yelling at me already. "RUN!" He screamed, "Get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you Neo—"

"Get the others." He said desperately. "Get Taichi—Yamato, Mimi—Dracomon! Please Sora! You have to go!"

I couldn't argue with the desperation in his voice and found myself spinning on my heels, running in the other direction.

"Let me have it then."

The five words that would ultimately change my life.

I stopped running, ignoring everything Neo had just said to me and spun around to saw him throw his arms out, ready to take whatever punishment Arkadimon saw fit.

Arkadimon's grumbling disgusting voice said loudly, "Dot Matrix."

The attack that had killed WarGreymon right in front of me. I'd saved him though. I'd done it, and I wasn't going to let Neo go if I could help him.

I was running then, as fast as I could, through the grass, leaping over the pond where the ducks had all left into hiding, adrenaline coursing through my body like never before. I could see the wave of energy as it washed through the air toward Neo, racing me to the prize.

If I won, Neo lived, if the energy won, he died.

I won though.

I slammed into Neo in time to have him fall into the ground and roll out of the way. But he'd caught his footing quickly and looked to me, his blue eyes wide with fear. "Sora!" He screamed.

And then I was colder than I'd ever been. The wave of energy had washed over me like a simple breeze... I looked down slowly to my hands and saw them slowly deteriorating.

"I'm scared." Was all I could manage to say before I was no longer alive.

Next on Digimon Adventure 05:

We deal with the repercussions of the information learned this chapter, and the tension builds to near breaking point.


	44. Springing Spring

**Y/N:** So, I wrote most of this chapter as well, with Miyako, Daisuke and Mimi, and this is just the start. Tying up a couple of loose ends before all hell breaks loose…if it hasn't already. I hope you enjoy it, and leave a review if you can to let us know what you think. Thanks!

**U/N:** Soooooo this is the first time someone has successfully beaten a Digidestined, and it was the same guy who successfully deleted the Digital World from existence. Interesting stuff right here, but I hope you're still enjoying it and whatnot, and if you could just review, that'd be super cool...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 44: Springing Spring**

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

I'd never really felt anything like travelling through the Winter Queen's looking glass puddle. I wondered if Alice felt anything like that on her second trip to Wonderland…but quickly pushed that out of my head. Everyone was staring at me, waiting for me to announce the information that was desperately important. I held out the leaf with my list and started announcing things in the order I'd written them. I'd answer questions later, but I needed to get this out.

"There's a lot here, so hold tight and keep your questions for the end," I said with a small smile. I adjusted my glasses and launched into my announcements. "First of all, there are four fairy queens, Iori, yours is Summer, the one I just met with is Winter. Spring is currently being held captive somewhere, and Autumn came to Earth, married a human, had two kids and was killed in a digimon attack, though I don't know which one it was. We're supposed to keep her kids safe though, because of a certain great evil that I'll explain later. The four fairies killed their father who was one of the great evils of the realms. There are nine realms, and nine great evils."

"We were _just_ talking about this," Yamato said.

"That would've been something better to mention than eating Takeru's hamburger," Taichi drawled.

"How'd you know?" I demanded. I didn't sit through a giant lecture with a fairy queen just to have all of my new knowledge to have little impact.

"Norn," Kurayami said. "She knew all about them, but she was vague."

"We think we've pinpointed which ones are which," Hikari said.

"The Digital World?" I quizzed.

"It's so obviously Fanglongmon that it isn't even funny," Kurayami announced. I nodded. Drat, they knew what they were talking about.

"We also picked Milleniummon, Apocalymon, Diaboramon, Lucemon, Daemon, Malomyotismon and Dragomon," Yamato informed me.

"That's only eight," Koushiro noticed.

"We don't know the last world," Hikari explained.

"Most of those are right, but it's not Dragomon," I said pleased to have _something_ I could contribute to the conversation. "It was the Shadow King that was controlling him that was the problem. Unfortunately, that shadow is currently possessing a human somewhere—in the Dark Ocean probably—leaving us with no idea how to find or destroy him. And Earth's isn't Diaboramon."

"Thank god," Willis gasped. "I thought I'd contributed to the greatest of all evils for a second there."

"If it's not Diaboramon, what is it?" Taichi demanded. How rude.

"No idea, but it's not our problem anyway, it's Trust's," I explained.

"Who the hell is Trust?" Daisuke wanted to know.

"Some kid, probably an adult by now, but I can't be sure," I shrugged. "He worked with Ken once, but Ken doesn't remember him. They beat up Milleniummon, though he was never destroyed."

"Okay, we can add Milleniummon to our list then," Michael said.

"No," Taichi and I said at once. I looked to him, confused, and he elaborated. "D'Arcmon was adamant that he was no longer a problem. He was either converted to our side, or detained some way. He's harmless to us."

"So our list is at zero," Jou pointed out sounding disappointed.

"No, our list is sitting at around five baddies," I said nervously. "The Shadow King being number one, you can't forget about him. Erif is still a big contender as well, even though he's not a great evil. Taichi, you said you were hunting him down?"

"Trying to anyway," he grumbled.

"Good," I said firmly. "We need that to happen quickly. The final great evil is actually a shadow as well, though he used to be a fairy king—the four queens' father—and we know him only as Sigma."

"I thought Sigma was just an alternate personality," Mari announced.

"No," Kiyoko said softly. "He's not. I cast him away though. If I'd kept him longer we could have gotten rid of him now."

"We would've had to kill you to get to him," Mimi pointed out.

"If he was gone because of it…" Kiyoko murmured, though he didn't sound too invested in that idea. Which was good. For us I mean. What good would it be to head into the upcoming battle with a teammate that held little regard for his own life? Not good at all, that's what.

"He was the one torturing me," I said offhandedly.

"I'd like first crack at him," Ken offered.

"It's Kiyoko's fight," Hideto argued.

"What about Miyako?" Mari wanted to know.

"Quiet!" I screamed. "There's still more to tell. They all worked together, the nine great evils. They each had minions, and that's what Erif is: the final minion. The last major minion in any case. The thing is, that the nine great evils are also minions…of Arkadimon."

"Arkadimon is wandering through the streets of Odaiba," Hikari said worriedly.

"Then we have less time than I thought we would," I moaned. "And it just gets worse. They're after the Holy—or Chosen—Three, because with the death of just one of them, the fate of the world is thrown off kilter and everything goes to hell."

"Then we'll just keep them protected," Iori said as if it was a no brainer.

"No way," Takeru dismissed.

"You're going to need us if you expect to win," Willis added.

"We're not hiding away while you're out fighting for your lives," Hikari declared.

"You won't have to," I told her.

"Like hell they won't," Taichi, Yamato and Michael shouted. Funny how protective brothers can really be, even if Michael was just Willis' _step_-brother.

"They won't," I insisted. "Because they aren't the Chosen Three."

"Say what now?" Daisuke said confused.

"They're not, because the Holy Three isn't referring to the digidestined with the holy trinity of digimon, it's about the three digidestined that the fairies chose for this mission. The three that the fairies deduced the prophesies were talking about," I said. "Daisuke, Iori and I."

I was met with stunned silence. Daisuke's eyes looked like they wanted to pop out of his head, and Iori's mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out.

"So we lock you three up," Takeru said suddenly on board with the idea.

"You can't," I told him. "We're needed to defeat some great evil, or the others or whatever. Maybe it's that other guy, the one that's after Arkadimon."

"Who's that?" Jou asked wearily.

"Yggdrasil, he's from the In-Between world. He hates Arkadimon and all he stands for, and has made his first move. The battle is coming, and he's not going to stop at the destruction of Arkadimon and all the minions attached to him. But he's not on our side either. A war is coming, and we have to prepare for it," I declared. My voice rung ominously in the silent restaurant. I could hear my heart pounding.

"First things first," Taichi said, his voice raspy, like his throat had gone dry. "We need to compile information on each of these guys. Erif's mine, I know everything we've got on him. Kiyoko, do you suppose you've got information on Sigma?"

"A lot," he admitted. "But I don't know how useful it will be."

"You understand the mind of the enemy," Hideto assured him. "That's incredibly useful."

"The Shadow King, who is he possessing?" Yamato asked.

"I wasn't told," I said. "But he wants someone else. He wants a child of the Autumn Queen. And we apparently know them. Emiko could also work…"

"E-Emiko?" Jou said in a strangled voice. He whipped out his cell phone and called my sister, desperately conveying the information I'd just shared, and pleading to hear that Emiko was sleeping safe and sound.

"Arkadimon is close, but he's really powerful," Mimi mused.

"It really is unfortunate that Neo had to leave, his insight could have benefitted us quite well at this point," Koushiro complained.

"I think I…I've read the name Yggdrasil somewhere before," Kurayami said, and everyone's eyes were glued to her instantly. "I think it was something that Norn wrote…"

"The little girl Daisuke thinks is dead?" Michael asked.

"The one that left her "house key" behind?" Willis added.

"Yeah, what are you getting at?" Daisuke wanted to know.

"The key to the In-Between," I realized. "You've got the final key."

"So I should use it and gather all the information I can on this Yggdrasil guy?" Daisuke guessed.

"Yes," Taichi and Yamato said.

But I disagreed.

"No," I ordered. "You'll be busy. Koushiro, try and see if you can find any legends about him. Earth had folklore about the Digimon Sovereigns, maybe he'll be kicking around too. Maybe you should contact Jou's brother Shuu and even Sora's dad. They're really into these things."

"Excellent idea," Koushiro said, already pulling his laptop out of the briefcase he'd brought with him. For once, Mimi seemed thankful that he came prepared.

"I'll look into the Shadow King," Kurayami suggested. "I've spent the most time in the Dark Ocean out of all of us. And I think I've got some ideas to start with…"

"I'm helping," Jou declared. He was going to take care of his daughter come hell or high water, and he was going to need to know everything he could about this potential threat.

"Something about that Shadow King is suspicious to me," Michael said. "I'll help the best I can, and I'll call Tatum. Maybe she can gather the American Digidestined that helped out before. Jenna will want to help too. If it's going to be a war, we're going to need soldiers."

"I'll call Catherine," Takeru said sounding resigned about the whole thing. Yeah, they broke up, but he shouldn't be so upset by this. It wasn't a matter of personal preference. I didn't care if he _wanted_ to. He needed to. We needed the French Digidestined too.

"I'll send out an alert to all the digidestined who helped fight against MaloMyotismon," Koushiro offered. "We'll need them to be ready should Yggdrasil attack a location other than Japan. It seems highly likely that, he'd want to eradicate life on the entire planet, he won't limit his target space to a single island nation."

"You're parents will want to help as well," Kiyoko added. "And any siblings with digimon. It's their war too."

"Okay," Taichi said. "Koushiro's got a team to look into Yggdrasil, Kurayami, Jou and Michael are on Shadow King duty. I'm working on Erif, though I'll poll the council and maybe even Sora, since she eavesdrops on every meeting. There's got to be something I'm missing."

"And Kiyoko, Hideto and I will compile a list about Sigma," Mari declared. "It's the least we can do, and we're the ones that lived with him. I could ask Neo too?"

"Do that," Daisuke agreed. "The rest of us will focus on locating—and hopefully destroying—Arkadimon. We should actually start that now."

"Daisuke's coming with me, actually," I announced. "He's got a fairy to find. She might play an important part, or she could be just trapped, but she's been waiting on Daisuke long enough. We're going to free Spring."

"I'll go with you," Willis decided.

"What? Why?" Daisuke pouted. He was already upset enough that we'd have to be left out of the search for Arkadimon, but it _was_ important.

"You two are two of the Chosen Three," he pointed out. "You're going to need someone there to help in case someone targets you. And I can do that. If in doubt, I could even be the decoy. The bad guys have been hunting Takeru, Hikari and I, right? So they'll continue to do that, so long as I'm there. If not though, you two will be equally as useless to the enemy and decimated on sight."

It made sense to me, and I said so, dragging Hawkmon—who Ken had brought with him—Veemon and the twin digimon out of the kitchen. "We're leaving now. We don't have time to waste on breaks or sleep. We lasted days last time, we can last this time."

"Be careful," Kurayami instructed, kissing Daisuke quickly on the cheek. Willis cast a look at Mari, and Ken clung to my side with Wormmon in his arms. He was coming with me. No ifs ands or buts. We said our goodbyes, and found ourselves on the streets of Odaiba, which was lit only by the light of the streetlamps, since the moon was hiding behind the clouds. Shadows could've been lurking around any turn, and my skin crawled just thinking about it, but I pushed those thoughts aside. We had a mission.

"Where to?" Willis asked as he set Terriermon on his shoulder. Lopmon jumped into his arms and snuggled in close.

"I don't know," I admitted.

"You're the one with all the answers," Daisuke protested when I looked to him.

"But you're the one she's contacting," I pointed out.

"Think Daisuke, where is she?" Veemon instructed.

"In the dream she was in a lab or something...maybe? People were experimenting on her, trying to figure out what she was," Daisuke said, trying to come up with more information.

"So we look for a science lab," Willis commented. "Not so tough. There're a few big ones I can think of, and one of them is in Japan."

"I don't think so," Veemon interjected. "I think…maybe we should start with the Temple."

"What?" Terriermon asked.

"Why?" Lopmon added.

"Because there are lots of rooms there that no one uses," Veemon said simply. "And Erif happens to know all about it. If all the bad guys are working together, wouldn't all of them know all about the Temple?"

"Makes sense," Willis agreed. "It'd be easier than trying to break into the science institute anyway."

"Then that's where we go," I ordered.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

It might've been easier to break into the Temple than the science institute, but that didn't mean it was easy to get in. There were guards all around the perimeter, probably hired because of the whole Marrow spectacle, but that didn't actually help us. Veemon had to beg one of them to let us through, only for us to be detained by two others. They looked like Gennai and Benjamin, though I didn't know who they were.

"What are you doing here?" one of them demanded.

"We're trying to save the world," I said cockily. "So if you could just get out of our way, we'd really appreciate it."

"Daisuke," Miyako hissed. Ken stepped on my foot.

"We're showing them to the training rooms," Wormmon told them hastily.

"There is a strict no visitor policy in effect," the second one informed us. "We can't just let you passed."

"We're the digidestined!" Willis protested.

"We cannot simply take your word for it," the first one told us sheepishly.

"Just because you didn't realize Marrow wasn't one of your own people doesn't mean we aren't who we say we are," I snapped. My patience was running thin. I had better things to be doing. Saving the queen was only one of the things on my personal list. I wasn't trying to prove myself to everyone, nor was I saying I was the most important by any means, but I wanted to be involved. The queen was just a side trip for me. One that was far overdue. I had to go and explore Norn's home world, to try and get answers. Yeah, I was told not to, but only because the queen comes first. Afterwards, I'm a free agent. And Norn's world seems important to me. Or I could go search for Arkadimon, who knocked me unconscious the last time we'd battled. If he'd really beaten up Wizardmon as badly as Hikari said, then he wasn't interested in just playing games anymore. Things were getting way too serious, way too quickly. I wanted to be involved with everything, just so I knew they were happening the way they were supposed to. It wasn't that I didn't trust everyone else to do it properly…I just didn't trust them to _tell_ me about it. We'd been keeping so many things to ourselves for so long that if you weren't there, you weren't told.

In a fight like the one Miyako insisted was coming, I needed to know. I needed to know where all of my teammates were, and who was fit or injured, who needed backup, who was confused as hell and needed someone in there to figure things out. I was the leader, according to the goggles on my head, and I mostly still shared that title with Taichi, but neither of us were in the know this time around. If anything, I'd say that Miyako was the best suited to lead us into this war—if it weren't for her less than enthusiastic stance on fighting.

"We've got digivices, see?" Willis said, pulling his out.

"There's a pile of digivices in the tallest tower," the second guy pointed out. "They don't _have_ to be yours."

Great. Why'd they have to tighten security _now_ of all times?

"Is this proof enough for you?" I demanded, holding my digivice up and calling out for Veemon to digivolve to mega. UlforceVeedramon's cape fluttered in the gentle breeze and the two Temple workers stared at him in amazement.

"Everything seems to be in order," the first guy agreed.

"You can never be too careful," the second guy said defensively.

"Have a nice visit," they said together.

"Thank you," Miyako said with a smile, but we didn't stick around to see what they'd say. UlforceVeedramon rushed towards a long, tall stairway and flew to the top. Miyako groaned as I started running up after him. Apparently she was hoping for little to no exercise in this mission. I could see where she was coming from, to a point, but really? She should have known better. We were on a time limit that _she_ implemented after all.

"Can you slow down!" she called.

"You'll have to speed up. I can't hear you all the way up here," I shouted back at her.

"You suck, Daisuke," she screamed. She must've pulled out her digivice, because the next thing I heard was Hawkmon digivolving into Aquilamon, and then she was flying past me, sticking her tongue out at me and laughing. Wormmon and the twin digimon were on her lap, and I heard Ken and Willis' laboured breaths behind me. She just _had_ to find a short cut.

"Follow me," UlforceVeedramon ordered when we'd finally reached the top. Miyako—the cheater—wasn't remotely out of breath and practically skipped after him in her amusement. I glared at her and swear I caught Willis doing the exact same thing. Ken had too many hearts in his eyes when he looked at her to care.

"Hello?" a fairy digimon said, sticking her head out of a large chamber into the hallway. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for a fairy," Ken informed her.

"Is that her?" Terriermon asked.

"She doesn't look tortured," Lopmon muttered.

"It's not her," I told them. "Sorry, we can't stay and chat. Gotta keep looking for someone."

"I don't know who you expect to find, but good luck to you," she said. Tinkermon. She had to be Tinkermon, the fairy on Taichi's council.

"Are we getting close?" Ken asked.

"The lesser used rooms are down that staircase," UlforceVeedramon assured him, leading us towards the end of the hall. "They keep the Digimentals down there, and Erif went after them once, right? So he knows where the rooms are."

"_If_ she's here at all," Willis grumbled.

"She is," I said. "I can feel it."

"The rush of magic and wonder?" Miyako guessed.

"And panic," I added. It must've been because she was being experimented on. I'd probably be doing a lot more than a little panicking like the fairy seemed to be. I took the steps three at a time and nearly fell flat on my face when I reached the bottom. I would've too, had UlforceVeedramon not caught me last minute.

I looked around the small section of hallway at the base of the stairs. There were five doors. One had to lead to the Digimentals, and the one of the others had to lead to my fairy queen. I ran to the closest one and was disappointed to find that I'd picked a broom closet. Of all things, I got a closet. I looked to the others. Miyako found the Digimentals. Ken's room was absolutely nothing but cobwebs, making me think it hadn't been used probably ever. Willis' was an old classroom that the Temple Workers probably used to teach young digimon in the past. UlforceVeedramon opened the last door and Terriermon and Lopmon scampered inside. I was waiting for a scream or a shout of triumph, but I heard neither.

"Nothin'," Terriermon said gloomily.

"Not nothin'," Lopmon corrected. "Just not the somethin' we were hoping for."

"So we try somewhere else?" Willis suggested. "Like the institute."

"No," I said hurriedly. "She's here. I can feel it. I just can't see it. Look around that empty room for a hidden door or something. I'll get something to clean the cobwebs. They might be masking something."

"If you're sure," Willis said skeptically.

"I'm sure," I snapped. The panic the fairy was feeling was building. But there was always that thin layer of hope that kept pushing it back. The hope was growing along with the panic. It was as if she could feel how close I was, but realized we were stuck. We couldn't find her. I shook my head and grabbed a mop, knocking over a bucket in my haste. The bucket must've triggered something though, because the stones that made up the back wall of the closet shifted, creating an opening. "Guys!"

"You found it," Miyako gasped.

"Don't waste time," Ken instructed. "Move, move, move!"

If the fairy wasn't freaking me out with her mixed emotions, I might've laughed at the way Ken said it. As it was, I was feeling jittery about the whole thing, and threw all of the cleaning supplies into the open hallway to clear a path for UlforceVeedramon and Aquilamon who needed the extra room. I didn't fall this time as I scurried down at least a hundred more steps, and when I reached the bottom, I was both pleased and horrified to find a metal door. UlforceVeedramon slashed at it with his sword, and it fell off of its hinges, landing flat on the floor in front of us.

Everyone in the room looked up at the door in one creepy synchronized movement. They were shadow creatures—which made me think that Veemon's hypothesis about it being the work of Arkadimon's combined minions was definitely correct—and they were all wearing the lab coats I'd seen in my dream. Maybe they thought it made them look cool, or maybe they knew that the fairy would be sending me a plea for help in a dream and dressed up to try and fool me into thinking they were humans. I didn't know, and I didn't really have time to think it through, because they were closing in on us. Their surprise didn't last longer than three second before they'd decided to attack.

"Wormmon!" Ken shouted, and Wormmon started the process of digivolving. Without waiting for Wormmon to take his turn, Miyako asked that Aquilamon digivolve to a higher level as well. Terriermon and Lopmon needed no urging from Willis and joined the digivolving party, and soon we were surrounded by GrandisKuwagamon—who I'd never seen but thought was incredibly awesome—Valkyrimon, MegaGargomon and Cherubimon.

UlforceVeedramon took the offense and rushed at the shadows head on, and the others followed in his footsteps.

"Ray of Victory!" UlforcVeedramon called, blasting the first shadow with a large 'V' shaped beam of light. The shadow dissipated within seconds. Unfortunately, the other shadows didn't seem to realize what fear was, and didn't stop their attack, choosing instead to continue their plan of attack.

"Gran Killer!" GrandisKuwagamon tried, but his physical attack did little damage to the intangible shadows. Ken—in frustration probably—aimed his digivice at the shadow and blasted it with a magenta light, freezing the shadow in place for GrandisKuwagamon to try again. This time, the shadow shattered completely.

"Feral Sword!" Valkyrimon screamed, slashing at the nearest shadow, his attack having the same effect as Ken's digivice did. Miyako shot a beam of turquoise light at it and it dissolved.

"Tag teaming," Willis commented. "I like it."

"Keep going," I said. "I've got a queen to save."

"On it," Willis and the others informed me.

"Lightning Spear!" Cherubimon called, blasting a shadow into nothingness with a spear of pure lightning. MegaGargomon needed Willis to freeze the shadows the way GrandisKuwagamon needed Ken, but once they were frozen, a quick Mega Barrage was enough to slaughter it.

I weaved my way through the shadow with UlforceVeedramon's help and his ever watchful eye. He blasted any shadow that got too close. Not that many tried. They were too busy trying to get to Willis who they clearly still thought was one of the Chosen Three. The queen sure was a sight for sore eyes when I finally caught sight of her. She was strapped to a table, with her arms and legs fastened tightly with a strange clasp. It was easy enough to undo, but impossible from her point of view.

"Hey," I told her. "You're going to be okay now."

"I know," she said, rolling her eyes. "I also know never to call on you for help again. You took five months to get here! If they hadn't wanted information from me, I might not have lived long enough to see you again."

"Again?" I asked.

"We've met before," she assured me. "Just once of course, but I knew you were special right off the bat."

"Thanks," I said awkwardly.

"It's how I knew you'd find me eventually," she smiled. I finished unclasping the cuffs on her ankles and she swung her feet down and wiggled them. "I was surer than a fish in a pond."

I had no idea what the hell that was supposed to mean, so I just smiled and nodded.

"I'll keep my hope alive for you in the upcoming battle," she told me. "Not that it really matters. I already know the outcome, but I can't tell you! It's in the fine print of my job. I can know how things turn out, and help set things up so that they can, but I can't say nothin' about it. 'Cept for cryptic messages, but who has time to come up with those? Summer does, I guess. It's her favourite thing to do, but not me. I'd rather be out finding fun things to play with."

"So you can't tell me anything at all?" I asked, disappointed.

"I didn't say that," she said with a wink. "Yggdrasil is your responsibility for now. You've got the key to get to him, and _you_ can stop him before he gets too far. The others will be able to handle themselves, but you need to go."

"You think UlforceVeedramon and I can stop him?" I hoped.

"I can't tell you that, silly!" she said, punching me in the arm. It hurt more than she meant it to…I think. "But Yggdrasil isn't alone. He's got an army prepared, an army of human sized monsters, each created as an extension of his person. Their numbers are great, and your friends shall fend them off."

"But they're busy," I protested. "How can I just leaved them to fight this army, if they already have to face Erif, Sigma and the Shadow King, not to mention Arkadimon!"

"It's something you'll _have_ to do," she insisted. "If you don't, they'll have to add Yggrasil onto their every growing list. Do you really want to see your friends fall because you couldn't do what was asked of you?"

I didn't. She knew that. I knew that. And I'd do whatever she said if it meant Kurayami had a better chance of survival. All of my friends would.

"Do, uh, you need help to get anywhere in particular?" I asked. "I mean the battle can't last too much longer."

"No, no," she said. "I'm fine. The shadows just caught on to my escape trick and created an alloy that could keep me here. You already fixed that when you took the cuffs off. That's why I had to call you, my Chosen One."

"Why'd you pick me? There had to be others," I wondered.

"I saw something in you, when you were small. It was something that Hideto didn't have, and that I'd never seen in anyone else. I can't explain it exactly, but you are destined for great things. Speaking of great things, that key your little friend left you, the one in your pocket, it's time you used it," she said brightly.

"I left the key at home…" I informed her.

She smiled widely, tilted her head and snapped the fingers on her right hand. "Think again."

I felt a weight appear in my pocket, and reached my hand inside. My fingers brushed against the cool metal of Norn's key. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked down at it for just a second. But one second was all it took for the Spring Queen to pull a vanishing act. I shook my head. She was loony to begin with. I clutched the key with one hand and gripped my digivice with the other, before rushing in to help finish off the few remaining shadows.

_**Willis Kennedy:**_

Daisuke returned to us just as Cherubimon finished off the final shadow.

The tenseness that had been building inside faded quickly. That battle was too easy. I knew enough not to get my confidence too high. I couldn't get cocky if I was going to fight a battle that everyone was speaking of I needed to keep an open mind. I needed to be able to think clearly so I wouldn't die. And I needed Terriermon and Lopmon to do the same... and though I didn't have to worry about Lopmon, I knew Terriermon's arrogance sometimes shadowed his judgement.

"Aw!" Daisuke called out, "I missed the whole fight!"

"Worry not," Grandiskuwagamon said with his low voice, "The battle is not over."

"I know." Daisuke said, suddenly serious.

Miyako released Ken whom she had hugged and rounded on Daisuke and practically leapt into his arms. "Ohh I love beating shadows!" She cried out as she laughed into Daisuke's shoulder. She released him a second later and looked up to him, "Did you save her?" Daisuke nodded, "Where'd she go then?" She looked over his shoulder, "Did she vanish, just like mine did?"

"She did," Daisuke said, looking about at the broken room around us.

"Well?" Ken prompted, "What did she say?"

Daisuke breathed a small laugh and shook his head, "You know, I'm not entirely sure."

"Leave it to you to forget something after three minutes." I joked. Daisuke grinned at me but shook it off. "She told you what to do didn't she?" I asked.

Daisuke shrugged, and avoided making eye contact, but as he stared to the ground he nodded, "She did."

"And?" UlforceVeedramon asked. "What did she tell you to do?"

"She..." Daisuke trailed off, "She said I need to stick around the Temple for further instruction." To me that seemed rather ridiculous, and like a total lie, but I was in no position to call him out. I mean, we'd just gone through a big ordeal about making sure we didn't keep secrets, but if he thought it was right after that, as our leader, I'd stand by it.

"Doesn't she realize that you have better things to do?" Miyako asked sharply. "We have a giant list of things that need to be done."

"Don't worry about it." Daisuke said quietly, "It'll get done. I promise." He looked from Miyako, to Ken, and then to me, locking eyes with each of us until each of us nodded in agreement. "Just go back to the others. Veemon and I will stay here. We've got it."

"I'll stay with you." Ken said with a shrug. "I've got nothing better to do."

"No, go." Daisuke insisted.

"No." Ken said flatly, staring directly into Daisuke's eyes. Both of them nodded to each other and then rounded on Miyako, practically ignoring my existence. It didn't bother me though, I seemed to be everyone's least favourite. Like a prop, so I was used to it. "Miyako, go back to the others."

"Why can't I stay?" Miyako objected.

"The others need you." Ken said pointedly.

"I don't care." She said sharply, "I'm sick of everyone else taking charge. I tried the goggles once, and I failed. I get it—but everyone always uses me! They always tell me what to do. I'm just as skilled as you two. I can help."

"Miyako, we're not doing anything." Daisuke said impatiently, "We're just waiting for further information."

"Well I'm good at information." Miyako said, "Remember—"

"Just go!" Daisuke shot loudly. Miyako looked to him with a fiery look in her eyes, trying to ignore the tears building up. Daisuke and her had gotten really close lately, and Ken was her husband, and here both of them were, telling her to leave them.

"And stay safe." Ken said, looking to me to ensure that I made sure she did indeed stay safe. I nodded to him and he looked back to Miyako who was glaring up at him. "I love you." He added, but she just growled and spun on the spot, storming toward the exit to the room.

She grabbed my arm and dragged me along with her as she went, and then stopped in the doorway, looking over her shoulder, "I love you too." She said stiffly as she hurried along.

I motioned for the newly reverted Terriermon, Lopmon and Hawkmon to come along with us and they all rushed after us as fast as they could.

"Good luck!" I shouted to Daisuke and Ken before being dragged out of the closet and up the stairs from the Digimental chambers. Miyako was walking with such a determination, her grip tightening on my arm with every step. "Mind letting go?" I suggested. Her expression lightened immediately and she released me. "Where are we going?"

"Back to Mimi's." Miyako said boldly, "That's where we should go to make our next plan." She had a point I supposed, though I wasn't really sure if anyone would still be there if they all had such important things to be doing since so much was coming... sneaking up on us because we had no idea where to look...

"Anyone else smell cookies?" Terriermon asked the moment we reached the top of the stairs.

"Me!" Lopmon shouted.

"Hello little ones," A voice said. I turned quickly to see Leomon standing near the kitchen door with a tray of cookies. "Would you like some?" Hawkmon, Terriermon and Lopmon all leapt forward, each of them hungry for some power food which they definitely deserved. "What are you doing here?"

"Preparing for war." I said.

Leomon nodded, "I could feel it coming. Can I do anything to help?"

Miyako nodded and stepped toward him, "You're part of the council, right?" Leomon nodded, and Miyako grinned, "You all represent different sectors of the Digital World." She said, "Spread the word. A war is coming, you know that, tell them. Anyone who is willing to fight needs to fight. Then come back. The temple is important isn't it? You'd best be here—you're the beast king, you can defend this temple and make sure it stays safe."

"Gladly." Leomon nodded firmly, handing the tray of the remaining cookies to Miyako who smiled at having been of some more use. Leomon spun on the spot and ran down the hallway.

"Good luck!" I found myself calling again.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Miyako asked, looking up at me, offering me a cookie.

I grabbed one and took a bite before answering, "Because luck is all we have now." I said simply, "And last words are very important." I was scared really. I'd been running through a list of people in my head trying to remember the last words I'd said to each of them afraid that I could die any second.

Miyako nodded and spun on the spot, marching straight toward the door at the end of the hallway that would lead to Earth. The five of us barged through the door and stepped into the office in Mimi's restaurant. She kicked the door open and stepped into the hallway, striding toward the seating area.

To my surprise there were people there still, in fact, some that hadn't been there before. Mari was the first I'd noticed, sitting with Kiyoko at the counter, jotting down information onto paper as Hideto busied himself scrubbing the counter nearby. Michael was sitting with Jou and Kurayami around a small round table, and in the furthest corner of the room Momoe sat with a sleeping child wrapped in her arms, Bearmon sitting next to her. Gomamon, Labramon and Betamon were crowded around their partners, and Lalamon was sitting on the counter next to Mari, but Tapirmon, Agumon and Gabumon were nowhere to be seen.

"We're back!" Miyako declared, stepping into the room with confidence and setting the cookies down on the counter next to Kiyoko. Terriermon, Lopmon and Hawkmon all cluttered around it and devoured the rest of the cookies.

Michael looked up and spotted me with a grin, "You were gone a while." He noted, "Run into trouble?"

"Just some shadows." Miyako answered for me, "Ken, Wormmon, Veemon and Daisuke stayed behind. They're waiting further information."

"Is that what he said?" Kurayami asked abruptly. "Exactly what he said?"

"Yeah I guess." Miyako said with a shrug. Kurayami jumped to her feet and pushed past Jou, storming toward Miyako and I before pushing us out of her way and practically running for the office doors. "What's wrong?" Miyako asked sharply.

"He's lied to you." Kurayami said over her shoulder, "Daisuke knows he's in danger!"

"That means..." Miyako said airily.

"Ken too." Kurayami nodded. "C'mon!"

"Stop!" I shouted loudly. Everyone turned to me with a mix of emotions. Both shock and anger really. I suppose most of them hadn't heard me make much of an opinion, I'd always gone with what was happening, and that was what I needed to do here too. "They know what's going on and they want you to be safe. Are you really going to go ruin what they've done? Potentially their _last_ wish was for you two to be safe, and now you're going to go screw that up?"

"I have to!" Miyako cried out, "It's Ken—It's him! He can't die now—he can't just leave me like that! The last thing I said to him—"

"Was that you loved him." I told her flatly.

"I don't care!" Miyako screamed.

"Miyako!" It was Momoe this time. She'd left Emiko on the bench to sleep with Bearmon and had stormed toward her. "If you love him, you have to let him do this." She looked to Kurayami, "You too." Both of them still looked unsure, "They're protecting you. They know you love them. That's all you can give them now. You'll be more useful here. You need to help here."

"But I can't." Miyako said quietly.

"You can." Kurayami said firmly, taking her hand and leading her to sit down again. "We'll do it together." Miyako's lip was quivering as she looked over her shoulder, and the moment she sat down she burst into tears. Momoe rushed to her side and squeezed herself into the seat between her and Jou, comforting her to the best of her ability.

"Willis?" I turned to see Mari standing next to me, her arms outstretched, holding a folder filled with papers. "Everything we can think of about Sigma is in here."

"Thanks?" I said awkwardly, grabbing the folder, and placing it slowly down on the table by Jou. "Why are you...?"

"I'm done." She said as Lalamon floated into her arms. "Lalamon and I decided we didn't want to fight. We don't want to risk it."

"You're just going to let everyone else fight for your freedom." I said flatly, not questioning her at all. "That's the most cowardly thing I've ever heard."

"Shut up!" Mari growled, punching me hard in the arm while holding Lalamon with her other. "We don't want to lose each other, is that such a big deal?"

"It's a big deal when you're putting the entire world in danger for your own selfishness." I shot which seemed to put her into a state of loss. She backed down immediately and I turned away. I couldn't explain how much I loved her, but when you love someone you can't let them do something stupid right? But at the same time I was so happy that she was going to be safe. It took much stress off of me in the long run...

"Willis," Michael called suddenly, "You have anything you're doing particularly?"

"No," I said, knowing that he had something in mind. "What do you need?"

"Do me a favour and go to America?" He asked, "Keep Tatum safe. And my sister."

"_Our_ sister." I corrected with a wink. "It'd be my pleasure." I turned to Terriermon and Lopmon and motioned for the two of them to follow. They nodded and leapt toward me, landing on my shoulders and I set off immediately, clapping Michael on the back on the way out the door. I stopped as I pushed the door open and looked back to tell everyone 'good luck' but Michael was standing right behind me throwing his arms around me. I hugged him back and nodded, ready to back out the door again.

"Good luck Willis!" Miyako called as I left the building.

"And you," I said to her, turning into the darkness of the outside. The first thing I saw down the street was two people walking toward the restaurant. It was Iori and Hikari, with Gatomon and Armadillomon walking next to them. "Looking for Arkadimon?" I asked them.

"No luck though." Hikari nodded. "Any luck on Daisuke's fairy?"

"Success!" I grinned, clenching my fist excitedly in front of me. "I'm on my way to America now though."

Hikari nodded, "I won't stop you then." She stepped out of my way but I didn't go yet, instead I turned to Iori and sighed.

"I know you probably hate me for keeping the secret about your dad from you," I said quickly, "But I need a favour of you."

"What is it?" Iori asked.

"I promised Ken something, and now I can't follow through." I told him, "I need you to keep Miyako safe." Iori's face lit up into a wicked grin. "What?" I asked him.

"Just an interesting turn of events." Iori decided, then, suddenly serious, he said, "I promise. If anything happened to Miyako, I'd probably never be able to move on with my life. I promise you that I'll keep her safe."

"If you don't, Ken gets to be mad at you." I joked before realizing it was an awful, awful joke. Hikari hit me in the opposite arm to the one Mari had hit and I gasped in pain, grabbing at my arm. "Sorry..." I said quietly, "I have to go." I took only one step before stopping and turning to Hikari. "Please don't die." I said just as quietly.

Hikari was instantly emotional, her eyes watering as she bit her lip. Suddenly she stepped forward and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me. "I won't if you won't." She cried out. I pulled from the hug and looked down to her, unable to make a promise, but I nodded anyway. As long as she thought I was living that meant that she had to follow through with her end of the deal and stay alive too. I took one last look into her eyes and set off down the street.

Was I really ready to do this alone?

"This is getting really scary," Lopmon said, reminding me of her presence.

"You're such a girl." Terriermon giggled.

Of course. I wasn't alone. I would never be alone again. Ever since I was a child I'd made a pact with the two of them. We'd always be together. Forever. Always.

"Let's do this." I said, determined. "We've got to keep my sister safe."

"And your mom." Lopmon added.

"Yeah." I agreed, "Her too."

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I would have thought that Arkadimon wouldn't be so hard to find. From what I'd been told, he was gigantic and white. It couldn't be that hard for us to find someone that was taller than the trees and glowed in the moonlight could it? Wrong. First of all, the moon was hidden behind a bunch of clouds that were clearly conspiring against universal peace. And then Arkadimon didn't make an appearance. Hikari swore he had to be in Odaiba, since Wizardmon had been attacked by him—and Hikari had been the one to patch him up, before Yamato brought him home to his father—and that it would only be a matter of time before we caught up with him.

Only it hadn't happened that way at all.

We searched for hours, but finally we had to give in. We understood how serious the issue was, but we couldn't handle any more searching. We'd been on a wild goose chase, and it was safer to just rest up for the time being, so that when Arkadimon did show up—and we knew he would—we'd be able to do something about it.

When Palmon, Tentomon and I reached the house, I was ready to drop off to sleep. Tentomon rushed to Koushiro's side. He was busy working away on his computer, with Shuu and Haruhiko on a speakerphone conference call. They were hurriedly gathering information on Yggdrasil, whoever he was. It was important that we learn the answers though, because we'd be facing off against him shortly. Biyomon looked cozy, sitting next to Koushiro, bouncing with excitement each time they found something new.

"Where's Sora?" I asked when Koushiro finally noticed I was present.

"I assumed she would join the efforts of your team once she finished her confrontation with Neo," Koushiro explained. "If she didn't, then I couldn't possibly begin to guess."

"She's probably still with Neo then," I guessed.

"Tell her I say 'Hi' when she gets in," Haruhiko asked. He barely saw his daughter these days. Between his crazy work ethic, and Sora's dates with Neo—and frantic searching for a new career path—there wasn't a lot of time that either of them were available to meet with each other. I knew it bothered her, and that she was working on it though. I was like that with my father too. My mother on the other hand…

"Mimi, darling, is that you?"

Yeah, she'd never left. Apparently she had to make up for all of those times she'd called me a traitor, and belittled me and my dreams. As much as I loved her new supportive attitude, I really missed the distance we once had. Like the ocean. I really wished she was on the other side of it. Not that I could come right out and say that though. And Minervamon and Palmon really got along great.

But Mom complained a lot about having to sleep on the couch, and no matter how many times I told her that she had a bed waiting for her in New York, she just didn't seem to get the hint. I didn't want to kick her out, per say, but I didn't want to live with her either.

"Koushiro said you might not be home at all tonight," she informed me. "But here you are. Did things go alright then? No, I don't suppose they did. You'd be happier if it did. I'll just whip you up something to take your mind off it, shall I?"

She didn't wait for me to agree, she just headed off to the kitchen. I sighed, looking at the couch. There were three digimon sitting on it with Koushiro, and Minervamon, I knew, couldn't be too far away. The chair it was then. I practically melted into the seat, wondering where Sora could be. Didn't she realize just how dangerous it was to be out there alone right then? Of course she didn't. She left before Miyako explained everything that we'd been missing. She was out there alone, and unprepared.

But she was with Neo too.

I didn't know which was worse. Every time she was alone with Neo, it seemed they ended up back together. I was all for Sora's happiness and everything, but now was definitely not the time for more Neo drama. I might've had to slap her if she came home begging me to help her figure it out _again_.

With only the sounds of Koushiro's murmurs as he conversed with Shuu and Haruhiko, the clicking of his laptop, and Mom's clattering in the kitchen, I was easily being lulled into sleep. Just as I was debating whether or not I should just head to bed, there was a frantic pounding at the door. I jumped to my feet immediately, suddenly pumped with energy. Was it Taichi? Yamato? Jou? Did they find Arkadimon or the Shadow King or Erif?

I didn't waste time pondering it and flung the door open wide. I was disappointed to see a slightly dishevelled Neo standing there instead.

"I'm going to have to call you back," Koushiro said, clicking off his phone, clearly seeing something in Neo's calm face that I couldn't find.

"What do you want?" I asked. I wasn't trying to sound mean. I was just getting impatient. Sora was still out there, and now she was alone. Why couldn't he have stayed with her?

He pushed passed me and made his way into the living room. I rolled my eyes at his presumptuousness and closed the door behind him.

"I have something to tell you," he informed us. But then he didn't say anything at all. He just opened and closed his mouth, which began trembling as the seconds ticked by.

"Just tell us," Biyomon suggested.

"S-Sora!" he gasped, falling to his knees. His calm façade melted away to reveal an unstable mess. His hands were shaking and he couldn't hold back his tears, and I just knew that something was wrong. The sound grew muted around me, and the pounding of my heart took over.

"What about Sora?" Koushiro demanded. He was nervous too. His fingers were twitching on his laptop keyboard, but he wasn't typing anymore. He wasn't even looking at his computer. He looked rather tempted to go over and try to comfort Neo. And, while on a good day I'd be amused to watch such attempts, that simply made me more scared to hear what he had to say.

"Arkadimon," Neo managed to spit out, sounding angrier than before. "He was there, and we weren't prepared. I was going to distract him, while she went to get you. But she didn't listen. He attacked me. And she got in the way."

"W-where's Sora?" Koushiro said, his voice shaking. "Where is she?"

"Gone," Neo growled. "He killed her. Right in front of me."

Killed.

Sora.

Those two words couldn't be in the same sentence. My brain wouldn't let them. Nothing was making sense anymore. My knees buckled beneath me. They seemed to understand what was going on even when my head didn't. It took only seconds for my whole frame to be heaving as I let out loud, choked sobs. I looked to Koushiro, pleading for him to tell me that Neo's information was inaccurate. But, while he was in better shape than me, he was far from put together. He'd frozen, still staring at Neo, hands poised above his laptop, his eyes shining brightly, with a single tear making its way down his cheek. Palmon and Tentomon were at his side, trying to wake him from his daze and I continued crying in a heap on the floor.

Biyomon wasn't accepting Neo's words though.

"No!" she screamed loudly. "You're lying!"

"I have pancakes," Mom said rushing into the room holding out a large tray with several stacks of pancakes on it. "There's no need for raised voices."

She looked from Koushiro's frozen state, to Biyomon—who was currently Spiral Twister-ing the shoe rack in distraught. Then she caught sight of Neo, and finally her eyes fell on me.

"S-Sora's, Sora's g-gone!" I blubbered, and she let go of the tray. It seemed to move in slow motion as it fell to the ground, shattering into hundreds of little pieces, just like my hope for the future did. Without Sora it didn't make sense for us to fight. We could never do this without her. But we also had to do it _for_ her.

Mom raced across the room and scooped me into her arms, whispering empty assurances into my hair as I struggled to get a hold of myself.

I wanted to hurt Arkadimon more than I'd _ever_ wanted to hurt anything in my life, and that was saying something, because I was usually a very nonviolent person. But he hurt—no. I had to admit it to myself. There was no use denying it. He _killed_ Sora, and that was not okay with me. It also terrified me to the bone. We could die now. I knew it was a possibility before, but it always felt so unlikely to me. We'd never died in the past. I'd always assumed that we were destined to win, and so we were kind of immortal or something. But looking at Neo I was forced to see just how real this was.

I crawled out of my mother's loving grasp, and hauled Neo into my arms. He clung to me like a lifeline, and I clung back. We had to do this. We _had_ to. For Sora.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Things are bad right now, and they'll only get worse for the digidestined. Can they win without Sora?


	45. Countdown

**Y/N:** For the rest of the story, we've got the parts written, but I have to literally string them together, since I didn't do it as we went along. Dumb of me, I realize, but it is what it is. I apologize for the delay, but we're not at the same house right now…and there's been a few delays in communication between us regarding the story. It's here now though, so enjoy it and leave a review if possible.

**U/N:** So this is the shortest chapter you're going to get from now on, so either treasure the simplicity or, be sad because it's not quite long and hectic... Well, I hope you like it, sorry it didn't go up on time yesterday, but we'll likely be putting the next one up on time so I guess it's just shorter of a wait now...

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 45: Countdown**

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

It was probably one of the hardest things I'd ever done, to send my wife away like that. But I knew Daisuke didn't want anybody sticking around with him. I was pushing my luck by staying myself. I knew he let me, but he didn't really want to.

"Run it by me real quick," I told him. "What are we dealing with?"

"I'm not exactly sure," he admitted. "The queen wasn't very specific. It's just that…Norn's key leads to the In-Between, and that's where Yggdrasil is going to be."

"So we're going to beat him," I guessed.

"We're going to try," he corrected. "She said he was really powerful, and that we had to keep him busy for as long as we could. The others are going to have their hands full with Arkadimon and Erif and those two shadows. But that's not all. That's why I wanted you to go with them. They'll need all the fighters they can find. Yggdrasil has an army."

"We've beaten two digimon armies already this year," I commented. "And we beat Fanglongmon's army and all those shadows the last time we were in crisis mode."

"They've got nothing on this one. It's gotta be huge," Daisuke insisted. "He's going to wipe out all life on all the worlds. No more humans, no animals, no digimon, no wizards in Witchenly, no fairies in Fairytopia, nothing. This battle is all or nothing."

"Don't you think this is something you should have told them before they left?" I hissed angrily.

"I thought Miyako knew!" he said defensively. "She knew about Yggdrasil."

"She knew he existed," I told him. "That's a far cry from knowing he's going to destroy life everywhere."

"Maybe you could go and tell them," Daisuke suggested.

"They'll figure it out soon enough," I assured him. "You're stuck with me. There's no way in hell I'm letting you go in to an uncharted world to face off against the biggest bad guy we've ever faced."

"Thanks," he said nervously. He looked to UlforcecVeedramon and took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

"Always," UlforceVeedramon assured him.

"I'm ready too," GrandisKuwagamon said excitedly. "And you Ken?"

"I think so," I said.

"There's no time for thinking," Daisuke told me. "Not anymore."

He pulled the final key out of his pocket and inserted it into the nearest wall. I watched in slow motion as he turned the key and a bright, white light emerged around it, forming a rectangle the size of a door. He pushed on it, and it opened. The white blinded me, and I couldn't look directly into the door. Daisuke had the same problem, but he didn't hesitate like I did. He just trudged through into the unknown world of the In-Between. I couldn't let him go alone, so I followed hastily after him.

"What is this place?" he asked. I trusted that he hadn't actually gone blind by looking at the place and opened my own eyes to take a look around. There was something about this place that was achingly familiar. And I didn't like it.

"We've been here before," I pointed out. It turned out that the unknown In-Between wasn't such a mystery. There was absolutely nothing everywhere I looked. Yet there seemed to be a light source—an excessively powerful one—as that endless nothing was shining a bright white. It was similar to the Digital World had been when the Death Knights had taken away all of the elements, just without the gridlines. It was also completely unnerving. My skin crawled. There was nowhere to hide in this endless open space, yet this Yggdrasil was doing an excellent job at it.

"I thought it looked familiar, but when?" Daisuke asked.

"I-I don't know," I admitted.

"Apocolymon," Daisuike suddenly announced.

"Right," I agreed. "He sent us here, where we'd be trapped forever if we hadn't learned our crests."

"Should I close the door?" Daisuke wanted to know. "I mean, I realize we wouldn't be able to leave either, but wouldn't it be better to keep him from escaping?"

I'd already been trapped in a world apart from Earth once, but I understood where he was coming from. There was no guarantee that we'd win this fight, and if we left the door open, Yggdrasil would a sure fire way of getting into the Temple, the centre of the Digital World's defence. Well, probably. It was the only logical location for Taichi to choose.

"Close it," I told him.

I might never see Miyako again, but it would be worth it to know that Yggdrasil wouldn't get her. It was a small comfort, but it was all I had. Daisuke hurriedly did as I instructed and our only exit was successfully sealed away.

"Let's look around," Daisuke suggested. UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon flew ahead of us, searching for Yggdrasil. I kept my eyes peeled, but I still didn't find anything other than the white horizon.

"Where is he?" GrandisKuwagamon growled impatiently. He was ready for a fight. He tended to get hotheaded while in his new form. He seemed to think he was invincible, and I was inclined to agree. He was probably the coolest digimon I'd ever laid eyes on.

"I'm going to look down there," I announced, letting myself fall downwards. It would've been towards the ground, had there been a ground—or gravity—in this place.

"I'll look up higher then," Daisuke called.

I wandered around, keeping my ears open in case they found him, but they never said anything. I was getting discouraged. What if Yggdrasil had already managed to find a way out of the In-Between and we'd trapped ourselves in there for no reason whatsoever? What if I'd managed to save myself only to have Miyako, my precious wife, put in the line of fire?

I shook the thought away. I couldn't allow myself to think that way. Yggdrasil had to be there. In fact…there was a slight distortion in the endless white canvas about twenty feet ahead of me. It was still white, but there were sections that looked more silver. I was about to tell Daisuke about my findings so he could double check that I wasn't just seeing things, when the shape moved. It was definitely not a hallucination then. It was a creature, with clunky white armor with silver decoration. Where the head ought to be was just a blank white helmet, until it's eyes turned on like a computer. They were glowing bright red like an alarm clock, and the creature began to lift into the air.

"Daisuke!" I shouted. "I think I found him."

"What?" Daisuke called. He and our two digimon stopped what they were doing to look upon the creature I'd found just as I was. The only colour on his body, aside from his eyes, was a long, spiked green tube that was underneath his armor. Below him appeared to be a connection of sorts, similar to what I'd seen Miyako use to set up complicated computer devices so she could have many attached at once. That green stick was what he used to plug himself into the circuitry. That was how he was commanding his armies. That was how he was going to try and eradicate the worlds of life.

"Get ready to rumble," Daisuke ordered as he floated down to my side. Our two digimon flew down as well, already holding Yggdrasil in their sights.

"Good luck, Daisuke," I told him, remembering Willis' parting words to us.

"You too," he said nodding to me before turning to our new enemy.

Yggrasil stared back at us with his electronic eyes and told us, "It is time."

Our digimon attacked instantly.

_**Iori Hida:**_

Thunder cracked loudly over the restaurant. My eyes burst open at the sound. My neck was stiff from sleeping on the bench of a booth. I rubbed at the muscles, trying to loosen them up. How could I have fallen asleep when stress levels were so high? Hikari made me that was how. She pulled me aside, with tears streaming down her face and told me that she needed me close for awhile. Kurayami came with us, and our digimon curled up on the floor near our booth—far enough away to not hear our conversations, but close enough in case of attack. She'd cried long into the night, and I tried my best to comfort her. She was worried about Willis, who had left us for America. She worried about Sora and Neo, neither of whom had contacted us at all into the night. Mimi, Takeru and Yamato, who'd searched with us last night but had not returned to the restaurant. Koushiro and Taichi, who had both left for their own locations where they thought they'd get the most work done. And for her parents and everyone else's and all of the siblings. She cried for the digimon that we'd be forcing into battle, and the dangers we'd face.

Eventually it had proven to be too much for her to handle, and the emotional strain caused her to fall into a rough sleep. I remembered laying her out on the table of the booth, watching as the tears still fell even in her sleep, but I didn't remember actually laying down myself. Kurayami seemed to have followed my lead though, and was snoozing on the bench at the other side of the table.

I ran my hands over my face and looked at the restaurant. Papers were strewn everywhere, and the lights were still lit up. It was fortunate, since the storm outside was preventing most of the natural light from doing any good. There were plates of cookies and pastries and cut up vegetables scattered on the tables—snacks that Hideto had retrieved when he couldn't figure out how else to contribute after writing the list about Sigma. He'd fallen asleep as well, half resting on a table, with one knee still on the chair he'd no doubt been leaning on while wiping the tabletop down. The cloth he'd been using was still clenched in his hand.

Momoe was in the corner booth, cuddling Emiko tightly to her chest, glasses skewed as she rested, with Bearmon right up against her side for protection. Jou was on the opposing bench, with his back against the wall. He'd been determined to stay awake and protect his daughter, but he too—like everyone else—had succumbed to sleeps grasp, and his head was leaned forward at a very uncomfortable angle. Gomamon was perched on the table between them, his head resting between his front flippers, looking suspiciously like a sleeping guard dog. I was sure that just a little noise would wake him should anyone venture too close. The thunder, however, wasn't rousing him in the slightest.

Armadillomon was acting as a bed for Gatomon, who'd curled up on his shell. Labramon was nestled in next to him. Hawkmon had joined them at some point, and was leaning against Armadillomon as well.

Lightning flashed outside the window, and I waited patiently for the following thunder—trying to determine how close the storm was—before turning to hunt down Miyako. She was sitting next to Michael, her head drooping onto his shoulder, while his was facing the ceiling, resting on the top of their booth's seat. Betamon was curled up on the table in front of them, resting on top of several papers they'd been writing plans on. They must've fallen asleep mid planning, or else they would've picked a more comfortable position.

Footsteps drew my attention, and I saw Kiyoko walking lightly into the room from Mimi's office. He froze when he saw me watching him, but relaxed quickly. He had a guilty look on his face, but practically tiptoed to the pile that was his digimon partner. Tapirmon was resting in a heap with Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon. I could have sworn that Mari's Lalamon was with them before I'd fallen asleep.

But it didn't matter.

What did matter was that we were sleeping the day away when we could be attacked at any moment. I got to my feet, prepared to at least start reading through some of Miyako and Michael's plans, but the sound of keys jingling stopped me in my tracks.

"That's funny…the door should be locked…"

It wasn't Mimi, and as far as I knew only three people had keys to the restaurant. Hideto was the second, and his face was still plastered against a table. That meant it had to be that waitress. I didn't know her name—never had a chance to learn it—but I knew she wouldn't be expecting so many people when she prepared to open the restaurant for the day.

"Hello?" she called walking into the dining area. "What's going on? The door wasn't locked, and I don't think any of you are supposed to be here."

"Shh!" Kiyoko and I hissed.

"Don't you shush me," she snapped. Her blonde hair shook with the energy she put into it. She was wearing a purple hat with subtle cat ears sticking out the top. "My eyes are down here."

"You're wearing a child's hat," I said. It wasn't the most intelligent thing I'd ever said, but I'd just woken up, and it seemed odd to me.

"I know I am," she said defensively, as if I'd hold it against her. "I found it this morning. I used to wear it all the time when I was a kid. And with the way things have been going lately, I thought it was appropriate."

I didn't know when a bright purple children's hat was ever appropriate to wear to work as a waitress, but Mimi didn't seem to enforce any sort of dress code, so I didn't bother to argue.

"Wake up people!" she shouted before Kiyoko or I could stop her. I winced at Emiko's scream. It wasn't scared or upset. Emiko was angry at this girl for waking her up and Momoe—who'd had the pleasure of waking to her daughter's screams in her ear—looked like she agreed. "This isn't a hotel, it's a restaurant. You're gonna have to get off those tables so I can sterilize them. And I don't even want to know about the state of the kitchen. I'm going to call Mimi too. If she tells me you aren't supposed to be here, I'll have to kick you out. If you put up a fuss, I'll call the cops. I swear."

Only she didn't look like she meant it at all. She was just trying to scare everyone awake. She stalked over to, the still sleeping, Hideto and wacked him over the back of the head with her hand. He jerked awake and looked around the room confused. He noticed the cloth in his hand and threw it on the floor in disgust.

"I need a shower," he declared.

"There aren't showers here," the waitress informed him.

"Then I'll use the dishwasher," he said, heading towards the kitchen.

"How's he going to use the dishwasher?" Miyako asked loudly, still trying to find her glasses. They'd fallen off while she slept.

"It's industrial!" Hideto shouted back from the kitchen. I heard the sound of spraying water and decided I'd avoid the kitchen for the time being.

"Listen, what's your name," Michael started. "Actually, what _is_ your name?"

"Izumi," she said sounding offended. Obviously—as everyone looked sheepish—I wasn't the only one to have forgotten her name. If I'd ever learned it anyway.

"Sorry," Michael apologized. "But I'm pretty sure Mimi isn't opening the restaurant today."

"She should have called me if that was the case. I mean, I need to work so I can pay my rent. She can't dock my hours on a moment's notice," Izumi said. "Not unless this place needed fumigation or something."

"It might," Jou joked. "You don't know what state the kitchen is in."

"Right," Izumi said, sounding less than amused. "Okay, this is what's going to happen. You're going to get off the table"—she pointed to Hikari—"and someone is going to get that seal-dog hybrid off of that one, and all of these creatures are going to get up off the floor. I'm going to clean as much as I can so that I can claim that I actually worked today, and you guys can stay unless Mimi tells me otherwise."

"Sure," Hikari said quickly, when it was clear that no one else knew what to tell her. We were kind of busy worrying over the fate of the world, it didn't matter to me if she got paid today or not. Izumi went ahead into the kitchen, letting out a yelp and turning back around. Apparently Hideto hadn't been kidding when he said he was going to take a shower. She was determined though, and went to Mimi's office for the telephone. I figured we'd be hearing from Mimi pretty soon.

"Where's Mari?" Hikari asked, looking around the room frantically.

"She was here before," Agumon said, Gabumon nodded in agreement. "Lalamon was with us last I remember."

"Willis' words really shook her," Kiyoko said. "When he called her a coward I mean. Perhaps she decided to take action and left. Or she left because she was afraid we'd make her help."

"In the middle of the night, and by herself?" Miyako asked panicked. "She shouldn't do that. We have to stick together. No one should go off on their own. Not now."

"Mari clearly didn't know to do that," Michael said awkwardly.

We were one member down. Two, if you counted Willis. He'd decided to go to America, where he would be responsible for the fate of that part of the world. He had very few there to help him too. Mostly just Tatum and Michael's sister, Jenna. There were four other American chosen children that we knew of though. Perhaps they had heard Tatum's call for arms. But seven did not an army make. He'd have his hands full over there. A part of me wished we could send someone to help him, but we needed everyone here, and couldn't afford to send anyone away.

Thunder sounded again, and I slumped back into my seat.

"How could I have fallen asleep," I heard Jou muttering to himself. "Emiko is in danger. I need to protect Emiko."

"Try not to lose your mind, that might help," Momoe suggested. He didn't deign himself to answer her.

"Can I see the information you gather on Sigma? He's a shadow too right? So he could be after her as well," Jou asked. Miyako gave the papers to him. Mari had given them to her when Willis had rushed out of the building for America. With his gung-ho attitude, I felt guilty just sitting there, and started to contemplate calling in Meiyomon. He'd want to be involved, and he tended to have information about the strangest of things. He told us about the queens in his own little way—or so Jou told me—back when he was still our enemy. And he would just wake up some days and tell me something new about the Digital World. He really would've been an excellent choice…

"Mimi's on her way over," Izumi said with a smile. For someone who wanted us gone, she didn't seem too upset about it. But the smile soon fell off her face. "She doesn't seem very happy though. I think she was crying."

"What happened?" Hikari demanded.

"She didn't tell me," Izumi said holding her hand up in surrender.

"No news can be good news," Kurayami told Hikari gently.

"Unless our friends' lives are in the balance," Hikari muttered. "What if Arkadimon attacked innocent civilians? What then?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "We'll cross that bridge when it comes. _If_ it comes."

"You guys really need an energy boost," Izumi said. "I'm going to whip up some breakfast. Here I come Hideto!" Hideto strolled out of the kitchen with wet hair, but thankfully fully dressed.

"Are you planning again?" Hideto asked as soon as Izumi was in the kitchen.

"We have to," Michael said. He and Miyako sorted through their papers—mostly just jot notes of information Michael had read off of ruins, and that the queen had told Miyako. Jou's mood seemed to decline further with every sentence he read about Sigma. His knee started shaking up and down as his frustration grew.

"Look alive people," Taichi said walking into the restaurant. "I'm glad we found you. I didn't want to have to search all of Odaiba. Did anyone find Arkadimon?"

Yamato and Takeru slipped into the room after Taichi with Gabumon at their side, and Patamon resting on the top of Takeru's head. Their dad and Wizardmon came in with them, and were followed by two men I recognized as Sora's and Koushiro's fathers.

"What are they doing here?" Miyako demanded.

"I'll take that as a 'No' then," Taichi said. "They're here to help me. Their digimon are members of my knights, and I'm going to need them around if I want them to be any good, aren't I?"

"Good thinking," Hideto said.

"Good," Taichi said, sounding pleased. "We don't know where the attack is going to hit first, but Erif is still kicking around the Digital World, I've found out that much. So we're going to have to hunt him down. Yggdrasil will be enough trouble on his own. I'd like to get Erif out early if we can to compensate for that."

"You'll go to the Digital World, Taichi," Miyako ordered. "I've already instructed your council to warn their respective sectors. There'll be digimon all over the Digital World ready to face the attack of Yggdrasil. But the Temple is where you'll be, because that's your headquarters. It's the headquarters for all the good guys in the Digital World. And that'll be where the bad guys target, right?"

"Where's Daisuke then?" Taichi wanted to know. "I'm going to need to know someone with experience is leading the battle on this end."

"He's off somewhere with K-Ken," she said, her voice breaking on her husband's name. Her earlier panic was still very much near the surface, and Kurayami glared at Taichi for bringing it up again—and her own, as Daisuke's fate was undetermined as well.

"Doesn't he know he's needed here?" Taichi said angrily.

"He's needed there more," I told him firmly. "The queen he saved said so. And they know what they're talking about. Just pick someone else. Who else do you trust inexplicably?"

It sounded a bit like I was hoping he'd pick me, but I really wasn't. I couldn't handle everyone asking me what to do. I didn't talk with most of them on a regular basis. I wasn't a very social person. I still counted the words I spoke! I didn't know anyone well enough to know their strengths and weaknesses, or where to position them, but I knew who did, and it looked like Taichi did too.

"Jou, you're in charge," he decided.

"What?" Jou asked panicked. "I can't. I've got to take care of Emiko, the Shadow King is after her."

"All the more reason for you to lead then," Taichi assured him. "You've got your mind set on the prize, and you'll need people close by in case he shows up. You're also the only one here that can handle it."

"You're going to need more than just you," Jou said, resigning himself to his new role. "You'll have a council and the knights, but you need people with experience…and by that, I mean crests."

"I've got one of those," Michael joked. "But seriously, I think I'm ready to go."

"And me," Kurayami said quickly. "I think I'd better be in a place more suited for the Shadow King. He won't want to come to Earth on his own, not unless I'm here."

"Why?"

It was a common question, though only Hideto voiced it, but it remained unanswered.

"If you're going, then so am I," Hikari declared. Takeru agreed instantly.

"Not everyone can go," Yamato pointed out.

"But Iori should," Miyako added.

"No," I said instantly. "I promised Willis to take care of you when he couldn't. And he promised Ken."

"You're not my babysitter," she snapped. I almost smiled at the irony. Not very long ago, I was in her position. She'd finally let me grow up, and wasn't taking this well at all. "You're younger than me, and if anyone was going to protect anyone, _I_ would protect _you_. You almost died once already."

"But _I_ can fight on my own if I have to, you can't," I insisted.

"I refuse to be watched by a child," Miyako hissed.

"Miyako," Momoe said. "Remember when we were kids and I babysat you? Looks like we'll be watching a rerun of that. Iori, I'll take care of her. She's my baby sister; you can trust me."

"I still don't see why I have to go," I said stubbornly.

"Because, you're the third of the Chosen Three. Daisuke is off who knows where, but he's in a different world. If you and I are also in separate worlds, then we'll be harder to target. If someone gets close, they'd only get close to one of us. It's genius really," she said proudly.

She had a point. And I hated it.

"Yoo-hoo!" Mimi's mom burst through the front door. "We're ready for duty."

Five women were standing in a formation, with Taichi's mother, Yuuko, in the centre. Takeru's mom, Natsuko, and Koushiro's mom, Yoshie, stood just behind her on either side, with Mimi's mom, Satoe, and Ken's mom, Kae, were standing just behind them. They reminded me of the Power Rangers, except that they were all female and they were accompanied by various digital monsters. There was Minervamon, Lunamon, Coronamon and Digitamamon standing around them all striking tough looking poses. I saw that Taichi's dad snuck in behind them with his Kamemon at his side.

"What're you doing here?" Taichi demanded.

"Kiyoko called us," Yuuko said, flashing a grin in the blonde boy's direction. He looked to his black boots to avoid Taichi's glare, but after a second he looked up, straightening his shoulders, and walked towards the women, his long white jacket flaring behind him.

"They deserved to know," he said as firmly as he could, though his voiced shook a little. "It's not just our war. They're a part of it to. Everyone on Earth and all the other worlds…they're all a part of it. They're safer knowing what's going on then to get blindsided when the fighting starts."

"And I brought your father too," Yuuko said. "Because Dorumon is still in the Digital World, and I thought it would be next to useless to come without a digimon handy."

"Didn't you say you wanted to use your knights," Yamato's Dad, Hiroaki, said.

"I didn't mean for my _mom_ to get involved," he grumbled.

"Don't forget about me," Sora's mom, Toshiko, declared stalking into the room after them. "You can't take my husband and forget about me. Thanks for the head's up, Hiroaki." It would have been a nice scene, had my own mother not followed her. I stared at her in horror, though I was pleased to see she'd brought Meiyomon with her. That was something at least. She knew enough not to come alone.

"I'm here too," Mom said softly. "I'm not going to ask you not to fight, Iori. I know you can't. I can see how important this is. But I _can_ stand with you on this. I'm not going to lose you without a fight."

"I don't want to lose you either," I said bitterly. She was all the family I had left—Meiyomon excluded.

"You won't," Meiyomon declared. "Because I'm gonna protect her. And she'll help me too."

"How?" I wanted to know.

"By being his partner," Mom announced, flashing a digivice in my direction. "He gave it to me this morning when I wished I could do something to help. He tried to give it to me once before, but I thought he'd taken _yours_ and demanded he take it back. I understand what he needed from me now. And I'm going to fight for our home and our family whether you want me to or not."

"Well said," Momoe said happily, holding her own digivice in one hand while she balanced Emiko on her other hip. Bearmon stood tall beside her. "And we'll be right by your side Jou. Always."

"Where are Mimi and Koushiro?" Takeru asked. "Shouldn't they be here while we split ourselves up?"

"They're on their way," Kurayami assured them. "They'll probably bring Sora with them, maybe even Neo."

"I hope so," Yamato said. "I'm not happy with him exactly at the moment, but I know we're going to need him."

"Is Noriko going to come?" Hikari asked me. "With the other Black Spore Children?"

"Probably," I said. "But I didn't hear back from her. Hopefully she was too busy collecting the others."

"Rei's decided she's going to fight in the Digital World," Taichi said. He looked worried, and I didn't blame him. "She said she wouldn't be useful here, but if she had Pal and Pul at her side, she's sure she can do something to help there."

"Shin and Shuu want to help, if possible," Jou said in the same scared-and-worried tone. "Jun will probably go with them."

"Chiziru left Masa with Mom and Dad," Momoe declared. "She and Mantarou are taking Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon into battle. She wants Masa to have a world to grow up in. I can relate."

"Jenna and Tatum are helping Willis," Michael offered. "I think my Dad's going to try and help too. Mary might just get in the way though."

"Catherine's preparing to fight for France and Europe," Takeru added.

"Katsue called me last night, or early this morning I guess," Yamato admitted. "Apparently Monimon knows something's happening, and even though his attacks are practically useless, she told me she'll be here."

"Looks like you'll have a small army, Jou," Taichi said. "It's as big as mine, almost. You'll have Mimi, Koushiro and Sora as well. Maybe Neo too."

Satoe flinched, probably because her daughter was going to be fighting in a war, even though she'd just volunteered her own services. Parents were like that. I could see mine sneaking glances at me when she thought I wasn't looking. They didn't think we kids worried about them just as much as they worried about us.

"Yeah," Jou said. The immensity of the situation was finally settling in my bones. I'd been anxious before, but I was calm now. I knew what we were doing, there were definite plans. So long as none of us got killed, we'd be able to pull this off.

Thunder boomed again, louder this time. I hadn't heard it getting so close over the talking, but the sound added to my growing adrenaline. I was ready for this fight. At least I was…

And then Mimi and Koushiro came walking in, with Neo right behind them. Biyomon and Dracomon were beside him, with Palmon leading the way and Tentomon flying behind them.

Sora wasn't there.

"Guys," Mimi said shakily. "There's something we have to tell you."

She caught sight of all the extra people and her eyes widened exponentially.

"Koushiro, Koushiro you'll have to tell them," she said nervously. I noticed her eyes flitting between Toshiko and Haruhiko Takenouchi, Sora's parents.

"Oh, well, alright," he said, tugging at his collar. He seemed to notice the same two people Mimi had. "Neo and Sora ran in to Arkadimon last night…and well, he attacked…and Neo decided to distract him, while Sora went for help…but Arkadimon thought it would be fun to kill Neo, and targeted him. Sora decided to stop it and saved his life! Only, it was at the cost of…her own."

My mind was in shock. Two things quickly came into focus however. Sora was dead. Koushiro never lied about the facts, so I knew this had to be true, and it royally sucked for a multitude of reasons, though I'm ashamed to say that my thoughts first went to our chances in this fight without her, before the idea I'd never see her plot to uncover another relationship again. The second thing I knew for certain, was that Koushiro was horrible with sharing bad news. And his delivery certainly was received in a variety of ways.

Hikari, Miyako and Mimi reacted similarly. Mimi—who I quickly realized was barely pulled together—fell apart at the seams and sobbed in Neo's arms. Neo didn't look collected either. Hikari, who cried all night, was crying once again, hugging Gatomon to her chest in an instant and falling to the floor. Kurayami was beside her, holding her own digimon close, lending silent support and letting her cry as she needed. Miyako was more animated than that. Tears streamed down her face, and she started hyperventilating. Michael rushed to her side to calm her down, trying breathing exercises, and simply holding her close when that didn't work. Emiko too started wailing in her place in Momoe's arms, though I imagined it was due to all the other crying females rather than her immense sadness at Sora's loss. She didn't understand what was happening at all.

Jou, Yamato and Haruhiko—Sora's father—weren't so dramatic in their sadness. They held it together pretty well I imagined and reacted similar to me. I'd just dealt with my grandfather's loss, and so I was hiding behind the wall I'd built up for that occasion. If I hid behind the wall, the truth couldn't touch me. Not until I was ready to handle it. And that moment, the quiet right before the upcoming war, was not a time that I was prepared to start grieving a friend. Jou was sad, more than sad. I could tell by looking at him. His eyes were dull, and his lips were curved downward. But he didn't make a sound. He was experiencing a clear case of shock, and Momoe hugged him, handing the screaming Emiko off to Bearmon. Haruhiko's hands were in fists, and I could tell he'd converted all sadness into a quiet rage. He wanted revenge on Arkadimon, though he didn't know who he was. And he didn't want to stop until he got it. Yamato however, seemed to be drowning in denial. He kept shaking his head, moving his mouth only for no words to escape. I could read the word he was trying for though. "No."

If they were quiet though, Taichi and Toshiko made up for it with their blatant anger. Toshiko was fuming mad and let everyone know about it by screaming bloody murder. Taichi turned his anger onto Koushiro though.

"Take it back," he growled. "That was a horrible joke."

"It wasn't a joke, Taichi," Koushiro told him. "I wish it was. But it's not. She was my best friend, Taichi. I can't joke about that."

"It has to be a joke," Taichi raged. "Neo. It was his fault. He's lying to you. He lied and you believed him and now you're lying to everyone else."

"N-Neo on-only t-tells the tr-truth," Mimi sobbed. "It w-was S-S-Sora's favo-ourite thing a-about h-him!" Neo buried his face into Mimi's neck, and I heard him starting to sniffle. He was desperately trying to get a hold on himself.

Biyomon seemed more inclined to join Toshiko at screaming and destroying stuff. She lit some of Miyako and Michael's papers on fire with her Spiral Twister, causing Miyako to fall into further hysterics. She'd spent so much time developing those plans, plans that would help us win this war that had already taken its first victim. I swallowed thickly and made my wall stronger.

Takeru was in a class of his own. Sora was the closest thing he'd had to a sister, and had joked many times that all she had to do was marry Yamato to make it official, even if they weren't dating at the time. Sora and him talked to each other all the time, even when he was out travelling the world. Koushiro might've been her best friend, but Takeru and Mimi were close seconds. And Jou, who'd known her the longest as was the case with Taichi. Almost everyone had some strong friendship with her, and all I could remember was being mad at her for forcing me to reveal my relationship before I was ready. Even though she was right, and it was stupid to hide it.

In any case, Takeru was worse than the others that chose to remain silent. He shut off completely. His eyes, his face. He sat down in a booth and pulled his legs up to his chest, staring blankly at the far wall. Patamon tried desperately to get his attention, stating how scared he was of Takeru's actions, but it was no use.

Hiroaki was trying to discretely wipe away a tear for the girl he'd almost called daughter, and had lived with him one summer before breaking off that dream when she broke up with Yamato. Yuuko and Susumu, who'd spent countless years hearing Taichi complain about Sora over the years for being a complicated girl, stood together not quite touching, but drawing strength from one another. Yoshie was pulled into a quick embrace by her husband Masami, and Digitamamon awkwardly tried to cheer her up. Satoe, Kae and Mom, none of whom really knew Sora very well, still looked absolutely distraught at the news, despite Satoe knowing about it already. Takeru's mom hurried to her son's side. She knew she couldn't reach Takeru and realized that Yamato was the one that needed the help. She held his hand firmly, and he looked at her in surprise, not expecting her kindness, and she pulled him in close, letting him cry if he chose to.

Only Kiyoko and Hideto remained standing and calm.

"It's sad, I realize," Hideto said loudly. "And aggravating beyond belief. But we can't just stop moving. We can't afford to."

"My daughter just died!" Toshiko screamed at him in anguish. "How can you say that?"

"Because he's right," Kiyoko said firmly, something I'd never heard him do. He didn't do well with crowds, but motivating a room full of people in various stages of grievance and acceptance? He could handle it no problem. "We will have time to grieve later. I liked Sora, and I will surely miss her. But I can't focus on that just yet. I need to make sure that there'll be a world to grieve in. Sora died, and that death signifies the beginning of the war. It's no longer just coming. It's already here. Now we can sit around, crying and screaming until Arkadimon storms in and kills us all, or we can go out there and win this fight. Win it for _her_. Kill him and avenge her. She wanted us to win, didn't she? Then let's go out and do it."

"He's right," Haruhiko said firmly. "Of course he's right. I need to know that my baby girl didn't die for nothing. I want this Arkadimon dead."

"And I'm going to be the one that kills him," Neo declared in a dead voice. He left no room for opposition, though Toshiko clearly wanted to try.

"Iori, Michael, Kurayami, Hikari, Takeru," Taichi said. "You're with me, Hiroaki, Masami and Haruhiko. We're going to the Digital World."

"I'm going with you, Taichi," Yuuko told him. "Dorumon will need me, and you know it."

"Fine," Taichi said. He didn't have the energy left to fight against her wishes. Sora was dead. What use was there in arguing with one another? We needed to fight together, or not at all. "Everyone else, you're to follow Jou's instructions. We're going to do this for her."

"Wait!" Miyako shouted frantically. "Willis was right. Last words _are_ important. And if he was here, he would be saying "Good luck" to all of you. So I'm going to say it for him. Good luck."

There was a flurry of quick murmurs. Susumu to Yuuko and his two children. Natsuko to Hiroaki, and then her two boys. Hiroaki to Yamato and Takeru as well, even though he'd be going with Takeru, and Natsuko would be staying with Yamato. Just in case. He even talked to my mother. Yoshie and Masami Izumi shared a sweet goodbye with each other, and another with Koushiro. Toshiko made Haruhiko promise to give them hell, and he laughed—though it was strained. I glanced around the room, noting with a pang in my stomach that Natsuni wasn't there, hadn't come fast enough. I wouldn't be able to say anything to her. And I couldn't even remember what I'd last told her.

But I could do something for Mom. I could tell her the truth. She was at my side as soon as Hiroaki finished saying whatever it was he needed to say.

"I was on his team for awhile," she explained with a small blush. But she didn't have to explain. I was more worried about her reaction to my words. "I want you to know, that I've always loved you, and I always will, no matter what you do, or if I live through this. Nothing you can do can change that. I don't always act like it, but it's true."

"I've been dating Natsuni behind your back for years."

I just sort of blurted it out. My eyes went wide and I wished beyond anything that I could just take it back, but I couldn't. She took it rather well, really. Other than a slight widening of her eyes, and a twitch of her lips, she didn't seem to react at all. Then she took a deep breath, looked at me deep in the eye and told me, "I know."

I must've looked absolutely flabbergasted, because she laughed, actually _laughed_.

"Natsuni told me, while we were in the Digital World. We bonded, and she decided I wouldn't flay her alive so she told me. She told me to act surprised, but figured I might as well get the bad reaction out of the way, so that I didn't bite your head off," she told me. "I wish you would have told me sooner, but I'm not mad. Not anymore at least."

"I'm gonna miss you brother!" Meiyomon shouted, hugging me. "Even though I think we'll both live, I'll miss you while you're gone."

"I'll miss you too buddy," I said casting a quick glance to the door. Still no Natsuni. "I love you. Both of you. And Natsuni too, okay? Can you tell her if you see her?"

"I promise," Mom said. "Now get going."

_**Jou:**_

Three years ago a boy was struck in the chest by a blade, piercing straight through him and bringing him to the brink of death. One night ago a girl sacrificed herself for a boy who had tried to kill her, and now she in turn, was dead.

Iori and Sora. Two of the closest people to me that I'd ever come across...

Near death, then death. What could be worse than death? Whatever it was... it was sneaking up on me.

Slowly my eyes travelled to Emiko and my mind settled on the shadows that wanted to take her and use her against me. I clenched my fists and turned from her, unable to think of that any more. Taichi had put me in charge. A leader. A leader was meant to lead by example. I needed to stay strong. I choked on the emotion coursing through my body and then stepped from the hold Momoe had me in. Iori knew I was coming and was standing next to me in a moment looking up at me.

"It's time." He said with an attempted smile, holding his hand out for me to shake it. "I promise not to get stabbed this time."

"That sounds splendid." I said, taking his hand and pulling him in for a hug. I found myself hugging a few others as they made their way to where Koushiro was opening a door into the Digital World.

"You've got this Jou." Taichi whispered into my ear as I hugged him, "You wanted to be the hero for once... this is it. This is your chance." He didn't even make eye contact when he pulled away, and instead took Hikari's hand and led her toward the doors and stepped through followed by Agumon, Gatomon and Yuuko Yagami.

I took a look around, taking my last looks at each of those who were leaving and then turned to Momoe, unable to say any more goodbyes because they could be the very last goodbyes... Momoe knew what I was feeling and she kept eye contact until the room was very quiet.

I heard someone clear their throat and I nodded turning to the room... those who I was to lead now. Miyako and Mimi were crying together now, Hawkmon and Palmon trying desperately to calm them. Neo was sitting with his partner as well, but he seemed to have a hold on his emotions. Hideto and Kiyoko were standing at my side, awaiting orders, but others like Koushiro and Mrs Takenouchi were already at work, looking at his laptop. The rest of the parents were silently mourning, which wasn't much help to us, but at least they were here... unlike my father.

And then there was Yamato. Leaning against the wall, his arms crossed trying to look like he cared about nothing, but failing because I knew him well enough to know that he was shutting down.

Everyone was a mess, and it was all my fault. I needed to take charge... I needed to pull them all together into one fighting force—or whatever I needed to do. Everyone was helping out now, but for how long? How long would they _need_ to help out? The battle was soon I knew, but how soon? Days? Weeks? Months?

Minutes?

"Alright!" I said loudly, too scared to be thinking about that. "Everyone listen up! We need to organize a plan."

"You haven't got a plan yet?" Ms Takaishi asked with raised eyebrows.

"Silly humans." Her partner said with a giggle.

I shook that off. Already I was being criticized for my leading skills. How had the others done it? Taichi, Daisuke... Miyako? I looked to my feet as Momoe took my hand. She was counting on me. They all were.

"Humans may be silly," Gomamon said defensively, "But they're also the only hope we've got. And Jou's going to make us win. So shut it and listen." I smiled to the ground and then nodded, my confidence returning quickly. I could do it. I just had to ignore everything and do what I thought was right.

"Well said," I winked to Gomamon and then rounded on the others again, "For everyone who doesn't know—"

"Get out of my way!"

"_You_ get out of _my_ way!"

Everyone spun to face the doorway where two girls fell into the room. Noriko Kawada and Natsuni Ando were racing each other into the restaurant. Each of them noticed everyone staring at them and straightened themselves out and stood side by side, Impmon and Goblimon rushed in after them.

"Hello," Natsuni said awkwardly, her face turning red. "Don't mind me."

"Nor me." Noriko added, "Go on."

I rolled my eyes, but did as instructed; cleared my throat and pretended they hadn't interrupted, "For those of you who don't know... the battles between Apocalymon and Fanglongmon were nothing to what is coming."

"But they were both so dangerous." Mrs Ichijouji squeaked.

"No one died last time though." Mrs Takenouchi said, her anger fading enough to show the pain.

"I'll protect you." The small fire digimon piped up, hugging Ken's mother's leg.

Mimi's mother urged me to continue with a hand gesture, so I obliged. "We're facing many foes this time. All working for the same cause. Besides the one who is working to bring them down."

"Well, then let him!" Mrs Tachikawa exclaimed, "If he wants to beat our enemies, why don't we let him?"

"Because he would have to destroy us too." Koushiro responded, not looking from his computer. Mimi's mother sighed, but didn't say anything more.

"We have to defeat them both. One looking to take over humanity and all other worlds, and one wishing to do something... else." I was losing them. Of course I was... I was sounding ridiculous. "Arkadimon. Erif. A shadow king. Sigma the shadow. And Yggdrasil."

"So we'll split up?" Natsuni asked. "Or have you already done that? Hang on..."

"Where's Iori?" Noriko asked loudly while Natsuni moved to stand near Ms Hida and Meiyomon.

"He's in the Digital World." I told them flatly, "He'll be back. Calm down." I could see in their eyes that they didn't want to calm down. I could understand why... because even though none of us knew when the battle was really coming... we all knew it was now. It just... was. "But we can't split up. We need to stand together. We'll stand united. Here. We'll do our best... but we can't save everywhere. We can't save everyone. We're just going to have to hope to whoever the true Digimon God is that we'll win."

"All we have is hope?" Ms Takaishisi asked, skeptical.

"That's all we need." I assured her. "We will win." I sounded fairly confident. "We have to." Of course my voice wavered there. But it didn't matter. The point was made.

"So what do we do?" Hideto asked.

"We're going to set up a perimeter around the restaurant." I decided with a shrug. "Anyone who wishes to venture out on their own... may do so."

"What?" Mimi gasped through her tears, "No! Take that back! No one goes out on their own. Everyone stay here!"

"Mimi," I said quietly, "It's not our choice. I can't stop you all from living your life the way you want to. Anyone who wishes to stay here and fight, get ready, anyone who wants to go defend a different part of the city, speak up now." I looked around at everyone who just stared back blankly until finally, Koushiro raised his hand.

"Can I just say something?" Koushiro asked, "Does no one think we should be looking for Arkadimon?"

"No," I said simply, "No sense looking for trouble. We'll defend when it arises, but why rush it?"

"Fair enough." Koushiro decided.

"I'm going." Neo said, standing abruptly. "I'm going to the Digital World, I need to see Rei. I need to make sure she's okay... that she's still living."

"You're staying." Hideto growled, "We need you here. _I_ need you here."

"You don't, you have Kiyoko." Neo objected.

"Yeah, he's great—but Mari's gone." Hideto argued, "I already feel empty—you can't go too."

"Rei will be safe." Dracomon said, leaping up onto the table so Neo could see him better, "Taichi will be keeping her safe. You think he'd ever let her get hurt?"

"No." Neo admitted.

"Exactly." Dracomon nodded, "Rei will be safe. It's your job to be here and make sure we keep the earth safe for her to come back to. You owe her that after destroying the Digital World thinking she'd like that." It was really harsh, and Neo winced, but his partner had a point. He nodded slowly and slid back down into his seat.

The ground started shaking violently and the lights were flickering. A few screams filled the air as everything rattled loudly. I turned to Emiko and Bearmon and fell to my knees next to them. Emiko looked up to me, her eyes filled with tears as she panicked and looked around.

"Emiko," I said softly into her ears, pulling her into my arm. "It's going to be okay... we're going to go home soon, alright?" With that, the lights went out completely and all that was left was the flickering lighting from outside, and even that was hazy due to the rain pouring down from the windows.

"Dark..." Emiko whispered to me.

I turned sharply and found Izumi sitting on the counter by the kitchen, her legs crossed, "You! Izumi—can you find a flashlight?"

"Is that important?" She asked, "It's so calming right now."

"Not for a three year old." I countered. She nodded and slid over the counter, rushing into the back to find a flashlight. I looked back to Emiko who was reaching out for Bearmon. "Light is coming okay?"

"Mkay..." She nodded looking up at me. If we didn't win this battle, then Emiko would die... or at the very least be possessed by an evil shadow. I couldn't let that happen. I had to fight this even harder. I had to fight for Emiko. I stood once more when the ground shook again, and turned to the others, all of them holding on for dear life as if we were in a rocket ship and the restaurant was shooting into the sky.

"Jou." I turned to Momoe who was pulling lightly on my arm. I allowed her to pull me away from the others as they began chatting a little. Momoe looked like she was trying to smile, but really she was just twitching her bottom lip as she looked into my eyes. "Jou, is Emiko going to be okay?"

"I'll be protecting her with my life." I told her. "Do you trust me?" Momoe nodded quickly, "Then don't worry. She'll be perfectly fine." She smiled at me and I made to turn back to the others, but she pulled me back quickly and stood on her toes, kissing me. "What was that for?" I asked when she pulled from the kiss.

"It might be the last chance." Momoe muttered.

"Don't think like that." I said in a low voice, "Momoe... we're all getting away from this, and then we'll move into that new house, you'll get that job, and we'll live happily with our friends."

"Oh my God." Momoe gasped, "Jun! Where's Jun?" I could see a panic attack rising in Momoe so I kissed her again hastily.

"I'll get her." I told her flatly. "Right now." I said. "I'm getting Jun, I'll bring her here and you two can have a cup of tea and when you're done the world will be saved."

"Oh hell no." Momoe said, shaking her head, "I'm fighting too."

"God I love you." I laughed, leaning forward and kissing her again. I practically skipped backward as I stepped away from her. "I'll be right back." I rounded on the others and pointed to the still silent Yamato, "You! You're in charge. Everyone digivolve and get ready. I'll be back in five minutes."

"Where are we going?" Gomamon asked, running alongside me as I rushed to the door.

I paused before answering him, spinning around and looking to Emiko who was sitting in Bearmon's embrace. "Emiko, I'm going to be back okay? I love you."

"I love you." She said back with a giggle. The poor girl had no idea what was going on... I felt so sorry for her, but at the same time I envied her. I envied her innocence...

I turned back to Gomamon and pushed the side door open. "We're getting Jun," I answered him finally, following him out the door. "And Shuu. And Shin. Oh God we need everyone. We need to get everyone in the entire city into this restaurant."

"No we don't!" Gomamon barked. "Jou, you listen to me." I looked down to him as I fumbled around in my pocket, pulling out my digivice, "You are having a panic attack and you need to stop. You're the bravest person I know! You're smart, strong, creative, and you're not actually allergic to much! You need to keep a hold of yourself because _you_ are the leader now Jou. You're the oldest it was only a matter of time. We need to get Jun back here so she can help watch over that little girl in there. Our little girl."

"You." I said with a grin, "Are. The. Absolute. Best. Partner." Gomamon blushed and looked away.

"Stop with the mushy stuff." Gomamon said coldly, "Let's digivolve." The digivice glowed and he transformed through Ikkakumon and Zudamon, finishing the transformation as Plesiomon, the great white sea monster. I sprung into the air and pulled myself onto his back. "Ready?" He asked me.

"Ready." I agreed. He slammed his fins into the ground and set off into the air, flying faster than he'd ever flown before.

_**Takeru:**_

Taichi was walking with Hikari, her hand wrapped protectively in his as he led the way down the paths of the forest with Agumon right by his side. Taichi was the one who knew his way around the most, and the one who was most determined to win. I figured everyone else felt a lot more like me. Dead.

I didn't want to keep going now. I wanted to fall over and cry, but I couldn't force the tears out. They didn't want to come. They knew that I needed to hold on, even if my mind didn't realize. Or maybe I was in shock. It _was_ very sudden and hardly believable... Sora couldn't be _dead_.

Michael was walking right next to Kurayami, with Betamon, Labramon and Gatomon as well, the latter two seemed to have worked out their feud realizing it was too petty to be carried out in such a trying time. Dad was walking with wizardmon and the other parents, Koushiro's dad, Hikari's mom, and Sora's dad. Patamon was resting on my head rubbing his hands through my hair as he gently tried to comfort me, and Iori and Armadillomon were walking right next to me.

I looked to Iori every now and then, but he didn't look back, so I kept walking. I figured he must've known that I wanted to keep quiet.

"Takeru?" Iori asked proving me wrong instantly. "Takeru, I need to talk to you."

"What?" I asked with an unintentional amount of distaste. "What do you want?" I'd tried to soften the blow but I just ended up sounding even more angry.

"Sorry," Iori said quietly, "I just... have something important to say to you. A few things." He looked up at me, "Is that okay?"

"That's fine." I nodded. "Please, go ahead." I couldn't make myself sound any less rude, for some reason all that I could spit out was hatred.

"You know... when we were in Erif's cage?" Iori asked. I nodded, "Firstly... do you think he knew then?"

"Knew what?" I asked.

"That I was the Holy One?" He asked, "He said he'd gotten one of the Holy Ones. Do you think he knew it wasn't you?"

"I don't know really." I admitted simply.

"Alright," Iori said awkwardly, "Well... when we _were_ imprisoned... Do you remember how annoyed you'd made me? With all your optimism and hope? You need to get that back."

"What?" I asked, "I've not lost it."

"Yes you have." Iori said firmly. "You lost it. You're heartbroken. You were close to Sora, we all were. And I'm so sorry... but you need to hope for the better. Or we'll all die."

"Why me?" I asked.

"We've never won a battle without you." Iori said softly.

"I've never not been there." I said waving him off. "I'm everywhere all the time—you've won against plenty of minor digimon without me."

"This isn't a minor battle." Iori said, still quiet, "We need you, we need everyone and without your crest Patamon can't digivolve." I looked up, and saw his wings hanging over my head. Iori was right. I needed to hope... things could get better. They certainly couldn't get worse... could they?

"Anything else?" I asked him.

"Uh, yes." Iori said, even more awkwardly this time.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You have to bear with me." Iori said, "I've never done this before... never..."

"Never what?" I asked him, "Done what?"

"This." Iori sighed, "I know you Takeru... I know we don't talk often, but I do know you. Probably more than any of the others. Our hearts used to beat as one. We used to be able to sync our thoughts, feelings, emotions... and our hearts. I know you."

"I know you too." I said, not really sure where he was going with this.

"No, listen." Iori said quietly. "Without Sora... without love... we need... we need all the crests Takeru. We need love. And all our crests benefit love. All of them do... we all need to feel love of some sort if Sora isn't going to be here."

"I'd like you to stop." I said firmly, biting my lip and looking away, unable to grasp the thoughts about Sora right then.

"Takeru," Iori sighed, "I love Natsuni. Very much."

"Yes, I'm aware." I told him.

"And at one time I felt the very same way about Hikari." He said very seriously.

"What?" I asked, I hadn't known that at all. "When?"

"Every single time Shakkoumon came to existence." Iori said. And then I knew what he meant. "Takeru, I know that I could never _ever_ stop loving Natsuni, and I know that you could never _ever_ stop loving Hikari."

"Stop." I said again, looking away from him.

"Takeru, please." Iori said, "Just listen."

"No." I said flatly, walking faster to get away from him.

"Where are we going?" I heard Michael ask Taichi. "Kurayami is tired."

"Shut up," Kurayami punched Michael in the arm, "No I'm not. Well I am, but keep going. I just didn't get much sleep last night. I'll survive."

"Well good," Taichi said, "We're going to need you. All of you." He paused and then looked ahead. "And if any of you are actually wondering, we're going to my house where we'll meet up with Rei before flying to the Temple. That's where we'll make our stance. That's where it's all going to go down."

"Gennai's home." Hikari nodded, "We'll fight for Gennai." The fact that my heart fluttered with her words angered me a lot. She was so kind and thoughtful. I was awful. I kept forgetting Gennai. Of course I'd never truly forget him, but I'd never have thought to fight for him really. Never have thought to dedicate everything in our powers to fight and defend his name and home.

"And for Sora." Taichi said quietly.

"For everyone whose ever lost their lives for this cause." Agumon agreed. "Like Leomon!"

"He actually came back I think," Gatomon pointed out.

"Then for Wizardmon!" Agumon chimed in.

"I'm right here." Wizardmon said.

"He's right there." Gatomon agreed.

"Well they still died." Agumon pointed out. "For Patamon! And Betamon! And Wormmon! And—and—and—and me!"

Taichi chuckled a little which made me angry but for a much different reason than Hikari's words had.

"Then what?" Mr Izumi asked, "What's next? When we get to the temple I mean?"

"Well, I imagine we'll be setting up a perimeter, and then we'll fight." Taichi said, "But first we'll be putting Hikari and Takeru in a safety vault."

"You've got to be kidding me." Hikari growled, pulling her hand away from her brother's. "That's not going to happen." She looked to me angrily, "Aren't you going to object? This is ridiculous!" I shrugged my shoulders and figured we could just object later, or just let it happen. I didn't care really... we'd probably find a way to fight. "We're not even the Holy Three!" She growled, "This is—"

"You're right." Taichi nodded, "Sorry, I forgot. Then we'll lock up Iori. Either way, same plan."

Hikari slowed her walk a little until she was next to Gatomon and Labramon, avoiding her brother. I ignored everything for a bit, staring at the grounds as Patamon silently comforted me from the top of my head, until my dad elbowed me lightly. He didn't say anything he just looked to me in a way that showed that he cared. He sometimes was a terrible dad... but sometimes, like this time, he could be a really good dad. I tried to smile at him, but failed quite miserably.

"We're here now," Taichi said after a while, stopping in front of his large house where Rei was waiting on the porch with her two devil digimon Pal and Pul. Rei ran to him and hugged him but when he didn't hug her back she froze and looked to him.

"Taichi, what's wrong?" She said quietly, looking around to all of our faces. Any happiness that had managed to spread amongst us had vanished instantly. "Taichi?"

He stared at her for a moment then turned to the rest of us. "Everyone digivolve as high as you can go. You three," He pointed to Dad, Mr Izumi and Mr Takenouchi, "Keep the digimon in line together, "Mom, Iori, go into the woods and find some fruit for the digimon to eat, I haven't got any in my fridge. Kurayami, Michael, take the break you needed."

"What about me?" Hikari asked.

"Oh," Taichi said suddenly, "Go to my bedroom. There's a folder on my desk that I was working on last night. Bring that to me."

"You've got it." Hikari nodded, turning to Gatomon and allowing her to digivolve into Ophanimon.

"Takeru," Taichi said, "Can you get my coat. I don't want to worry about catching a cold with this war coming."

"I have to digivolve Takeru." Patamon said as I took a step to the house.

"Right," I said, turning to him and letting him digivolve straight into Seraphimon. Hikari and I looked to each other and shrugged, holding our digivices out for them to fuse. With a flash of pink and yellow Ophanimon and Seraphimon shifted into Shakamon.

"Woah!" Taichi gasped, "What? When did that happen?"

"What?" Hikari asked.

"You can fuse your digimon?" Kurayami asked.

"Yeah," Hikari said as if it were obvious, but then, remembering our deal with Hideto she gasped, "WOW!" She screamed, "Takeru look! We've done it!"

"This is certainly the first time I've ever seen this." I said nodding with enthusiasm. "Wow guys. Good job. Good... fusing." Hikari and I turned away and smirked.

"Looks like something only someone with a really close bond could do." Iori said sharply.

"Yeah." I said over my shoulder. "A best friend bond. Yamato and Taichi, Jou and Mimi, Koushiro and..." I shook my head and headed straight to the front door. Taichi needed his coat. Hikari walked with that adorable little skip she always had all the way up the stairs and to the front door. I turned the knob and opened it, holding it open for Hikari. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.

"You know, I actually have no idea where his bedroom is." Hikari admitted.

"Oh," I said, "It's up the stairs, and around—" I was interrupted by a loud clicking sound. "What was that?"

Hikari's face showed her anger very well as she pushed me aside and tried to open the door. "Taichi!" She shouted when she found it wouldn't open. She rounded on the window and tried to open it. "It's not working!" She growled.

What did that mean? Were we in danger? What was going on? And then I realized how stupid we'd been. He'd locked us in.

Hikari moved quickly and grabbed a chair rounding on the window and throwing it directly toward it, but the chair merely bounced off and broke upon hitting the floor. Suddenly Taichi's face popped up in the window and Hikari moved toward him quickly. "Taichi!" She shot, "Open the door, _now_."

"No." He said, "I can't have you being hurt. You'll stay here where it's safe. And Takeru, sorry, but Yamato and I made a promise to keep the two of you safe at all costs."

"You can't fight without us." I growled.

"Actually we can." Taichi said, "We have your digimon, and really they're the ones that do all the fighting. We seem to forget that sometimes."

"Taichi," Hikari pleaded. "Please let me out. Please!"

Taichi stood there for a moment and then shook his head, turning and walking back to the others without a goodbye or an apology or anything of the sort.

"TAICHI!" Hikari screamed, smashing her fists into the glass of the window. "TAICHI!" She screamed his name again and again as I stood, and watched over her shoulder as Iori, Shakamon, Kurayami, Yuuko, Dad, Michael and the others all waved goodbye and then headed off toward the Temple where they'd be fighting the battle we should be fighting. It was our battle too, there was no sense in keeping us from it.

"Stupid Taichi." Hikari growled, her anger clear as she slid down and sat in a heap on the floor.

I nodded in agreement. "Stupid Taichi."

**_Jou:_**

The rain was practically whipping my face and the sky was dark. I wasn't totally sure if he remembered where Shuu and Jun lived, and for a moment I thought he didn't, until he lowered himself down into the parking lot by Shin's apartment building. We'd get him first. I slid off of Plesiomon and ran to the front door and buzzed his apartment.

"Shin," I shot, "Get down here right now."

I released the button and waited for his voice, but it wasn't coming. Was he not here? Where had he gone? Now wasn't the time for a shopping trip! Dammit Shin!

"Jou?"

"SHIN!" I shouted, exasperated as his voice came through sounding slightly distorted, "Get down here _now_." I waited only two minutes for him, and he was flying out the door, and hugging me.

"What's the plan?" He asked me.

"The plan?" I asked with a laugh, "Just keep out of trouble." He looked upset, but it didn't matter, he'd listen. I knew that. Shin and I piled onto Plesiomon, and I patted his neck, "Next stop!" I ordered.

"Jou, the sky is hurts." Plesiomon said as he rose. I knew he wasn't telling me that he wouldn't fly. I was instantly reminded of our time in Witchenly when one of the digimon grabbed at my jacket and hissed something into my ear.

_"The moon will hide, the sun will cry, the sky will hurt, and all will die."_

It was the shaman in the village in Witchenly. I'd only been there once, and it was only for an hour. We were taken around the streets by a Wizardmon... ultimately we were chased out—it wasn't long, but I'd thought the shaman was insane.

I shook it off. The battle was even closer now than I'd thought. I tried to ignore Shin's incessant complaining as the rain lashed at him. Soon enough though, Plesiomon was lowering slowly until finally he stopped by the window to Jun and Shuu's apartment. I tapped on the window which was covered by blinds. They didn't answer so I tapped again and again until finally the blinds were lifted.

Shuu stood at the other side of the window, shocked. Slowly he opened the window as his face broke out into a grin. "Fancy seeing you two here." He laughed. "Jun, check this out!" He called over his shoulder. A moment later Jun was standing next to him in the window laughing.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking around, for Momoe I assumed. "It's storming! What are you two doing?"

"We're saving your life." Shin said dramatically.

I elbowed him sharply and held out my hand for Shuu to take. "I'm bringing you along. I want to make sure you're okay."

"Jou, what's wrong?" Shuu asked, refusing to reach for me. "Jou... something happened. What happened?"

"Is Momoe okay?" Jun gasped suddenly, "Emiko? Daisuke?"

"They're all fine!" I shouted, "Just jump out of your window, twelve stories off the ground, onto my magical flying sea creature so we can fly through the storm and return to the others to help save the world." Shuu and Jun looked to each other, and debated telepathically upon whether or not to come along. Eventually they both nodded, "Seems Legit." Shuu had said before telling me they'd meet me down stairs. Plesiomon rounded through the air and landed on the ground. A full minute later Jun, with Otamamon in her arms, and Shuu, with Meramon running along, had run out of the building.

"You going to tell us what's going on?" Jun asked as Plesiomon took off. I ignored her. I didn't know. How was I to know? Shin hugged my waist tight, fear striking through him. I tried to plan some battle strategies as we flew back, but all I could think about was Sora. The moment I'd met her, the moment we'd become friends, the moment we'd gone to the Digital World—Soccer camp, our trip to New York, Bakemon losing power, the moment we'd seen Kurayami the first time together, her being taken to the Dark Ocean, all the battles we'd been through... all the talks we'd had... the last words I'd ever said to her, that she defended Neo too much—so meaningless... and finally the moment Mimi had told me that she was gone.

"Jou?" Shuu brought me from my thoughts making me aware that we'd landed by the restaurant. I faked a smile and slid down, landing next to him. Before I could go anywhere he hugged me quickly. "It's going to be okay. Whatever happened... I'm so sorry." I shrugged him off and looked around. I could see MetalGarurumon, Rosemon, Omnimon, Piedmon, Valkyrimon, and many other digimon, ready to fight.

"This is it." I said, my voice choked as I turned to Plesiomon, "This is the final battle. The battle everyone is talking about. You ready?"

"I was born ready." Plesiomon sang. "Truly. I was born for this moment."

"Well I'm really glad you were." I told him very seriously.

"Shake?" Plesiomon asked, whipping his fin around quickly, and slapping me in the side, hard. I fell to the ground and slammed into the wet pavement. I rolled my eyes as Shin and Shuu pulled me to my feet. "Or not." Plesiomon laughed. "Jou... I love you."

I patted his side and smiled, "Love you too Bud." I turned sharply at the sound of screaming, but relaxed when I found it was just excited yells of Momoe and Jun meeting up again. Plesiomon nodded to me and I backed up, all the way to the door, unwilling to break eye contact with him. Finally though, I turned and entered the restaurant.

The only three digimon left inside were Meiyomon, Otamamon—both of them standing by their partners—and Biyomon who was sitting in a corner quietly. I wanted to comfort her, really I did, but I didn't have time. Momoe looked to me and smiled as she hugged Jun. I knew Monzaemon was outside, so I looked for Emiko and found her in Miyako's arms with Mimi hanging over her to the right.

Everyone else was standing by Koushiro though as he typed madly.

"What is it?" I asked, stepping toward him. "What is it?" I pushed through Mimi and Takeru's mothers until I was standing by Shuu who had already worked his way to Koushiro, and Koushiro himself. "What's going on?"

"I think I know what Yggdrasil is." Koushiro said. "I've translated the word to as many languages as I could, but nothing was coming up—but that's because of course he's not real. He's not in any of my records of the Digital World either, Tatum didn't know, Shuu, nor Haruhiko. No one knew... but I've finally got it. It's mythology."

"What's mythology?" I asked.

"Fake—stories—" Koushiro said choppily.

"No—I know that!" I shot, "I mean_ what_ is mythology?"

"Well there were digimon for each of the Roman and Greek Gods," Mrs Ichijouji said quietly, "And... well I told him to check them, but this one isn't from those mythologies."

"It's Norse." Yamato said flatly, trying to end the long demonstrations.

"Yggdrasil," Koushiro said quickly, "It's a magical force that spreads its roots through all nine worlds. It rules over them, it watches them."

"Roots?" I asked.

"And more importantly," Koushiro said, "After figuring out what it was, it was easy enough to cross reference all the knowledge I had and—and I found it. I found his power source."

"Iori found an army through psychic abilities. That army is coming isn't it?" I asked, but was ignored again.

"He's close." Koushiro said. "Five minutes away."

"You said that like, five minutes ago." Mrs Tachikawa shot.

"Good point." Koushiro said, checking his watch. "We've got thirty seconds."

"What did you mean roots?" I asked again, "What are we looking for here?"

"A tree!" Koushiro growled.

I felt like I'd walked into a brick wall as I stumbled backwards, pushing through the crowd of mothers. I turned and ran down the hallway to the stairs that lead to the roof of the restaurant.

"Jou!" Miyako shouted, handing Emiko to Mimi and jumping to her feet and running alongside Yamato who had followed me as well. I didn't stop though. I was running up the stairs two at a time until I was pushing open the hatch above my head. I climbed out onto the roof and spun around getting my bearings. Finally I stopped spinning and turned my head toward Iori's apartment building, my eyes falling onto the hill by the lake and further, onto the tree sitting atop it. "Jou?" Miyako asked, stepping toward me as her, Yamato and I stared toward the tree.

"How much time's left?" I asked.

"Like ten seconds." Yamato said breathlessly.

I stood with them, watching the tree and began counting down, "Nine, eight, seven..."

"Six," Miyako added, "five, four..."

"Three." Yamato said, "Two."

"One."

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **

Time's up. There's no more waiting. The fight's beginning.


	46. Foe Filled Skies

**Y/N:** Wow, okay. It seems like forever since I posted a chapter in this story, instead of a Moments one-shot, but it's only been a week. Anyway, I'm not going to ramble when there's a chapter waiting to be read, and we left it off at such an inopportune time last week, I'll just let you get on with the story. Review if you can.

**U/N:** So here's the next chapter of 05, I hope it was worth your small wait-like-period-that-wasn't-actually-too-hard-I'm -sure. I'm not totally sure who's in this one, but I'm fairly sure it's got America written aaaalllll over it, so I was probably Willis and Tatum, and as far as I know, also Mari? Well I might've been more, but I'm sure you know who's who by now (for the most part anyway-our writing is quite different anyway) aaaaaaaannnyyywayyyy enjoy xD And please. Review.

The next thing to go up will most likely be chapter 47, but if I can finish Kurayami's tedious back story of a one-shot by Friday it'll be up then. So we'll see. Anyway, I hope this tides you over until then xD

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 46: Foe Filled Skies**

_**Jou Kido:**_

Miyako screamed loudly as the ground exploded. I threw myself over her as Yamato did the same from the other side. I looked over my shoulder and saw the ground, the mangled ground, burst at the seams as the cracks ran through the ground, charging toward the city from the hilltop. But the cracks in the ground didn't matter. That wasn't what truly caught my attention.

Millions of the same creature were pouring out of the hole where the dark tree had been. Each of them looked to be made of metal, large, evil creatures of white and grey. The breaking ground was loud and immense, but I couldn't force myself to look away as the sky filled with even more of those creatures. The rain was making it hard to watch them, but that didn't matter. I couldn't look away, even though the streaks of water running down my glasses were practically blinding me.

It had started. The battle of our lives. And I didn't even know where my friends were.

Miyako's coughing is what truly brought me to my senses. I released her and looked down.

"I can hardly breathe." She said quietly, and I realized that I felt the same. The air was so thick and foggy...

"Darkness rises, the Worlds in fright, all will crumble, the Chosen will fight." Yamato said ominously.

"Excuse me?" Miyako asked.

Yamato turned to us and smiled feebly. "Song lyrics. What do you think?"

"A little rhyming, but sounds awesome." Miyako said croakily, her voice already cracking due to her breathing problems. Yamato's lyrics though—they were very true. We were fighting, and I could only hope he had enough time to turn those lyrics around and into an actual song.

"Holy and Darkness. Time and Space. Life and Death. All erased." Yamato tried.

"Less awesome." Miyako said, her voice shaking.

"That would be Yggdrasil's part you see," Yamato explained, trying to make light of the situation. "I wonder if he'd record a duet with me."

None of that mattered. I didn't have time to talk about Yamato's song. The sky was filling with enemies and I had to take charge. I looked around where all around us there were digimon, preparing to fight. Monzaemon, Minervamon, Firamon, Lekismon, Mushroomon, Kamemon, Digitamamon, Coredramon, Omnimon, Piedmon, Valkyrimon, Rosemon, MetalGarurumon, Impmon, Goblimon, Meramon and finally, Plesiomon. All of them. Our army. They were going to help us fight this. Without them we'd never succeed. We needed all of them.

I turned toward the hatch door as someone poked their head out. It was Mimi. She looked to me, finally void of tears and pulled herself onto the roof.

"You know, I've never been up here." She said, turning back and reaching into the hatch, and coming back with a black laptop. A second later Koushiro was pulling himself up as well.

"Get back inside." I said to them along with Miyako and Yamato, "Go. Be with Momoe." Miyako nodded and moved to the door quickly, but Yamato and the others stayed very still. "Go!" I insisted, "Close the door. The air is polluted, don't let the others breath it in."

"Jou..." Yamato said slowly, walking toward the hatch. "Do you remember... thirteen years ago? When we were at this stupid little camp? And we were all there for different reasons?"

"Cheerleading camp, soccer camp, nerd camp..." Mimi listed, "And then it snowed."

"Capturing all of us in one cabin." Koushiro said, "It was destiny really. We were all meant to meet, and meant to fight together."

"And now we're going to again." I nodded, realizing where they were going with this.

"We're going to do it for Sora." Mimi said bravely, throwing her hand into the center of the circle we'd subconsciously made.

"For Sora." Koushiro agreed, putting his hand on top of hers.

"For Sora then," Yamato and I agreed. It would have meant a lot more to have Taichi, and Takeru here at the very least, and even more to have Miyako, Daisuke and Iori, and the others. But the four of us here. Right now. We could fight together and make it all okay.

Mostly okay.

I turned around in time to see the first attack. It was Omnimon, firing a blast from his cannon hand, into the sky and hitting one of the creatures directly, causing it to fall from the sky.

"It's officially started." Mimi said quietly as we watched our digimon fire away into the sky, stopping the enemy as best they could. What were these creatures doing? For a moment I thought they'd just fill the sky and then destroy the earth with a simply blast, but as we watched they slowly began to rain from the sky, in single file, coming down on the city. "Should we fuse?" Mimi asked me before falling into a fit of coughs.

"No," I said, "We'll cover more ground this way." She nodded to me but was still coughing.

"We're running out of air." Koushiro deducted, trying to breathe. "Something's gone wrong. The oxygen and carbon dioxide... It must be the trees..." I didn't need him to explain in his usual step by step manner, I understood. We were now running a time limit...

"Well then let's get this over with." Yamato declared, running toward the edge of the building.

"YAMATO!" I screamed, lunging forward to stop him, but Mimi held me to tight and I was too late. Yamato leapt from the building, landing on Plesiomon's back, thankfully, and slid toward the ground. I squirmed out of Mimi's grasp and ran to the edge of the building, watching as the metal beasts landed. Each of them had a green thorn coated vine running from their bottom and likely attaching them to some source. They had strange arms coming from their shoulders, like most arms I supposed, but they looked much more dangerous. Under each of their helmets there were glowing red eyes locked on our digimon defenses—and on Yamato.

Yamato grabbed a thick stick off of the ground and ran to his partner, standing in a defense.

"A stick?" Mimi rolled her eyes and then vanished, rushing toward the hatch. I ignored her, watching as the army marched toward us. No attacks being fired. Finally the army stopped, surrounding us. There had to be a hundred or more of them just here, and I could see thousands more piling down around the city.

Everything was silent and still for a while, no one willing to make the first move, until finally, Mimi returned.

"Hey!" Mimi shouted, holding up a frying pan. "Yamato!"

Yamato spun around as the frying pan flew through the air. He jumped up and caught it with his left hand, then spun upon landing and whipped his stick toward the army. The stick clanged against the metal and fell to the ground, rolling a few feet before stopping. All eyes were on the stick, and then, all at once, everything exploded into a fight.

Mimi screamed and Koushiro moved to protect her, pulling her from the edge of the building, but I couldn't move. Yamato was already in danger, one of the beasts coming straight for him.

"This isn't happening!" I groaned, running my fingers through my hair, I was the worst leader ever!

MetalGarurumon desperately tried to get to Yamato to help him, but he was surrounded, as were most of the digimon. We didn't have enough of us! There were at least six of the metal creatures for each of our partners, and there was one headed for Yamato—there was nothing I could do either. I couldn't rightly jump down after him!

The creature was close to him now.

"RUN!" I screamed to him, "Yamato get out of the way!"

He didn't have to though. Just as the creature was raising its arms for an attack, it suddenly fell limp, falling down to the ground. Behind the creature stood a familiar woman, holding a knife and the vine running from the bottom of the metal beast. Next to her were Miyako's siblings Mantaru and Chiziru and their two partners, Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon, and held in her arm was her own television partner.

"Katsue!" Yamato gasped with a laugh.

"Pathetic," She joked with a grin, "I've come to help. Right on time I see."

Yamato held his hand out for her and she ran to stand next to him, dragging Chiziru and Mantaru along with her.

"Everyone!" I screamed out, "Cut the vines! They'll shut down!" It was brilliant! Katsue was brilliant! If only I was that brilliant. All of the metal beasts turned their heads to me, and then, as one, their vines began glowing and shifting into a metal version of themselves. "DAMMIT!" I screamed loudly before gasping for breath. I couldn't breathe. I was coughing, desperate for air. I turned and saw Koushiro leading me to the hatch. He kicked it open and shoved me down into it.

"Don't die Jou." He said seriously, closing the hatch after he climbed in after me.

I was breathing again, there was still air in the building, but how much? It certainly wasn't enough to keep us all alive.

Before I entered the dining area though, I heard a scream. A child's scream. It was Emiko. I ran toward her, but just as I entered the room her scream had faded into a fit of giggles. I almost groaned loudly, but caught myself. I knew who it was before I saw him.

In the light of Emiko's flashlight was a green monkey wearing his leopard print toga as he laughed and bounced up and down in a circle around Momoe, Emiko and Jun who were sitting in the center of the floor.

"Where did that come from?" Momoe gasped loudly.

"The gate's still open." Miyako answered, pointing to the doorway that Koushiro had opened. "He must've come out of it." It didn't matter. He was just using more air... perhaps we could get some air from the Ditigal World. Perhaps we already were? Maybe we'd be fine? But we weren't. I knew that. If Yggdrasil encompassed all worlds, then there would be no air there either. We needed to find a fix to this problem.

"What's going on out there?" Shuu asked, motioning to the windows that were covered with blinds.

"Well..." I said, trying to find a way to say it without Emiko understanding, "Yamato's gone out into the fray," I explained, "And there are millions of metal creatures ready to kill us." Jun and Momoe gasped, along with some of the others but I shook it off. "Look, they know we're here obviously." I said, "We need to get out."

"We can't go out there!" Momoe gasped, "You just said—"

"Momoe," I sighed, "I know what I said. "We'll find a way, but we need to _leave_."

"We can't leave!" Mrs Ichijouji piped up, "This is where we're safe!"

"Do you really think we're safe here?" I asked, "We're literally surrounded."

"But we'll be surrounded everywhere we go, Jou." Mimi argued, "We can't go outside, it's impossible to breathe out there."

"This is it, isn't it?" Jun asked. "This is the end?"

"No," Shuu said, shaking his head and stepping toward her, "We're going to live Jun." Shuu threw his arms around Jun and comforted her as Momoe did the same with Emiko who was shooken up from Jun's calls. Mrs Ichijouji began hyperventilating along with Shin, and Noriko burst into tears.

"Look, everyone needs to calm down." I said loudly, "We can handle this! We just need more fire power!"

"Oh!" Meiyomon gasped suddenly, a grin spreading across his face. "Fire?" Everyone turned to him. "Can I blow them up?"

"Yes!" I shouted, clapping my hands together. Meiyomon began laughing hysterically as he leapt from the counter and ran toward the doorway. I ran after him, someone had to be out there. I couldn't just leave Yamato—he was out there fighting and I was standing here, being an idiot. Which was ironically what Chiziru and Mantaru were probably doing as well.

No Jou! That was mean!

True.

But mean.

"Are you going out there?" Miyako gasped, "Jou?" I didn't answer and instead just caught the door as Meiyomon threw it open. I stepped out into the rain again, feeling it splashing across my face. Meiyomon was flying through the air in a second, snapping his fingers and causing three consecutive explosions. "Are you mad?" Miyako gasped, exasperated as she flew out the door to stand next to me.

"Probably." I nodded as Mimi and Koushiro stepped outside after her. And then Momoe followed them. I shook my head, "No, go back." I shot, "If we're not leaving the restaurant then you need to stay inside. I'm telling you that now. Stay inside."

"No," Momoe shook her head. "I need to be with you!"

"And if we die?" I asked, "You want Emiko to grow up without parents?"

"She'll understand!" Momoe insisted, "She'll understand that we fought for her world! That we fought for a world where she could grow up! That we loved her enough to do that." I wanted her to go back, so bad. I needed her to. She needed to be gone, and safe, but I knew that no matter how much debating and pleading I did she'd never leave. So she would be there with me... I could keep her safe. I would have to.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her from the restaurant, running out into the battle without thinking. I passed Katsue and Momoe's siblings, whom she waved to with a grin before we'd finished passing them, and then stopped near Yamato who was fighting off one of the metal monsters with his frying pan, back to back with MetalGarurumon.

"You doing alright?" I asked him. He didn't speak, but instead just nodded, smacking the beast with his frying pan in the head.

"I'm not!" I spun to see Rosemon, fighting off eight of enemies at once. "We need more help!"

"Has anyone actually defeated one?" Momoe asked.

"Katsue has," Yamato informed us, "Just her."

"Alright." I said, fed up with the fighting already. We were running out of breath, the rain was so hard that I couldn't even think, and we were surrounded by endless danger. "We need to win!" I screamed to the sky. "We need help!"

"Um...?" I looked down to my leg where Meiyomon was pulling at my leg.

"Not now," I told him, kicking him off. "Yamato," I said, "We need to get back to the restaurant! It's not safe!"

"Jou!" Meiyomon insisted, "I have an idea!"

"What?" I growled to him. "What is it?"

Meiyomon grew suddenly, becoming his champion form and he clapped his hands. "You said you needed help." As he said it the biggest beam of pink light I'd ever seen shot through the skies toward us until it stopped abruptly not far from us, just down the street. Then the light vanished revealing our new help.

A giant dragon, a dog with wings, a mermaid, a purple punk-fairy, a green fairy with her nature pony, a bird woman, a flower caveman, a floating little grim reaper, a chameleon, a mole, a mushroom, a dinosaur, two rabbits, and few others I'd never seen. The crest digimon. The digimon we'd fought and killed—the digimon who were known as Meiyomon's siblings.

"You're welcome." Meiyomon winked at me before spinning on the spot and pointing toward one of the metal creatures and causing it to explode. "And one more thing." Meiyomon said with a snap of his fingers.

One more beam of pink light shot toward me before stopping three feet away. It faded quickly and revealed a Unimon. Which was great, but why did Meiyomon bring him to me?

Unimon took one step the side revealing the back of a man who I would recognize anywhere.

"Dad?" I gasped. What was he doing with a Unimon. I looked down to his clenched fist and saw a digivice.

_No..._

Dad spun around, his face panicked, but he suddenly smiled. "Jou!" He shouted, stepping forward and hugging me. "I'm so happy to see you!" I stood awkwardly in his grasp, not sure if I should hug him back or not, but he was laughing so hard, that I decided I probably should... but I didn't.

"Dad," I said, pushing him off, "Honestly, not the time."

"No it is." He said flatly. "Why put anything off today when you might never get a chance?" He grabbed my shoulders and stared at me. "Jou. I love you. I'm so sorry for everything that I've done. I'm going to do everything I can to make it up to you. And to Emiko. If you'll let me."

"Sounds great Dad," I said passively, though I was truly very pleased. I felt as if everything was actually going to work out now, even if it still seemed impossible.

"Where are your brothers?" He asked. I pointed to the restaurant and he ran off quickly.

But he had a point. Why put anything off? This could very well be our last chance... I turned to Momoe and almost laughed. If the fact that she was wearing that white sundress was any indication, I knew what we had to do. "Momoe?" I said, rounding on her, she looked to me after watching the crest digimon of faith slam right into one of Rosemon's enemies. "Momoe, will you marry me?"

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

Things were going perfectly to plan until we got near the Temple. Yeah, Shakamon was furious with me for locking his partners in my house, and maybe Hikari and Takeru were mad too. But they were safe, like I promised Yamato they would be. It wasn't until we'd already left my house that I realized I should have locked Iori up with them. He was one of the Holy Three—a name I didn't fully understand since the real Holy Three didn't have holy digimon—and therefore he was someone we needed to stay safe.

His glare however, was enough to keep me from dragging him back there and sticking him in there with Hikari and Takeru.

But yeah, I didn't have long to even contemplate it, because the moment we neared the Temple, the sunless, dark sky was filled with hundreds of thousands—maybe millions—of white robotic creatures, each connected to a source of some sort with long green cords coming out from their underneath.

The battle had begun. And we weren't in position yet.

"Hurry," I yelled to the rest of my party. Iori finally stopped glaring at me. Rei stopped pestering me to tell her what was wrong. I knew I ought to have told her about Sora's fate, but I didn't have the heart to tell her just before the battle. Especially because I didn't want to admit that Koushiro could have been right about it. I was still beyond mad with him. I couldn't accept that Sora was dead. I just couldn't. Dead and Sora just didn't go together. I couldn't put the two pieces together in my mind. She was just hiding again, like she did so long ago in the Digital World. She was just struggling with her crest, and embarrassed to tell us about it. She'd still show up and save the day just in time. She had to. She was one of my oldest friends, and I couldn't do this without her.

Michael and Kurayami thankfully, listened to my words and took off in a sprint towards the front gate of the Temple. Anubismon and GigaSeadramon were quick to follow suit. Rei left before I could tell her to stick with me, and Iori, Vikemon and Shakamon rushed after her.

"Taichi?" WarGreymon said, offering me his hand. I let him lift me off the ground and fly me to the Temple's front gate.

"Taichi," Benjamin called, clearly relieved that I'd arrived. I looked to the group that was gathered to protect the Temple. Divermon was standing with MetalifeKuwagamon. Both were looking to the sky, counting the number of enemies we'd be facing. Divermon looked particularly ill at ease when he realized just how many of them there were and how many were headed to the dwellings of the water digimon. I hoped he'd followed Miyako's instructions and warned those digimon about the war coming. From the look on their faces, Leomon and Ogremon had listened to her. Ogremon was tapping his club into his hand, glaring at the oncoming flock of robots. Leomon stood tall, clenching his fists in anticipation. Tinkermon was hovering next to Babamon and for once, the two digimon didn't seem to be arguing.

"Taichi," D'Arcmon said, drawing my attention to her. "The council awaits your instructions."

"So do we," Michael commented.

"Okay," I said. "We're going to need to establish two solid lines of defense. If I'm right, then there are still baby digimon inside getting lessons. We can't risk having them caught in the crossfire. I'd feel better knowing that two megas were back there with them."

"I'll go with GigaSeadramon," Michael offered.

"Good," Kurayami said. "Anubismon and I will go with them."

"Go, now, quick," I ordered, and they were off. I didn't bother to watch as they went. There was still too much left to do, and the robots were closing in fast. It would only be a matter of minutes, if that, before they got to us. "Benjamin, can you call for more of Gennai's men? We're going to need more than what we've got here."

"Ilya, José, Hogan and Jackie should answer the call," Benjamin said with a nod. He rushed off to locate them.

"Shakamon, you're the strongest we've got, you're going to have to handle the west wall. Can you do that?" I asked.

"It would be easier if Takeru and Hikari were here too," Shakamon growled. "But I will have to manage."

"Rei! REI!"

It was Pal and Pul. I nearly groaned at the sight of them. They'd want to fight, and they weren't all that strong. And if they decided to fight, then Rei was definitely not going to go back to stay with Michael and Kurayami. She'd want to be on the front line.

"Iori, you're with me," I ordered. "You're important, and we can't let them get to you. You've got to stay where I can see you."

He didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow at me.

"And us?" D'Arcmon asked.

I looked between them and the robots. No time.

"Just attack!" I called. WarGreymon led the charge, with Vikemon barrelling behind him. Leomon, Ogremon, MetalifeKuwagamon, D'Arcmon and Divermon followed after. Pal and Pul stayed close to us, but prepared themselves to battle any robot that slipped through our opening defense with Babamon and Tinkermon's help. Wizardmon crouched into a fighting stance and Hiroaki joined him. I watched in horror as my mother—my _mother—_raced to join the battle in front of us. Masami Izumi and Haruhiko Takenouchi went to follow after her, but Hiroaki called them back.

"We need to find your digimon," he reminded them.

"Wizardmon," I ordered. "Take them to the training room. Keep the knights training. We need then to get in as much as physically possible. There's not much time, but we need more fire power. Look that them! They aren't doing anything."

"Perhaps if they cut the cords?" Haruhiko suggested. But no sooner had he said that, had the robots started to coat the cords in the same metal that their bodies seemed to be made of.

"Damn it!" I muttered. The only tactic we had, besides simply bashing them and it was foiled already. I wished I'd thought to bring Koushiro with me. He was my tactician. I tended to act far more rashly than a situation like this called for. "Go to the knights; get them to put their training into high gear."

"We'll be back soon," Hiroaki promised.

"Not too soon," I corrected. "We need them to keep training. They're going to be our last line of defense. We need them to be ready."

They wanted to argue. I could see it in their faces, but I didn't have time. Instead of just waiting around, I started walking towards the fight. Iori seemed to be itching to join in, so I thought: why not? If the digimon couldn't beat them into submission with their powerful attacks, we'd have to try sheer force.

"Taichi!" Rei gasped. "Don't go out there."

"I have to. But you don't," I told her. "Stay with Pal and Pul. Babamon, keep her in your sights."

"I shall try," Babamon vowed, and moved to stand next to Rei. She extended her arms readying an attack, and that's when I knew our first string wasn't nearly enough. I turned to see dozens of robots flying at us.

"Digimon must be eradicated."

It was a mantra of theirs. Every five seconds, one of them would repeat it. It was as if they didn't care that they were being sent to destroy an entire world full of creatures. They all had lives and dreams. And I had a feeling that they wouldn't be winding up in Primary Village if these robots got their hands on them. These robots were sent by that Yggdrasil guy that Miyako warned us about. They had to be. And Yggdrasil was powerful. He'd know how to "eradicate" each species he was targeting. The robots would no doubt be programmed with a specific set of instructions depending on the species. Digimon couldn't die from normal deaths, not while inside the Digital World anyway. It stood to reason that they'd found a way to overcome that little issue then.

For a second, I wondered what horrible method they were implementing on Earth, but I didn't have time to really think it through. A robot had stopped in front of me.

"Digimon must be eradicated."

"You're not as smart as I thought," I commented. "I'm not a digimon."

Then I punched the thing. Not the best or brightest idea I'd ever had, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Pain exploded through my hand and up my arm. I quickly flexed my fingers, and upon finding that none of them were broken, I swung around and tried a good, swift kick. Not particularly effective, but far less painful than the punch was. The robot fell backwards, and landed on its back on the ground. Before it could struggle to its feet, I took a quick survey of the area.

I could see Shakamon trying to blast the robots with some sort of purifying attack. They weren't buying it though. They weren't evil per say. They were just minions of a very big evil. I wasn't sure they even had brains. They weren't like Andromon or Datamon. They weren't machines that were alive. They were just robots built to do their master's bidding.

Before I could look any further, however, my mother came running up to me and grabbed my arm. "Taichi," she asked. "Where is Dorumon?"

"He's here," I promised.

"_Where_?" she specified.

"Just look for him, Mom," I said, spying another robot coming toward me. "I'm kind of busy right now. Just look around and you'll find him. There aren't that many places to look."

She let out a frustrated scream and stormed off into the crowd, just in time for me to meet the second robot head on. I pushed it back, wishing I had thought to bring some sort of weapon with me. I couldn't have known these things would have been invincible, but I should've known there would be so many. There were tons of shadows when we were fighting Fanglongmon three years ago. I had needed to fight then too. I should've planned for this.

It came back for me, but I ducked under it and started running, searching for any sort of weapon. I saw Benjamin working with four others that _had_ to be Ilya, José, Jackie and Hogan. Their moves blended so well together it looked seamless. The robots they were fighting weren't going down, but it was really cool to watch regardless.

MetalifeKuwagamon flew by me using his Homing Laser, and following it up with his Emit Blade, forcing two robots to collapse. For a shining moment I thought we'd finally taken one down, but the machines got back up and turned to MetalifeKuwagamon, the red glowing eyes on their face lit up and they shot lasers at him. He dodged, and the front wall of the Temple went down on the left side. Hundreds of robots started making their way through the opening. And I wasn't strong enough to stop them.

"Leomon!" I called, catching sight of the lion digimon punching various robots—and having far more luck at it than I had. "I need you to take someone to help Anubismon and GigaSeadramon. These things are too strong for them alone. Tinkermon! Take Tinkermon. Hurry."

"Right away," Leomon said, bowing his head quickly and rushing off to find the small fairy digimon.

Ogremon was having a blast, bashing his club against any and all robots that got too close to him, switching periodically between his Pummel Whack, Bone Cudgel and Strong Maul attacks. Divermon, however, was not having too much fun. He continually tried his Striking Fish attack, where he would try and smash his harpoon through the robots' metal shells. He was also continually failing at that. Vikemon was attempting to use his Mjollnir attack, but the robots wouldn't stay still long enough for him to reach them. And then another robot would attack him from behind, causing him to spin around and repeat the process. WarGreymon wasn't faring much better with his Terra Force attack though. Even his previously unparalleled Mega Claw wasn't cracking through the metal that Yggdrasil made these things out of.

I shook my head. I needed to find a weapon.

I also shouldn't have ever left Iori's side. In a brief moment of panic, I nearly got my head blown off by one of the many robots aiming at MetalifeKuwagamon. I ran swiftly through the battlefield, abandoning my quest for a weapon, desperate to find Iori. Desperate to know that I hadn't already failed, and that I'd lost both a friend and one of the Holy Three. But I caught sight of him. He was now fighting alongside D'Arcmon. She was wielding her sword, La Pucelle, and was using her Dancing Sword technique with it. Iori was holding a good sized chunk of the Temple wall, using it to bash against a robot's torso.

Good, he was alive.

But I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. I didn't hear the robots or see MetalifeKuwagamon flying over my head. I should have. But I was too relieved at seeing Iori to bother. It almost cost me my life.

Luckily, a hand reached down and pulled me out of the way, just in time for me to catch sight of the five lasers that were tearing through the ground as the robots continued to give chase.

"Thanks," I said, looking to see who my saviour was. "Devimon?"

"What?" he asked sounding affronted. "Can't a digimon try to save its home world?"

"You're so evil though," I pointed out.

"I want to take over the Digital World, yes," Devimon agreed. "But if I don't help out now, there won't be a Digital World waiting for me anymore."

"Then welcome aboard," I said with a laugh. He set me down next to Iori, and flew into the fray.

"Weren't _you_ supposed to be watching _me_?" Iori wanted to know. Damn, that was embarrassing. He'd seen my near death experience then. I'd been hoping no one had seen that.

"Shut up and keep fighting," I told him.

_**Tatum:**_

"I'm telling you one more time!" Jenna bellowed behind me. She was really milking the concept of having a digimon partner, convincing Mary Kennedy that she was now destined to save the world, and in a way... I figured she had to be right. "STAY BACK!"

I looked over my shoulder to where Mary and Michael Sr were huddled together as he guarded her protectively. The most serious expression I'd ever seen was plastered across his face, and I knew why. Michael had told me about what had happened with his parents, and how his mother died in an invasion. He was scared, and that meant it was my job to make sure they stayed safe... if that was possible. Jenna was standing a little ways away from them wearing her regular gothic attire, which sort of made me jealous. I was in shorts and a t-shirt and it was cold.

The only digimon we had fighting by our side was Airdramon and Kudamon, both of whom were very wonderful and insightful companions, but hardly enough to keep this battle at bay. We were surrounded by six foot tall metal robot creatures, standing in a fenced in garden near in the back of Willis' house.

I'd had a five way video conference call only a few moments prior to the battle with the other American Digidestined. Steve suggested we stand together and fight as one united force, but Sam had a point. We needed to cover more ground, we couldn't be selfish and protect only our own families. Especially since I had no idea where mine were.

I called both of my parents, but neither of them picked up their phones, and I couldn't go get them—there wasn't time, and I couldn't leave Jenna here alone, plus my parents hated seeing each other. It always led to arguments.

I heard a scream and spun to find Jenna watching as some of the robots poured over the walls of the garden.

"Wing Cutter!" I shouted, and Airdramon obliged, saving us quickly, his attack cutting through the pouring rain.

My fingertips were freezing, and well... so was the rest of me, but I couldn't focus on that. I had a big problem, and I could warm up after the world was saved. Unless we lost... in which case, it didn't matter. But I knew not to think like that. I needed to keep fighting!

"Jenna, stay back." Mr Washington said firmly, "Come stand by me."

"No Dad," Jenna barked, "I'm fighting too!" She rounded on Kudamon and pointed dramatically. "Go!"

"Twirling Tackle!" Kudamon shouted, spiralling through the air, his attack did nothing though and he bounced off, yet again, falling to the ground in a heap.

"Humans that fight must be eradicated." He was saying it again! The damned robots kept repeating themselves—but why did I care? I couldn't just stop fighting, they were going to kill us anyway, weren't they? I noticed some of them getting too close again, so I ordered Airdramon to make them back off, but I could see how tired and exhausted he was. We couldn't keep this up.

We needed a better plan.

But I couldn't think of one! I had an extensive knowledge on almost all digimon. But this... was no digimon. Michael had sort of explained what was going on when he called... but we still didn't know how to defeat it, and if I wasn't mistaken, something was happening to the air...

The last thing I'd said to Michael was that I loved him. And he loved me back, and even though we were in different countries, I could feel him fighting alongside me. We could do this together. Only I wish he were actually fighting next to me, because Airdramon had finally taken too much damage and fell to the ground, reverting to his rookie form.

"Monodramon!" I shouted, rushing forward and scooping him into my arms, dragging him toward the others. "Jenna, we have to get out of here." I told her.

"We can still fight!" She shouted, determined, raising her fists. "I'll do it myself!" I had to admit it, I admired her perseverance, but now wasn't the time to be making rash decisions that ultimately led to death.

"No." I said firmly, "Jenna, we have to run!"

"Listen to Tatum!" Mary screamed, "Jenna, please! I don't want you to get hurt! I do care about you. I know sometimes I have a little bit of a tendency to live like old fashioned like."

"No, you just suck." Jenna argued.

"Jenna, I'm so sorry." Mary said through the tears that had started the moment the battle had. "I'm sorry, but I'm trying to grow, and with your help I can! I can grow."

"You can't!" Jenna screamed, "You can't even see that these digimon are dying for us. You just see one monster fighting another. There's differences."

"I know that." Mary insisted, "I see that!" I pulled myself to my feet and hauled Monodramon into my arms. The weird robots were advancing upon us eerily and slowly, and it wasn't the time for a heart to heart. "Jenna, if I'm willing to see the error of my way then you should see yours. You need to know when to back down."

"Like now." I said firmly, unable to get the image of the woman out of my head. She wanted me to protect Jenna, and though I didn't know why or who the woman was, I didn't care. I would have been protecting Jenna anyway. She was like a sister to me and I cared for her greatly. Jenna looked to me and nodded. She leaned over and picked up Kudamon before helping Mary and her father to their feet.

"Let's go." She agreed.

Before we could go anywhere the loud sounds of a jet filled the area around us. I looked to the sky and at first saw nothing until I spun around to look behind me where two giant monsters were flying through the sky. Mary let out a loud scream but I could only smile.

"Need a hand?" Willis asked from atop the green one.

_**Mari:**_

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Lalamon asked me as I ran down the street with her floating next to me, past soaking wet screaming people. Why did the weather always have to replicate the mood or the level of destruction? Why was it that we always had to run the opposite way? Why couldn't life be normal? Why couldn't we just sit back and let someone else save the world? I mean, _sure_ this was my first time actually being on the good guys side, and sure I'd decided that I wasn't going to fight...

But Willis called me a coward. No one calls me a coward.

I couldn't blame him though. I was being a coward, too scared and selfish to help save all these innocent people. Well not anymore. I'd seen the errors of my way, and I was going to fight this battle straight into the ground!

"Of course I'm sure." I told her, pointing into the trees to the right, "That's where I first met you y'know."

"Oh, that's right." Lalamon nodded, "I remember now." She looked to the trees and then back down to me. "I'm very glad that we met Mari... without you my life would have no meaning. Most flowers need sunshine and water to grow... but I just needed you."

"That is the corniest, and sweetest thing you've ever said Lalamon!" I said to her. "Without you I'd probably never have learned to fight back. I'd be in the same boat I was in that night we met."

"Oh that's right," Lalamon nodded, "You were running from someone. What was his name?"

"Marshall." I gasped staring to the red haired boy standing in the crowds in front of me. He was staring directly toward me, a strange grin on his face.

"That's right." Lalamon nodded.

"No, he's right there." I said pointing forward where he was suddenly running toward me.

"Rebecca!" He said as if it were a dramatic reunion as he scooped me into his arms and spun me around, setting me down and trying to kiss me. I turned my head and he kissed my cheek. I tried to push him away, but he kept kissing me all over my face until finally I brought my knee up and hit him in the groin.

"Ain't nobody got time for that!" I shouted in his ear, side stepping and trying to run again.

"Rebecca!" He gasped. I groaned and looked back to him, hitting Lalamon with my braid. "Rebecca... I loved you."

I was suddenly appreciating the dramatics the rain was causing as I walked over to him and knelt down next to him, my heeled boots clicking on the paved roads as I did so. "And I felt sorry for you." I said quietly into his ear. "I still do. You're a pathetic, weak human—"

"Have you _seen_ my arms?" He asked, flexing his muscles.

"You're weak minded." I corrected, "Your arms are actually quite impressive. But—just listen to me." I said sharply, "I never loved you. I feared you. Everyone feared you. You're a monster Marshall. You were a monster and you make everyone around you into something they're not. You make them weak. But not anymore. I'm stronger now than I was yesterday. I know who I am, I love myself, and I will never let you, or anyone else walk all over me. I will live my life the way I want it, and without you. I. Am. Mari."

My digivice and crest began to glow from my jacket pocket and I turned to see Lalamon shift straight into her mega form, Rosemon standing behind me. I grinned at her.

"Fancy seeing you here," I laughed.

"Rebecca move!" Marshall gasped pushing me out of the way, and using me to stand up. I grumbled about how stupid he was as I pulled myself up as well. Marshall stretched dramatically, flexing his muscles and looked to Rosemon. "Hey babe." He said, throwing his hand out to be shook my Rosemon, "I'm Marshall."

The amount of force my fist had before it hit the side of his face caused him to fall onto the pavement, and with that I left him there, laying in the rain.

"No one's stopping to help him..." Rosemon said as we walked together.

"Ain't nobody got time for that." I said again.

"Mari..." Rosemon said softly. I groaned, and knew I had to help him. I wasn't the monster he was no matter how much I wanted to be. I wanted him to feel the pain that he'd caused everyone else, but the cycle ends right now. He couldn't lead me down that road. I wouldn't let him. Which meant...

"Marshall." I said sharply. "Get up." All he did was groan, and roll over. I rolled my eyes and ran toward him, kneeling down and grabbing his arm, pulling him to his feet.

"Changed your mind?" He asked.

"I really need you to shut up." I said loudly.

"But—"

"Stop talking or I'll leave you to die." I said, even though there was no way I'd ever let him die in the streets. "Rosemon, help carry him?" I asked. She didn't respond, and was next to me in a second, throwing his arm over her shoulder. I did the same on the other side and then we were off.

"You know," Rosemon said with a small laugh, "This is something I never thought we'd do."

"There are lots of weirder things we'll have to do after this." I laughed, "We could... we could go skydiving while eating pie? And make some quilts."

"That one's not that weird." Marshall noted.

"That's true," Rosemon and I laughed. Then the three of us were walking in silence, the people walking toward us parted like the sea did for the one guy in the Bible. Moses? Sure. I'd have to read that book after this... I could honestly say that was one book I'd never read. That wasn't a good story. Why was I thinking about this? I could tell my mind wanted to look for peace, but all around me there was only chaos... I was just so scared of dying... "Mari," Rosemon said suddenly, "You're going to be okay."

It was the closest either of us had every come to reading each other's minds. Why was she so amazing? Then again, Neo had said it... the two of us were so similar, and so opposite at the same time, having gone through such similar tragedies in life, abandoned by our families. Lalamon and I were similar... we were the same. Neo told us we had the closest bond of any partners he'd ever seen. I smiled at her and nodded, even though I was still scared.

"Where are we going?" Marshall asked.

"Willis' house." I told him.

"You've got to be _kidding_ me." He groaned.

_**Willis:**_

Tatum, Jenna, Mom and Michael's dad piled into Cherubimon's hand as MegaGargomon kicked rapidly at the metal creatures, knocking them around until they fell, dented and likely dead.

"You are the best thing ever!" Jenna screamed excitedly from the other hand. I would have to tell Michael that she said that and rub it in his face. But for now, we had to get away and out of the battle.

"Is everyone okay?" Cherubimon asked her passengers. "Are you all comfortable?"

"As comfortable as I can be." Mom scoffed. Which I supposed I'd let her do. It was raining like mad, and MegaGargomon had almost been electrocuted multiple times on the way over because of the storm—oh. And... the world was being invaded by giant metal monsters that I could honestly say I didn't really understand.

"Let's go!" MegaGargomon cheered before taking flight. He kicked off of the ground and was in the air a moment later, followed by Cherubimon.

"Where are we going?" Tatum asked, seemingly appalled that I'd saved her. We'd have to work on her manners. Oh god, I sounded like my mom. "Get down there and fight!" She demanded of me.

"We're going to go hide!"I shouted, "We need to be safe Tatum! I promised Michael I'd keep all of you safe!" Well, technically he hadn't asked me to do anything about our parents, but that didn't matter.

"No!" Jenna and Tatum shouted together.

"We can't leave all of New York unprotected!" Tatum argued, "We need to fight."

"She has a point Willis," MegaGargomon said, "Besides, they're not too strong... I think, we can win if we fight."

"We'll be safe, don't worry about us Willis." Cherbimon added.

I wasn't sure. I didn't want to lose them, and if they died on Earth then they'd be gone forever... I just wasn't sure if I could handle losing anyone else, and I'd promised Michael that I would do everything in my power to keep them safe... then again... I had come _all_ this way...

"Alright." I said with a grin. "Let's fight." MegaGargomon floated toward the balcony that used to lead to Hikari's room, and set me down. I hopped off his hand and landed before spinning to see him charging in to the battle against the weird metal things. It was kind of spine chilling to think about really... these metal contraptions were invading our entire planet—and although the humans had a spell cast on them to be confused about the digimon, they'd see these metal contraptions exactly the way I was seeing them.

They'd be so scared... we had to win this, for them. So many people were probably dying already... I shook that thought away because I knew that thinking about it would only make it harder for me to focus.

Cherubimon lowered his hand and allowed Jenna and the others to jump off, each of them landing next to me on the soaking wet balcony. Cherubimon followed her twin out to battle as Mom and Michael Sr rushed toward the glass doorways, pushing it open and stepping through into the house, slipping over the water they dragged in.

I watched for a while as the metal monsters shot beams of red light from their eyes, attacking my partners, as they fought back valiantly, until I just couldn't watch the fighting anymore. It was too much. They were getting hurt and it was all someone's fault. Whoever that someone was... well he was going to be destroyed. By me or by someone else—but it was his fault all of this was happening.

Or hers. Didn't want to be sexist...

I walked past Jenna and Kudamon and into Hikari's old bedroom, striding past where Tatum was tending her partners wounds. I ended up in the hallway, walking down the stairs when I heard a frantic knocking of the door followed by my mother's screams from the kitchen.

"Let me in!" The voice screamed. I leapt down the last six steps and ran as fast as I could for the door.

"Don't open it!" Mom screamed, "You don't know who it is!"

"Neither do you," I told her, turning to the door and unlocking it before pulling it open quickly. A man fell through the doorway and I quickly shut the door behind him, latching the lock again. I turned to see who had entered my house and almost laughed when I saw that it was Keisuke Tachikawa. "You alright?" I asked, helping him to his feet.

"Is my wife here?" He asked.

"No, she's at Mimi's house I think." I told him, "Why would she be here?"

"I don't know," He shrugged, panicked, "I just... I need to be sure she's okay. Is Mimi alright? Do you know?"

"Last I checked she was." I told him with a faked smile. This was however, before the battle had started, but I thought it best not to mention that part to him. "You're welcome to stay here. We'll keep you safe."

"I do love being safe." He said.

"My parents are in the kitchen." I pointed in the direction of the kitchen before turning and looking out the window, pulling the lilac coloured curtains that Hikari and Tatum spent four months looking for, out of the way. My partners were still fighting.

I turned from the door and found myself poking my head into the kitchen where Mom, Keisuke and Michael were getting weapons ready. Knives, pots, cheese graters... "I'm going to need to restock on utensils after this aren't I?" I asked.

"Yes." Mom nodded very seriously as more knocking of the door filled the room. "Don't answer it." She warned again.

"Mom, I'm answering it." I told her sharply. She began complaining quietly as I rushed to the door. The knocking was growing impatient, so I hurriedly unlocked it and pulled it open. On the other side of the door stood a man with a long nose, colourful clothing and the longest white beard I'd ever seen in my life. "Hi?"

"Thank you so much!" The man gasped, rushing through the doorway. "I was so frightened out there. You are most amazing, Willis Kennedy." The way he said my name was really... well, creepy.

"Do I know you?" I asked him quietly, "Have we met?"

"You and I go _way_ back!" The man insisted, moving across the entrance way floor, "You don't remember?"

"Sorry..." I said slowly, "No. I don't. When did we meet?"

"Oh we've never actually met." The man said.

"Wh—" I was cut off by loud screaming coming from the upstairs. I looked, panicked and then pushed past the man and began taking the steps three at a time, but just as I reached the top I turned to see Kudamon leading the way for Jenna and Tatum who were teaming up to carry the unconscious Monodramon. All of them looked as if they'd just seen a ghost—and then a rather wicked looking woman with black and violet robes was barging out of Hikari's old bedroom, running after them all.

"GO!" Tatum screamed, motioning for me to run down the stairs again. I spun around to do as I was told but the elderly man was standing in the center of the bottom step.

"Going somewhere?" He asked with a laugh.

"Barbamon!" Tatum screamed, skidding to a halt with Jenna and Monodramon. I looked back to the bat-like woman with the long menacing robes. "Lilithmon." Tatum informed me. "How?" She asked. I realized that they had to be the deadly sin digimon... Lilithmon was ringing bells in my head... lust—but who was Barbamon?

Greed.

The one who had been affecting me. That made sense.

"What ever do you mean?" Lilithmon asked with a haughty laugh, cackling into her pale hand. "Are you confused?"

"Yes," Tatum said impatiently, "That's why I asked."

"Well let me explain," Lilithmon said with a grin.

"That'd be great, thanks." Jenna shot sarcastically.

"You defeated our bodies before." Lilithmon said, losing her interest in being menacing when Tatum and Jenna refused to play along, "Our souls lived on in the sins of the humans... humans that destroyed us created sins in death."

"You're saying that if we kill you you'll always come back?" Tatum asked loudly.

"That's right!" Lilithmon said, her voice higher and more excitable. "You can never win."

"Well there's two of you," Jenna said, "And three of us."

"And me!" Kudamon added from Jenna's feet.

"So we'll win." Jenna declared.

"Yeah," Tatum whispered to her, "Here's the thing, they look like regular people, but they're not. We're dead."

"Oh that sucks." Jenna said very seriously. Lilithmon cackled and shot a giant hand toward the two girls who both screamed and started running down the stairs.

"Empress Emblaze!" She shouted again, sending the hand down the stairs causing all of us to bail, flipping off the side railings and falling down to the tiled floor below.

"Willis?" Mom poked her head out of the kitchen, "What's wrong?"

"Shut up and stay in there." I shot, shoving her back inside, "No noise." I hissed. If they didn't know she was there they couldn't hurt her. My heart was pounding as I spun to see if they'd noticed, but both Barbamon and Lilithmon were aiming their attention toward Tatum and Jenna.

"What the hell are you doing here in New York?" I asked loudly, "You all died in Japan!"

"Oh," Lilithmon said, turning her attention to me, "I wanted revenge on this little ginger here. She's the one who caused my death."

"That was Mari." I said, trying to get Barbamon's attention as well.

"But this one informed them all of our weakness. She's too smart for her own good."

"Oh, how interesting," I lied, panicked, "And you Barbamon?"

"It was Lilithmon's idea to strike now, so we all just came." I looked to Tatum and Jenna for a moment as they snuck away, toward the front door, and nodded, pretending to be interested in what he was saying.

"Yeah?" I asked, "Wait—what do you mean by 'all' of you?" Before he could answer Jenna had screamed again. I looked to her and saw the jaw of an alligator open beyond the door. "Back door?" I suggested.

"Back door!" Tatum agreed. The three of us shot into action, slipping under the stairs and down the hidden hallway to the glass doors in the back. I reached them first, slamming into them roughly as I unlocked them hastily. "Hurry! They're coming!" Tatum squeaked as I finally slid the door open I ran out first to make sure it was safe, looked around and saw nothing besides the open backyard and the garden area where my partners were still fighting.

"Come!" I said quickly. I turned and motioned for them to come, but then caught sight of another digimon, a daredevil like digimon, pointing his guns directly at me. "NO!" I screamed, running toward them and pushing them diagonally, away from the doorway, _and_ the open space.

Lilithmon came bustling out the door as the digimon above us began firing his gun. She screamed as his bullets almost hit her, and then she began screaming at him, leaving only Barbamon to be chasing us. "Twirling Tackle!" Kudamon shouted, spinning through the air and hitting Barbamon in the face, catching him off guard.

"Who is the one with the guns?" Jenna asked quickly. I couldn't lie—I was wondering the same thing, and only now realizing that I actually had nothing to do with the destruction of any of these digimon the first time around. Why was I the unlucky one to have them chasing me everywhere?

"Beelzamon." Tatum said flatly, "He's the sin of gluttony, his guns are crazy deadly."

"As are most guns," I pointed out. Tatum rolled her eyes as we shot around the corner, coming face to face with a sleeping ball of adorableness. There were chains wrapped around it and a single clock, ready to go off. "Back away slowly." Tatum whispered.

"I don't think so!" The cute little ball said, popping his eyes open and morphing into the hideous beast we'd seen at the wedding.

"Sloth?" Jenna asked as Leviamon, the colourful alligator of Envy began running quickly toward us from behind him. We turned and ran the opposite direction, back toward Barbamon as we nodded, and told her she was right.

We had to get to Cherubimon and MegaGargomon... did they even know any of this was going on? They needed to help us—but they couldn't! They were too busy with all of the stupid metal beast things!

"WINDOW!" Jenna screamed loudly with glee, turning the large, open window of her bedroom that she'd claimed. It really was the best one which wasn't fair, but whatever. Now wasn't the time to complain. Jenna leapt through and reached out for Monodramon as Barbamon knocked Kudamon out of the way and ran for us. Tatum was climbing through a second later as Leviamon shot around the corner, Belphamon on his back again.

Just as I was climbing through though a hand wrapped itself around my wrist and pulled sharply, spinning me around to face Lilithmon.

"You're not getting away from me." She said evilly, grabbing my neck and squeezing tight. I grabbed her wrist and tried to pry her off of me, but she was too strong—I was running out of energy quick—I'd been running so long...

Then I felt blood trickle down my neck as her nails dug deeper into the skin... my vision was growing darker and darker.

And then it stopped. I looked through the hazy vision to see Lilithmon release me.

"I hope you realize that there is absolutely no way in hell I'd ever let you do that." My eyes fell on Mari who was twisting Lilithmon's other hand back as far as she could, and then suddenly, she'd punched her in the face. I smiled at Mari as I grasped my neck, but she didn't smile back. Instead she reached forward and pushed my shoulders causing me to fall backward and through the open window, landing on Jenna's bedroom floor.

I pulled myself to my feet and looked out the window, "You came to fight?" I asked.

"I brought help." She pointed to Rosemon and the red haired boy standing by her.

"Marshall?" I asked, appalled.

"Long story." She said, "Get out of here." I wanted to object but she was running again, and I _did _ promise to keep Jenna and Tatum safe. I turned to see that the bedroom door was open, so I ran out to find them, looking through each room down the hall.

Finally I found Jenna. Dressed in her gothic clothing, with her blonde pigtails, curled up in a ball on the floor on the other side of the bathroom.

"Jenna, now isn't the time." I said, rushing toward her, to help her to her feet, but as I reached to her, my fingers hit a wall. A glass wall? No... A mirror.

Jenna turned to me, revealing herself to very much _not_ be Jenna at all. It was Alice—my sister. She stood up and turned to me from the other side of the mirror.

"Willis," She said, "You're in grave danger." She sounded very urgent, "Death is coming. Save the others. You were the first digidestined Willis. You are _the_ digidestined. It's your destiny."

I couldn't say anything back though, because she was gone, vanishing into my own reflection which made me wonder if she was ever really there at all, but I looked down to my pocket and pulled out my digivice.

It was time to see Leopardmon fight.

I turned and ran from the bathroom, and through the house, holding back a scream as I saw Lucemon in the entranceway. I snuck around behind him and then was running again, flying out the side door and into the garden. I jumped up onto the garden wall and ran along it until I was at the gate.

I took a deep breath and jumped over a few of the metal contraption things.

"Guys!" I shouted, "Digivolve!"

"**MegaGargomon digivolve to...**"

"**Cherubimon digivolve to...**"

"**Leopardmon!**"

When the lights faded they were standing as one united force—a much smaller and faster force. And hopefully stronger. We needed him to defeat the monsters so he could help with the deadly sins!

I turned to see Mari standing with Marshall and her white and pink Rosemon, surrounded by Lilithmon, Beelzamon, Barbamon, Belphemon and Leviamon.

I threw myself over the garden wall and ran toward her. "Mari!" I shouted, scared for her life. This had to be what Alice had just warned be about. Death is coming—then again... where were the others? Where were Jenna and Tatum?

I was suddenly flying through the air, landing painfully in the wet grass, sliding through the softened ground and mud. I was shaking now, with fear, pain and panic as I tried to pull myself to my feet. Slowly I looked around to see Daemon walking straight toward me. He seemed to have given up with his green robe and was now in his full beast form, his wings stretched widely and his body coated in hair.

"Hey," I said sarcastically, "What's up?"

"Not much." Daemon shrugged, "Just destroying digidestined, one at a time."

"And uhm..." I said, "How many have you gotten so far?"

"Including you?" He asked, "Just the one. You're my first. Isn't that special?" Without letting me answer him—rude—Daemon kicked from the ground and spread his wings, shooting through the air toward me. I dove down, and landed in the mud again and hastily stood to my feet, brushing the hair that was plastered to my face by the rain out of my face so I could see. When I turned to see Daemon though he was gone. I found him quickly standing around Mari along with Lucemon now.

"Here's how this is going to work." Lilithmon said, "We're going to beat you to a pulp. And then kill you." She threw her hand into the air and it glowed purple. Each of the monsters began to glow a different colour until the lights had encompassed them like a spotlight.

"Mari move!" I shouted, but she didn't hear me over the roaring winds and rain. I set off, running toward her as the digimon began to fuse.

"**Lilithmon!**"

"**Beelzamon!**"

"**Barbamon!**"

"**Leviamon!**"

"**Belphemon!**"

"**Lucemon!**"

"**Daemon digivolve to... Ogudomon!**"

There were seven legs shooting from the ugliest body I'd ever seen, with two heads, one on top and one underneath. They'd all become one monster, one ugly monster, which was weird, because they'd truly been the most aesthetically pleasing foe we'd ever faced! Minus Leviamon... that'd be where the ugly part came from in the fusion.

Rosemon laughed loudly, "I've got this!" She grabbed Mari and Marshall and tossed them aside before rushing into battle against Ogudomon.

Mari looked up with a grin and watched as they fought. Rosemon was using her whip and her heels and everything else she had, fighting against the enemies... enemy, now. Mari began cheering and Marshall nervously followed suit. Mari finally spotted me and grabbed Marshall, dragging him toward me.

"I'm so glad you're here." I told her quietly, "I'm sorry for what I said before."

"You were right." She said, "I was stupid. But I'm here now. And we're going to win." She looked toward Leopardmon and smirked, elbowing me, "nice digimon."

"Thanks," I said, finding myself blushing, which was weird since I was usually the one flirting.

I looked back to the fight between Rosemon and Ogudomon as they fought, lashing out at one another and firing blasts. "Rosemon seems confident." I noted.

"She's won this before." Mari said, "They're weaker when they fuse, I'm not sure why they're trying it again." She was grinning though. This was going to be simple! It turned out we wouldn't need Leopardmon afterall!

Rosemon held out her whip and cracked it sharply, hitting Ogudomon across the top face, cutting it open, causing him to roar with pain.

"Willis!"

I turned and saw Jenna and Tatum rushing toward us with giant grins on their faces. I was so relieved, I'd thought they'd been killed or something! But there they were, running toward us!

"Ouch." Marshall winced. I looked to the battle and saw that Ogudomon had slashed Rosemon across the stomach. She screamed in pain and jumped back. Mari clutched my arm tightly, her nails digging into me.

"You're alive!" Jenna laughed, hugging me before spotting Marshall, "Ew, he's here?"

"Wanna fight?" Marshall asked.

"She's fourteen." Tatum warned.

"And I won last time." Jenna barked, "_Bring _it!"

I looked back to the battle and saw Rosemon narrowly escape another attack from Ogudomon.

"What's going on?" Tatum asked as Rosemon's whip missed the foe. "Who's this?"

"They fused." Mari explained tightening her grip on my arm as Rosemon was hit again, harder this time. "Idiots, trying the trick that didn't work last time."

"Mari, no—" Tatum said hastily. "Mari they were weak last time because they weren't all together!" Ogudomon's front arms both came crashing down on Rosemon, "They're immensely powerful now—You can't do this alone—" Mari had released my arm and was running full speed through the rain and mud toward her partner.

"Rosemon!" She screamed. "Get out! Rosemon!"

Ogudomon opened his bottom jaw and let out an immense blast of energy, shooting it straight toward Mari as she ran toward her partner.

"MARI!" Tatum, Jenna, Marshall and I screamed in unison as Rosemon flew through the air as fast as she could, knocking her partner out of the way at the last second, getting hit full force by the blinding flash of light.

"Get down!" Marshall screamed as the remaining bits of energy flew toward us. All of us collapsed, throwing our hands over our heads as we landed in the mud. The energy exploded when it hit the ground, so loudly that my ears popped quickly.

I looked up the second the explosion had cleared to see Mari screaming and crying as she stumbled through the mud toward Lalamon who was laying in the mud all alone. I jumped to my feet and ran toward her as Ogudomon advanced. Mari's screaming was slowly coming more and more into focus as my hearing returned until I was on my knees in the mud right next to her. I looked up as Ogudomon ran toward us, his arms raised and ready. As he brought it down on us though he bounced off and where he'd hit the apparent invisible wall golden ripples appeared.

Alice blurred into focus surrounded by my father and the others I'd seen in Heaven, all of them putting up a barrier to protect us. I nodded to Alice and threw my arm around Mari as she cried, looking down to Lalamon whose feet had begun turning into golden dust.

"Please don't!" Mari choked out, "Lalamon don't go!"

"Mari..." Lalamon said quietly, "Can you..." She coughed and then continued, "Can you tell me all those ideas you had? All those things we'll do once the war is over?"

Mari bit her lip and looked away before looking back down to her partner, and nodded, "We're going to bake a cake out of cement and get Hideto to eat it. That would be funny. And we'll... and we'll... visit my parents and ask them if they still love me, and I'll finally let them meet you."

"I'd like that." Lalamon nodded.

"A-a-and then... t-then w-we'll... we'll..." Mari exploded into sobs again.

"We could tell Kiyoko that we don't blame him for all the scary things he's done?" Lalamon suggested, looking up to Mari. "We could be friends with him even."

"If he'd let us." Mari tried to laugh, "A-a-and... I-I could follow you one day a-a-and find out what it is that you d-do on your days away..." Lalamon giggled but it turned into course coughing quickly as the golden dust seemed to overtake her. "And y-you'll be my flower girl at my w-w-wedding... and we'll... we'll make fun of my husband together—and I know you'll love him. He'd be a great guy. And when I'm famous and on tv I'll c-come home... and I'll make you some d-dinner, and we'll be together..."

"Forever." Lalamon agreed. "I love you Mari." Lalamon coughed out as the remaining bits of herself burst into bits of golden dust.

"I love you too Lalamon!" Mari sobbed into her now empty hands. She looked around, unsure of what to hold now, and she found me and settled on hugging me. I hugged her back, trying to be as comforting as possible. She sobbed loudly into my shoulder for a while as Ogudomon smashed his legs angrily into the barrier.

I wasn't sure how long it would last, but when Alice returned and looked to me, I knew it was time to go.

"Mari, we have to get out of here." I said softly, pulling her to her feet and leading her through the rain and mud, back to the others where they were all watching in horror at Ogudomon.

"We have to kill him." Mari said through gritted teeth the moment we got back to the others. "I want him dead."

"We can't kill him." Tatum said. "He'll come back."

"There has to be a way!" Jenna argued, looking down to Kudamon who was held tightly in her arms. "He can't get away with that!"

"I know!" Tatum yelled, running her hands through her hair, "There's got to be something! Some way to kill him! Humans have sins, and they live through their destroyers..."

"I've got it." I said suddenly. "Those metal creatures. Yggdrasil's army right? According to Miyako Yggdrasil is opposing Arkadimon, Daemon is on Arkadimon's side. They want him dead too. Robot's have no sin."

"Willis—" Tatum gasped, "Willis you're a genius!" Tatum screamed out, spinning to face Leopardmon. "TERRIERMON! LOPMON!" She screamed, not knowing his name, "LEAD THEM HERE NOW!" Leopardmon nodded and leapt through the air, leaving his place in battle surrounded by the rest of the robot creatures. "Hey Yggdrasil!" Tatum screamed. "HEY!"

All the robots were heading toward us now, but not listening.

"LISTEN UP!" Jenna screamed, causing all of the monsters to stop.

"That right there," I said, pointing to Ogudomon. "That is Daemon. Arkadimon's allies." Every one of the robots turned their heads toward Ogudomon.

"Get him." Mari ordered, and as one, each of the metal contraptions flew to the enemy and surrounded him, overtaking him, weakening him with their bodies void of sin or evil in general, and after five minutes of the mangled screams coming from them all the robots turned back to us and Ogudomon was no more.

"I guess I'm back in business." Leopardmon sighed, jumping forward.

"You'll do great." I shot back before turning to Mari who was staring at the ground in shock. I stepped toward her and grabbed her hand, she looked up to me and then hugged me, crying into my shoulder once more.

_**Hideto Fujimoto:**_

Excitement. That's what I was feeling. It was thrilling, absolutely _thrilling_, to be in the midst of a battle of this magnitude. I hadn't realized I was an adrenaline junky, but I had to be one to find this so invigorating. I didn't know exactly what it was about it, but crashing a nice saucepan against the head of a killer robot, only to swing around with a cast iron frying pan—I got one of the good ones, and not a non-stick pan like so many of the others, mine was heavy, and solid—before it had a chance to see it coming really made my day.

"Like that?" I asked the robot after I'd double teamed him with my cooking utensils. I kind of hoped they survived this battle. They were my favourite pans to work with in the kitchen, and if we won—which I hoped we did—and Mimi decided to keep me as an employee in her restaurant—which, again, I hoped she did—I'd really prefer to have them handy.

"Humans must be eradicated," it told me.

"Well, _that's_ a new one," I said sarcastically. "Can't you come up with some new material? You're getting boring. I might need to find a new robot to tango with."

"Humans must be eradicated," it repeated.

"What a loser," I sighed, bashing it once more with my saucepan—leaving an ugly dent in it. I'd still be able to use it though; I wasn't losing hope on that front. Afterwards, I decided to hunt down some fresh prey, a robot that didn't know my tactics—as wild and varied as they were. I hoped on top of a car, catching sight of a green ogre beating a robot on the ground with his club. Goblimon appeared to be winning, but I knew it wasn't true. No one could win against these things. It was just not a likely outcome. But we'd still win the fight. I was sure of it. Between my knowledge of my own abilities, and the others' percentages of past victories, I knew we'd pull through. They just never seemed to lose.

Yes, I realized the same could've been said about Sora before this battle, but I had to hope. I doubted Takeru was doing much hoping for us at this point. He'd practically shut himself down when he'd heard about Sora.

The wicked laughter of Impmon shook me from my reverie, as he jumped by me, laughing not at something he thought was funny, but as a coping method for how scared he was of the robot that was chasing after him. I launched myself off of the car I was standing on and bashed the robot as it passed me with my cast iron frying pan. I hadn't taken its speed into account however, and when I hit it, the shock reverberated through my arm, sending me flying through the air. I landed with a thud on my side, my arms outstretched so I didn't hurt _myself_ with my weapons of choice. I skidded across the jagged asphalt. Setting down my saucepan, I hoisted myself into a sitting position, touching my back and wincing at the pain that shot through me. I didn't even want to know what was going on back there. I was sure there was a lot of blood and torn skin, but I didn't have time to deal with it properly, so I'd have to ignore it. My shirt was soaked through anyway, and sticking to me. The water on the shirt would clean the wound, right? Probably not, but it was as good as it was going to get.

I grabbed my saucepan and continued moving.

There was a green monkey in a toga not too far from me, sticking its butt in the air and wagging its tail to catch a nearby robot's attention. The robot caught sight of the monkey and started firing lasers from its right arm at it. I hadn't realized the robots' lack of hands was so that they could have freaking blasters on them. The monkey—Monmon maybe—didn't seem to have known this either, and it jumped away with wide eyes as it tried to get out of the robot's firing range. The robot followed after it immediately.

A loud pair of screams ripped through the air, and I took off running towards it. I didn't even realize it had come from Mimi's restaurant until I'd arrived. I burst in through the front door and ran towards the people that were hiding inside. Emiko was screaming her head off in the arms of my co-worker, Izumi—who looked stupid in her purple, cat-eared hat—while Izumi stared with wide eyes toward the opposite wall. Noriko was cowering on the floor behind a table that she'd turned on its side to use as a barricade. She was the second screamer.

"Get up," I ordered to her. She shook her head, but I hauled her to her feet anyway. "You can't leave her to fight them alone."

By 'her' I meant Natsuni—Iori's friend—who was gripping a chair with both hands, waving it around in front of her, trying to deflect the oncoming onslaught of robots that were trying to sneak through the open portal to the Digital World. There appeared to be eight in total. Two was too many for one person to handle on their own, she couldn't deal with eight, not with only a chair as a weapon. She'd need backup.

"There're some pans in the kitchen," I told Noriko—who I'd been assured was a chosen and was partnered with that Impmon I'd seen—and she looked like she wanted to protest, but she went scurrying to get the pans.

"What can I do?" Izumi asked me quickly.

"Hold the child and get her to stop screaming," I ordered.

"Great, give _her_ the easy job," she sighed, rolling her eyes. She started to bounce the three year old on her hip, cooing at her, which only made Emiko scream louder.

"Shut her up," I hissed. We didn't need robots coming in from both sides. "I'm getting us some backup."

"Where are you going to find that?" Izumi asked.

"He's outside. I'll be back," I promised. Noriko came back with the pans and I sent her to work fighting alongside Natsuni. Natsuni ditched her chair in favour of a lighter weight weapon—a broiler pan. Noriko and Natsuni worked well with each other, catching the attacks that the other missed. I bounced on my feet. I thought I could trust them to handle themselves long enough for me to get the help we desperately needed.

I rushed to the door and ran out into the street screaming for Omnimon.

"Hideto!"

It wasn't Omnimon though. I turned to see Kiyoko staring at me with wide eyes.

"Hey, Kiyoko," I said awkwardly. I didn't look _that_ bad did I? But then why was he staring if I didn't?

"I thought you were dead," he told me.

"I'm very much alive," I assured him. "Listen, if you wanna talk, let's get inside. Omnimon's on his way. And they'll need all the help they can get."

"What are you talking about?"

I didn't answer him; I just pushed him all the way to the restaurant and shoved him inside. I followed him in, staying near the door so that I'd notice if Omnimon got close.

"That's your secret weapon?" Izumi asked, looking Kiyoko up and down. "I thought you were going for one of those digimon personally."

"Hold your horses," I told her. "Help's on the way."

"Yeah," she said. "I'm going out there to help. Congratulations kid," she told Kiyoko. "You've been selected for baby calming duty." She passed Emiko off on Kiyoko who didn't know what to do with her, and then Izumi left the restaurant, rushing into the battle. She didn't have a weapon, and she didn't have any idea what she was dealing with—though she _did_ seem to know what a digimon was—I should've run after her, but she made the choice for herself. Who was I to question her decisions? Personally, I'd want to fight for my chance at survival if I was in her position. I wouldn't just depend on a group of people I didn't really know to fight my battle for me.

"Why'd you think I was dead?" I asked Kiyoko, instead of following her out.

"Koushiro said he couldn't find you, and he found everyone else," he said quickly. "I didn't think I'd find you alive. But I really wanted to."

"Thanks," I said, peeking out the door to see if Omnimon was coming. He was. He was just too far away to risk drawing attention to the restaurant just yet.

"I thought you were dead, Hideto," he said with an earnest look on his face. "And all I could think was: I never told him. Miyako was talking about last words, and how they're important, and I didn't say what I needed to say. You told Mari that when you love someone, you should tell them."

I waited for him to continue, Emiko seemed to have quieted down to a soft sobbing. The only sounds around us was the clanging of metal against metal and the occasional yell as Natsuni and Noriko shouted orders at one another.

When he saw that I wasn't going to say anything he flicked his eyes to the ground and then back to my face.

"And I love you," he elaborated.

I took the opportunity to use the moment following that declaration to catch sight of Omnimon again. I held up a finger to Kiyoko and rushed into the street, waving my saucepan and cast iron in the air to draw Omnimon's attention to me. He appeared at my side almost instantly afterwards.

"I need your help," I told him. "There're robots inside. You have to help us push them back into the Digital World."

"Alright," Omnimon agreed instantly. I led him to the door, having to wait as he shot several robots around him with his Garuru Cannon, before he slipped through the door I was holding open. Kiyoko was still waiting there, holding the child, but I didn't have time to talk anymore. Natsuni and Noriko were outnumbered, and I didn't know how much longer they could handle the onslaught. I called to them to pull back, and Omnimon flew towards the robots, pushing five of them back into the Digital World as he passed through the portal.

"Natsuni, take that one," I ordered, pointing to the one in front of her. "Noriko, yours is the one on the left. I'll take the middle."

"Take that!" Noriko shouted. She didn't seem to be afraid of them so much anymore. Maybe she was an unsuspecting adrenaline junky like myself.

"Kiyoko, take care of Emiko!" I ordered just before pushing my droid back through the portal into the Digital World. I didn't look back at him. I couldn't. I didn't have time.

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

Pandemonium.

That's what it was. I was surrounded by utter chaos. Coredramon was fighting to my left with Neo at his side looking every bit like a member of our team. He was seamlessly fitting in with the rest of our battalion, and I knew that it would've made Sora very happy to know that this was the case. I had to force the thought away though. I was fighting for Sora, yes, but I didn't have time to mourn over her, and I didn't even _want _to. I wanted her to be here at my side fighting with me and TyrantKabuterimon with her Phoenixmon. As it was, Biyomon was teaming up with Rosemon, using her Spiral Twister as hard as she could. It wasn't effective though. Nothing was. Rosemon had her whip wrapped around the neck of one of the machines, but it wasn't working the way it was designed. She didn't have control over it.

This of course made me think they did not have a mind of their own, and thus were part of a hive, listening only to the orders of their leader: Yggdrasil. The issue with that, of course, being that no one knew his location, and other than a few words of Miyako's uttered in anger declaring that Ken and Daisuke would take care of it, we were left with little assurances.

Mimi was screaming loudly from her place next to her mother—who'd rushed out to join her daughter in a twisted sort of family bonding. Both were wielding what appeared to be chair legs. Satoe must've dismantled a chair or two from the restaurant. I saw a few others holding similar weapons. Satoe's Minervamon was moving quickly in between the enemies, slashing at them as she passed, trying to catch one off guard enough to shut it down. It wasn't working. She passed by Natsuko Takaishi and Kae Ichijouji who bore the chair legs that Mimi and Satoe did. They both had fierce expressions on their faces, ones that didn't suit them, but were frightening all the same. Natsuko could look mad, but the murderous rage they wore wasn't right. My mother stood with them—rounding out what she affectionately referred to as Team Mom—the same look on her face. I didn't like it being there. I didn't enjoy my mother being there either. She should've been at home, worried yet out of harm's way. Instead she held a skillet in front of her, daring one of the monsters to get closer to her.

Not too far away from her was Digitamamon who'd found an enemy of his own. The egg digimon launched his body—shell first—at the white machine. The machine stopped moving, looked down at him and said in a robotic voice, "All life forces that fight back must be eliminated."

Digitamamon wasn't going to take it sitting down though, and shot a Nightmare Syndrome at it. Lekismon and Firamon flew over that battle as they pushed yet another white machine towards the nearest building's wall. They tried to smash him into bits by colliding him with a solid, brick wall. It didn't work. The bricks shattered as easily as glass and the machine flew back at them with a vengeance. Obviously, this machine had the same instruction as Digitamamon's did.

If a being fought back it was to be obliterated.

Of course it seemed completely redundant to me, as their original objective was to destroy all life forms on the planet. I wished I knew their orders. I might've been able to stop their directory if only I was able to discern what it was.

"Koushiro, duck!" Toshiko Takenouchi called running directly at me. I immediately fell to the ground. There was no use questioning her by that point. She'd gone mad with rage at her daughter's death—the death that my mind refused to accept as legitimate. Until I saw some solid, factual proof, I knew my mind could never accept Sora's loss. Toshiko was handling the news in a way that was drastically different from my own. She was throwing her fists at the mechanical invaders, punishing them for Sora's death, though they played no role in it. I felt her put her hand on my head as she jumped over my hunched body. I heard the clang as her fist collided with the hard, metal chest of one of the mechanical deathtraps. I quickly got out of their way. Toshiko would be furious if I intervened, but she would be too worried about my safety to do much else. Mushroommon though, had no such worries, and jumped in to help Toshiko, fists flying.

I rushed down the street, catching sight of many digimon taking an aerial approach to the fight. A Unimon was up there, with a man that appeared to be Jou's father on its back. The flying unicorn digimon was shooting beams of energy down on the machines, keeping them from getting too close to our teammates. TyrantKabuterimon was using his red laser attack to distract the machines. He wasn't aiming to distract them, but it wasn't having the desired effect, which was, of course, to kill them. Plesiomon took up a good portion of the visible sky, keeping the majority of the rain off of the battle, though we were all soaked through anyway. My hair was plastered to my forehead as I continued to run. Plesiomon's song wasn't working on the machines in the same way that Rosemon's attack failed. The machines had to be hive minded. There was no other logical explanation. The machines _did_ seem wary about getting too close to Mimi's restaurant thanks to Plesiomon's presence. He was protecting Emiko, who was still inside with Jun, Noriko and Natsuni. They only had Otamamon to protect them since Impmon and Goblimon were bashing machines with the rest of us.

Valkyrimon was darting along the rooftops, shooting arrows at our assailants, while Miyako joined her older brother and sister on the battlefield. She didn't have a weapon, but Mantarou and Chiziru had come prepared. Manatrou was swinging around a large, wooden baseball bat, and Chiziru had a sturdy crowbar. The machine she tried to use it on, however, caught it in its hand and bent it in half without any trouble.

A green blur shot past my face making me come to a complete halt. It was Monmon. He was running away from a machine intending to kill him. The machine fired continuous red lasers from his eyes after the nimble monkey. Monmon jumped onto another robot just in time for the laser to make contact. The monkey did it! The second machine was down. Just…a million more to go. It didn't seem very promising.

"Hiya!" Katsue shouted, jabbing the knife she wielded at another machine. She was trying to replicate her previous success but was failing. The machines seemed to have caught on to her planning—further assuring me of my hive mind hypothesis—and were behaving very carefully around her. Monimon was perched on top of a nearby vehicle. His usually expressive—if emoticons could be described in such a way—face was blank, except for a small red dot in the upper corner of his screen.

Was he recording the battle?

I shook my head. Distractions such as those would get me killed. I'd worry about it later. I spun in a quick circle, sure that I looked stupid doing so but needing to see how close any machines were to my person. Thankfully, there were none that were too close. I was able to continue my cataloguing of my friends.

Yamato was still fighting with the frying pan that Mimi provided him with, with his back to his partner, MetalGarurumon. They were fending the machines off fairly well, though their success in doing so was attracting even more metal foes. They weren't the only ones trying the back-to-back method either. Shin and Shuu were standing with their backs flush together. Shin holding a knife, and Shuu a fire extinguisher. If anything though, they were just annoying the machines. Meramon was trying desperately to melt the metal casing of his enemy, but was having no luck.

Fumiko Hida was standing in a ring of digimon activity. All of the former crest digimon were acting as her personal guard, keeping the machine digimon at bay—though not destroying them. I sighed. Would we never find a sure fire way of decreasing our opponent's numbers? We were outnumbered badly. And that was without taking the rest of the world into account. We were able to hold these few at bay—because they truly were just a few; the full number was upwards of a million—but what about New York? Were Willis and Tatum enough to handle their location? And Catherine was heading the fight in France. Dingo was handling Australia and Chichos was dealing with Mexico. Each of them only had a handful of others working with them. All of Russia—to my knowledge—was being protected by just Yuri, Laura and Anna. Mina had all of India to worry about, and Dien had Vietnam. I didn't know if they were the only people fighting in those countries or not. The Poi Brothers also had Yue to help defend China with. But we were barely handling a single city. If you could call our feeble fight "handling" the situation. How could they protect entire countries? Most were far bigger than just Japan in physical size as well. How was the world going to survive this fight?

Granted I had noticed that the machines fighting were only the ones we had attacked in some way. If we didn't target them, they remained passive, patrolling the streets. They had to be trying to eradicate the population of Earth somehow. I was fairly certain it had to do with the air. It was thick and it took real effort to keep breathing.

Omnimon fell from the sky in front of me, jolting me off my feet, three machines coming down after him to continue their assault. Piedmon abandoned his own metal foe to rush to Omnimon's aid. He tossed a white sheet at the machines, and once it was pulled away, two of the machines were left as key chains—evidently, Piedmon was able to perform the attack now that he was functioning with a crest rather than Neo's serum. I remembered the last time I'd seen him attempt it. Sora and I were facing off against Sigma and Piedmon in Mask's Square. No. I didn't have time to reminisce. Not about Sora at least. It was too distracting. The third robot escaped Piedmon's attentions only long enough for Omnimon to launch himself back at the robotic enemy and continue his fight.

I pulled myself to my feet and searched frantically for my cousin and his friend. If their digimon were here, they couldn't be too far, right? That was a false assumption of course, as I was quite a distance from my own partner, but I needed to know I hadn't lost him too. I hadn't known him long, but he was the only blood family I had left—and my mother absolutely adored him.

I found him standing on the roof of a car, trying to get out of reach of two robots. He was clutching his arm and struggling to hold his small computer with his injured arm. I started towards him immediately. To do what? I wasn't sure. I didn't have a weapon, only my own laptop. I'd bash the machines with it if I had to—but I didn't need to, as Susumu Yagami got their first. He and Kamemon were standing nervously on the sidewalk, watching the individual fights all around them. They caught sight of Kiyoko's less than favourable situation and looked around frantically.

"Pointer Arrow!" Kamemon shouted, shooting an arrow shaped missile towards the fight. He manoeuvred the arrow until it hit one of the two machines head on. Unfortunately, the arrow caused literally no damage whatsoever. Kamemon groaned in frustration.

"Try that!" Susumu suggested, pointing to a fire hydrant that was next to them on the sidewalk. Kamemon nodded and shot another Pointer Arrow at the hydrant, carefully aiming it to hit only the side valve. It shattered easily, and a strong jet of water burst from the opening slamming into one of the robots, pushing it away from the fight. I was hoping he'd short-circuit, but we had no such luck. Kamemon then jumped in front of the water stream and turned his shell on it.

"Cora Guard!" he shouted, and used a variation of that attack. Instead of putting his body inside his shell to reflect an opponent's attack, he used his shell to redirect the flow of the water, washing the second robot away.

"Thanks!" Kiyoko called. He quickly scrambled down from the car, and surveyed the scene around him. I realized he'd been on the car to get a better view. He was clearly trying to build a strategy for us based on the knowledge Sigma may or may not have provided him with about this enemy. I doubted Sigma had known too much about Yggdrasil though.

"Where's Hideto?" I yelled to him.

"What?" he asked, searching frantically for his friend. "I don't know!"

"I'll keep looking," I promised, but I didn't have much luck in that department. He could quite literally be anywhere in Odaiba, though I deduced he wouldn't leave the immediate area entirely. He was probably running around like I was, and we'd just missed each other. Or he could've been caught like Sora…

No.

I wouldn't think like that. I _couldn't_ think like that.

I started running again. There was only so much I could learn about these enemies by observation. If I had time—and it wouldn't kill me—I could obtain so much by actually searching their circuitry. Unfortunately, that didn't seem like a very likely option.

And the air was getting thicker. It physically ached to breathe it in. My lungs were protesting against it, but I had to ignore them. I needed to breathe, and there was still _some_ oxygen. I wished I had time to analyze the air as well, to see exactly what it was we were breathing in. And how long it would take for us to succumb to it.

"Koushiro!"

I ducked again on instinct, and turned to see Jou and Momoe staring at me strangely. I got up quickly. "Do you need something?"

"We need you to marry us," Jou said seriously. I stared at him for a second, blinking in surprise.

"Right now?" I enquired.

"Right now," Momoe agreed.

"In the middle of a fight?" I specified.

"Before we potentially die, yes," Jou confirmed.

"Is this really the best time for this?" I asked ducking my head as Monzaemon sent out his Heart Attack, capturing one of the machines in a large, pink heart bubble. It floated over our heads and halfway down the street before the machine managed to pop out of its hold.

"It may be the _only_ time for it," Momoe told me.

I couldn't exactly argue with their logic. We were all thinking of dying. It had always been a hazard in our line of work, but until now it had hardly seemed like a very _real_ possibility. Gennai had saved Iori the only other time that came close. And while I enjoyed many stimulating conversation with him, and stilled missed his company, it hadn't quite seemed the same as with Sora.

I winced. I really _had_ to stop bringing that thought to mind.

"Fine," I said. "Dearly beloved, we're gathered here today—"

A robot decided to crash the wedding. It knocked me off my feet and I went rolling along the street. My laptop crashed to the ground beside me, skidding along the pavement. It would probably still work. Then I berated myself for worrying about the state of my laptop instead of the fate of my friends. I moved to get up, my hand brushing against a long stick. It was the stick that Yamato had discarded in favour of the frying pan Mimi had given him. It wasn't an ideal weapon, but it was more dependable than my laptop would be—and this way I wouldn't have to force myself to destroy something so precious to me. I rolled into a crouch, and saw that Jou and Momoe had similarly been tossed to the side.

"Jou, catch!" Mimi came running up to us, tossing a spare chair leg at Jou—who caught it seamlessly, and in one fluid moment brought it down on the robot's shoulder. The robot turned its attention to Jou in particular.

"Not on my watch!" Miyako screamed running in from seemingly nowhere boring a metal rod—one that looked suspiciously like a car axel—which she then used to beat down on the robot. Monzaemon came barrelling through the wedding site and pushed the robot out of our way, wrestling with it down the street.

"That was fun," Miyako said with a wicked grin.

"Be my maid of honour," Momoe instructed her, leaving no room for argument.

"Mimi, you're my best man," Jou told her. She absolutely beamed.

"I'm honoured," she said. She took her role as best man quite seriously, and added to it the role of body guard. She put her back to Jou and circled the area, holding her own chair leg tightly, her muscles tense as she waited for the next attack.

"Momoe Inoue," Jou said loudly, making his way towards his bride. "Do you take me as your husband?"

Wasn't that my line?

"I do," Momoe said with a big smile, grabbing his hand. He pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Great," he said sounding pleased.

Three droids attacked this time. Jou and Miyako positioned themselves on either side of Momoe—the only unarmed member of our party—and held their makeshift weapons aloft. The droid they were fighting was bound and determined to get to Momoe. Mimi struggled to fight of the second drone on her own. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to see whether they survived their fight, as a white robot flew at me. Its arms were outstretched. I ducked and rolled under one. I jumped to my feet as soon as I passed it, and slammed my stick down on it. I managed to annoy it, if that was even an accomplishment…

It turned around and fixed its glowing red visual sensors on me. They lit up and I had only seconds to get out of its firing range. I made it, but my pant leg was definitely singed.

Mimi caught my arm and spun me around, slamming our backs together.

"Shouldn't _you_ be protecting me," she teased.

"I'm severely lacking in the brawn department," I said, catching my breath in time to prepare myself for the next attempt at my life. "Brace yourself," I instructed, leaning back on her. She bent forward at the waist, and I used that leverage to lift my legs up and push the robot away, before rolling backwards off of her. She spun around and wacked the robot at the base of its structure with her chair leg. She knocked the metal contraption onto the ground, where, hopefully, it would struggle to get up.

"What a workout. It wouldn't be so bad if I could _breathe_," Mimi gasped out. "Why can't we breathe?"

"Carbon Dioxide," I told her promptly. "Initially I thought it was due to the polluted tree, but now I think it has more to do with the drones than anything else."

"We'll deal with that after the wedding," she said, dragging me towards the others in the wedding party.

As it turned out, they'd decided they didn't need us. Miyako had chosen to take the third droid for herself, leaving the others to continue their wedding. Momoe was still between her sister and her groom. She clutched Jou's shoulder after he'd taken a swing. "Do you take me—" she asked before ducking under a surprise attack by a fourth robot no one had noticed, before swinging around Jou's body to jump over the attack of a fifth. They weren't so keen on taking turns anymore. They wanted us dead, and were tired of playing around. _Just _what we needed. "To be your wife," Momoe continued, as if the machines hadn't interrupted. She ducked under Jou's arm this time, swinging around his back. She grabbed her shoulders and kicked the fourth with one foot on its side. It spun in a circle while Momoe spun to lift her second leg in a kick, knocking it into a fallen streetlamp, which it promptly tripped over. "In sickness and in health, with health being the least likely?" she finished.

They were really butchering the vows, but I was glad for it. There wasn't time for anything more elaborate. Mimi's and my droids were back for more, and I didn't know how much of a fight I'd be able to give them.

"We should've signed up for self defense lessons after last time," Miyako complained. She slammed her metal rod into the side of her enemy. It dodged the attack this time, and brought its arm down on her shoulder, knocking her to the ground in a scream of pain. Jou was at her side in an instant, bashing it with his wooden weapon and using his foot to push it away from his future sister-in-law. He pulled her to her feet, and spun her so that she was behind him, urging her to run over to her sister.

"I do," Jou said, looking to his bride as he made his way back to her. She smiled brightly before dropping to the ground so that her droid's attack missed her. She rolled underneath him and grabbed the metal-coated-vine-like-thing that seemed to be tied to their life force. Momoe pulled on it, knocking the droid off balance. It aimed its arm at her, which then started glowing. Unimon flew by at the right time, however, and shot a beam at the droid, effectively distracting him. Momoe slipped away from it towards Jou.

I took that as my cue.

"I now pronounce you—"

I was knocked to the ground by a droid. I rolled on the ground so that I was facing my assailant. Its arm slammed down on my chest, holding me in place.

"You may now k-kiss the—" I tried to say. The least I could do before I was killed was finish marrying them, right? But the droid had other plans. The droid's second arm swung around and bashed my head against the concrete sidewalk I'd been pushed down next to. Stars flooded my vision, which was already blurry thanks to the pouring rain. A dull pain started in the back of my head and quickly grew in intensity. "You may now kiss—" I tried again. The Droid decided that strangulation might kill me off, since head trauma was failing, and moved the blaster on the end of its arm up slowly from my chest to my neck. If that failed, I had no doubt it would be using the blaster on me. I wondered briefly if it would be painful, to have a blaster shoot through my neck—and if it would, how long would it last before I was dead?

"Koushiro!" Mimi shouted in surprise. I figured she'd been in a battle of her own, and hadn't noticed what was going on around us. I knew I hadn't noticed.

I did see a green, thorny vine come flying into my line of vision, and wrap itself around the droid's neck. Suddenly, the droid was gone, taken by Rosemon, who had flung him into the air for Plesiomon to try his fins at handling. I struggled to catch my breath, wishing more than anything that there was more oxygen in the air.

"Just kiss!" I ordered Jou and Momoe, who were fighting their own battle. Mimi rushed in the get the droid away for them, and after a couple of failed seconds of catching my breath, I ran in the join her, grabbing my fallen stick on the way. Mimi literally tackled one robot, and Miyako was trying, unsuccessfully, to beat the metal coating off of green vine on a machine that had fallen over. I tried to ponder the purpose of the green vine, but my brain hadn't gotten enough oxygen to function properly. I did know that it was important to them though. It's what kept them functioning.

Jou took Momoe into his arms and pulled her in for a kiss. I'd been hoping for a short-but-sweet kiss, so that they would return to the battle as soon as possible. I was wrong. They decided that their last kiss had better count, and would probably stay attached at the lips as long as we let them.

"Are they ever going to finish?" I asked Mimi, who came barrelling past me and attacked the machine I had been struggling with.

"Shut up, Koushiro, it's romantic!" she insisted.

"Does it count, even if it's not legally binding?" Miyako wanted to know. Her droid had righted itself, and was now pushing her backwards, toward us, despite her efforts to drive it away.

"Sure it does," Mimi said. "I doubt anyone cares about the law at the moment."

After what seemed like ages—but was only thirty seconds—Jou and Momoe separated. They were grinning at each other like fools, until a robot nearly knocked Momoe's head off. Jou tucked her behind him and held up his chair leg, one hand on either side, blocking the machine's arm from reaching him. Try and the robot might, it couldn't aim its blaster at Jou's face.

"Need any help?"

It was the most annoying voice ever, and belonged to the most useless digimon I'd ever encountered—aside from Katsue's Monimon, but even then it was debateable.

"Otamamon?" Momoe asked confused.

"And me," Jun said, coming up behind the blue tadpole digimon. Jun had a cleaver in one hand and a frying pan in the other, with an extra frying pan tied to her back and a metal colander on her head as a helmet.

"Jun!" Momoe screeched.

"You're supposed to be watching Emiko," Jou growled.

"Has something happened to my baby?" Momoe wanted to know.

"Chill out," Jun told her. "She's fine. And I didn't exactly leave her alone." She chucked the frying pan in her hand at Momoe, just in time for Momoe to swing around and slam it into the face of a robot that had been trying to sneak up on us. "Noriko and Natsuni are with her."

"What can I do?" Otamamon asked, jumping on the spot, both excited and terrified.

"You can go back to the restaurant," I suggested.

"There's nothing to do there," he told me. I tried to knock a machine out of the way with my stick, and he let out a frantic yell.

"There's nothing _you_ can do out here," I assured him.

"Don't be mean, Koushiro," Mimi ordered, her back slamming against mine for a second time. "He has the right to fight for his life too."

"Yeah," Otamamon said like a spoiled child would. If I'd have had the time, I might've rolled my eyes at him, but as I didn't have any time to spare, I chose to ignore his presence entirely.

"I can't believe you left my daughter!" Momoe raged at her best friend. "I trusted you with her."

"I thought you trusted that Natsuni girl too," Jun protested, attacking the drone between the two women with her meat cleaver.

"I do," Momoe said, casting a worried glance to the restaurant halfway down the street.

"Go," Jou instructed her. "You'll be too worried to fight if you don't. And so will I. I trust you with our daughter Momoe. Take care of her, and take care of yourself too."

"I'll go with you, Momoe," Miyako said, holding up her now bent rod. "If only to get a new weapon."

"Go, go, go!" Jou exclaimed, and the two women rushed through the battling digimon and robots, weaving their way through the crowd, stopping only twice to attack a white drone that had started following them. I lost sight of them after that, as we were once again attacked by the robots. I took Jun's spare frying pan when my wooden stick shattered, and I enjoyed the loud clanging sound that it made when it came in contact with the machine's body.

"Destroy all who resist," the droid droned. I smacked it in the head with my frying pan, hoping to deactivate its vocal programming.

It didn't exactly have the desired effect.

"How's it feel to be married Jou?" Mimi asked, bashing her drone hard enough that the wood of her chair leg split.

"I don't know," Jou said honestly. "I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Assuming there'll be a tomorrow," I commented. The droid in front of me hadn't moved since I hit it. I thought for a second I had managed to get it offline, but it turned slowly away from me. I looked to Jou and Mimi, and was surprised to see their droids acting in the same way. In fact, as I looked down the street, I saw _all_ of them were.

It was suspicious.

"Stop being so pessimistic," Mimi told me. "Of _course_ there'll be a tomorrow, we're the digidestined!"

I didn't have time to point out that Sora had been one too, because the second she said it, all the suspiciously acting droids let out a singled droned sentence, "Destroy base of operations" before they lifted their blasters into the air and let out a continual volley of laser blasts towards what they declared to be our headquarters: Mimi's restaurant. We didn't even have time to react. The building lit up in seconds, before exploding into nothingness.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **


	47. The Royal Knights

**Y/N:** It's a bit of a break from the battle on Earth, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. Review if you can. Thanks. We'll be putting up pictures for the story covers soon, which is funny, since it's almost over, but it's going to be the crests.

**U/N:** This. Is. A…. Chapter. :D It's in the way -_- Happy birthday. My hair is purple. Review this. Mathmagician, I promise I'll respond to you soon. I will. I promised. Right over there to the sentence. I hope you like it.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 47: The Royal Knights**

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

"No! No, No, NO!"

Jou's agonized screams filled the air. He was running seconds later towards the remains of Mimi's restaurant—and his new wife and his daughter, with Jun hot on his heels. This couldn't be happening. My mind could not wrap around it. Couldn't accept it. It wasn't even just my most recent head injury either. I wouldn't have been able to handle it even if my head hadn't been slammed down against the concrete. First Sora, now this. Emiko and Momoe were in there, and so was Miyako. Jun had said that Noriko and Natsuni were still in there as well. And Mimi's waitress…I couldn't remember her name. I had known it at one time. Mimi used to brag about how awesome she was, and how helpful she could be when it came to deciding on menu choices. But I didn't know her name. And now she was gone. I felt horrible for that. And I felt even worse that my mind was focussing solely on that fact when Miyako was in there too. I shouldn't be panicking about a name at time like that.

I shouldn't even be focussing on the explosion, as bad as it sounds.

We were still in the middle of a war, and I was equipped with only a frying pan against an endless army of robots. The metal covered vines were littering the ground, connecting the droids to…something. Yggdrasil probably, but I didn't see _how_. And nothing short of hydrochloric acid would manage to break through that metal casing. Acid was not something I usually carried on my person, and I didn't have access to it regardless—though I potentially knew where it was stored in a nearby science facility. It was a farfetched idea anyway. I would never reach the facility in time. Not if I wanted to keep myself and the rest of my friends alive as best I could.

"That's not fair," Mimi breathed out. She was on the verge of tears, and she was valiantly staving them off, in favour of beating the nearest droid. She swung her weapon harder and faster than I'd ever seen her before. Each resounding clang was music to her ears. She was desperately trying to take it down, rather than just holding them off as we'd been doing in the past.

"We should go after Jou," I suggested.

"And do what?" she asked. "We. Can't. Do. Anything." Each word was accentuated with the clanking sound of wood against metal.

"He's going to get himself killed, Mimi," I told her, swinging my own weapon at another robot.

"I know," Mimi cried with a wobbling voice. "But he'll just hate us if we interfere. His wife was in there Koushiro. His _new_ wife. And that's not even mentioning his beautiful baby girl. My goddaughter! And I want to be over there, but I can't do anything. There's nothing left of my restaurant, and _he_ is the doctor. We're more use where we are."

"We could guard him from oncoming robots." I offered.

"Plesiomon's over there, and he won't let anything happen to Jou," Mimi pointed out. "He looks far angrier than I'd ever seen him. If looks could kill…"

"If looks could kill, Mimi, we'd have won this battle already," I told her, sighing as another robot joined the three we were already struggling to keep at bay—or _I _was, since she was trying to dismantle hers.

"You know what would really help right now?" she asked. I ducked under the arm of one robot only to be targeted by another's blaster. I slipped behind the third, and it lost sight of me. Unfortunately, it decided to target Mimi after my disappearing act. I hastily ran at her and tackled her to the ground. We did not land gracefully. Far from it. I was dizzy from my last encounter with the pavement, and could only hope that I hadn't caused her permanent damage.

"What?" I whispered in her ear, praying that she was conscious and could hear me.

"If we knew how these things worked," she responded, slowly lifting her head from the ground. If I could, I'd have been incredibly gentle with her, so I didn't cause her any additional damage, but time was against us, and so were four large, pearly white, robotic soldiers. I rolled us over just before we were hit by a second laser blast, and she quickly positioned herself in a crouch, somersaulting across the debris filled street in order to get her hands on her discarded chair leg, which she then used against the back of the robot's head. The chair leg finally succumbed to the many beating she'd given it and split in two.

Yggdrasil sure knew how to make them. Nothing we did was enough to eradicate them. In actuality, the harder we tried to fight them, the more effort they put into destroying us. There were still robots positioned around us that weren't attacking in the slightest. They were the few that hadn't been targeted by somebody in our resistance group. My mother's voice rang through my head. "Treat others the way you want to be treated in return." It was true with humans, and evidently large killer robots followed the same code of conduct.

"I'd need access to one so I could analyze its wiring," I told her. "And that doesn't seem to be a very likely option at this point. Monmon defeated one, but did so by exploding it. There's nothing left to analyze."

"Katsue beat one too," Mimi reminded me. "Hers is still in one piece. Or it was. It might not be now, with all of the fighting going on. You should go find out."

"I can't leave you to face this alone," I said, deciding against it.

"Koushiro, you have a chance to save me, and Jou and everyone else on the planet. No. Scratch that. You can save everyone that lives in any of the worlds. That's big Koushiro. And I can find another partner to fight with. Maybe Rosemon," she told me. It stung a bit to hear that she didn't want me here—though that might've been caused by the robot, who'd clipped me in the shoulder when I didn't dodge fast enough. "If you don't go, then we won't have a chance against them. You have to go and outsmart Yggdrasil."

"I don't think that's possible,"I countered. It seemed like such an outlandish idea. How could I possibly hope to outsmart a being that ruled over all of the worlds? Yggdrasil had seen the worlds be formed and grow over the course of history. There was nothing I could find that Yggdrasil didn't already know.

"But you can find a way to use that information in a unique way, Koushiro," Mimi said, answering my internal monologue's questions. I hadn't thought my face was so expressive, but—unless I spoke aloud without meaning to—she'd figured me out with just one look. "Do this for me, please, Koushiro?"

"Fine," I said. "Where's Rosemon?"

"Not too far," she told me. "I'll make a run for it. You find a way to take these guys down. It's not just for Sora anymore, Koushiro. It's for Miyako, Momoe and Emiko and everyone else too."

"Mimi," I said, just before she took off. "Your waitress… What was her name?"

"Izumi," she informed me. "She was Izumi."

And then Mimi was gone. I couldn't see her in the thick swarm of white robots. It wasn't until I nearly got decapitated though that I stopped looking for her. I had a mission now: find the fallen machine.

And I knew just where to start—or _who_ I should start with.

I struggled to take a deep breath, before starting to run myself. I had to find her. She had been near a car the last I'd seen her, but that didn't mean she was still there. With the quick pace the battle was taking, I wouldn't be surprised if she was on the rooftop by now.

"Come on," I urged myself. My muscles were aching, and I could already feel the bruises forming around my neck from where the robot had tried to suffocate me. My lungs weren't too happy either. There was far too much carbon dioxide in the air. We were going to start dropping like flies soon, no matter how hard we fought against it. Humans just were not able to function properly without oxygen. I needed to find a way to remedy our problem. We had to win. We were doing this for Sora.

I didn't even wince that time, at the thought of her death. I expected to, but I couldn't. Too much was happening; too many of us were being lost. I didn't know who all had been inside the restaurant when it exploded. There could be more to the total I'd been keeping in my head. Hideto was missing—I feared the worst—and Sora was already gone. Natsuni and Noriko were now gone, along with Miyako, Momoe and Emiko. And Izumi.

I found myself praying that Katsue wasn't an addition for my list.

I needed to find her. I didn't have any idea where she had taken out that first robot, and I was hoping that she did. If not her, then perhaps Monimon could prove himself to be useful by having recorded her destruction of it for me to deduce its location.

Mushroommon passed by me, being chased by a robot. He was running quickly, but the robot was gaining speed. I tightened my grip on the frying pan in my hand, preparing to attack the robot to save him. But I didn't need to. Mantarou and his partner Pumpkinmon tag teamed it, allowing for Mushroommon to escape from its vision, where he turned to attack another robot. Mantarou and Chiziru seemed to have been separated, because I couldn't see her anywhere.

I had to force myself not to add her to my list.

Just because I couldn't see her didn't mean she was dead. I couldn't see Mimi at the moment but she couldn't be dead. I would have noticed that much, wouldn't I?

Great. I'd managed to think my way into panicking. That was usually Miyako's job.

"Think, Koushiro," I ordered myself. I had to clear my head so I could find Katsue. I started running again, hoping to find her faster this way, and I ducked under a robot that was caught in a heart-shaped bubble. Monzaemon was standing not too far away, controlling it. He was caught off guard by a robot though, who blasted him. He fell to the ground reverting back to Bearmon. Lekismon and Firamon were quick to get to his side and help him to his feet. He was determined to continue fighting.

The bubble the robot was in popped, and the robot fell to the ground next to me, tripping me with the cord he was dragging around with him. The cord that I needed to break. I slammed into the ground, and caught the robot's attention. I used my hands to pull myself away from the robot, using my frying pan to reflect the robot's laser in a last-second attempt to save my life. It worked, but the centre of my frying pan was melted in the process. I tossed it away and looked at the smouldering remains of the robot that had inadvertently destroyed itself. It was useless. I needed one that wasn't completely destroyed.

"Nice one," Katsue complimented me as she ran passed me. It took me a few seconds to register that it was actually Katsue. I scrambled to my feet and took off after her.

"Katsue!" I shouted. "Wait."

"What's up?" she asked. "I'm kind of busy right now. This just in, Odaiba is a hot spot for the robot invasion that is sweeping the globe."

"Your robot, where is it?" I demanded.

"_My_ robot," she asked incredulously. "I don't own any of these. Do you mean Monimon? He's a television, does that count as a robot?"

"The one you destroyed," I snapped. Not breathing properly was really having a negative effect on my already faulty patience.

"Calm down," she said rolling her eyes as she attacked a robot with her knife. It was in pretty bad shape. The knife, not the robot. The robot was in perfect condition, unfortunately. "Let's go. I'm not winning this match any time soon anyway."

I let her lead me through the battle. Without my frying pan I was completely weaponless. She at least, had a beat up knife to protect herself with. She was a mess, with her hair falling out of its hair tie, and her top ripped in more than one place. She was also missing one of her shoes. She was fighting for her life, and she took the job very seriously.

"It was right around here," she called, coming to a halt. "It might be under the debris of the restaurant."

_That_ I winced at. Jou was nearby then, searching for any sign that his wife and daughter were alive, though there didn't seem to be much to hope for, if the blast site was any indication. If I hadn't known that Mimi's hard earned restaurant had been standing there earlier that day, I wouldn't have suspected it in a million years. The remains looked more like a vacant lot than anything else.

I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. Katsue stood in front of me, holding her knife at the ready, prepared to attack any robot that got too close to my search. I found it after two and a half minutes. Two minutes too many. There wasn't much time to waste. I needed to get the thing open so I could survey its circuitry. With a little help from Katsue, I managed to roll it over so I had access to the back of it. There was a thin seem where the metal plating was connected. I hacked at it with my nails, trying desperately to pry it open.

"Try this," a woman suggested handing me a piece of sharp piece of metal that looked like it might have, at one point in time, belonged to a car.

"Thanks," I said, using it to pry the metal backing off of the robot. It looked amazing inside. If only I had the time to really appreciate the design and artful wiring. Instead, I could only search frantically for the wiring that dealt with the order to contaminate the air. If I could manage to reverse the programming, and then connect that new programming to the other robots, the air would clear up and give us a better chance at survival.

"No problem," she said. I finally looked up to her, and saw that it was a blonde woman wearing a child's purple hat…with cat ears…

"Izumi," I gasped. She was alive. That _had_ to be a sign. I shouldn't be as cynical as I was, there was always going to be hope. There was hope that Hideto was still out there somewhere. There was hope that Natsuni and Noriko were still alive. And Momoe, Miyako and Emiko. They didn't _have_ to be dead. It just seemed like the most logical conclusion. Nothing in this battle seemed logical though, so why did _that_ need to? Robots and digital creatures were fighting with humans in the middle of the streets of Odaiba. No one would believe it to be true if they weren't seeing it with their own eyes.

"At least you know my name," she said with a short laugh. "Not everyone seems to. You might need your computer for this, Koushiro. Where did you leave it?"

"My computer…" I said, reaching to my side where I expected it to be, before remembering that I left it behind when it went skidding across the pavement. It was at least a fifty feet from where I was now. I looked towards it and then back to the robot. Would I make it in time?

I didn't have a choice. I'd _have_ to make it.

I was running instantly, ducking under the attacks of robot and digimon alike. I didn't have time to be scared anymore. I could barely breathe as it was. I jumped to avoid a robot, stepping on its arm and using that to push myself further forward. I landed wrong, and ended up rolling, but even then, I managed to right myself quickly in order to continue running. I was close; I just had to find it.

TyrantKabuterimon chose that moment to come flying by, sending down his red blast of energy in one continuous motion. And of course, _of course_, he was headed right for my laptop. Nothing could be easy in this fight. I ran over to my laptop, pushing myself faster and faster, trying to beat my own digimon to the goal. If he won, we were screwed. I didn't have time to bend down and pick it up, so I had to just scoot it along with my foot until I was out of TyrantKabuterimon's range. I could only hope that it still worked. I hadn't exactly been gentle with it in my haste. I grabbed it up and started my sprint back to the finish line where Izumi and Katsue were waiting for me with the remains of that droid.

"Get down!" Meramon shouted behind me. I dived to the ground, landing on my forearms as I cradled my battered laptop to my chest. A large fire attack flew over me and crashed into a robot that had been trying to sneak an attack onto me.

"Thanks!" I called over my shoulder after I'd pulled myself to my feet. Meramon nodded as he tackled the robot and I ran the rest of the way to the fallen droid faster than I'd ever run before.

"Took you long enough," Katsue commented. She was in the middle of a battle with a robot, struggling to keep him at bay.

"Sorry," I told her, already on the ground pulling at the wiring inside the robot.

"Try the red one," Izumi suggested.

"No, that's not right," I informed her.

"It's always right in the movies," she shrugged.

"It usually causes a bomb to go off actually," I corrected her. "I'm trying the purple one."

"Because it's your crest colour?" she wanted to know. I didn't take the time to ponder how she knew that, because I was busy attaching the wire to my computer. She had probably just overheard us at a meeting anyway. We never really watched what we were saying in public.

"I think I've got it…" I said, watching as my computer started to download the available information. There was a black spot on the screen that just would not clear away—that's what I got though, for throwing around expensive equipment. The rest of the screen however was filled with numbers and coding.

"We're going to die," Katsue commented. The droid she'd been fighting had been taken away by Unimon and Jou's dad along with the mermaid, Shinkoumon—the former crest digimon of Faith.

"No we won't," Izumi scoffed. "He knows what he's doing."

"Sure I do," I said. I thought it was convincing, but the look Katsue gave me said otherwise.

"Perhaps, I could help?"

A fairy flew down and sat at my side. His wings bore the crest of knowledge, and he had torn clothing. Chishikimon.

"You've cracked many codes before," Chishikimon reminded me. "It cannot be much more difficult."

"Run the numbers through your scanners," Izumi suggested.

But I didn't have to. I was starting to see patterns just by looking at it. Soon I was able to draw out whole codes. "They should be easy enough to tweak," I murmured, starting to do just that. I took out lengths of code and implemented them with my own version. Soon, I had it programmed to target the carbon dioxide in the air rather than the oxygen, so it could diminish the effects of the others. It thrummed to life. I could feel fresh bursts of oxygen being emitted already, greedily sucking it into my lungs.

"Good, good," Izumi said with a large grin.

"But try to expand the range," Chishikimon suggested. "Program it to broadcast the new orders so that—"

"The others will adapt to the new order due to their hive-like mind," I finished. "Ingenious."

My fingers worked like mad over the keypad, until finally I pressed the enter key, praying for my coding to be enough. The other robots stopped what they were doing for a few seconds, before starting to thrum as they reversed their previously harmful functions so that they were purifying the air.

"You did it," Katsue gasped.

"All in a day's work," I laughed. We could breathe. That was a solid step towards victory in my opinion. We wouldn't drop dead immediately anyway. I looked down at the dismantled robot and my mind started whirling. I dropped to the ground and took up the scrap of car metal again, prying into the arm. I was able to extract the arm without much difficulty, and the second came off right after. The wiring needed a bit of work, but if I just—

"I'll just continue fighting," Chishikimon announced. "I've outstayed my welcome. The battle cannot be ignored any longer."

"Thanks big guy," Katsue told him.

"I think…yeah, I've got it," I said triumphantly. I tossed one arm to Katsue, and lifted the other myself. I stuck my arm inside it and aimed the blaster at the nearest robot. I pulled the thickest wire inside it and set off a reaction that lit up the end of the blaster and sent a laser rocketing towards it. The robot exploded on contact.

"No way," Katsue said excited. "No, freaking way! Monimon, get my good side. There's going to be something worth filming for once."

She ran off into the crowd, and I could only hope she heard my hurried instructions before she was out of range. I was going to have fun with this.

"Koushiro!" Kiyoko shouted behind me. I turned to see him running towards me with Piedmon and Valkyrimon at his side. "I need your help. You need to get me into the Digital World."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Sigma's there," he said. "And he's got Emiko."

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

_**(Rewind a tad)**_

My sister was married. Momoe Kido. It sounded so cool! Of course we were running for our lives toward the restaurant, and she'd only been "married" for a couple of minutes before she had to leave her new husband. And she wasn't _technically_ married in the legal sense of the word. But it still counted to me! And I got to be the matron of honour—an excellent fit owing to my crest and all—while Mimi was the best man. Best _Man_. That's what Jou had called her. He didn't even change it to best woman. That made me think that while I was Emiko's godmother, Mimi actually played the role of god_father_.

I couldn't imagine why my brain decided to think of that at a time like that, but I couldn't help it. It was one of the most exciting things that had ever happened—not to mention one of the most romantic—and it managed to solve a three year long debate between Mimi and myself. Mimi, of course, had declared me the godfather, since I was already Emiko's aunt.

"Miyako, duck!" Momoe snapped. I flung myself to the ground without questioning her, and heard a loud explosion behind me. I shakily turned around and saw that one of the robot's lasers had torn a hole in the asphalt behind me.

"That could have been my head," I muttered.

"Then get your head out of the clouds," Momoe ordered. "We need to get to Emiko. It's important, Miyako. I need to see her."

"I understand," I assured her and hauled myself to my feet. No more daydreaming. This was serious. I berated myself for taking the time to let my mind wander. Sora had already died in this war, and I didn't want to join her in that even though I really missed her. Dying wouldn't help anything.

I took Momoe's hand and pulled her along with me. She kept her frying pan gripped firmly, and I held a bent metal rod. It wasn't going to be of any use, but I still felt better knowing it was there. TyrantKabuterimon flew by overhead, firing a continual red beam down at the ground. He was trying with all his might to destroy the white robots, but wasn't keeping very good track of who all was in his line of fire. I pulled Momoe out of the way, and we pressed ourselves up against the windowed wall of a hardware store while he went passed us. We couldn't be too careful. One wrong move and we were toast.

Unfortunately, the window we were leaning against shattered as a mechanical monster came barrelling out of it, showering us with shards of glass. I covered my head with my hands and closed my eyes tightly. The sharp shards of glass sliced at the backs of my hands and my exposed wrists, and I felt a few shards slip down the back of my shirt. The rain hit the wounds, watering down the beads of blood that had started, causing them to run like little red streams down my skin.

"You okay?" I asked Momoe.

"For now," she answered. "But I don't know for how long. Look out!"

The robot that had given us a glass shower was back. The cord that had been attaching him to…whatever it was that was giving them their power was caught and it had returned to free it. It was about to fly back through the window, so it could leave through the door it had initially entered through, when it caught sight of us.

"Humans that fight must be eradicated," it intoned, before raising its blaster at us. I held Momoe in place until it started charging up its energy, and then I dragged her to the side, pulling her out of the way and towards Mimi's restaurant before it could shoot. With its blaster still locked in on its target, we had a few seconds to escape its sight sensors before we were toast.

"Go, go, go," I chanted to Momoe as we started running all out toward the restaurant. We were so close now. I heard a small explosion behind us and instinctively looked back. The robot had used its blaster to destroy the wall between the window and the door. With its cord now free, it was moving really fast towards its target: us.

"Almost there!" Momoe shouted happily.

"We're not out of the woods yet," I informed her, yanking her arm and changing our course.

"My daughter is back there," she hissed at me.

"And we've got some unwelcome company in the form of a stalker robot," I snapped.

"Must eradicate humans," the robot declared as it closed in on us again.

"I should have listened to Jou and not left Emiko in the first place," Momoe moaned as I dragged her behind a parked car.

"If you listened, you wouldn't be married right now," I reminded her.

"But my daughter would be safe," Momoe insisted.

"You don't know that she isn't safe already," I pointed out.

"Jun left her," she said. "If _Jun_ left her, why wouldn't any of the others?"

"Maybe because Natsuni has an almost scary amount of respect for you," I said, rolling my eyes. I froze as the car behind us was knocked out of the way in one, swift motion.

"Eradicate all humans," the robot droned. I turned to see it looming over us. I clenched my sister's hand, ready to throw her out of the way if he attacked. Emiko needed a mother, and I was determined to make sure she'd have one.

"Nightmare Syndrome!"

"Strike Roll!"

Minervamon and Digitamamon attacked the robot from opposite directions. Neither attack served up any damage, but they had successfully distracted the robot from us, which was their intention anyway.

"Move!" Minervamon ordered us. "We'll keep him busy."

"Right," I said shakily, pulling Momoe to her feet.

"Miyako," Momoe hissed at me. "I know what you were planning and it's not okay with me."

"It doesn't have to be okay with you," I snapped, and dragged her towards the restaurant, glancing back every few steps to see how the two digimon were faring. The first time I looked back, they seemed to have the upper hand. They couldn't break the robot, but the robot couldn't catch them either, since they were moving too fast. I looked away and took a few more steps, careful to keep an eye on the battles happening all around us. Then I looked back a second time. They were evenly matched now. The robot caught Minervamon's sword with a laser from its eye heating it exponentially, causing her to drop it when it got too hot. But Digitamamon tackled its arm out of the way before it could blast Minervamon too. I looked away nervously, taking a few steps, searching for any new dangers to Momoe and myself. Momoe ripped her hand out of mine and whirled around to smack a robot I hadn't noticed with her frying pan. While she continued her fight, I looked back a final time to the digital duo that had saved us. I was just in time to see the robot smashing them to the ground with its large, metal arms. They didn't get back up afterwards. They tried, but they fell back to the ground, exhausted right away.

"Minervamon!" Satoe screamed, and Yoshie was already running to her partner not too far from her. Yoshie slammed her skillet into the robot's arm, and Satoe wielded her chair leg with a fiercely determined look.

They'd have to handle the fight alone, because Momoe had caught my arm and was dragging me away from the robot she'd been fighting. She had knocked it to the ground, taking the time while it was trying to right itself to escape.

"I'm coming Emiko," she muttered.

A loud explosion rocked the ground, causing us to fall to our knees. I used my hands to break my fall. Momoe wasn't as lucky as she'd been clutching her frying pan, and ended up landing flat on the ground. While she scrambled to her feet, I looked for the source of the earthquake. It was Meiyomon. He was having a blast, exploding things left and right. But he was getting angry. The robots weren't blowing up like he wanted them too. After years of being told he couldn't explode things, he wanted to do as much damage as possible now that he could. And all he was managing to destroy was the street we were standing on, and the windows in the surrounding buildings. Iori's mother was behind him, cheering him on, with the crest digimon of Destiny and Miracles—two rabbits—standing on either side of her. The caveman-esque flower of Light was in front of her while the grim reaper of Hope stood behind her. They were all guarding her from the robots—though I thought it wasn't a voluntary system on Fumiko's end. She looked murderous, like she wanted to be out there fighting too, and Meiyomon just wouldn't let her. He wanted his 'mom' to be safe.

I shook my head. I didn't have time for that. Momoe was on her feet and already running to the restaurant ten feet away from us. I glanced around quickly, and noting that no robots seemed to be targeting me specifically, I figured it was safe for me to run after her. I really needed to see that Emiko was safe, and to get a new weapon, be it a chair leg, or a table leg, or a frying pan, or a knife. I needed something better than the bent metal pole I'd stolen from the wreckage of a car Meiyomon had gotten to.

The restaurant was miraculously standing. The robots seemed to be ignoring it for now, which I was thankful for. When I got in the door Momoe was glaring fiercely at Kiyoko, who was the only other person in the restaurant and was holding Emiko in his arms.

"Where are the others?" she demanded.

"They're gone," he said anxiously.

"Gone where?" she wanted to know. I didn't think she appreciated their abandoning her daughter.

"The Digital World," he said. "With H-Hideto. The droids were invading through the portal. They're just on the other side."

"I'm going to give them a piece of my mind," Momoe declared.

"C-can you take the child?" Kiyoko asked. The poor guy looked so awkward holding on to the screaming child. She was crying hysterically. She didn't understand what was going on. Momoe rolled her eyes at him and took Emiko into her arms. Emiko immediately burrowed her face into her mother's neck. That small movement seemed to diffuse her anger. Her daughter needed her right then.

"Do you need a weapon?" I asked Kiyoko, who was already inching his way to the front door.

"I've got my laptop," he said. "I have a feeling that's all I'm going to need."

"Okay…" I said, drawing the word out nice and long. It was so hard to communicate with him, especially knowing that Sigma had possessed him for so long, and that Sigma was the shadow responsible for all of the terror and pain I'd gone through that year. Had he known that Sigma was targeting me and just not said anything about it? Or had he been in the dark about the whole thing?

It wasn't the time to ask him, and I didn't have a chance. He had already rushed out into the large battle in the streets. Breathing was easier in the restaurant than it had been in the streets, but the air was growing thin inside as well. I kind of hoped to find a nice oxygen tank somewhere in the restaurant, just so I could get a decent lungful of air, but didn't have any luck.

Instead, I found a cool hammer with spikes on either side. It was typically used to flatten meat, but today it had a new job: flattening robots.

"Check this out," I called to Momoe, who was sitting with Emiko in the back corner of the dining room, singing a sweet melody to her, trying to get her to stop crying.

"Nice," Momoe said shakily.

"I'm going to stay here," I decided. "Emiko is terrified, and you can't protect her if she's clinging to you."

"I can't get her to stop crying," Momoe cried to me. "She has to stop. The robots will hear her. I don't want them to get her."

"They won't," I swore. "Not while Auntie Miyako is around."

I snuck over to the door, and peeked outside. The robots had all stopped what they were doing—mid swing for some of them—and slowly turned to the restaurant we were residing in.

"Not good," I muttered.

"What?" Momoe asked panicked. "What's not good?"

"They're up to something," I said.

"Destroy base of operations," the robots all said together in one loud, creepy, metallic voice.

"Oh no," I gasped. They were going to destroy the restaurant. I really sucked at protection duty. Not even a full minute after I'd declared I'd keep them safe, every robot within the vicinity had decided to take a shot at me, at _us_.

They all lifted their blasters towards us and charged up for their onslaught.

"We're going to die," Momoe gasped, clutching Emiko to her chest tightly, and yanking me into the embrace. Even if we left the restaurant we were done for. They were all waiting for us just outside.

"I love you, Ken," I whispered. And I heard them fire their lasers. I clenched my eyes shut. With my eyes closed I didn't see which direction it came in, but we were suddenly in the air. At first, I thought that we were experiencing the first part of the inevitable explosion, but we weren't. We were flying fast. I opened my eyes and found myself looking over the shoulder of our saviour. I saw as the lasers first hit the front wall of the restaurant, and watched as we were taken through the still open portal to the Digital World—something I should have thought about when trying to come up with an escape route. The chairs and tables and curtains were all lit on fire instantly, the chandelier and the plants fell to the ground. Just as we passed through the portal, I saw small explosions start to take shape. First a small one on the floor, then a bigger one starting from the exposed wires that the chandelier left behind. Soon, it was one big explosion, and the flames and force followed us through the portal.

We were flying above it in seconds, and I looked down to see Noriko and Natsuni dive out of the way. Omnimon used his shield to protect Hideto. The droids they were fighting got caught in the blast, and six of the eight fell down, and only two stayed there.

I took that time as an opportunity to thank our saviour. I turned to look at him and was horrified to find nothing but blackness. It was a shadow. A shadow with a bowler hat. I'd seen him so many times in the past. During the fight against the shadows three years prior. In the middle of the night when I'd wake up terrified because he'd haunted my dreams. I knew him even though he didn't have a face for me to recognize.

"Sigma."

_**Tatum Jefferson:**_

"We need to get out of here." I decided loudly over the storm that had picked up even more. The thunder was raging and the lightning was falling from the sky all around us, striking the metal monsters and seemingly giving them even more energy. No one listened to me though.

We'd worked our way back to the kitchen to see if Willis' parents and Mr Tachikawa were alright, and when they were we dragged them outside to the safest place, which was behind the house. Soon though Leopardmon was being overtaken and since he was the only one left to fight them, my plan seemed like the only logical one left.

Mari was being embraced by Willis as he watched the battle and comforted her at the same time. Marshall, the idiot they'd brought along was actually proving to be of some use after finding a large club like stick to bash the robots with, but it eventually broke and his usefulness died down quickly. Kudamon was too exhausted to fight, not that it mattered because he wasn't of any use against them anyway, and Monodramon was still unconscious in my arms.

"Guys." I said again, "We need to get out of here." I growled, "NOW!"

"We can't!" Willis snapped angrily, "We need to defend Earth!" He groaned, "We can't leave them all to destroy everyone!"

"But we can't let them destroy us either!" Jenna argued, "I'm with Tatum here. Let's get to the Digital World!"

"No!" Willis argued. "We can't go if these things will still be here!"

My face lit up as an idea passed over my mind. "Willis, tell your digimon to do as I say."

"No!" He insisted, but the look I gave him changed his mind. "Alright, guys—"

"Got it." Leopardmon said as he kicked one of the monsters away.

"Revert to your mega forms." I instructed.

"She's crazy!" Leopardmon hissed.

"Just do it!" I insisted. They sighed and shifted from their human sized fused form to their giant mega forms. "Now pick us up!" I shot. Cherubimon scooped us all up in one go, Keisuke caused a slight disruption, screaming a little as he was lifted into the air. Mari, Willis, Jenna and Mary were in one hand while Keisuke, Marshall, Monodramon, Kudamon and I were in the other. "Now make them follow you to Michael's house."

"Did I mention she was crazy?" MegaGargomon asked as he stomped on the enemies.

"Did I mention that this is serious?" I asked boldly.

He groaned but did as I instructed. "Hey! I'm a digidestined's partner!" He barked, "You want me dead!"

"Humans that fight must be—"

"Erabbitcated. I know." MegaGargomon said loudly. He said it wrong, and included the word rabbit in it—that was definitely something to go on for future jokes, but at that moment it didn't matter.

"Come eradicate us!" I screamed. The droids all looked up and began floating. "Go!" I screamed. The two digimon obeyed and were flying quickly—unfortunately the droids seemed to be faster, and Cherubimon and MegaGargomon had to duck and twist their way through the opponents who were firing lasers at us at a constant pace.

Eventually we were landing in Michael's back yard.

"Get in the pond." I instructed. Both of them looked at me like I was crazy but I growled at them and they obeyed, each of them jumping into the pond. I turned to the rest of the droids who were landing around us now.

"Is this plan almost over?" MegaGargomon asked, "Because I'm a metal digimon standing in a giant puddle in the middle of the worst storm I've ever seen..."

"COME GET US!" I shouted, ignoring his pleas.

"I'm a human!" Mary shouted, "Eradicate me!"

"Me too!" Michael Sr added, "Eradicate _me_!"

"_I'm_ a human!" Jenna shouted.

"I'm a human too!" Willis added.

"Eradicate us all!" I finished. All of the droids shot toward us at lightning speed, cluttering up the pond, and then, wish a loud crack of lighting the waters lit up.

"What's going on?" Keisuke gasped.

But there was no time to answer him because we were surrounded with water a second later, spinning and being pulled through the tight tunnels of water, unable to breath until, just like before, we were standing in the middle of the Looking Glass in the Digital world having dragged all of the drones with us.

"Go!" Jenna shouted. MegaGargomon and Cherubimon set off into the air before the robots could actually eradicate us and started flying quickly. The drones took flight as well but their metal cords attaching them to wherever it was their power source was from didn't allow them to continue. It was trapping them in the Looking Glass.

"Did you just... trick robots?" Marshall asked me nervously.

"I did indeed." I laughed triumphantly. "Get us to the Temple!" I shouted my final order to MegaGargomon.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

He wasn't what I was expecting, that was for sure. I kind of figured he'd be giant, with a lot of teeth and claws or maybe even tentacles, like Fanglongmon or Dragomon. Or any of the sovereign really. But he didn't fit that mold at all. He was just a collection of a lot of plates of white and grey armor. There was a little black detailing near his face, and a long green, spiked cord sticking out the bottom of him. It kind of looked like the stem of a rose. His face was like a computer screen, with glowing red eyes shining on it. He had two sets of arms. One set with long, pointed, single digit hands, and the other set appeared to be a pair of blasters that could probably take my head of no problem.

And he hadn't even started fighting yet.

His creepy, skin crawling electric voice announced to us that it was time, and then our digimon went in for the attack.

"Ulforce Saber!"

"Grandis Scissor!"

UlforceVeedramon extended his saber from his right V-bracelet and slashed at Yggdrasil with it, just as GrandisKuwagamon crossed his arms and sliced his claws at Yggdrasil as if he were cutting a piece of paper. From Ken's expression, I gathered it usually worked as easy as cutting paper too, but not this time. UlforceVeedramon's sword ricocheted off of Yggdrasil's armor, and GrandisKuwagamon's claws made a scratching sound reminiscent of nails on a chalk board. I covered my ears on instinct.

"What is that guy made of?" I asked Ken. He shrugged and shook his head. He'd covered his ears too and probably had no idea what I'd actually said. He would've given the same answer if he had though. We may have been to the In-Between once before, thanks to Apocolymon, but that didn't mean we knew anything about this place. Was Yggdrasil like a human? Or was he more like a digimon, like the wizards of Witchenly apparently were? Was he something different altogether, like the shadows of the Dark Ocean, or the fairies of…that fairy place. I decided I would stick with Fairytopia, not that it really mattered. Knowing the name of the place wasn't going to help me figure out what Yggdrasil was made out of, or why our partner's attacks couldn't even dent his armor.

"The Ray of Victory!" UlforceVeedramon cried, waiting as GradisKuwagamon jumped out of the way before he launched his V-shaped blast of energy from the V emblem on his chest plate. Yggdrasil didn't even humour me by trying to get out of the way. He stayed perfectly still, shutting down for just the second that the blast hit, before booting back up again, this time, ready to go on the offense, rather than just sitting around.

The blasters that made up his second set of hands weren't just for show, and he decided to prove that. He spun quickly around, and around, and around. At two second intervals, he released a short blast from both blasters. I dived out of the way of one that seemed to be aimed at me directly, and quickly looked to see if Ken was okay. I met his eyes and he nodded. Good. It wouldn't do for us to get injured so early in the fight. We'd need our energy if we had any hope of winning.

Yggdrasil continued to spin, twisting up the cord that was sneaking out from beneath his armor. I dived down further to avoid yet another blast, and decided to take notice of where the cord was headed. There was a hole, not too large I'd guess, but big enough for me to fit through if I wanted to bad enough, and the cord went right down into it. I wondered briefly if it was his power source, but decided that him needing to be powered wasn't nearly as likely as him needing to power something else. But maybe _power_ wasn't the right word. Maybe that cord was acting like an internet cord, connecting him with all the worlds.

And if he was as connected as the Queen seemed to think, what was he doing now with all of our friends. With Ken's wife or with my girlfriend? Were they even still alive?

No. They were. I would've noticed if all of our friends died, I thought. We were all connected with the powers of the crests, right? There was no possible way that one of them could die without us knowing about it deep in our soul.

I hoped so anyway.

I shook my head. I needed to focus on the task at hand, and currently, that task seemed to be deciding whether it was worth the risk to crawl into that hole to see what lay beneath it. I figured there had to be a tunnel, but where did it lead?

"Attack again!" Ken shouted, dodging yet another rogue blast of red energy.

"Gran Killer!" GrandisKuwagamon shouted, launching himself at Yggdrasil head on, with his claws extended. He hit him too! Only, his claws slid right off of him, and Yggdrasil used his non-blaster arms to smash GrandisKuwagamon downwards with a sickening crunch.

"Dragon Impulse X!" UlforceVeedramon cried, infuriated by his friend's treatment. His body burst into bright flames as he embodied the power of a dragon, before he flew at Yggdrasil, body blaring, ready to at the very least slam into him. Typically, with a digimon, UlforceVeedramon's Dragon Impulse X attack sliced through them like a hot knife in butter. But with Yggdrasil, he came to a complete stop without inflicting anything more than a mild case of annoyance.

"Enough," Yggdrasil said in his steely, metallic voice.

And then he brought out his real game face. He started bashing UlforceVeedramon around, and I winced each time his arms collided with my digital best friend. Finally, after what seemed like endless torture, he slammed UlforceVeedramon into GrandisKuwagamon, knocking the both of them away. He aimed both of his blasters towards them and let out a double blast of energy, and unlike his short bursts from before, he made this one a continual stream.

"Tensegrity Shield!" UlforceVeedramon cried out, releasing a holy aura from his left V-Bracelet just in time to keep him and GrandisKuwagamon from being hit. He summoned enough energy to move upright, but his energy was fading fast, trying to hold that shield up against Yggdrasil's blasters.

"Ken," I called. "We need a plan. A better plan than the one we've got."

"Our only current plan is attack," Ken cried in response.

"Yeah," I said. "I realize. We need a way to get more fire power."

"The only way we could do that is if either of us could fuse, but even then we'd need our fusion partner with us," Ken pointed out.

"Think about it," I said, getting excited now. "Taichi and Yamato can fuse their digimon into Omnimon, and so can Hideto. Sora and Koushiro's digimon fuse into Eaglemon, and Jou and Mimi's fuse into Lotusmon."

"I know," Ken said. "We don't have time for that. None of them are here anyway."

"No, you don't get it," I said with a grin. "They're all best friends. Taichi and Yamato, Sora and Koushiro, Mimi and Jou, and of course Hideto isn't, but he fuses with his own digimon."

"So…what?" Ken said slowly.

"Oh, right," I said, suddenly not feeling so excited anymore. "You've got a new best friend. Where's Michael when you need him."

"_You're_ my best friend, Daisuke," Ken corrected. "Michael's a really good friend, and I'd almost say he's my best friend too, but you were my best friend first. _And_ we've combined our digimon before, with the DNA digivolutions."

"Does that mean that we can fuse regularly too?" I asked. "Or does that mean we've already done our bit and need new people involved?"

"I…don't…know," Ken said slowly.

We both turned to our digimon. GrandisKuwagamon was holding UlforceVeedramon up now so that he could focus all his energy into the shield. GrandisKuwagamon tried moving them out of the way of the blast, but Yggdrasil just followed them.

They were running out of time.

"Think Ken," I said. "You're the smart one here. You've also defeated five of the nine great evils."

"Not by myself any time, and I don't even remember one of them," he said sheepishly. "And you've defeated four as well."

"If Apocolymon, Fanglongmon, MaloMyotismon, Daemon, Lucemon or Milleniummon couldn't beat us, we can't let this tin can do it either," I declared. He looked a little embarrassed by the praise, but also nervous about what we were pretty sure we'd have to do. And that was to fight Yggdrasil ourselves while our digimon recovered. I reached out my hand and squeezed his shoulder. "And we'll do it together. Agreed?"

"Agreed," he said smiling. I was glad I'd given him confidence, because we were going to need it.

Or so I thought.

Just as we threw ourselves towards Yggdrasil, my digivice lit up a dark pink—a colour I'd heard Ken specify as magenta _not pink_ multiple times in the past—and noticed out of the corner of my eye that Ken's digivice had lit up a bright peach—also _not pink_—as well.

"No way," I said with a big grin. "Is this really happening right now?"

It was.

GrandisKuwagamon and UlforceVeedramon were engulfed in a pair of bright lights that soon merged into just one.

"**GrandisKuwagamon digivolve to…**"

"**UlforceVeedramon digivolve to…**"

"**DoruGoramon!**"

The light faded, revealing what had to be the coolest digimon that had ever existed in the history of _ever_. He wore shining, silver armor, and had a pair of giant wings sticking out his back. Each wing had six ribs holding together thick, dark blue wings. The lower five ribs were tipped with gold, while the top was the same silver as his armor, and had very pointed edges, and spikes near his shoulders. He had a long tail that reached down, flitting in the air. The top side of it was silver, with a thin stripe of gold running down either side, separating the silver top from the dark blue underside. His tail was tipped with what looked like an ancient arrow head that was a slightly darker grey colour, with golden accents. There was a single dark blue orb on either shoulder, and a dark blue spike on each kneecap. There were dark blue accents down his torso and around his neck as well. He stood tall on two feet, with three long, sharp, blade-like claws on each foot, with a thick golden rimmed cuff around each ankle. Large gauntlets were on each wrist, winging out to one side. His face was covered by a helmet with a ribbon-like plume shooting out either side, and appeared to have an affinity of fire, if the bursts of flame in his hands were any indication.

I looked to Yggdrasil, who'd stopped his attack to take in the statistics of Ken's and my new partner.

"Attack!" Ken and I called together.

"With pleasure," came the mixed voice of UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon. He flapped his large wings just once, and that was enough to launch him directly at Yggdrasil, while shoulting out "Doru Din!" which appeared to release a destructive shockwave at his opponent.

Yggdrasil may not have fallen down dead, but he did look distinctly uncomfortable with the new situation.

"He's not looking so comfortable now," I said triumphantly. We had a chance of winning again! And we got to share this fight with our new partner too. Things were really looking up.

_**Michael Washington:**_

"I feel bad for leaving them." Kurayami said quietly. I looked down to her and nodded. I felt the same. Takeru and Hikari were brilliant assets, and great people, and it was totally unfair to leave them locked in a building. I could only hope they wouldn't blame me for not bailing them out. It was Taichi's decision after all—and if he was going to do so, couldn't we have at least locked Iori away too?

We were already walking across the metal bridge of the Temple when the sky had filled with the metal Yggdrasil monster guys, and we'd all hurried into the Temple, except our digimon of course. Kurayami and I had related well when we both felt unsure about sending our digimon into battle, so we were standing together in the "West Tower" as Taichi had called it, watching the fight.

GigaSeadramon and Anubismon were tag-teaming a hoard of the enemies, and not far away stood roughly half of Taichi's council. We couldn't see the rest of the battle since we'd voted to take up the back half of the Temple's defenses, so I could only hope the others were still safe as well.

"Me too." I said finally, looking to Kurayami who had slid down the wall by the window into a sitting position. She buried her head in her knees and sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing." She lied, looking up and shrugging her shoulders, "Guess I keep thinking about going back for Takeru and Hikari? I know they'd want me to."

"Well you can't." I told her, "If Taichi's anywhere near as protective to Hikari as I am to Jenna, you'll need a little more than Anubismon to fend him off." She breathed a small laugh and then looked down again. I was sure that wasn't what had been bothering her, but any problem shot my way had to be dealt with. That way she would slowly start to trust me, which I really wished she would.

"I'm really scared." Kurayami said quietly. I took one last look out the window as Gigaseadramon whipped a metal monster with his tail, and then slid down the wall, sitting next to her. She looked out of the corner of her eye and then turned her head and busied herself, pulling the sleeve of her sweater down. "Just... Daisuke." She said finally, "I'm scared he's not going to come back."

I could tell, once again, that she'd lied. Well, not so much lied—but there was more to it than that. "Well I'm in the same boat." I said to her as she continued to refuse to look at me by pulling out a violet ribbon and tying her loose hair back into a ponytail. "For Willis, Tatum, Jenna... my dad. Mimi... Ken—everyone. I'm scared too."

"When we lost Sora... I just felt so..." Kurayami trailed off.

"Empty?" I tried, and she nodded, "Like a barrier had been broken around us... like we could die now?"

She nodded again and then looked to me, "Like those things... from those movies my Grandpa likes."

"You're going to have to be _way_ more specific than that." I said with a shrug.

"Uh... Harry Potter!" She shot suddenly turning to me and pointing dramatically.

"Did you see the last movie?" I said quickly, "So good."

"Not the time." She said coolly, looking away again. "But yes."

"You mean the dementors by the way."I told her, "Like you'd never be cheerful again?" She nodded again. Kurayami and I were going to be good friends. I could tell. She watched Harry Potter once, I loved it. It was a good friendship.

"What are you looking forward to doing after the war?" I asked her, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Family." She said softly. "Children... having children... I want them to have parents, loving parents. I'm looking forward to them meeting my Grandfather, and even though the nurse keeps telling me he's not going to live that long, I think he will. I _know_ he will. And my dad... I'm going to bring him back into my life and I'm going to get him out of the darkness like you all did with me." She suddenly smiled and looked to me, "What about you?"

"You're thinking much further in the future than me." I shrugged, pulling out my phone. "I want to have a picnic with Betamon... and, I want to cross all the names off this list." I handed her my cellphone were a list of everyone's names were written down in a list. Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Jou, Mimi, Hikari, Miyako, Ken, Willis and Mari were all crossed off leaving only Taichi, Takeru, Daisuke, Iori, Kiyoko, Hideto, Neo and Kurayami herself.

"What's it for?" She asked, handing it back to me.

"It's my friends." I said. "Everyone hated me... I guess that was before you came around, though it lasted after too..." I trailed off then shook myself back to the point, "I want to make sure I'm friends with everyone."

"Well," Kurayami said, "Daisuke talks about you being his friend all the time. So you can cross him off, Takeru loves everyone and everything, so there's two—and if I didn't consider you a friend, I do now."

"Friends?" I asked, looking to her. She nodded and I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

"You should stop worrying so much about who you're friends with." Kurayami said, "Everyone respects you Michael. They don't have time to not do so. They're so focused on Neo and the enemies... you've proven your strength."

"I still think friendship is important," I sighed, "I mean, everyone gets to fuse partners with their best friends. But my best friend's best friend is someone who isn't me."

"Same here." Kurayami said looking to me, and then wincing as something shot through her mind. She turned away again and refused to look back.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "You can tell me..."

"I can't." She said firmly.

"You can though." I said quietly, "Just go ahead."

She nodded, but continued staring away from me, "When Fanglongmon had a hold on me I was in a constant state of fear and that's really what allowed him to keep... doing... that. And now... I feel the same way."

"You think Fanglongmon is back?" I asked her, suddenly panicked, remembering how last time he'd been there, not only had he destroyed much of Japan and the Digital World, but also so many of our trusts and bonds, including almost breaking Tatum and I up—which couldn't ever happen.

"No," Kurayami said, "It isn't him." She said before sighing dramatically and turning to me, "It's my mother, okay?" I nodded, I could remember very little information that I actually knew about her, "I know I sound like a broken record, since I've been going on about her for about... since I met you all, and even before that—but ever since she left I knew she'd be coming back... but now... it's so close."

"She's coming now?" I asked, and Kurayami nodded. "Do you... want to talk about it?"

"About what?" She asked.

"Your mom?"

"Oh." Kurayami seemed put out for a second and then turned to me finally, looking straight into my eyes and speaking quickly and clearly, "My mother picked darkness for me so I could never be ill. Which is a cool side effect really, but it meant that the only things that could get to me were things darker than myself, which was why Fanglongmon had such an interest in me you see, and then, when Daisuke broke that, I thought it was all going to be better. It wasn't. You know how Miyako was talking about that shadow king, and how he's looking for a _better_ more compatible body? That means he already has one. And what better choice would he have, than someone who lived and fed on the darkness? Someone who killed her first child and chose the path of darkness for her second—someone who left her family in favour of the darkness of an alternate world."

"The shadow has your mother?" I asked, shocked. Kurayami nodded, and since she'd told me something I figured that was a good time to tell her something big in return. "Do you remember Miyako saying that the fourth fairy had two children on Earth before dying in a digimon attack? I think that was my mother..."

"You're part fai—?"

"Don't." I warned as we both stifled laughter.

Suddenly Kurayami's face fell very flat, "That means... the shadow infecting my mother..."

"Is looking for me." I finished for her. "Or Jenna. Or Emiko..." I trailed off and took my turn looking away. "Is it bad—never mind. It is." Kurayami put her hand on my arm and I turned back to her, "Is it bad that I find a little comfort in knowing that it wants Emiko more than me?" Kurayami's face turned shocked and I knew how bad it really was. "It wants her because she was born in the dark ocean... I think the other one wants me though. The one who had Kiyoko... he's the fairy Queen's father... which means he's my grandfather."

"Look," Kurayami said, "I have two things to say here. "One, don't worry about getting possessed, we'll kick the crap out of anything that tries to hurt you, your sister, _or_ Emiko." She said with so much certainty that even though it seemed so obscure, it really did make me feel better, "And two," She said, "Have you ever realized how screwed up all our families are?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"My mom killed my brother and is possessed by an evil shadow demon." Kurayami said, "Your mother died, was a fairy and your father is the thing trying to kill us. Daisuke's parents hate him, Takeru's parents are divorced, Jou's mom is dead, his dad's a jerk, Hikari's dad is a drunk—sorry, _was_ a drunk, Mimi's mother is a crazy lady, Miyako's parents are so strict and mean, and her siblings are all nuts, Iori's dad and grandfather are dead and his mother is stifling him, Ken's brother died, Willis' father... something, I don't know—"

"He's dead, so is his twin sister." I filled her in.

"Oh my God!" She gasped, clearly shocked upon such news that Willis had just decided against telling anyone, "The point is—it's just Koushiro. He's the only one without family issues..."

"Firstly, he's adopted, his parents are dead." Kurayami gasped again upon more shocking news, "Maybe it has to do with our crests." I shrugged, "I mean, take Koushiro for example... without the shock of the news he found out he would never have started learning so much. Taichi and Hikari's father made them braver and stronger emotionally and physically. It's almost like a test."

"You think it was rigged?" Kurayami asked.

"I think it was destiny." I said. "It was no mistake that we all ended up together, and our families destinies tie into our own. I don't know, it made more sense in my head."

Kurayami laughed and then with a jolt we'd both remembered that we were in the middle of a battle. We jumped to our feet and looked out the window where our digimon were still fighting, though their loss of energy was clear. Leomon and the little Tinkermon had joined them to help them out, but very few of the metal monsters were falling... and the ones that did seemed to only stay down for a few seconds before reenergizing and getting back up.

I knew there had to be a better way to work that out. There had to be a way to keep them down... but since this wasn't working, I wasn't really sure what it was. There had to be a power source though. Perhaps if that power source was destroyed...

Kurayami's sudden actions stopped my thoughts instantly. I turned to her, seeing her literally bolt out of the tower room, rushing down the stairs. I turned back to the window to see why, and found that both of our digimon were perfectly fine. I looked down the lines of the wall and saw, yet again, that everyone seemed—although pushing through the pain and exhaustion—were fine.

Then, out in the distance, standing near the tree line, far back, across an open field I saw what it was that had caused her to run.

I needed to help her. I needed to stop this complete nonsense. And I needed to make sure that awful woman never got her hands on Emiko. It was a big change from what I'd just said and thought, but there was no way I could ever live with myself if I sat here doing nothing trying to save my own sorry behind. Jou was crossed off on my list, and that meant we were friends. I was friends with all of them, and that meant that I would just have to put myself out of my comfort zone sometimes. Especially if it meant to save their lives.

Although... she did want to possess me...

Even so. This was it. The final battle. No time for being stupid or selfish. With a final glance down to GigaSeadramon I spun on my heels and shot after Kurayami who had a pretty big head start.

_**Yuuko Yagami:**_

I was rushing through the temple, trying desperately to find Dorumon, but for some reason Taichi had made it impossible. Luckily I was all beautiful and fit again, able to run around as quick as I wanted—well with some restrictions of course. But Taichi hadn't told me where to go, he'd just told me to run around and search. I figured it was his way of keeping me safe, which definitely upset me.

He wasn't my parent, _I_ was _his_. He had no right to dictate what I did and when I did it—nor my daughter! Not that I was complaining, Hikari being locked up meant there was one less thing to worry about. I already had Taichi, Susumu, Kamemon, Agumon, Gatomon, Yoshie, and all my friends of course—and now, Dorumon.

He'd told me that he couldn't come home with me because he needed to train. He needed to lead the knights and be the best, but what did that even mean?

I'd searched nearly everywhere, and within all of the places I'd searched, nearly all of them were completely empty and void of life of any kind. Only a couple of times had I found anyone, and once was in a small classroom where many baby digimon were teaching. I'd asked them where I might find the Knights, but they didn't know what I was referring to.

Taichi must have kept it all a secret—it was confidential. His secret little army... Which would explain why he'd kept them so close to his meeting room. If only I could find that...

Where had Marrow led me? I groaned and spun around, running my fingers through my hair. I let out a scream of anguish and then clamped my eyes shut, spinning in circles. Hikari had told me multiple times that she felt literal connections with Gatomon. I stopped spinning and stood very still, keeping my breathing as calm as possible trying to find my partner.

It took only a moment until I felt a slight tug on my heart. I spun toward it and popped my eyes open and found myself staring toward a slightly winding staircase. One that I actually recalled going up. I squeaked a little as I leapt into motion, running toward it and climbing it quickly. I threw open the door at the top and moved quickly to the Knight's room. I found my hand on the knob, but I froze, turning slowly to the end of the hallway. There was something really... different about the energy over there. I wanted so badly to go down the stairs.

But that could wait. I needed Dorumon.

I pulled the door open quickly and was instantly very frustrated. Haruhiko, Masami, and Hiroaki were all standing inside with their partners, Andromon, Centarumon and Wizardmon. All of them were training—in the middle of a war!

"Fools!" I growled when none of them noticed me. "What are you doing?"

"Taichi said we're not strong enough." Wizardmon snapped, punching the air with much force. I scanned the room and found Kotemon and Dorumon fighting with each other.

"Hey partner!" he shouted to me without looking toward me, "it's been a while." It wasn't the dramatic reunion I'd hope that I'd been building up to, but at least I'd found him, even if he wasn't supposed to fight... apparently. Was that another trick of Taichi to get me to keep safe? Well, I was going to change that.

"So it has." I said passively, stepping forward. "Well, Taichi isn't the boss."

"Yes he is." Kotemon said with a laugh, "Silly human." He said as he swiped toward Dorumon with his kendo stick.

"No." I said firmly. "Think... Agumon or something. He's in charge of your Knights isn't he? But Taichi is in charge of him. More importantly, I gave birth to Taichi, so really you all listen to me."

"Birth?" Dorumon asked.

"What's that?" Kotemon asked.

"Later." I said firmly. "And you three!" I shouted to the humans, "You're grown men, your digimon are all stronger than parts of the council that is out there fighting. This is all just a trick. Taichi is tricking you. Don't let him. Don't let it happen!"

"Are you saying that you're in charge now?" Dorumon asked. I nodded, "And so we get to fight?" He asked, and again I nodded, "I'm in." He grinned. "But... I might die. I'm weak."

"You're not weak." I said to him, "You're very strong. If you weren't strong you wouldn't still be fighting and training. You'd have given up already." He looked up and smiled at me, "Now let's go. Royal Knights assemble!" I spun on the spot and led them out the door and down the hallway. I looked over my shoulder and saw their confused expressions. Perhaps they were just nervous. I led them down the stairs before I realized I'd gone the wrong way.

No wonder they were confused.

But I'd been so sure that I'd gone the _right_ way. _So_ sure. It was the same feeling as I'd had when I'd felt Dorumon's connection with me. I just _knew_ it was the right way.

"Where are we going boss?" Dorumon asked me, expressing his confusion unlike the others who just followed carelessly. Poor Centarumon was having a hard time getting down the stairs with everyone else surrounding him.

"Yuuko," Hiroaki said, "If we're going to fight, shouldn't we go out and fight?"

"That does seem like the easy way, doesn't it?" I asked, "And yet... here we are..." I grinned, what was destiny handing me this time? I scanned the doors and noticed a broom cupboard had vomited all over the floor... But that didn't matter—that wasn't the room calling for me. Obviously—what could be in a broom cupboard?

I turned to the room right across from it and pulled open the heavy door, poking my head inside. One side of the room was totally empty but the other had many stone podiums, all of different height with simple egg shaped artifacts sitting on each one. Each of the eggs were glowing and I couldn't help but notice that they were the things calling me toward them.

"The digimentals." Haruhiko noted, sticking his head in after me, "They represent each of the crests. Funny, isn't it? That it always comes to simple character traits?"

"What comes back to them?" I asked.

"Well they're glowing." Centarumon said with a shrug, "That means something."

"But what?" Andromon asked, filling the rest of the doorway with his own head.

"I want to see!" Kotemon shouted.

"Me too!" Dorumon chimed in, and with the two digimon pushing their way into the room, we all fell, tumbling into the stone chamber, staring at the glowing eggs.

Hiroaki and Wizardmon followed in last, and pulled us all to our feet until all of us except for Centarumon had stood. With all of our help we managed to get him up though as we turned to face the glowing digimentals.

"Now what?" Hiroaki asked. And as if they were some sort of cue, the light from the digimentals shot toward our digimon. Each of them was surrounded and encompassed by an immensely colourful light and the room surged with more power that I thought could actually be felt in the air.

"**Andromon warp digivolve to... Craniamon!**" Andromon glowed and then with the light exploding from his new body he emerged as a true Royal Knight. Blue armour coated his body and in his hand was a large double headed silver spear.

"**Centarumon warp digivolve to... Kentaurosmon!**" Centarumon became a larger, more muscular centaur with red armour plating his body and many golden horns. He looked like some form of medieval paladin cooked together with a sprig of epic.

"**Kotemon warp digivolve to... Crusadermon!**" When Kotemon's light vanished he was standing tall as a warrior clad in rose coloured armour with a powerful looking golden shield.

"**Wizardmon warp digivolve to... Dynasmon!**" Wizardmon's Royal Knight form looked a bit evil to be totally honest, white armour with large blue bat wings and two horns coming from his head, but the look of determination on his face just made it more exciting to know he was truly on our side.

"**Dorumon warp digivolve to... Alphamon!**" He looked like a leader. He really did, which only made me love him more. He'd wanted to be the ruler of the Knights, and he wanted to digivolve, and honestly, he could do both. He looked like a very valiant knight. There was so much silver and gold all over his armour and his cape was long and billowing.

"This is great." Haruhiko said sarcastically. I didn't understand why he could possibly be so sarcastic until I realized that I was seemingly the only person fitting comfortable in the room. Everyone else was ducking their heads, too big for the room, or being squished painfully into a wall.

"Oh." I said awkwardly, "Right..." About three minutes later, of constant pulling, pushing and screaming we'd all managed to get out of the room, up the stairs and down the hall, back into the open outside, under the moonlight.

"You think Taichi will get mad if we fight?" Crusadermon asked. "I don't want to get kicked off the Knights."

"I don't think he can kick you off," Masami chuckled, "You're all pretty epic now."

"All of you." Haruhiko stressed the point.

"Let's go kick some digimon butt!" Hiroaki cheered, but no one cheered with him.

"They're not digimon." Kentaurosmon said seriously. "They're vile creatures from another world set to destroy us." If ever I needed someone to ruin the mood built from an epic transformation—I now knew who to call.

"We'll still kick butt." Craniamon declared—that was when everyone cheered. Everyone turned to the Temple gates and set off at a run except for Alphamon and I.

"I want you to stay back." He told me, "I want to keep you safe."

"But I want to help." I argued—why did everyone always make me stay back and safe?

"Taichi is my hero." Alphamon said softly, "You made his dream come true. You made my dream come true. You are a true partner. And I don't want you to die. Stay here. Promise me."

"I promise." I nodded, sneakily crossing my fingers behind my back like a child. Alphamon nodded and then turned to rush after the others. He was a great partner. I had to admit that I thought he might even rival Agumon. But that didn't matter.

Two of Hikari and Taichi's friends were rushing to the gates as well, without anyone to help them out in the battle. I'd lied to Alphamon—and it was time to cash in that lie. The girl with black hair was being followed closely by the blonde boy. Kurayami and Michael. Where were they going?

Well, only one way to find out.

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

"Kurayami!" I heard Michael call over my shoulder, but I didn't turn back. It wasn't safe to. I needed to focus on slipping through the battle, under the arms of the evil metal drones and through the attacks from all the digimon who were still on our side. "Kurayami!" He called again, but I didn't listen, I had nearly been hit by one of the monsters red laser things blasting from its eyes, but I'd ducked just in time.

I was nearly free too. Only a few more steps and then I'd be out of the war and running freely toward where my mother was standing by the trees. I was blocked though, by one of the metal beasts.

"Digimon that fight must be eradicated." He said to me.

"I'm not a digimon!" I screamed, throwing my arms above my head.

"Kurayami!" This time it was Anubismon, soaring past my head and slamming directly into the metal creature, causing him to fall backwards and shoot toward the sky, landing in the dirt. Anubismon rounded on me and pulled me to my feet. "It's dangerous. Get back to safety."

"No can do." I told him flatly. "Don't worry about me, thanks though." I turned to run again, but his hand around my wrist stopped me. "Seriously." I insisted.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Promise me you'll stay here." I told him firmly, and he shook his head, "Anubismon, stay here. I need you to fight _this_ battle. I have something of my own to take care of. Please... you have to understand. I need to do this, but you need to stay here."

"I don't understand." He said, and I groaned, "But I will obey." He nodded, "Good luck Kurayami, make sure you come back to me."

"I promise," I nodded, "I'll be your little boomerang." And with that, he released me and I was running again, on top of the drone, and then leaping over his head, and running for my mom. I could see her finally, standing by herself, her arms hanging loosely at her side as she watched over the destruction. Why was she so pleased? Did she have her hand in the war? What had she done?

"Kurayami!" It was Michael again, but I ignored him once more, running along the grass, through the moonlight pouring between the dark looming clouds. Could it get any more frightening? Well the closer I got the more I realized that my mother's eyes were actually a bright red colour.

"KURA!"

This time I froze. It wasn't Michael, it wasn't Anubismon, it wasn't my mother, it was a child. A small child. I turned to see Norn standing in the wind, holding her little beret on her head. She was wearing her favourite laced dress, red with yellow accents, and a grey vest that I'd picked out for her. Her hair was dirty and matted as it blew in the wind, her two small braids of longer hair were flying like mad. I took one look toward my mother but shook it off. I'd waited a long time for that meeting. And I could wait longer. Norn needed me. She'd left such an evil, cryptic message, but that wasn't important because the tears in her eyes showed me that that wasn't truly her.

I ran toward her and fell to my knees and threw my arms around her. "Norn!" I gasped, "Norn what are you doing here? It's so dangerous. You need to leave."

"I'll be safe." Norn said very quietly, staring into my eyes, her tears clearing a path through the dirt that had made its way to her face.

"What happened to you?" I asked her.

"I was running." She admitted, "I was trying to escape. But there is no escape. I'll never escape."

I could relate to that. Fanglongmon had made me feel like that the entire time I'd been under his spell. But it wasn't Fanglongmon who she was trying to escape from, it was her 'master' whoever that was. "Why are you escaping?"

"I'm scared." She said strongly, not letting her tears get the better of her.

"Of who?" I asked.

"Him. Me. Them." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, simply confused as to what she was talking about.

"I..." She looked to the battle, to all the metal drones, "They are me. I am him, he is them." She said.

"Alright," I said with a comforting nod, "Your cryptic messages are getting old, just tell me what's going on Norn." I followed her gaze to Michael who was finally clear of the army and was headed toward us now. "Don't worry about him. That's Michael, he's really nice."

Norn nodded and then looked to me, "Yggdrasil." She said. "I'm a small piece of his soul. He sent me to Earth to decide if it was worthy of saving."

"And you told him it _wasn't_?" I asked sharply, scared suddenly upon realizing that Norn wasn't really a little girl, but actually a part of our most ferocious enemy to date.

"No!" Norn insisted, "I didn't tell him anything! He saw through my eyes. He saw everything. He saw how arrogant Daisuke was becoming, he saw how angry you could get. He saw the envy inside your friend, and he saw all of those bad traits. I didn't have a chance to convince him otherwise... I tried to warn you though! I really did!"

"You wrote on my door?" I asked her.

Norn nodded but didn't say anything because Michael had arrived, slowing to a stop next to the two of us. "He wouldn't let me warn you... I had to fight his hold just to do that. Kura I wanted to save you all! I couldn't though! I couldn't fix anything... I just didn't understand, and then neither did he."

"Norn," I said, hugging her again so she couldn't see that I was on the verge of tears. "This isn't your fault. But you might be able to fix it."

"What?" She asked, pulling away from me, "How?"

"You need to show him that we humans aren't to be destroyed." I told her. "We do stupid things sometimes, and I could blame the sin digimon, but I won't. Because we do stupid things anyway. We're affected by darkness more often than not. Believe me, I would know." Norn's bottom lip was quivering so I rubbed her arms as comfortingly as I could, "But there's so much more than that. Humans have more sides and emotions than Yggdrasil seems to realize. Norn... we have so much passion, and love for everything."

"And strength." Michael added in a very soothing voice, "And courage, and hope, and faith."

I nodded and continued our list, "He thinks we're stupid, but we aren't. We're not idiots—we're very smart. We're very pure, and the bonds we share with one another are unlike anything else. You said Daisuke was being arrogant, but he can also be the most humble person I've ever met."

"Humans do stupid things," Michael admitted, "But we also forgive each other for those stupid things. We fix our problems and restore our honour. We have so many dreams and desire's and—honestly, we're all amazing in our own way."

"Just like you." I pointed to her nose and she giggled a little, "So just because everything seems dark inside us... don't lose hope in humanity. Because one can always find hope, and happiness... so long as they remember to turn on the light."

With a three-way gasp Norn's chest began to glow, causing all of us to jump back. She looked down and ran her hand over her chest where a bright yellow light was glowing from her heart. She looked up to me and smiled widely. "You're so smart... but it's too late. I can't change his mind. He doesn't let me argue with him."

"Norn," I said firmly, "You have a mind of your own. Go out there, and tell him what's right. Don't let him walk all over you. You must always, _always_ stand up for what you believe in, even if other people think you're wrong. If you can't believe in yourself, then no one will ever be able to believe in you either."

Norn threw her arms around me and squeezed tightly before turning and running toward the trees. If she was going to Yggdrasil, then she was going to find Daisuke. I just knew it. I knew that's where he was—and she needed to take me with her! She needed

"Norn!" I screamed, "Norn wait! Take me!" She was glowing more now as she ran into the trees, "NORN!" I screamed, not even realizing the tears of desperation running down my face. "PLEASE!" But she was gone. "Norn!" I called out again, throwing my arms around Michael's legs and crying into his jeans.

"Kurayami..." He said quietly, patting my head, "Kurayami your mom." He was right. This was no time to be crying like a baby. As if I'd never been crying at all, I spun my head to where she'd been standing further on by the trees with a look of determination on my face—but she was gone. "Kurayami." He said again, this time more desperate. I looked up to him and saw he was looking behind me and my heart nearly stopped. I spun around quickly and jumped to my feet seeing my mother walk toward me slowly, still a fair distance away.

Her hair that had once been cut into a short, neat style was now long, ratted and in a braid over one shoulder. Her clothes were dirty and ratted, but I could see enough of them to know that they were the same ones she was wearing when she'd left me seven years prior... But this wasn't my mother. Her skin was pale and dead, her eyes were cold and burning a bright, passionate red, and her lips were curled into a smile that I knew would never leave my mind.

"Mother." I spat as she paced toward me, unsure of what else to call her.

"Oh," She said in a twisted version of her own voice, "Sweet darling," Her head tilted slightly and she licked her lips, "How wonderful it is to see you again."

"Stay back!" Michael said, his voice wavering.

"Michael, get back." I hissed, "Go back and be safe. You're too scared."

"I'm not leaving you." He said quietly, "I have to do this. Besides, if Daisuke can't be here to save you... I have to make sure the two of you have your reunion. You have to start that family together."

I tried to smile at him, but found myself glaring at my mother once again. "Just let her go." I said loudly, "Whoever you are—Shadow King! Let her go! Please!" I wasn't sure how much good it would do. Even if he let her go my mother was insane. She'd drowned her own son. My brother... Yukai.

And as if on cue, Yukai was there, three years old, standing next to my mother, tears in his eyes as he looked to me, silently pleading for me to help him.

"Funny," Mom said, her grin spreading even wider, "You know who I am, and yet you don't bow before me." She raised her hand quickly and clenched it into a fist so tight that her long, sharp nails drew blood. As her hand clenched both Michael and I let out a scream of pain as a strange force grabbed hold of my heart and directed my movements.

With a painful tug I was down on my hands and knees, sweating quickly from the pain.

"Now that's better, isn't it?" Mom said. "Now, who do we have here?" She asked, stepping close enough to touch us now. She placed her hand on my cheek and lifted my face so she could see me. I was only a few inches away from her now, and all I could smell was the stench of death. A rotten corpse. "Of course we have Kurayami." She said with a shrug, "My beautiful offspring."

"Don't." I warned, pulling my face away from her, and trying to get up, but finding it impossible. The grip on my heart was stronger than even Fanglongmon's had been. Fanglongmon had had to get into my mind and have me help him control me. My mother was doing it on her own.

She stood up and side stepped before kneeling down again, cupping Michael's face in her hand, "But who is this? A friend of yours? Why don't you introduce me sweetheart?"

"It's Yamato Ishida!" I shot loudly before Michael could say anything. He was the only lie I could think of that would keep Michael safe. Takeru and Willis were the only two options other than Yamato and she might've thought them to be Holy Ones. I needed to keep Michael safe though, so she had to be sure this wasn't the boy whose body she wanted.

"Yes, I write songs and... Sora!" Michael gasped nervously. For an actor he didn't do well under pressure...

"How cute." Mother said, standing to her feet. "Worthless. But still cute." She spun and took a few steps away from us. "Yukai, any parting words?"

"What?" I gasped, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kill you sweetheart." She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And in this state... in any state... it probably was.

"Kura, I'm so sorry!" Yukai cried out, "I love you though!"

"You have to stop her!" I hissed, trying, yet again to get to my feet.

"I can't!" He screamed in fear, "I can't! I'm just a child!"

"Yukai!" I pleaded, "Yukai, please!"

"HEY!" Suddenly the grip on my heart was gone as a woman's voice filled the air. I looked up quickly and saw Yuuko Yagami punching my mother in the face. Michael looked to me, shocked as we helped each other to our feet. He was shaking slightly so I hugged him briefly trying to tell him that he'd be okay.

"Stay away from these children!" Yuuko screamed. "Who are you?" Suddenly Yuuko froze, and for a moment I feared she'd been taken by my mother's control, but she moved a moment later, "I know you..."

"You do?" Michael and I asked together.

"Of course I do!" Yuuko gasped, "Its Kanashimi! We used to be friends! Taichi and her son used to play together... then I never saw her again."

"You were friends with my mother?" I asked, shocked—but I did remember Hikari mentioning something about it.

Yuuko nodded. "She came to me... she found me because I'd picked the light. She was scared... Something was coming for her in the dark. I told her to fight back."

"And she did." Mother said with a small chuckle, "She fought back valiantly, going to the Dark Ocean so I couldn't affect her family... but I needed a form that could last outside the Dark Ocean, so I settled on that Dragomon you've all grown to love."

"That beast tried to have children with my daughter." Yuuko snarled, her teeth barred.

"Yes, well," Mom shrugged, "That was actually me as well. I needed offspring. I needed someone born of light and darkness. Someone who could live in both worlds, so I could live in their body. So I could be human."

"That's sick." Yuuko snapped, "You're sick!"

"Maybe," Mom said, stepping menacingly toward Yuuko, "But that's all I had. The only hope I had to make my dreams come true. Isn't that what all you chosen's are about? Living your life? Your dreams?"

"If your dream is to have my grandbabies, then _no_." Yuuko said firmly, not squirming in the slightest as my mother advanced upon her. I could only pray that one day I'd be as brave as her, but at that time, I was shaking almost as much as Michael, and my tears were begging to fall, but I couldn't let them. I had to not become a blubbering baby again. I needed to deal with my demons, and shake them off.

"Well beggars can't be choosers," Mom said with a shrug. "Now stand down." Mom clenched her fist again and Yuuko became very stiff, and I could see in her eyes how much it hurt, but she didn't show it outwardly.

She'd saved us though, and it was time for us to save her.

"It's funny isn't it?" Mom said, "How my daughter and your daughter found the balance of light and dark, but now you and I will ruin their achievements. If you win, there will be no more balance. If I win, darkness will overcome the light."

"No." Yuuko said firmly, "Light creates darkness, and darkness feeds on light. You can't have one without the other." Mom was annoyed by this logic apparently. "But," Yuuko added, "You should know... that even though light creates darkness... it also destroys it."

Yuuko's eyes flicked to Michael and I and then back to my mother, and I knew, just then that she wanted me to do something. But what? I had the crest of darkness, I didn't have any light! What was I to do? And the sun wasn't even out—there was no sun—we were in an endless night, and she wanted me to use some sort of light.

I felt a tugging at my leg and looked down to see Yukai looking up at me. "Digivice." He said flatly, and my heart practically skipped a beat. I pulled from Michael's grasp and ran toward my mother, pulling my digivice from my pocket and pointing it at her just as she began running her finger along Yuuko's cheek. My digivice lit up brightly and encompassed my mother, shining with the pink of the crest of light.

Mom screamed, her hands being thrown into the air and wrapping around her head, pulling at her hair as Yuuko gasped for breath and rushed to my side.

Mom jumped inhumanly through the air, over my head. I spun to follow her with the light, but I tripped and the digivice fumbled from my hand. I looked up to see my mother who was on her hands and feet like a frog, her limbs at odd, sharp angles as she stared at me, her head tilted.

"Mom?" Just as I'd spoken the whites of her eyes turned dark and the rest turned red, her teeth all turned to sharp fangs and she began running toward me on her oddly placed limbs.

I began stumbling backwards, trying everything I could to escape, but I couldn't get to my feet fast enough and she'd leapt on top of me.

"P-please!" I screamed, tears instantly pouring from my eyes. "Please don't!" I had my eyes closed and my head turned, but something as cold as ice grabbed my chin and made me look at the demon who thought he was my mother. I opened my eyes slowly and began sobbing uncontrollably. Her breath was pouring over my face and it smelled stale, like death.

"The light of the gods..." she said her voice raspy and hissing. "Where did you get it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, trying to stay strong, but blubbering like a child.

"You're lying!" the demon screeched, spitting on my face as its voice boomed, vibrating through my bones. Her face was still nearly touching my own as she pinned me down with her cold hands, sitting on my waist. "WHERE DID YOU GET IT?"

"I don't know!" I cried out, "I-I didn't take it! I don't k-know!"

The demon looked up and hissed toward Michael and Yuuko who were rushing to help me, both of them suddenly froze on the spot.

I was alone. I couldn't be alone. I hated being alone.

"Please don't do this... don't do this to us!" I cried, unable to keep my voice from shaking.

"I've done nothing." The demon said quietly, "It was all your own Mom. She was the one who invited me in. And now you'll never escape. You're cursed to live within the darkness forever." The demon leaned even further toward me and rubbed her face against the side of mine and I gasped, sobbing even harder.

And then I was screaming as her sharp fangs dug into my arm. I was shaking under her weight, trying desperately to push her off of me, but I couldn't, she was too heavy. Her teeth were sinking even further in. "Please!" I pleaded, desperate, "please! Plea—!" My words faded into a simple scream, laced with terror, pain and sadness. I couldn't stop screaming as she released her fangs and sunk them in even further down my arm. "Mommy please."

And then the pain was gone and the demon was screaming alongside me, jumping away.

I looked to my left to see Yukai holding up my digivice, the light pouring over me and the demon. I wiped my face with my shaking hands and took it from him, trying to smile to tell him I was proud, but I couldn't stop crying.

"W-what's happening?" Michael asked as Mom fell to her knees and began to scream into the sky. I kept my digivice poised and ready, the light shining on her. A moment later Yuuko and Michael had drawn their own digivices out as well, pointing them to her. Her screaming grew louder until it finally shifted into two voices. One of my mothers and one of a man's. The sound sent chills down my spine as my mother's mouth opened wider and a great black shadow shot from her open jaw. I watched, more frightened than I'd ever been as her eyes changed back to the pale blue I remembered them being.

The shadow lingered in the air as my mother fell limp. I pocketed my digivice when the glowing had stopped and I rushed to my mother's side.

"Mommy?" I gasped, unable to help myself. If this was really her... She looked up at me, her skin more shallow than it had been before, paler too. "Mommy..."

"Kurayami..." She wheezed, her voice coarse and dry. "My daughter..." She reached up and stroked my cheek with her hand that felt like sand paper. Her touch was gentle though. "I... couldn't hold on." She managed to say, "I hated myself... but I love you. I do. You're stronger than I..."

"Mommy..." I said quietly as Yukai appeared next to me. Mom looked to him and winced at the sight.

"I..." She stopped and looked away, "My son, I am so... sorry... for what I've done to you..."

"It's okay." Yukai said, stroking her head choppily like a child would. I couldn't help but smile at that. "I forgive you. Now you have to go. It's time."

She nodded, and looked from him to me. "I'm sorry." She said again before her body crumbled apart, falling to dust before my eyes. Yukai and I exchanged glances filled with sadness, and then he was gone, leaving me alone. I'd been holding back tears a moment before, but now there were none to shed. I'd cried enough about this moment in the past because I knew it was coming far before it truly did. It hurt of course to finally see it happen. To finally be there for her passing. But I wasn't sad.

I was actually very angry.

"Kurayami?" Michael asked, placing his hand on my shoulder, "You alright?"

I stood up quickly and turned to the shadow looming above us as it churned and stirred trying to make shape. "I'm fine." I said flatly. "And we need to kill this shadow." I pulled out my digivice again and shone light at it, but nothing happened. The light stopped in the cloud of darkness—it made no effort to cut through the dark, it just stopped.

The shadow began shifting faster, taking shape as it lowered itself to the ground.

"What's it doing?" Yuuko asked, taking one of each of Michael and my hands.

It didn't need an answer though, because a moment later there was a man standing where the shadow had been. He was wearing a nicely kept black suit with a thin black tie. His skin was very pale and his hair was pure white which only made his beady red eyes stand out even more. He was strangely attractive which I assumed had some relation to a vampire, how they lured unsuspecting women toward them with their charm. But I wasn't charmed by him, or the way he looked at me. I just wanted him dead.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"You know though," He said, his voice smooth and quick, "I'm the Shadow King. Ruler of the Dark Ocean. Master of all dark souls. I am... well, as you lot would call me, the Devil."

"Kurayami, Michael, get out of her." Yuuko said firmly, "Go!"

I didn't want to go, I couldn't leave her—especially not now with the hungry look on the man's face. He spun his head around, cracking his neck before tilting it and looking toward Michael. Oh no. Yuuko had used his name.

"So now you're Michael?" The Shadow King asked, "Michael Washington?"

"N-no autographs, please." Michael stuttered.

"Oh, no need." The Shadow smirked wickedly, "I'll just sign it myself."

"Wha—" Michael froze when the Shadow King lifted his hands into the air and sent Yuuko and I flying through the sky only to land painfully on the hard ground. My shoulder ached as I clutched it, rolling from side to side, biting my bottom lip to avoid screaming out. Eventually though I got a hold of myself and looked up to Michael. The Shadow man was very close to him now, taking slow steps toward him.

"MICHAEL!" I screamed loudly, "MOVE!"

But it was too late, the man had scooped Michael's face into his hands and leaned forward, kissing him full on the mouth. It wasn't what I was expecting, and it had caught me off guard, but a moment later the Shadow had faded into the air, and Michael was turning his now red eyes toward Yuuko and I.

"Oh balls." I said, appropriately taking Michael's catchphrase.

"Oh this is all very interesting." Fake-Michael said with a cold laugh, "I'm very intrigued by all of this knowledge." I had to admit, I didn't really think Michael would know more than an immortal soul, but it wasn't legitimate knowledge that had gathered his attention which I found out a moment later. "You were scared your Mommy was coming to get you?" He mocked me, using everything I'd just told Michael against me. "And she did... and then she died. How sad."

"Shut up!" Yuuko defended me, hastily pulling herself to her feet, and pulling me up next. "Get out of that boy! He's done nothing to you!"

"No," Michael admitted, "But he's part human, and part fairy. The fairies are part of all worlds you see... all except the Dark Ocean... but this will do nicely. I can now go everywhere I want without the body decaying."

"Except home." I pointed out.

"Yes, well... home is overrated, now isn't it?" He asked. "Oh! And what's this?" He looked to me again, a triumphant look in his eyes, "Little Kura is scared her boyfriend won't be coming home? Well lucky for me... he won't be."

"Take that back." I shot, suddenly very angry.

"Oh, but I can't." He laughed, "He's a goner! He's fighting Yggdrasil, no? Yggdrasil is one of the only forces in all nine worlds who is truly stronger than I! If he couldn't defeat Arkadimon with the help of all of you digidestined, then he certainly cannot defeat Yggdrasil. Not alone."

"He's not alone." I said quietly, "He's got Veemon... he's got Ken... and Wormmon—and Norn." I looked up to him with the most angry glare I could compose, feeling the dark shroud appearing around me, "He's got me. Everyone's got me. We're a team, and I'm going to help them all."

"Are you now?" He asked.

"Starting with Michael." I growled, pacing toward him. "Michael, listen to me. You can get out. You can break free before he destroys your body. You can, and you have to."

Michael wasn't listening. I could tell we weren't getting through... the smirk on his face didn't falter for a second—was it possible that this could be an impossible mission? No!

"GET OUT!" I screamed, practically throwing my digivice toward him. The light shot strong and hard, straight toward him light a spotlight. He started screaming and for a second I thought I was winning as I walked closer and closer. But then his arm began to burn. First it was small but it quickly began to spread, his forearm was soon a large burn spreading out before him.

"Stop!" Yuuko screamed, and I had to obey. There was no real choice—I couldn't burn him alive! It was still Michael! I spun around and punched him in the face, knocking him from his position on his knees.

"Michael!" I screamed, "GET OUT OF THERE!"

"Michael, listen to her!" Yuuko added, rushing forward with me, "Michael you need to fight for the side of good. You need to fight him from the inside."

"I can't."

I almost cheered because it was unmistakably Michael's voice coming from his body that time.

"SILENCE!" The Shadow King shouted, stretching out his hands and sending Yuuko and I flying once again. "I will not stand for this!"

I ignored him, "Michael! Listen to me! You wanted to fight! You wanted to win this battle so you could live life again—so you could have more picnics with Betamon! Remember Michael!"

"Remember yourself. Your heart! Your soul!" Yuuko added, pleading, a voice filled with desperation. I barely knew the woman, but she cared so deeply for a couple of kids she didn't know, and that showed character.

"Michael!" I shouted.

"ENOUGH!" The Shadow King shouted once more, raising his hands again, and rolling up the burnt sleeves of Michael's plaid shirt. He was getting into this now. He clenched his fists and had both Yuuko's heart and my own, and we were frozen again.

But we could still talk. We could still fight his hold. Just like Michael could.

"You wanted to finish that list!" I added, "Michael! Taichi, Kiyoko, Hideto! They want to be your friends. You need to come back so you can finish that list! Even Neo probably. A-and Iori." I knew I was pushing it with that last one, but it was enough to break the hold for another moment.

"It's too hard." Michael gasped as the hold on my heart vanished before coming back stronger than ever a second later.

"It's not too hard!" I yelled, "One shadow has you Michael, but the other is still out there. Sigma. He's looking for someone. Looking for Jenna. Looking for baby Emiko. You can't let that happen. You need to fight Micahel!" I was barely gasping out these words now as the hold got stronger and stronger.

"You have the strength!" Yuuko yelled out.

"Yes!" I gasped, "Michael! You have strength! You're the strongest person I know! Why do you think the crest of strength chose you? Michael! Free yourself! You can do it! I believe in you! FIGHT!"

"FIGHT!" Yuuko added.

"FIGHT IT!" Both of us screamed.

"Urrraaaaagh!" Micahel screamed loudly, falling to his knees, his hands running through his hair as my mother had done. Yuuko and I both fell then, gasping for air as the hold he'd placed on our hearts vanished. Michael snapped his neck back and screamed to the sky where the shadow shot from his mouth as it had down with my mother, but instead of lingering above us, the shadow shot through the night sky, escaping us for now. But we'd get it.

I looked back to Michael who had collapsed on the ground. I rushed to his side and rolled him onto his back and stared down at him. His eyes were blue again!

I tapped his face lightly where I'd punched it earlier, trying to wake him up. "Michael." I said firmly, slapping him a little harder, "Michael?" Why wasn't he waking up? I slapped him as hard as I could across the face. "MICHAEL!" I screamed at him, tears were prepared to fall again as I slowly placed my hand on his chest where I felt no heart beat. "No..." I gasped as tears started falling. "No! This isn't happening! Dammit! Michael! Please wake up!" I cried out.

_Kurayami. Get a hold of yourself!_

I balled my hand into a fist and punched his chest as hard as I could.

"Kurayami!" Yuuko gasped, moving forward and trying to pull me away from his body, "It's over! There's nothing you can do!"

"No!" I screamed at her, pulling from her hold, punching his chest again and again. I intertwined my fingers and placed my hands, palms down on his chest and began pushing hard. I needed to restart his heart. I could do it! I had to do it! I wasn't letting him die—there was no way this was happening.

"Kurayami..." Yuuko said softly, placing her hands on my shoulder, "It's over."

"Get away from me!" I cried loudly, looking to the battle and seeing, even from here, the tall form of GigaSeadramon. "Michael. If you don't come back right now, I'm going to kill you. I'm actually going to kill you!"

"Kurayami!" Yuuko pleaded as my tears ran down my face and splashed onto Michael's smooth skin as I continued pressing on his chest.

"Come on!" I choked, "Come on! Michael, please! Come. ON!"

With a final heave, Yuuko had pulled me away from him and wrapped her arms around me, and there was nothing left to do except sob into her shoulder. "I know..." She said softly, "I know... I'm so sorry."

Then the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard cut across my sobs. It was a mangled gasp lasting longer than any I'd ever heard. I spun quickly to see Michael rolling onto his side as he choked and gasped for breath.

"Michael!" I screamed, my sobs falling quickly into laughter as I crawled quickly across the ground toward him. "Michael! You're alive!" He turned to me, clutching his chest as I threw my arms around him. I couldn't stop laughing as he hugged me, looking around, very confused. I'd fill him in later. It was a complicated mess.

"It's a miracle." Yuuko said breathlessly.

"Can you guys answer one question for me...?" Michael asked as he continued to take heavy breathes. "Did... I cheat on Tatum with the Devil?"

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

I couldn't believe it. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Daisuke and I would be trapped in the In-Between, facing off against a robotic monster like Yggdrasil, and be cheering about it. But we both were. We were thrilled. I'd only recently gotten to meet Wormmon's new mega level form, GrandisKuwagamon, and so soon after that I got to meet DoruGoramon, the new fused form of our two digimon. Did I miss Imperialdramon? Of course. But I was looking forward to seeing what DoruGoramon could do. With the uncomfortable way Yggdrasil was trying to dodge his attacks—while still pretending to not need to dodge them—I was guessing that he could do a lot.

We might actually win this fight.

Granted, winning the fight meant nothing really, since we'd locked ourselves in this other world called the In-Between. It wasn't like the Digital World. There was almost nothing here at all. We'd die of thirst or starvation even if Yggdrasil didn't kill us. But there was a not-so-small part of me that was determined to take Yggdrasil down with us before that could happen.

"Doru Din!" DoruGoramon shouted, releasing a second destructive shockwave. Yggdrasil rocked back and forth as it hit, clearly shaken that there had been any effect at all, no matter how miniscule.

Yggdrasil fired six quick succession blasts at him out of his second set of hands. DoruGoramon was fast though, and when he flapped his wings, he was able to lift himself above the blasts with plenty of time to send another "Doru Din!" in Yggdrasil's direction.

"He's so cool," Daisuke said with wide eyes and a grin that nearly stretched his face in half.

"He's amazing," I agreed. "I just wish the others could see him too."

"I'm sorry, about locking us in," Daisuke said immediately. "I really thought it was the safest option. I still think that. I wouldn't want anything like him getting out into the other worlds. It's best if we keep him trapped."

"I know," I said. "And I agree with you. I just thought it would be worth sharing."

"Oh, it is," Daisuke agreed happily. "I didn't expect to beat Takeru or Hikari to the fusion level, but…wow."

"Wow," I agreed.

So we weren't very articulate. We were just in awe. Not just at how fantastically awesome our digimon was—because he was awesome, even though he couldn't beat Yggdrasil—but because he was now our symbol of hope. He was going to beat Yggdrasil, once he learned enough about him to be able to take him down effectively and strategically. Until then, DoruGoramon certainly enjoyed letting loose a good "Doru Din!" He was on his fourth already, and Yggdrasil didn't seem to be getting used to it any time soon.

Yggdrasil wasn't taking it lying down though. He shot blast after blast in random locations, hoping to catch DoruGoramon off guard. But with Wormmon's strategic mind and Veemon's impulsiveness fueling himi, DoruGoramon seemed to be nearly impossible to predict. Which was good. For us anyway.

"Doru Din!" DoruGoramon shouted once again, this time jumping and flipping over top of Yggdrasil, and sending the attack downwards on top of his mechanical head. The resulting shockwave shook Yggdrasil more than ever.

A burst of light—which I barely noticed thanks to the endless white landscape of the In-Between—flashed beside me. At first I thought Yggdrasil had learned a new attack, but that wasn't it. A small girl with blonde curls and a braid running down either side of her face appeared in a frilly dress with a vest.

"Norn?" Daisuke said, sounding confused at first and then ridiculously excited. "Norn!"

"Hello, Daisuke," Norn said, but she didn't take the time to wave, or flash him a smile. I was a little preoccupied with taking in her appearance to pay attention to Daisuke's resulting pout. I'd never met Norn before. Daisuke had lived with her for ages, but I'd never gone to his apartment in all that time. It was no wonder that he thought I'd replaced him with Michael. But this little girl wasn't as creepy as her last message made her out to be, nor was she as bubbly and happy as I'd expected from Daisuke's ramblings.

"Norn…you've come back," Yggdrasil said, sounding pleased. "You may help me dispose of these annoyances."

"No, I won't," Norn declared.

"Norn," Yggdrasil warned, but Norn shook her head, her braids flicking back and forth.

"You were wrong Yggdrasil. You were _wrong_," she emphasized. "I've learned of the good traits within humanity. They've got courage, friendship and love, knowledge, purity and faith, humility, honour and forgiveness. There are destinies and miracles working for them. And they have such inner strength, kindness and tenacity. They have desires and honesty and trust. They have hope and light but also pride and darkness. They don't have to be bad. I've seen it. I'm _sure_ there are good traits such as these in all species, if we only take the time to look past the bad traits we saw at first."

"Norn," Yggdrasil warned again. But Norn barrelled on over his voice.

"There are just as many chances for good inside a person as there is for evil, Yggdrasil," Norn pleaded. "Please, call off the attack. What you saw through my eyes was wrong. You didn't see them at their best. Just look again. Even in the darkest of places you'll find a light of hope."

Yggdrasil looked at her, and I thought for a second that he was contemplating actually calling off the attack, but I was wrong. I was _so_ wrong. He shot a blast in Norn's direction, and she didn't jump out of the way in time. Daisuke saw red.

"DoruGoramon, do you have anything more intense?" he asked in a hard voice.

"You bet I do," DoruGoramon said excitedly. "Get ready Yggdrasil, you're in for a lot of pain. Brave Metal!"

DoruGoramon flew towards Yggdrasil, putting his body and soul into his next terrifying assault. He punched and kicked and used the blades on his knees to stab at him when he kneed him in the chest. His blade-like claws on his feet sliced at Yggdrasil's blasters, and the wings on his gauntlets scraped at the metal shell as he backhanded him across the face. With one final punch, DoruGoramon swung around, kicking Yggdrasil before letting his arrowhead tail tip slice right into the metal shell.

It was just a scratch really, but I yelled in triumph when I saw it. That little scratch said everything I needed to hear. Yggdrasil wasn't impenetrable, he wasn't invincible. He _could_ be beaten with enough force and power. It was the best news I'd heard all day.

"You'll pay for this," Yggdrasil swore.

"Just send me the bill," DoruGoramon joked. Clearly he had Veemon's sense of humour.

I looked to Norn, who lay still in the air, floating, but not moving, and then back to Yggdrasil, but Yggdrasil had already started moving.

"Be patient," Yggdrasil instructed. "I'll be back to finish you soon enough. There are other Digidestined that I feel need my attention at the moment. You are to remain here for the rest of your short lives, correct? Good. Then you will not ruin my fun. I will come back for you only once all your remaining friends have been destroyed. Then I will destroy you, knowing that you and the Digidestined have failed, and that I have succeeded in removing the bad from the face of all the worlds."

"What do you mean our "remaining friends"?" Daisuke wanted to know.

"I think you know," Yggdrasil said, before lowering himself back on top of the hole he'd been resting in when I'd finally caught sight of him. The hole expanded the second he touched it, and swallowed him whole.

DoruGoramon tried attacking it with his Doru Din attack, but it didn't budge for him.

"Oh god," I said. "Where's he going?"

"To Earth," Daisuke said. "Or the Digital World. Maybe the Land of Dreams. I don't know really. Wherever our friends are I suppose."

"He's going to kill them," I said thickly.

"And there's nothing we can do to save them," he intoned solemnly.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **


	48. Running Out of Time

**Y/N:** I'm so many people in this one, with three different plots going on between them. Koushiro, Mimi, Iori, Momoe, and Ken. Anyway, I hope you review if you can. The next two chapters will be up before you know it, and then the story will be done… I'm torn between excitement and nervousness. I want it to live up to expectations…

**U/N:** So. This. Chapter. HAHAHAHAHA. Well… it's all sorts of bad. I know I'm not selling it well, but it's cliché and awkward and odd and weird. And the way it switches back and forth was just a test and I'm fairly sure I JUST scraped by. Like barely. I'd be really upset with my mark had it been a test. And everyone hates cliché's. Or they love them I guess that's why they're clichés, but still. It's Ugh. Like. Gag me with a spoon. Please don't. And if any of you were like… super smart enough to realize the two songs that I used for this then you should win some sort of award or something. Or you need to get out more because they're pretty… uncommon songs. :D

I think you should all review this chapter really nicely. :( If you say anything bad I'll be really displeased with you -_- I'm already ASHAMED of it. ASHAMED. Not as much as Takeru's from the next chapter, but really. Yeah. KAY. REVIEW A'IGHT?

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 48: Running out of Time**

_**Iori Hida: **_

Rocks weren't enough, but they were all the ammunition I had. I _could_ go out there and fight with my bare hands, but they'd be bloody soon enough from my rough handling of the rocks I'd been throwing. I didn't even want to _think_ of all the broken bones I would've had to endure if I'd chosen the hands on approach.

The outer wall of the Temple was in shambles and was providing me with a plethora of rocks for throwing. Unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough to do anything to the robots. I _did_ however dent one. Just a single one, but I was really proud of it.

Taichi was fighting next to me, having taken up a similar style to my own. He would pick up a rock and smash it against the robot many times, until the rock crumbled from the continual beatings. Then he would quickly take up another rock, before the robot could get a good swipe at him in.

I couldn't help but wish that Takeru and Hikari were there. No, I didn't think they'd have much better luck with defeating them, but there would be two extra sets of hands to help keep them at bay.

My wish for more help was answered, but not by Takeru and Hikari. Masami Izumi burst through the front gate of the Temple steps, leading Hiroaki Ishida and Haruhiko Takenouchi towards us, his eyes on Taichi and a grin on his face. Taichi looked like he was going to blow a gasket.

"I told them to stay with the Knights and train them!" he growled.

"We need the help," I hissed at him.

"They're our last resort," he complained.

"And it's time to bust out our last resort, Taichi," I pointed out. "We're going to die, and if we don't give everything we have into our final attempts, our deaths won't be worth anything."

"Stop thinking like that," he ordered. "You can't think like that. We're going to win. Just wait."

"Wait for what, Taichi? A miracle? I'm sorry, but I stopped believing in them when I heard that Sora was dead. Mari's unaccounted for and Willis is trying to take on all of the robots in America alone. I doubt even _he_ believes in miracles anymore," I yelled.

"Presenting Taichi's knights!" Masami announced, causing the robots to look up at him. I could actually hear Taichi gulp at the sight of them all targeting his knights. "Kentaurosmon, Craniamon, Crusadermon, Dynasmon and Alphamon!"

Taichi let out a whoop when five very different digimon came barrelling out of the Temple and onto the battle field. The first had to be Kentaurosmon. Haruhiko hitched a ride on his back, and if there'd been any doubt that it had been Centarumon, that cleared things right up. Kentaurosmon was still a centaur, but instead of the typical four legs, he had six, and he was decked out in a nice set of red armor, with wings on his back and a ridiculously large crossbow on his left arm. The digimon that followed him out—I assumed it was Craniamon, based on Masami's introduction—stood on just two feet, but he had a dual bladed weapon that was the size that he was. He had two curved horns on his helmet, and dark purple armor. When Masami followed after him, I realized he used to be Andromon. He was followed by a rose coloured digimon that I had to peg as Kotemon, as Crusadermon walked out the gate unaccompanied. Crusadermon had sharp spikes branching out of his armor on both the knees and elbows, and had a blasting device enveloping his right hand. Hiroaki proudly led out Dynasmon, who was wearing shining white and light blue armor. Despite the light colour sense, the many golden spikes decorating his armor and deep purple, bat wings gave off a slightly sinister feel. Finally, Alphamon appeared. Judging by Taichi's proud smile, this had to be Dorumon. The long cape he wore with his black and gold armor was dark blue on the inside, and bright white on the outside. It was caught in the wind immediately, and he exuded power and leadership as he walked down the stairway.

The robots decided they'd wasted enough time analyzing their new foes, and sent out a group laser attack. Crusadermon and Craniamon jumped in front of the others, using their weapons to reflect the lasers back at the robots. At least two dozen robots got caught in the blast, and most of those stayed down when the smoke cleared.

"There's a way to beat them," Taichi told me smugly. "And there's your miracle, Iori. You can't tell me you don't believe now."

"We'll see how long this lasts," I replied. "Then you can ask me again."

"I will too," Taichi promised. Masami came bounding over to us with Hiroaki and Haruhiko.

"Did you see them? They really look wonderful, don't they," Haruhiko exclaimed.

"How'd you do it?" Taichi asked.

"Yes," D'Arcmon—my battle partner while Vikemon was otherwise occupied—asked, flying down from the place in the sky she'd been using to survey the inner parts of the Temple. From the look on her face, I figured the news couldn't be good. "I too would like to know where this extra energy came from."

"These weird devices sitting on pedestals in the basement," Hiroaki explained. "Yuuko was looking for Dorumon. When she found us all just waiting for them to train, she got frustrated, declared that she was our leader and led us to the basement. I think she was lost. Either way, it resulted in awesome digivolutions."

"The Digimentals," Taichi said in awe. "I should have thought of them."

"Look at them fight," Hiroaki commented. "The robots are mad that they beat them with their lasers."

"But they aren't trying any new attacks," Haruhiko laughed. It was true. The robots kept shooting lasers at the knights, and they would simply reflect them back at the robots. There were still far too many for this tactic to get us a victory, but to just see them get defeated made me feel a spark of hope in my chest.

"It is good that they are winning," D'Arcmon commented. "Because Anubismon and GigaSeadramon are no longer at their stations."

"What!" Taichi shouted, looking to the Temple, hoping to see GigaSeadramon's head rising above the remainder of the wall. "Where'd they go?"

"I do not know. I can only assume it was very important," D'Arcmon said.

"Woo-hoo!" Rei called, jumping down off the pile of rocks next to us. "Do you guys see that? Pal and Pul are having a field day."

"We can't just sit around and let them do all the work," I pointed out.

"But they're the only ones accomplishing anything," Rei pouted.

"I guess," I said, but I felt guilty. I looked down to my feet, trying to decide what to do. Needlessly put myself in danger just so they weren't fighting alone, or to let the digimon handle the battle.

It was a good thing I looked down though. The power cords were swelling up, like hoses did in Sunday morning cartoons whenever someone stepped on them. The bubble of…_something_ made its way to the robots and everything went to hell. The robots all started almost doubling in size, throwing all the digimon they were fighting through the air. They'd even managed to get Vikemon onto the ground. It took all his strength to push them off so he could get back to his feet. Divermon crashed into MetalifeKuwagamon. Babamon was nearly crushed by Ogremon. The knights were tossed against the wall as if they were yesterday's garbage.

"What the hell is going on?" Taichi demanded to know.

"This can't be happening," D'Arcmon murmured. "They were already so strong."

"Then we're just going to have to be stronger," Masami said weakly.

"It doesn't work like that," Taichi told him. "I wish it did. But it can't."

Shakamon came crashing to the ground right in front of us. He'd been guarding the West wall. There was no way they could have thrown him so far. They couldn't be _that_ strong. Pal and Pul bounced along the ground, coming to a stop on top of Shakamon's crumpled body. Shakamon struggled to get to his feet, but wasn't managing. D'Arcmon went to help him when WarGreymon caught my eye. He was flying in the air, desperately trying to get out of the way of the lasers three robots were shooting at him. But they kept cutting him off no matter what direction he tried to fly in. It looked like they were going to get him. I tried to shut my eyes, but I couldn't look away. They were going to hit—

But then they didn't. Omnimon was suddenly in front of WarGreymon, blasting at each of the three robots with his Garuru Cannon. No, he didn't do any damage, but he caught them off guard, and the smoke he created with his attack was enough to confuse their visual sensors.

"That was close," Hideto said casually, strolling into the Temple square.

"Why are you here?" I asked, thankful for his presence only until I saw that he'd brought Noriko and Natsuni with him as well. "And them?"

"The robots were invading the restaurant through the open gateway," Natsuni explained, rushing into my arms and hugging me close. I very pointedly did not look at Taichi or Hideto. I didn't want them to tease me. Now was not the time for teasing. It wasn't exactly the time for hugs either, but I had to make an exception for Natsuni. Wasn't that a rule or something?

"We were saving Emiko," Noriko added.

"But the restaurant exploded behind us. I don't know if they got out in time or not," Hideto said. "The gate closed though, so we couldn't get back. We decided we might as well come here if we were going to be trapped in the Digital World."

"I'm glad you could make it," Taichi commented, looking pale at the near death of his digimon. And that's what it would have been. Death. Not just the recycling of data. We didn't exactly have proof of it, but I didn't _want_ to have proof. The robots were trying to eradicate all digimon. It was a pretty self-explanatory statement. "We could use the help."

I reached down and picked up a rock. "Might as well continue fighting," I told them. They sighed and picked up rocks too, getting ready to pelt the robots with them. I chucked mine as far and as hard as I could. It was satisfying.

"I'm sorry I was late," Natsuni whispered to me. "I didn't mean to be. I wanted to be there to see you off."

"I wanted to see you too," I admitted, picking up another rock. "But I was also glad you weren't there."

"Afraid of the inevitable tears?" she teased.

"Afraid of the potential goodbye," I corrected.

"I'm not going to die, Iori," she told me fiercely. "And you can't die on me either."

"Look at the fight, Natsuni," I said. "Look at them and then tell me to my face that we can win."

"You're not a quitter," she insisted. "You're going to win. Because that's what you do. You and your friends always win. I just want to be there when it happens."

I couldn't say anything after that. She had unfailing faith in me and the digidestined. I wished I could feel the same, but I didn't. Not now. The small hope I'd started to feel when the knights were serving some actual damage was gone. Shattered just like the wall we were using to throw at the robots. I didn't deserve the faith she had in me. I was going to ruin it for her.

"Need a hand!"

Natsuni looked to the sky immediately, and, only after her excited laughter, I looked too. Two mega level digimon were coming towards us. MegaGargomon and Cherubimon. Willis was with them, along with Mari, Monodromon and Tatum. There was a small white and purple digimon I'd never seen and a girl I'd never met. Both Michael's father and Willis' mother were present, and a red haired kid that looked scared and out of place.

Someone was missing.

Willis and the others were placed down by us before his two mega digimon prepared to go back into battle. At Tatum's suggestion, Willis had the two digimon fuse together—something neither Taichi or I knew he could do—and they became Leopardmon. The new fused digimon looked right at home within the ranks of the knights he and Omnimon decided to fight alongside of.

"Where's Lalamon?" Hideto asked Mari gently, despite Willis' frantic movements as he tried to get Hideto to change the subject. Mari looked at him with large, water filled eyes and he tugged her into his arms. Willis looked at them awkwardly; at least he did until Hideto pulled him into the hug too.

We'd lost two of our own already. A digimon and a human both. Sora and Lalamon. Gone forever. It was a little hard to wrap my head around.

"We need to get out of here," Taichi decided, though it seemed to pain him to do so. "We need to get inside. Just long enough to make a plan though. We're _not_ running away."

He was trying to convince himself more than us.

"We can't _all_ leave," Rei protested.

"The digimon will stay," Shakamon announced, finally making it to his feet. Pal and Pul were bobbing around his head, nodding in agreement. "Create a plan. We'll use it to win."

"O-okay," Taichi said anxiously.

D'Arcmon came with us, using La Pucelle to ward off any robots that got too close. We were getting slaughtered out there. We desperately needed a plan, but when we all turned to Taichi the moment we piled through the door to his meeting room, he stared blankly back at us.

"Come on, Taichi!" Haruhiko exclaimed. "You're the leader. I know you have it in you. You just need to find the plan. We'll help you execute it."

"That's the thing," he said. "I don't have a plan. All the other bad guys I've faced and all the battles I've won. They were against regular foes. Those guys had weaknesses. These freaking robots are too strong and their only weakness is each other."

"We'll have to use that somehow," Willis told him.

"How?" Taichi demanded. "They've already caught on to that trick. They gave themselves a giant power boost when they did too. The only thing I can think to do, is to go out there and fight with all I've got. But I'm going to ask that you guys stay in here."

"I'm not letting you go out there alone," Hiroaki hissed at him. "You're mother would never forgive me."

"He won't be alone," Hideto and Willis declared.

"We'll be with him," Mari agreed. "Crest bearers."

"Digidestined," I added.

"And me," Natsuni insisted. I wanted to protest so badly, but she was ready to cut me off, had there not been a crashing sound from in the hallway. Taichi, Willis, Hideto and I were already to the door, barrelling into the hallway, ready to beat the robot that dared burst in on our strategy meeting.

But it wasn't a robot.

It was a familiar blonde boy, who had raided the kitchen it seemed. He had a couple of knives in his hands, and a couple of metal bowls rolling around his feet and out the kitchen door.

"Kiyoko?" Hideto said. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't follow you, if that's what you're thinking," Kiyoko said anxiously. Piedmon followed him out of the kitchen, along with Miyako's partner, Valkyrimon.

"Then why?" Hideto pressed.

"Sigma's here," Kiyoko said, looking a bit nervous but also excited. "He's here and I'm going to stop him. He's got Emiko. And I think he's got Miyako too."

Miyako?

I was supposed to be protecting her. I promised Willis I would, and he promised Ken. But neither of us was there with her. She swore she'd be fine on her own, and that I didn't need to be there. Apparently she was wrong.

"I'm going with you," I said before the thought had fully formed in my mind.

"Really?" Kiyoko said pleased.

"I'm going to get her back. Both of them," I said. Jou was my best friend and his daughter was in danger too. I'd help the both of them no matter what. It was my duty.

"Go," Natsuni ordered. I looked to her confused. "I'm going to fight here, no matter what you say. I'm going to fight for the Digital World. For Earth. For Goblimon. And I'm going to fight for you. You get your friends, and then keep fighting until we win this war."

"I will," I told her.

Taichi led the charge back into the battle. Though we were fewer in number, we made up for it with renewed spirit. Kiyoko followed me with Piedmon and Valkyrimon staving off the robot's attacks, until we'd reached Vikemon. Then we had to escape the Temple square. Once we were out of the Temple, it was easier to navigate.

"Do you know where to go?" I asked.

"I've been following my gut so far," Kiyoko admitted. "But I'm pretty sure I know where they are."

"Then lead the way," I told him.

_**Momoe Kido:**_

This shadow thing that saved us also wanted my sister dead. And he wanted to possess my baby. My three year old bundle of freaking joy. My first thought was: no way if freaking hell is he getting his hands on my precious Emiko. My second thought was a little less psychotic: who went around wanting to possess three year olds?

On Earth? Absolutely no one. When you got these other worlds involved though, you never knew who you'd wind up with. I'd been kidnapped by LadyDevimon before, and taken into a cage where Fanglongmon called me a prisoner. That was freaky as hell, but at least LadyDevimon and Fanglongmon were both solid looking. This new guy though—the one that wanted my daughter—he was a shadow. A shadow wearing a bowler hat.

If there had to be a shadow that wanted my baby girl, at least he dressed like a gentleman.

I wasn't going to let him get to her though. She was crying hysterically, clinging to me, and I was clinging back. I prayed that she was too young to actually remember this when she got older. I didn't want her to be terrified of her shadow. I needed her to be happy and healthy. And being traumatized for life did not fit in with that dream.

"Let us go!" Miyako screamed at the shadow.

"You really don't want me to do that," the shadow responded.

"I think I do, Sigma," she snarled back.

"You want me to drop you, your sister and your niece from this height?" the shadow asked. "Well, if you're sure."

"She's not, she's not!" I screamed, looking down to the ground. Flattened like a pancake didn't fit my dream for Emiko either.

"I thought not," Sigma the shadow said.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked hesitantly.

"To the Shadow King," Sigma explained. "You see, he may already have my grandson. I can't let him possess my grandson. I really can't."

My heart went out to the guy. Yeah, he was an evil shadow that had taken us against our will, but he saved our lives while doing it, and he just wanted his grandson to be safe. How bad could the guy really be?

"It's my right as Fairy King to reside within my own flesh and blood," Sigma continued. "The Shadow King can have your filthy brat."

So much for my sympathy…it was replaced entirely by wrath.

"My daughter is _not_ filthy!" I screeched at him.

"You would think that, wouldn't you," Sigma said passively.

"I thought you wanted to kill me?" Miyako told him. "Have you changed your mind?"

"No," he said. "I'm going to watch with delight as the Shadow King kills you, using this brat as his vessel."

Yeah, that didn't follow my dreams either. I started to wriggle in his arms. I didn't want to fall, but I needed him to get us lower. If acting like I was going to drop my daughter would get him to carry us at a more suitable altitude, then I'd take it.

"Stop moving," Sigma ordered.

"I can't," I whined. "Emiko needs to use the restroom."

"We don't have time for that," he hissed. "He could be within my grandson at this very moment."

"She's not fully trained yet," I warned him. "She could pee all over you."

That was enough to get him to land. I had never been so pleased to be on solid land in my life. He assigned us a single minute to convince Emiko to finish her business. I grabbed her hand and led her behind a bush near a forest. We were going to run for it. We had to. Miyako was right behind me, her breath brushed against the back of my neck.

"Ready?" she asked.

I picked Emiko up and slid her into place on my hip.

"As I'll ever be," I whispered back.

"Then let's go," she said. We scooted into the shelter of the trees, and then we took off. It was hard, running with a nearly-three-year-old on my hip. She was getting to be too heavy for this kind of stuff. But she wasn't strong enough to run as fast as I needed her to yet either, so this was my only option.

"Hurry!" Miyako urged. "He's got to know we're gone by now."

"I noticed alright."

We skidded to a stop when Sigma appeared right in front of us.

"I was generous, giving you time to ease your daughter's discomfort," Sigma said. "But you abused that kindness. I have a granddaughter too, you know. This brat isn't really needed. I could just as easily give my granddaughter in this one's place."

"Why don't you?" Miyako asked.

"I will," Sigma promised. "But first I'm going to finish you off. You've caused me nothing but annoyance, and it will end now."

"Please no," I pleaded. "Not Emiko. Anyone but Emiko. She can't die. I can't let her."

"It's not really your choice anymore," he snarled as he launched himself towards us.

"Trump Sword!"

"What?" Sigma asked looking up for the source of the words. I didn't dare look away from Sigma to find out though and was glad I couldn't. Four swords appeared around him, pinning him down to the ground as a digimon came and scooped us out of his range, depositing us next to Iori and the blonde boy they called Kiyoko. Valkyrimon settled down next to us and the large Vikemon waited behind us.

"You want to play," Sigma said, melting around the swords and standing up again, standing face to face with Piedmon. "After all I've done for you."

"All you've done for yourself you mean," Kiyoko snarled.

"Well, you say potato, I say po-tah-to," Sigma said shrugging his shadowy shoulders.

"I say it's finally time to end this," Kiyoko announced. "Piedmon?"

"With pleasure Kiyoko," Piedmon said before rushing in for the kill.

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I was numb inside. On the outside I was actually in a lot of pain from all of the hits I'd taken from the robots, and from the sheer lengths I'd pushed my muscles into going. The only upside in this entire battle so far, was that the air finally seemed to be thinning. Before, I could've scooped it up with a shovel, that's how thick it seemed, but now I could actually wade through it for awhile before getting tired.

It wasn't perfect yet, by any means, but it was _something_.

I was beating another robot—I'd lost count just how many I'd attacked—pounding into it with a piece of the street that had come loose thanks to all of the different digimon attacks. I'd caused a tiny dent in the robot's metal shell, and I was bound and determined to make it bigger, slamming my chunk of rock into it repetitively.

_Sora_.

Slam!

_Miyako._

Slam!

_Momoe._

Slam!

_Noriko and Natsuni._

Slam!

_Izumi_.

Slam!

_Emiko_.

SLAM!

How many of my friends were going to have to die before these things could be beaten? All of them I supposed. It was thoughts such as that one that made me thankful for the numbness I was feeling. I didn't have the energy to cry or scream as I wanted. I needed to save all of the effort I had left and channel it into fighting. Without Miyako we were doomed. She was one of the Holy Three. She was one of the ones that the fairy queens chose with a lot of careful observation and deliberation. They were supposed to beat the great evils of this world, and while Daisuke had already managed to take down Lucemon, I didn't think Iori or Miyako had ever had the chance to. Even if we somehow managed to pull through this battle against the machines, we wouldn't survive the invasion of Sigma, the Shadow King and Arkadimon. They were still out there too, with their little henchmen Erif helping them along.

I didn't have enough fight in me to face a second war so soon after a first.

The cords that attached the robots to their leader started swelling, as if they were trying to force a balloon down them toward the robots they were attached to. I watched with wide eyes as the swelling reached the robot I was beating on. It was like a power boost. The robot swelled in size. Instead of being six feet tall, it was nine. Its width expanded just as much, as if it were gaining muscle, and the dent I'd been so determined to make bigger popped out of existence. I growled. How dare Yggdrasil give them more power? They were already winning this war. Did he need to add insult to injury?

"Fall back!" Jou screamed over the surprised yells of the digimon and people still fighting in the street. I didn't know why he decided that though, until my robot decided to backhand me. I was flying through the air, and would have crashed into the crumbling wall of the pizza shop if TyrantKabuterimon hadn't been flying by at that very moment. He set me down on the ground and I tested my shoulder. It was going to bruise. Badly. But for now I'd just push through the pain.

"We can still win!" Mom shouted to Jou.

"No, they're too strong," Jou yelled back in a strangled voice. He was choking on his emotions and my numb heart started aching at the sound. It wasn't fair to Jou. Why did so many bad things have to happen?

I shook my head of the thoughts, and started running through the streets. I stuck with dodging the robots now, instead of trying to fight back against them. I caught sight of Chiziru and Gotsumon, and dragged them away from the fight Chiziru was trying to pick with two very large robots.

"Let me at 'em," she kept saying over and over again as Gotsumon and I dragged her away. I caught Ken's mother Kae too, but she came more willingly. Kamemon and Mushroommon joined us on our race to Jou—to protect us they said. I wondered where Taichi's father was, for Kamemon to be wandering around alone, but couldn't bring myself to ask.

"Is this everyone?" Jou asked nervously, searching through the crowd of people that answered his call. We were standing on the remains of what used to be my restaurant.

"It can't be," Yoshie insisted, cradling an unconscious Digitamamon in her lap. "Kiyoko's not here, or his digimon. Or my son."

"I'm right here Mom," Koushiro said, waltzing into the crowd with one of the robot's blasters on his arm. "Kiyoko's in the Digital World. So is Hideto, Omnimon, Natsuni and Noriko. Kiyoko told me so, and he saw them go."

Impmon and Goblimon sighed in relief. Their partners were fine.

"Good," Jou said anxiously, though I knew he was wishing that Koushiro would expand that list to include his wife, daughter and sister-in-law.

"TyrantKabuterimon, Plesiomon and Rosemon are still fighting," I commented. "They won't come until the very last second."

"I guessed as much," Jou said. "And Valkyrimon—or H-Hawkmon I guess, now."

"Valkyrimon is with Kiyoko," Koushiro supplied. "And Piedmon. They're going to get Sigma. Kiyoko seems to think he's got Emiko. I don't know _how_, but he's pretty sure."

"I hope so," Jou said. "I mean, obviously I don't, but at the same time…"

"She'd be alive," I summarized, and he could only nod.

"Where's Momoe?" Chiziru demanded, looking around the crowd for her siblings and only catching sight of Mantarou, who was standing next to Pumpkinmon looking beat. "And Miyako?"

"I haven't found any trace of them," Jou said in anguish. "But they were in the explosion."

"No," Mantarou gasped. "That's not right. They can't be…"

"They are," Chiziru said miserably. "I hated them so much…and now I can't even say I'm sorry."

"You can't be serious," Shuu said, having heard this news for the first time. Jun grabbed his hand and squeezed it, tears already pouring down her cheeks.

"I saw them go inside, Shuu," she said. "It's my fault. I left Emiko and they went to fix that mistake."

"If you didn't, you'd be dead in their place," Jou told her. "And Momoe wouldn't want that either."

"But _I_ do," Jun screamed. Shuu pulled her against his chest and hugged her tightly.

"What do you want us to do, Jou?" Isao asked his son, being thoughtful for once and changing the subject that Jou so obviously didn't want to talk about.

"You're going to leave," Jou instructed, wiping the wet hair out of his eyes and tossing his bent glasses on the ground. He couldn't see through them anyway.

"No way, we're not," Shin said firmly. I didn't realize he ever thought for himself. He always did what others told him to. As a rule.

"You'll do as I say," Jou commanded. "_I_ am in charge here. They're too strong and they've only just got stronger. It's too dangerous now for you. Us digidestined have to stay, and I'm sorry that I have to make you."

"I'm not," I told him.

"Me either," Koushiro said. "We always knew it would come down to us. It always has in the past, and I didn't see the pattern changing."

"Yuukimon!" Jou called to the large dragon that was circling the air. He was the former digimon of courage, and he was massive. "You're going to take them somewhere safe. Got it!"

"As you wish," Yuukimon said, nodding his large head.

"Might I suggest you also send Shinraimon and Shinsetsumon? They are both more talented at protective barriers than offensive attacks," Meiyomon said. He pointed to Shinsetsumon, the mushroom shaped digimon that used to hold the crest of kindness and another digimon I'd never seen before. It was small and made of metal. It was a robot, but it was far cuter than any we'd been fighting before. He looked to be made of scraps, and had a crest painted on his forehead. There was an equilateral triangle, with the point facing downwards. There was a small oval inside the triangle and a leaf-like shape on either side of the triangle. If I remembered correctly, Michael had said this was the crest of trust.

"If it helps keep them safe," Jou said. "Then do it."

Yuukimon landed on the rooftops of several buildings, and Jundomon—the former digimon of purity—and Chishikimon—who used to be the digimon of knowledge—were enlisted to fly people onto his back, as he couldn't get any closer to the ground then where he was.

Jun was first, and was a crying mess. Jundomon wasn't pleased about flying her onto the dragon's back. Chishikimon took Susumu—who had arrived late. Yoshie and Kae went next, followed by Mom and Natsuko. Neither of them went very quietly. Digitamamon and Minervamon—both unconscious—went up next, but Lekismon and Firamon vowed they would continue fighting until the end. I didn't particularly like the sounds of it.

"I'm not leaving," Chiziru yelled.

"You are," Mantarou ordered, and she quieted. Mantarou, however, didn't want to leave either. He put up a bit of a fight, and Jou finally just had to order Jundomon to take him anyway.

"Jou," Isao said. "Son. I don't want to leave you."

"We don't either," Shuu and Shin said together.

"You're going," Jou snapped. "I just lost my wife and my daughter is either taken by a shadow demon or dead too. I'm not losing the rest of my family today. Now go!"

They couldn't come up with an argument to rival that one, and wisely didn't try. They did however ask Meramon and Unimon to remain behind, and the digimon agreed.

"It's not my fight to control," Izumi said softly. "I wish you the best, and my thoughts will be with you."

"Meiyomon, don't you do anything too dangerous," Fumiko ordered with a watery smile.

"If anything gets too close I'll just blow it up," Meiyomon promised her.

Both Izumi and Fumiko were taken up to the dragon's back. Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon were offered to go, but both chose to remain along with Impmon and Goblimon. Jou's gaze turned on Toshiko.

"No," she said firmly. "They stole my daughter from me. I'm not leaving until I can take something from them too."

"Chishikimon," Jou commanded, and she was grabbed from behind by the punk fairy of knowledge. She kicked and screamed, but she couldn't escape.

I cast a quick look out to the robots. Meiyomon's siblings had formed a protective barrier around us, blocking the robots from getting their hands on us. Yuujoumon was baring his teeth at the robots that dared to get close. He used to be the digimon of friendship. Aimon, the bird digimon of love, was standing by his right side. Unmeimon of destiny and Kisekimon of miracles were next to her, bouncing with energy. A digimon Meiyomon called Yamimon was the digimon of darkness, once upon a time. She was a large contrast to Karumon, the digimon of light. Whereas Karumon looked tough, like a caveman flower, Yamimon was incredibly girly, though bald with a shining black head—embodying the crest of darkness exactly—and a tiny gown with a bow, and a magic wand in her hand, while Karumon wielded a spiked club. Kiboumon, the grim reaper digimon of hope was floating next to the contrasting pair. Shinkoumon the mermaid of faith was next to them, arms out ready with a water based attack. Tsuyo-samon, a digimon that I wasn't sure about—was he a dog with dinosaur-like features, or a dinosaur with dog's fur?—was next to her, and was the former digimon of strength. A tiny digimon that appeared to be mostly made of an eyeball with three legs branching out of what I thought were nerves underneath the eye, and had three pieces of metal floating around its eye was apparently the digimon of honesty. A tiger digimon named Nebarizuyo-samon represented the crest of tenacity, and a two headed beast called Hokorimon used to be pride. Desire's Ganboumon was a bit tricky. He was simply a mask, shrouded in clouds. Meiyomon assured me he did have a body— you just didn't survive after seeing it. Yurushimon, the mole digimon of forgiveness completed the lineup, though I was sure the tiny chameleon digimon named Kenkyomon—the former digimon of humility—was somewhere out there as well.

"Bearmon, Monmon, what do you think?" Jou asked. They both decided to stay, and so did Mushroommon and Kamemon.

"Chishikimon?" Koushiro called, when the fairy returned. "Take Otamamon, will you?"

"I want to fight!" Otamamon insisted.

"Go protect Jun," Koushiro said through gritted teeth, though I knew he wanted to say something much less kind. Otamamon complained, but Chishikimon did as Koushiro had implied anyway.

"Katsue, it's your turn," Jou told her.

"Not happening," she said. "And you can shut your face gash about it. I'm the only one here who has managed to take down one of them singlehandedly, and now that Koushiro's hooked me up with this blaster, I'm probably the best chance you've got."

She had a point.

"Is that everyone?" Koushiro asked. "I don't think it is."

"Biyomon," I gasped. "Where is she?"

"And Neo, and Coredramon," Jou sighed.

"And Yamato!" I screamed. "I'm going to kill him."

I set off running, not listening to Jou and Koushiro calling me back. Yamato was a moron. Why didn't he come? Did he just not hear Jou's orders? Or did he just not care? Neo and Coredramon were still fighting, though they were making their way towards Jou and the others. That was something at least. And they had Biyomon with them, which I was thankful for.

Where was Yamato? I was so mad at him for not coming when he was called. I truly felt angry enough to kill him…if he wasn't dead already. That thought made my determined search into a frantic one. I couldn't hate him if he was dead. That could be the reason he didn't hear us. He didn't _have_ to be ignoring us. He could be gone, with Sora, and Momoe…and maybe Miyako—I couldn't be sure. When Iori nearly died, Ankylomon reverted back to his rookie form, feeling both the loss and the pain of his partner. Valkyrimon was either heartless, or a symbol of hope. She could be alive, just like Yamato could be.

"Yamato!" I yelled loudly. Several robots turned at the sound and planned on targeting, but I didn't have time to bother with them at the moment. I pushed myself to run faster, thankful that all those years of wearing heels had given me excellent balance and coordination. My running shoes slammed against the broken, crumbling street, the smacking sound reverberating off of the robots' metal bodies.

"YAMATO ISHIDA!" I screamed. Where was he? He had to still be here. I couldn't bear losing him too.

Then I heard it, the call of a familiar digimon calling out an attack. I whirled around to face the direction of the call, and ducked under a couple of robots that had been following me. I nearly face planted when my feet got tangled in the cords they were dragging around, but I righted myself quickly and continued running. I could barely see him in the sea of robots he and MetalGarurumon were trying to take on. I counted eleven at least. What the hell was he thinking? _One_ was too many now that they'd gotten their power boost. At lease he was alive, right?

But I didn't know how much longer he would be.

"Yamato!" I yelled at him again, forcing my way into the centre of the ring of robots.

"Mimi, get out of here," he ordered when I reached his side.

"Not without you," I insisted. "Jou called for a retreat. We're going to come up with a plan."

"You do that, I'm going to keep fighting," he growled, shoving a robot out of his way only for another robot to smack him in the back of the head with its arm.

"Yamato, you can't keep fighting," I insisted. I ducked under the swing of another robot. They were toying with him, I realized. They could've just blasted him and he'd be gone. They enjoyed beating him slowly. Because he didn't care. Even when he got hit on the back of the head, he woozily pulled himself back to his feet and put his bloodied fists in front of him. Where was the frying pan I'd given him?

"I've told him before," MetalGarurumon said in his gruff voice, before sending another blast at the robots. Two were pushed away by the force of the attack, but three more moved in to fill their place. "He won't listen. He doesn't care anymore."

"You need to care, Yamato," I shouted at him. "You need to get out!"

"I don't care," Yamato snapped at me. "I don't care about living anymore. What's the point?"

"You _have_ to care!" I screamed at him. "We need all of the Digidestined. Gennai said so!"

"He was wrong, wasn't he? We don't have them anymore. We _can't_ have them anymore," Yamato cried. "We don't have Sora! What's the point in trying to win?"

"We have to win," I murmured, falling onto my hands and knees when I was attacked from behind. I grunted in pain, but grit my teeth.

He was right, of course. We needed Sora… We needed Sora!

I grabbed Yamato by the back of his torn leather jacket, and pushed him onto MetalGarurumon's back. "Get us out of here!" I ordered. Yamato punched me—in the side of the face—trying to get back to the fight, but I held him firmly. MetalGarurumon jumped straight into the air.

"Where to?" MetalGarurumon wanted to know. The robots all took aim at us and prepared to shoot us down.

"Neo," I said firmly. "We need Neo."

"What the hell, Mimi," Yamato growled. "I was doing fine."

"No, you weren't," I snapped. "You were dying. And Sora won't appreciate it if I let that happen."

"She might've, you don't know," Yamato countered.

"I'm _going_ to know," I said, pulling a certain key out of my pocket and showing it to him. "Gennai made me promise that I'd make sure all of us were here for the fight. I tried to use the key to save him once, with disastrous results. I think he was trying to warn me that I'd have to try again, but with Sora. I don't know how he knew, but he's Gennai. He knows everything!"

"You lost me," Yamato admitted.

"You'll see," I promised. MetalGarurumon flew down to where Neo was. He'd just joined the others that had stayed behind. I scrambled off of MetalGarurumon's back and ran over to grab Rosemon, before dragging her over to Neo.

"Are you sure?" Jou was asking.

"I'm staying," Neo declared. "I might not have a crest of my own, but I'm just as much a part of this as you are."

"You're right," Jou agreed. "Jundomon, tell Yuukimon that he should leave now."

"Will do," Jundomon agreed, flying up into the air to talk to the giant dragon.

"Neo," I called. "I realize you just promised to stay here, but I need you to come with me."

"Where are you going?" Jou asked, confused.

"It's a mission from Gennai," I told him vaguely. "Neo, you have to help me find Sora."

"I _told_ you, the Dot Matrix left nothing behind," Neo growled at me.

"Not her body," I clarified. "You have to bring me to her before she was killed."

"What?" he asked. I shook my head. He wasn't getting it.

"Koushiro, Jou, Katsue," I said looking to each in turn. "You're going to have to hold the fort until we get back. Okay?"

"Do whatever you need to do, Mimi," Koushiro instructed, seeming to grasp my plan already. "We'll be waiting for the eight of you to return."

"I'll bring her back," I promised him. I dragged Yamato behind me. The others all followed willingly—though I thought Yamato might be catching on to my plan, because he wasn't protesting quite so fiercely anymore.

"What are we looking for?" Biyomon asked excitedly.

"Something with a door still intact," I told her.

"Would that box do?" Rosemon asked, pointing towards a large, blue police box. What was that even doing there? It probably belonged to a collector or something. It didn't matter whose it was or why it was there though. All that mattered was that it had a door.

"Excellent," I said with a manic grin. I stuck my key into the door and after the glowing started, I pulled the door open, waving with my hand for Coredramon, Rosemon, MetalGarurumon, Yamato and Neo to walk in. I grinned at them, excitement flowing through me and laughed when I heard Neo comment "It really _is_ bigger on the inside" before following them into the Tunnel of Time.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"There has to be a way out of here." Takeru insisted again as we searching through Taichi's house. There had to be a way! Just what _was_ it? What if Taichi accidentally locked himself in his house? We'd tried the back door, all the windows and we'd even looked for trapdoors, but he'd thought ahead and there was no way out. "There _has_ to be a way out of here!"

Takeru was almost more frantic than I was. He wanted to know how Patamon was doing so desperately. I could relate well, of course, also having my partner digimon out there fighting a war that I should be assisting in, but again, I was unable to since Taichi had locked me in his house. And honestly, I wasn't even mad at him anymore. I mean I _was_, but...I realized that the only reason I was in this mess was because he cared for me and wanted me to be safe... the only thing was... I didn't care about being safe. I wanted to help. I wanted to fight.

I couldn't believe I'd fallen for his trick so easily...

"You know," Takeru said, finally saying something different. I looked to him and he was smirking a little as he lifted the rug, searching for a trap door in Taichi's bedroom, which wasn't going to work since any trap door in the floor would lead back down to the main floor. "You and I always get shoved together in these things."

"That's true," I agreed, running my hand along the walls, looking for a way out. "You and I were left to face Piedmon together."

Takeru made his face very angry and spoke in his best Piedmon impression, "Looks like you two are _falling_ for each other." Both of us laughed as we remembered it all. There really was so many moments the two of us had been together. Ever since we had been children, but now, here we were, twenty years old, and still in the same battle for humanity. "Oh my God." Takeru said suddenly, dropping the rug.

"What?" I asked, hoping he'd found a way out.

"Even Piedmon saw it." He groaned.

"Saw what?" I asked, a little disheartened and confused.

"We were _eight_."

"What are you talking about?" I asked sharply. Now wasn't the time for cryptic conversations.

"What?" He asked me as if he'd just remembered I was there, "Oh, nothing..." I rolled my eyes and continued looking for the way out, finding a metal box on Taichi's dresser that I could have probably used to break the window... "It's funny how best friends always end up together." Takeru said.

"Yeah, I guess." I agreed before registering what he was saying. "Wait, that's not even true." I objected, "Mimi and Sora?"

"Uh," Takeru said defensively, "Mimi's best friend is Jou."

"Point proven." I winked at him triumphantly.

"I just mean Iori and Natsuni!" He snapped. He was acting really weird... I wished I knew why. He was so strange... probably because we were locked together in this house. But why did he care so much about relationships at a time like this? Why did it matter? It actually kind of reminded me of what Iori had told me right before I'd gone to sleep the night before about how we needed to find love to make up for Sora. To remember her by.

"Well I'd rather not talk about them." I admitted.

"Why's that?" Takeru asked, "You don't like Natsuni?"

"Oh Natsuni is a sweet, wonderful girl." I said truthfully. "I'm just kind of upset that they didn't tell me. I knew them both so well, we spent so much time together... and they just kept it from me. Both of them..."

"It's nothing personal," Takeru said, stopping everything that he was doing and turning to me seriously, "They love you Hikari. They would do _anything_... for you. Anything at all. You've been in their life for the longest time... and you changed everything. You constantly change everything." I got the feeling he wasn't talking about exactly what he said he was talking about. He was standing right in front of me then, staring down into my eyes with an intense focus. "You constantly prove yourself to be the most important thing to them, you're constantly making them happy, and every single time that they forget who they are or where they belong... you fix everything just by looking to them... they love you."

There was an elongated silence as the two of us stared at each other, into each other's eyes, his blue eyes practically glowing in the light of the bedroom lamp.

"So yeah." Takeru said, turning suddenly, "It's not just you. They didn't tell anyone."

"That's true." I noted, turning from him and blushing for some reason. I looked into the large mirror behind Taichi's dresser and placed my hand on my burning cheek. "Well I'm going to plan their wedding when it happens. I'm going to be the Maid of Honour _and_ the best man... woman... I'll... be the best maid!"

"Well you'd best get started." Takeru joked, "This place is a mess, Taichi wouldn't be very pleased to come back to the disaster we've created."

"He deserves it," I joked in return.

"Hikari," Takeru said suddenly, spinning around. I looked to him through the mirror and he was staring into my eyes reflection. "This is a war across nine different worlds... everything could be gone after this moment. This could very well be our last chance to be _together_."

"Don't talk like that." I told him, finally spinning to him. "Takeru, don't be pessimistic. Your crest is important—we can't be there for our partners, so the least we can do is keep our hope and light burning. You heard what Azulongmon said before he went mad and tried to kill us. Hope fuels light, and without light the darkness would take over."

"Alright, fine." Takeru said sharply and very seriously, "I just have to say this. Just in case."

What was it that he wanted to say? I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was going to be...

"I already know." I told him with a smile.

"You do?" Takeru asked, "Well, sure, but—"

"I forgive you." I winked, "Don't worry about it."

"Wait—what are you talking about?" Takeru asked, confused.

"What are _you_ talking about?" I countered.

"I asked you first." Takeru said.

"I was saying that I know you were the one who lost my pen." I told him with a laugh, "Miyako told me, you thought you could get away with it, so I let you."

"Well, yeah, sorry..." Takeru said, "No! Listen! I just—" He froze, and I knew why. There was a loud grumbling sound and the ground shook slightly. "What was that?" He asked, but we both shrugged it off. Probably a small explosion at the battle...

But then it happened again.

"What's going on?" I asked, moving toward the window. Takeru was next to me in an instant, both of us looking down to the ground, and into the sky. There was nothing there, so I pushed Takeru to move to the next window. I looked as far as I could in every direction, but there was nothing to be seen.

The ground shook again, more loudly and violently this time. The shakes began happening more and more frequently.

My heart was beating quickly and hard. Something was coming. There was no denying that... they were footsteps. They were footsteps that were getting closer to us... coming for us. I threw my hands to Takeru's arms instinctively and squeezed, hoping that he had some sort of plan to keep us safe.

When one of the shakes felt like it was directly next to us I let out a gasp, unable to keep myself calm.

Takeru threw his arm around my shoulders, and winced, awaiting the next footstep... but it didn't come.

"Is that all?" I asked, relaxing a little and looking out the window again. I could still see nothing though... unless, "Hang on..." I said quietly, releasing Takeru's arm and leaning closer to the window where a shadow that hadn't been there before was cast across Taichi's back yard... "Is that—?" The shadow moved suddenly and my voice failed me as my eyes widened. "T-T-Takeru!" I screamed as the grumbling was louder than ever. Takeru yelled loudly and pulled me quickly from the window, seemingly understanding what was happening more than I did myself.

"The roof!" Takeru shouted. I turned my head around and looked up to where the roof was falling apart, pieces of it falling and crumbling to the floor around us. But what had done it? Who had the shadow belonged to?

And then I knew as he popped his head up, his yellow eyes glowing like mad. It was Arkadimon.

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

The Tunnel of Time deposited us in front of the same blue police box that I'd used to make the gateway, just a street away from where my restaurant used to be. No. Where my restaurant still was, since we were now in the past… I thought so anyway. I needed to be sure though.

"That's not public property you know!"

I turned around to see Neo peering around the back of the police box, obviously wondering how I'd made it bigger. I was pretty sure he didn't understand the concept of our keys. I'd have to explain it to him someday. But not right then, because a middle aged woman was running at us with a broom, screaming at us for playing with her collectable something or other. Apparently, we'd brought our dog and large lizard out for a walk and were letting them do their business all over it, and she just would not stand for that. MetalGarurumon and Coredramon took offense to her assumptions, but we were too busy running away from her to demand an apology.

"Now what?" Yamato asked.

"We find out exactly _when_ we are," I instructed. Neo looked even more confused at that point.

"Mimi, Yamato?"

I turned to see a very much alive Miyako tilting her head at us. Her cheeks were flush from running, and she was clutching a large, pale leaf in her hand. A leaf that I knew had a ton of information on it about the war we were fighting—or _would_ fight. We were definitely at the right time.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Did you forget about the meeting?"

"Nope," I assured her. "We'll be there."

"We'll beat you there," Yamato told her.

"Not possible," Miyako denied.

"By the time you get there, we'll already be there," he declared. "Ten bucks says it's true."

"It's easy money," Miyako decided.

"So when you get there, you'll hand me ten dollars, no explanation necessary," Yamato instructed her.

"Why would you need an explanation?" she queried.

"I won't," Yamato said awkwardly. "Whatever. You get a head start. Go!"

Miyako grinned and ran down the street towards my restaurant.

"Was that really such a smart idea?" Neo wanted to know. "I don't think it's the time for jokes."

"Of course it is," Yamato said, grinning. "We're getting Sora back."

"How, though?" Neo demanded.

"Right," I said. "I should explain this. I used my key to open the Tunnel of Time. And the Tunnel obviously thought this was a worthy cause, because it brought us to the time that we needed to get to. My plan is to save Sora."

"Care to elaborate?" Rosemon asked.

"There's nothing else to say. We're going to save her, no matter what," I said firmly. "What we need from you, Neo, is the facts. Where were you when Arkadimon attacked? When did it happen?"

"I left the restaurant before Miyako showed up," he said. "And Sora found me a few minutes later. It was only a few minutes after that that she was killed."

"We don't have much time then," Biyomon muttered nervously.

"We're wasting time on an explanation," MetalGarurumon pointed out. "Don't explain, just do."

"Okay," I agreed. Neo and Yamato slid onto MetalGarurumon's back, while Rosemon flew with me. Coredramon made sure that Biyomon kept up, and soon we were hiding amongst the trees watching as Arkadimon tried to find someone. I knew he was looking for Sora and the Neo of the past, I just didn't know how much longer they'd have before we needed to go out and save them.

It was silent. And for a second, I thought we were actually early. But I was wrong. Sora snuck her head out around the tree, and Arkadimon's head was waiting there for her. He let out a screaming wail that made my skin crawl. Sora's legs wobbled under her and I thought she was going to die right then and there, but Neo grabbed mine and Yamato's arms, telling us to wait.

The Neo of the past grabbed Sora in a very similar way, and started to drag her away from Arkadimon before he could pull himself together enough to attack them. But his head slid back into place, and he opened his mouth to fire two metal claws attached to two cords. The cords were flying at them!

"Sora!" Past-Neo grunted, and pulled Sora out of the way, and the cords narrowly missed them. The second time the cords attacked them, Arkadimon had better luck, catching Past-Neo's ankle and pulling him down quickly. Past-Neo fell face first into the ground, dropping Sora's wrist upon landing, so that she could run away without him.

She didn't.

She reached down and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him from Arkadimon's grip, but the glitch proved far stronger than her, and pulled them both towards him. Sora dug her feet into the ground and kicked off, flying towards the thick black cord controlling the claw. She stomped on it, and it released Past-Neo's ankle.

The second claw though, got her, wrapping tightly around her neck.

Yamato struggled to pull out of Neo's grip, and Neo let go of me to hold onto him. I _could_ have taken that moment to run away, to go and save her, but Neo knew what was going to happen, and I didn't. If he wanted to wait, we'd wait. Even if it was killing me to do so. Sora was right there! I could see her. She was right in front of me, struggling with Arkadimon, but she was still alive. I wanted her to stay that way, so badly.

"Arkadimon!" Past-Neo shouted, waving his arms around desperately. "Let her go! It's me you want isn't it? Drop her! Let her go! Please! Please you have to!"

I wanted to tell him to shut up. I didn't want him to die either. But I knew he wouldn't. He was sitting right next to me, so I had to have faith that this would end alright.

The claw dropped Sora, and she fell into a crumbled heap on the ground.

Yamato struggled against Neo's grip once more.

"Not yet, soon, but not yet," Neo said, and he kept repeating it under his breath.

Arkadimon was moving toward Past-Neo, who was standing his ground. "RUN!" he screamed at Sora. "Get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you Neo—" she protested.

"Get the others," Past-Neo pleaded desperately. "Get Taichi—Yamato, Mimi—Dracomon! Please Sora! You have to go!"

I gasped. He'd tried to save her. He tried hard, what could have gone wrong? Why did she stay then?

"Let me have it then," Past-Neo told Arkadimon when Sora started running away.

That was it. He sounded like he was giving in, and Sora wasn't about to let that happen. She skidded to a stop and turned around, racing back toward Past-Neo, who was holding his arms out wide, letting Arkadimon prepare his Dot-Matrix attack.

"Now," Neo told Yamato, finally releasing him.

"You're not giving me much time," Yamato hissed, moving pushing Neo off of MetalGarurumon. Neo was already on the move though. He and Coredramon were halfway to the scene of the fight. I hadn't even moved yet.

MetalGarurumon raced through the air, and Yamato caught Sora by the back of her shirt, dragging her onto MetalGarurumon. She screamed, desperate to save Past-Neo, not noticing that our Neo had already gotten Coredramon to tackle him out of the way. I rushed out of the bushes with Rosemon and Biyomon. Arkadimon let out another scream, angry to have lost his prey, and turned to me.

The fight for _our_ lives started now.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"Hikari!" Takeru shouted, pulling me out of the way of some falling debris, and into the doorway of Taichi's bedroom. "Stay still." He warned as pieces of Taichi's new house cascaded down around us, blocking our way back to the room. "It's Arkadimon." He told me.

"I know." I panted, trying to find it in me to breath. Now wasn't the time for a panic attack! Well, really it was—but I didn't have time for that! With a loud crash, a large beam of wood came crashing down, blocking our way on the other side.

"Dystopia Lances."

My heart stopped. I couldn't breathe again. The beast had used Sora's voice. It had used... I looked to Takeru whose face had gone very pale, his expression blank. It took a moment to realize that Arkadimon had actually done something. The rubble blocking him from us on Taichi's room's side was being pulled away by strange black tentacles and metal claws.

"Go!" I gasped as Takeru grabbed my arm and ducked under the beam, pulling me along with him. I almost bashed my head but ducked right in time as he pulled fast and hard, slipping around the beam and then rushing down the hallway. I looked over my shoulder quickly and saw the tentacles coming straight for us, having already pushed through the blockade. "Takeru!" I screamed, pulling his arm quickly and slipping into the bathroom, kicking the door open. The tentacle shot past us quickly.

Takeru looked to me to be sure I was alright and when I nodded he turned to face the tentacle that was retracting. "Feel safe yet?" He asked.

"Absolutely." I said sarcastically. "If we ever get out of here, remind me to _kill_ Taichi." I growled.

"Now, now." Takeru warned, "That won't help anyone. Let's just tell them that we were right and rub it in their faces." I couldn't help but laugh at him before remembering how serious of a situation we were in.

The tentacle froze outside the bathroom door and slowly turned its attention toward the two of us. "And we're off." Takeru said, taking my hand again and rushing out into the hallway, slipping past the tentacle. We were racing toward the end of the hallway when I looked back to see the tentacle racing toward us again. I could stop the scream escaping my mouth as Takeru dove toward the ground pulling me with him.

The tentacle crashed into the wall at the end of the hallway loudly sending a cloud of dust flying out of it. Before it could pull itself from the hole in the wall Takeru had jumped to his feet and hauled me up as quick as he could, turning and rushing toward around the corner and then turning quickly and rushing down the stairs.

"Takeru, it's coming!" I screamed, looking back once more to the wiggling tentacle shooting through the air toward us.

"Hikari!" Takeru growled. I hadn't been looking forward and I caught my foot, tripping and pushing both of us toward the bottom of the stairs we both slammed against the hardwood floor, laying face down next to each other. We turned to each other, and I saw the same look of panic across his face that I knew was on mine. We acted quickly and pushed each other, rolling out of the way as the tentacle came crashing down again.

I grabbed onto the wall next to me and pulled myself to my feet and turned to Takeru who was standing also. We were both fine. We'd survive this. I knew we would. We had to. We just had to find a way out of this house!

"Stupid Taichi!" I screamed as the ceiling began to rumble. I watched as thick fingers pierced through the smooth ceiling, ripping a hole out so that the yellow eyes of Arkadimon could see us. His eyes narrowed on me and even though he had no mouth I could tell he was smiling.

"Destroy!" Arkadimon screamed using Sora's voice again.

"Hikari!" Takeru pulled me from my gaze and thoughts, his arm around my middle and forcing me to move. I spun around and focused my eyes as we ran into the next room, Taichi's living room.

"We're going to die." I gasped, looking around for some exit, but there was only one other one and it led to the dining room which still had no way out. We were doomed! Taichi had locked us in his house for safety and it was ultimately going to be the end of us!

"No!" Takeru insisted, looking around frantically and having his eyes fall to the fireplace. A grin spread across his face as he raced toward it and for a second I thought he was going to go out the chimney, but instead he leapt up onto the mantle and reached for the sword Taichi had hung on the wall. Piedmon's sword, the one that had almost hit me so long ago. "We're going to win. Because you're Hikari, and I'm Takeru." He turned around wielding the sword as the tentacle came hurtling into the room. "Like I said earlier, we're always pinned together. We'll get through this because we always do. Because we're awesome."

"There's that hope I was talking about." Feeling infinitely more secure and hopeful about the situation as I turned to the doorway as well.

With one quick movement, seemingly in slow motion the tentacle shot forward, Takeru and I jumped out of the way and with a quick slice downward with the sword the tentacle had fallen.

Takeru looked to the sword in amazement as I laughed incredulously. This could actually work. I looked down to the wriggling tentacle and shivered with disgust.

With a loud crashing sound and a few cries from Takeru and I the entire wall behind me was ripped from its place. The ceiling above us was collapsing in on the living room, and with a shared look we knew that our only hope was to get out of that house.

Arkadimon's arm was entering the house a second later and Takeru lifted the sword over his head and slammed it down, piercing the skin on his hand. Arkadimon's garbling yell roared loudly all around us and Takeru without a second thought both of us were running, around him and into the trees beside Taichi's house.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Yamato?" Sora gasped from behind me, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Are you complaining?" I asked, unable to stop smiling. Sora—who had been dead forever only ten minutes ago—was hugging me from behind, riding my digimon with me, and now was the time for me to get the revenge that I wanted.

"No!" Sora gasped, "Not at all!" Just from the sound of her voice I knew she'd been crying, and I couldn't have her be sad anymore. I knew that now wasn't the time to be wondering all of the things that were suddenly going through my mind. Whatever it was—all of it—everything that had made her cry had to be eliminated. Gone. But that could wait. We'd start with the beast who had killed her. "What happened to your jacket?"

"It's a long story," I told her, "I'll explain it all in a few minutes. Just after Arkadimon is _dead_." Metalgarurumon slid to a stop near Mimi and Biyomon and let the two of us off of his back. "Get him." I growled.

"My pleasure." MetalGarurumon barked before launching into a fast run.

"Sora!" I turned to see Biyomon practically tackle Sora, hugging her tight. Mimi was joining their hug a moment later, both her and Biyomon sobbing hysterically and calling out, screaming about how much they missed her, and again, I couldn't help but smile. Sora's face was so confused as they hugged her.

"Uh, Biyomon?" I said, "Do you think now would be a good time to digivolve?"

"I would _love_ to!" Biyomon gasped with excitement.

"R-right," Sora stuttered, still confused. She held out her digivice and it began to glow. The light poured onto Biyomon and in a few moments she had emerged as her mega form. As Phoenixmon.

"Ooooh!" Phoenixmon roared, shaking her head and her feathers. "This feels wonderful!"

"Have I missed something?" Sora asked, looking to Mimi and then to me as Neo raced toward us with a grin on his face. "What are you all smiling about?"

"I told you," I said, stepping toward her and staring directly into her eyes to make her understand more quickly, "I'll explain it after this fight. I promise. Just go along with what we're doing, and you'll understand soon." Sora sighed, but reluctantly nodded.

Finally we all turned to Arkadimon where MetalGarurumon was rushing around him in circular motions, firing missiles like mad. Coredramon was in the air, breathing blue flames down to Arkadimon, circling him with Phoenixmon who was sending shooting stars down, allowing them to crash into Arkadimon's hard shell. Rosemon was standing back, whipping him repeatedly.

"This seems to be going well." Mimi choked out, still nervous and over emotional over Sora standing there. Mimi took her hand but Sora shook her off, confused.

Sora latched onto Neo for a moment and made him look to her, "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah." Neo nodded, swallowing a lump in his throat, "I'm fine." Sora nodded and looked back to the battle.

Everything was going better than I had hoped—Arkadimon was going to lose, and it was as simple as that! Nothing was going to go wrong. Mimi's time travelling key had worked, we'd saved Sora, and now we were going to kill Arkadimon, step back into our own time and save the entire world. Because we had Sora back!

"Enough!" Arkadimon shouted, as our digimon continued their repetitive attack. "Enough!" Arkadimon's voice was garbling and... well, scary—but there was nothing he could do. It was four against one. Suddenly I remembered our last fight with Arkadimon. He'd killed Patamon and Agumon. He'd beaten all of us. He was very strong. I was about to call to the others to retreat when Arkadimon slammed his tentacle arms to the ground sending a shock wave through the air.

"MetalGarurumon!" I screamed, "Get out!" MetalGarurumon spread his metal wings and shot through the air, tackling Rosemon out of the way, dragging her away from the attack. Instinctively I threw myself around Sora as Mimi and Neo protected each other.

The attack had faded when it reached us but it strong blasts of wind raged around us. Sora buried her face in my chest as I forced my feet to remain grounded. When it was over we both turned quickly to see what had happened.

MetalGarurumon and Rosemon both stood, poised and ready to continue fighting, but Phonenixmon was laying, her wings sprawled out as she lay still in the grass.

"Phoenixmon?" Sora gasped, trying to run to her, but I stopped her, grabbing her wrist.

"She's fine." I insisted, pointing to her partner who shook her wings and stood slowly. Phoenixmon wasn't who I was worried about. It was Coredramon—I couldn't see him anywhere, and I knew well enough to know that digimon dispersed upon death. But he couldn't be dead—we were on Earth—he would never come back!

"Dracomon!" Neo shouted suddenly, running directly toward Arkadimon. Apparently he'd spotted his fallen partner, which meant that he was still alive, but that didn't mean he would stay that way.

"Neo!" Mimi screamed, trying to rush after him.

"Mimi!" I called, "Don't. Stay here. It's not safe." Mimi looked back to me, ready to argue, but when her eyes fell to Sora she stopped everything she was doing and nodded, looking back to Neo who had fallen to his knees and pulled his wounded partner up into his lap. He was talking to him quietly, near the base of Arkadimon—in my opinion, this was the worst plan Neo had ever had. And he once destroyed the entire Digital World... though, to be fair that worked, so was it really a _bad_ plan? "MetalGarurumon!"

"On it!" He agreed with a growl, understanding exactly what I wanted of him. He shot toward Arkadimon and with a swift motion, had pulled Neo and Dracomon onto his back, turning to rush them away to safety.

"Stop!" Neo ordered. MetalGarurumon didn't listen, but Neo insisted, slamming his fists and feet into his armour until he finally obeyed, stopping and turning to Arkadimon as Neo quietly instructed him to do. "Arkadimon!" Neo shouted from my partners back. Arkadimon tiled his head toward Neo and stared blankly, which was absolutely terrifying, but at least he wasn't attacking, and that was definitely a good thing. "You need to stop this. I hired you! I saved you from your prison! I'm in charge of you, and I'm telling you to stop! You've hurt my partner. My true partner—and that's the final straw! You cannot fight us any longer."

Arkadimon's head tilted back and he began screaming choppily, which in a twisted way sounded like laughter, "You were never in charge you fool." Arkadimon hissed, "You were only a pawn in a game of chess between me and my rival."

"I'd like to think I was at least a bishop." Neo countered wittingly. Arkadimon growled loudly, so Neo shook his head, "Sorry, you're right. Not the time. Look, you've killed three of us, and now they're all back. I can forgive you for that." I wasn't sure how he could ever forgive the beast for killing someone he claimed to be important to him. If Sora were really important to her—if he truly loved her then he would have felt at least _half_ as angry as I was. And I had every intention of making Arkadimon die for what he'd done to Sora, and to the partners of my best friend, and my brother. "Just stop fighting."

"I will never stop." Arkadimon snapped. "You foolish boy, thinking you can convince me what to do—even if I wanted to stop, I couldn't. My plan is too far under way. And I'm not the worst of your troubles. At least in my vision you can all live on the worlds I rule."

"Yeah I know." Neo shot, "Yggdrasil's going to destroy everything. Boo hoo—shut it, and stop fighting us."

"Who is going to destroy the Earth?" Sora gasped.

"_Later_!" Mimi and I hissed together.

"Neo!" I yelled, "Get _out_."

"No!" Neo called back, "I'm trying to save your life!"

"He just said he'll let us live!" I yelled.

"He's _lying_!" Neo screamed, "Why do you think he just tried to kill me and then—" His eyes narrowed in on Sora's confused expression, "And then didn't succeed in killing anyone?" He asked, "He wants us dead."

"Very good." Arkadimon scoffed, "But wrong. I don't want you _dead_. I just want you inside of me. I need your crest. With just one crest my power would increase enough to defeat Yggdrasil. But with all crests, no one would ever, _ever_ stop me."

"Stop you from...?" Rosemon asked.

"Let me guess," Phoenixmon said shakily, "Taking over the world."

"All nine worlds," Arkadimon corrected, "Close."

"But—" Neo had tried to talk, but Arkadimon wasn't ready for any further conversation. He shot one of his tentacles forward quickly, sending it straight through the air where it hit Neo in his right shoulder, shooting straight through his skin. Neo roared in pain and fell from his place on MetalGarurumon's back.

"Neo!" Sora, Mimi and Rosemon all gasped, the latter of the three running forward and catching him before he hit the ground. She held him tightly in her arms and grabbed Dracomon whose eyes were fluttering open. It was a relief to know he was alive, but honestly it did us no good. We needed him to have strength.

Sora grabbed onto my hand and squeezed it firmly as she watched Rosemon leap through the air toward us.

"ROSEMON!" Mimi screamed noticing something I didn't. My eyes found it quickly though and I saw two of Arkadimon's tentacles rushing through the air toward her. She had no time to escape, and both of them wrapped around her stomach tight. Rosemon called in pain as Neo and Dracomon slipped from her grip.

"N-Neo!" She gasped as the tentacles crushed her.

"Phoenixmon!" Sora shouted, "Do something!" Phoenixmon spread her wounded wings and kicked off the ground flying toward Rosemon and the others, but her wings were in too much pain, and they fell limp, as she forced herself to keep flight.

"No!" Rosemon screamed before her words became nothing but a cry for help. I winced at the sound and tried to look away, but couldn't force myself to. I needed to be sure Neo would be alright.

Phoenixmon floated faster, and caught him just before he hit the ground, instead he landed on Phoenixmon's back before she fell toward the ground. A second later a limp body of Palmon was falling out of the sky after them, and Mimi was running into the danger zone toward the duck pond, jumping through the air and catching her, and landing in the pond, splashing loudly.

"Neo!" I turned to find that Sora was running toward her fallen friend and partner, leaving me alone. I turned to MetalGarurumon who was just as alone, facing Arkadimon who slowly turned his head and attention toward him.

"And then there was one." Arkadimon said loudly.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"He's gone." Takeru insisted again, but I refused to look back. I couldn't look back. I couldn't force myself to turn back and see I was scared. He'd been chasing us only a moment before as we tore through the trees. He had to still be there. There was no other explanation really. "He _is_." Takeru said seeing my disbelief. He stopped running, "Hikari!"

"Just keep going!" I called out.

"STOP!" He screamed with such desperation that anything that I'd been thinking before was wiped clean entirely. I froze and looked back to him to see him staring to my left, far into the trees. I turned to see what he was staring at and felt a mix of so many emotions rush through my body.

Wearing tight dark jeans, flats, a red blouse and a black scarf, her red hair blowing gently in the breeze... was Sora.

Sora was dead.

But Sora was back.

Arkadimon was no longer there.

But Sora was.

"Sora?" Takeru asked, swallowing a hard lump in his throat. He was rushing toward her, through the thick ferns and plants, avoiding the trees. He didn't give it a second thought. So I didn't either.

Until I remembered Arkadimon using Sora's voice.

"Takeru!" I shouted, "Stop!" He was still running though. He wasn't stopping. My heart was pounding as I set off after him. "Takeru!" I pleaded, "Takeru _please_ stop! TAKERU!" He was already hugging her, and her lips curled into a wicked smile. "It's not Sora!" I screamed as loud as I could.

Takeru's arms dropped quickly and he froze, before jumping back and guarding himself with his arms.

I didn't stop running until Sora's skin began to stretch and her arms began to grow. I slowed to a stop as Takeru backed up, looking up at Sora as she shifted slowly into Arkadimon, ripping through our friends body. I threw my hand to my mouth forcing myself to not throw up. "T-Takeru!" I shouted, and with that he had spun on the spot and was running again. I watched as Arkadimon crashed through the trees toward us.

Takeru took my hand snapping me into focus yet again and we were off, running again. I took one look over my shoulder and saw, just in time, Arkadimon sending a blast of light from his eyes directly toward us. The beam was a bright red and it hit a tree above our heads, both of us ducking just in time. The tree burst into flames and came crashing down toward us.

"Go!" Takeru insisted, pushing me to one side as he went the other.

When we met up again I thought about telling him about how the blast was the exact colour of the crest of love. How Arkadimon was using Sora's energy against us... but if he hadn't already noticed... I didn't want to point it out. That was just wrong.

"We can't outrun him!" I shouted instead as we bolted through the trees. I was already running out of energy and Arkadimon looked like he could be going at it all day long.

"Well we certainly can't fight!" Takeru countered. And he had a point. I'd just have to suck it up, and run. This was life or death here, and if I didn't run, death would win for sure.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Metal Wolf claw!" MetalGarurumon shouted, sending freezing cold air toward Arkadimon who didn't even bother dodging. The cold air brushed over him and froze part of his arm, but the ice melted quickly. The two of them seemed fairly evenly matched since MetalGarurumon's attacks did nothing and Arkadimon's couldn't hit him, but there had to some way to overcome him, even if our strength was so much weaker.

Mimi had dragged Palmon over to us, grumbling about having just gotten a little dry from the rain before falling into the pond. She had pulled her hair back and was cradling her partner. Sora was petting Phoenixmon's head as she tried desperately to get back into the battle. It was better if she didn't since she was so hurt. We couldn't have anyone die here or we'd have to come back and do it again. That was all there was to it. Everyone had to get out alive. Neo was sitting with Sora, holding Dracomon close to his chest.

I wanted to rush into the battle and help MetalGarurumon fight, but there was nothing I could do... If my mega digimon partner couldn't affect him, then I certainly couldn't—besides, I didn't have my frying pan anymore... perhaps it would just be a good idea to run away...

"Mimi!" I blurted out, rounding on her and striding across the grass toward her, "We should leave."

"No," Mimi said as if I'd just suggested that we all go jump off a cliff. I didn't think there was anything too wrong with my suggestion... "We can't." She explained upon seeing my reaction, "An eye for an eye." She said, but I was still confused. "Do you remember when Gennai died? He could have taken half of the wounds and both he and Iori could have lived—but destiny said it was time for a death."

"You mean that..." I trailed off, realizing what had to happen.

"We saved Sora, but destiny still requires its dept." Mimi said very bluntly, "We have to... give it a sacrifice if you will. And that has to be Arkadimon unless you can think of a better idea."

"I can't." I admitted, clenching my fists and turning back to my partner angrily. "You have to fight harder!" I shouted, "MetalGarurumon you have to win this! For Sora!"

MetalGarurumon nodded, and dug his feet into the ground, spreading his wings again and flying directly toward Arkadimon, barreling through the air and hitting him head on in the center of the forehead before flipping backwards through the air and then stopping abruptly and firing his Garuru Tomahawk missile from his chest, and hitting Arkadimon in the same place on his forehead as he tried to regain his balance. The missile exploded and Arkadimon let out a yowl, swinging his great heavy arms angrily.

MetalGarurumon easily dodged them and swooped through the sky, slowing to a stop out of Arkadimon's reach.

"YES!" I roared with excitement, punching the air, "This is song writing _gold_!"

"No one can relate to this," Mimi rolled her eyes.

I was about to respond when Sora's screams stopped me. "No!" She called out, "Stop it! Don't!"

I turned to her to see Phoenixmon brushing Sora aside with her large golden wings and then turning her attention to Arkadimon and MetalGarurumon, "Sora," Phoenixmon said softly, "They're fighting for your life. It's my duty to help protect you. I must fight."

"No you certainly must _not_!" Sora insisted, but when she tried once more to stop her partner she was simply brushed aside by her wing again as she took flight. "STOP!" Sora screamed. Phoenixmon was flying directly toward Arkadimon.

"Crimson Flame!" Phoenixmon shouted, flapping her wings and sending golden flames raining down upon Arkadimon. MetalGarurumon swooped past her and fired beams from his snout, joining in the attack and keeping her safe. I looked to Sora who relaxed a little.

"Dot Matrix!" Arkadimon shouted.

"Get out of there!" Neo croaked loudly, his voice straining as he leaned forward, pleading for them to save themselves. They both listened of course, splitting up quickly, shooting into the air at opposite angles and avoiding the attack.

But that was exactly what Arkadimon wanted.

As Phoenixmon shot to the right, so did all of Arkadimon's tentacles, as fast as lighting, smacking directly into Phoenixmon. Sora screamed out a wordless cry, and was instantly rushing toward her partner, as Mimi and Neo had done. But this wasn't Mimi or Neo. This was Sora. The person who I could never let die. Not again. I'd been so ready to die just so I could be with her again, and now I didn't have to. Now I could be with her—both of us alive. As long as she didn't do anything stupid and die on me!

I was already running before I'd made the conscious decision to do so, running toward Phoenixmon as she fell from her place, high in the sky, reverting to Biyomon as she crashed down, racing Sora to her destination.

"Dystopia Lances!" Arkadimon cried out. From the corner of my eye I sawArkadimon's tentacles coming straight toward me, and straight toward Sora. I stopped what I was doing and slid across the damp grass, losing my balance for a moment, but stumbling back to my feet and running for Sora, grabbing her wrist and diving toward the ground where the two of us rolled behind the tree Sora and Neo had been hiding behind moments prior.

We rolled until Sora was on top of me, staring down into my eyes, exactly like we'd been the very first time the two of us had kissed. "Are you alright?" I asked her.

She didn't answer for a moment, staring into my eyes, her hands on my chest as she breathed heavily. "I love you!" She gasped as if it were a shocking and appalling fact that she'd just found out. She pushed off of me and pulled herself to her feet and looked to Biyomon who had been snatched from the sky by MetalGarurumon and brought to Mimi. "Oh good." She sighed with relief before turning to help me up. Her expression fell instantly and she screamed, pointing behind me.

Panicked, I pulled myself to my feet and spun around, guarding Sora who was now looking to Neo and Dracomon, and it quickly became obvious as to _why_. Past-Neo was unconscious, laying behind the tree, his eyes shut and body limp.

"Yamato?" Sora asked breathlessly, "T-tell me what's going on." I turned to her and placed my hands on her shoulders and looked to her as comfortingly as possible, "Don't say that you'll tell me later!" She said sharply, raising her finger. "_What_ is going on?"

"I don't actually have time to explain that at this moment..." I admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry..." I shook my head and then turned to re-enter the battle, but froze and looked back to her, "I love you too." She blushed and looked away from me before I ran out to MetalGarurumon. "Hey!" I shouted to him, throwing my arms out as if I didn't care about anything else in the world, "She said she loves me!" MetalGarurumon looked at me like I was crazy and I just broke out into a grin. "Anything is possible!"

"Oh?" Arkadimon asked.

"Yeah." I smirked. "Get him!" I pointed to Arkadimon and MetalGarurumon turned sharply on the enemy, soaring directly for his face. This was it. He was going to die now! I could just tell. MetalGarurumon was very close now, whatever attack he used—he would win. There was no doubt in my mind.

"Dot Matrix!"

MetalGarurumon dropped to the ground like a fly, smacked with a rolled up newspaper. I felt as if something had just latched itself painfully on my heart. He was going to die—Arkadimon was going to absorb my partner—and there was nothing I could do about it!

"MetalGarurumon!" I was running again, rushing to his side, falling to my knees next to him. The tips of his wings were disintegrating, turning into data, headed straight up to Arkadimon's body for him to absorb. Was this fate? Someone close to me had to be taken? Did destiny hate me? Trade Sora for MetalGarurumon? This wasn't fair! It couldn't happen! I cared far too much about both of them to let either of them leave me. "You can't go."

"I can't stop." MetalGarurumon said shakily, wincing as he tried to stand up.

"Don't." I warned, "Stay down. You need your energy if you're going to get out of this."

"I won't get away." MetalGarurumon argued, "This feeling... the power... the draining feeling... I've been feeling it for so long. Months, Yamato... it was always meant to happen."

"What do you mean?" I gasped, "What the hell are you on about? Always _meant_ to happen?" I shook my head, forcing my emotions to stay away, just like every other sad moment of my life. "That's just not true. It's not possibly true! When did it start? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you..." MetalGarurumon said, shaking his head, his wings and feet were fully gone now as he lay across the ground in front of me. "It's been nearly two months."

"Nearly two months?" I asked him, "It's been two months and you haven't told me?" I was yelling now, forcing the tears to stay back, "You didn't think I might want to _know_? What happened two months ago? When was that? Takeru and Patamon kept coming over two months ago—because Patamon had died... you just sat there training with Patamon and saying nothing?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd feel this way." MetalGarurumon said quietly. "I knew I couldn't get through this battle though."

"Why though?" I asked, begging for him to stop leaving me.

"Because Arkadimon has one more life to take before his defeat." MetalGarurumon gasped. "Agumon... has been feeling the same."

"For how long?" I asked angrily. "Two months as well?" MetalGarurumon nodded. "What the _hell_ happened two months ago?" I looked up nervously to Arkadimon whose head was fallen back as he enjoyed his oncoming data, absorbing my partner. Suddenly I felt as if I was the stupidest person ever. He was standing in front of me. Two months ago we'd fought Arkadimon—and that was why Patamon had been dead, and reborn. What had happened in that battle that would make both Agumon and Gabumon feel like that? To feel the same as the Dot Matrix...

They'd both been hit... _by_ the Dot Matrix!

"You've survived it before!" I insisted, "You can do it again! You just have to overcome the feeling!"

"I can't." MetalGarurumon said weakly. "It's too strong."

"No!" I growled, "You _can_. You've done it before. Agumon did it before!"

"But he died!" MetalGarurumon argued, "And I was barely hit!"

"But you _were_!" I said, pleading now, "It's like a sickness—you can only get it once. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" MetalGarurumon shook his head, most of his body was gone now, and I could no longer hold back the tears. "You can do it! You have to! You have to do it for the others!" MetalGarurumon shook his head as the rest of his body vanished, leaving only his head. "For Sora! For your friends!" He was going now, his head was vanishing—there was no hope left. "Please!" I begged one last time. "For _me_!"

Then everything was blue.

I had become a glowing beacon of blue light, and my digivice was vibrating like mad in my pocket. I looked down when I felt weight return across my lap and saw that MetalGarurumon's body was returning! And then he was glowing too, pulling himself to his feet.

"You were right..." He said, growling to Arkadimon who was looking down in anger, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger..." MetalGarurumon looked back to me, "So... much... power." He jerked his head back to Arkadimon and looked up to him.

"You can't take anyone from me!" I said triumphantly, "You will _never_ take my friends away from me!"

And then the light surrounding MetalGarurumon and I spread across the entire park.

"**MetalGarurumon digivolve to... ZeedGarurumon!**"

The armour on his body darkened and the red claws turned turquoise, his body became more mechanical and slimmer and a large canon grew onto his back.

The light faded all at once making the park seem much darker than it really was, and my new partner's eyes narrowed in on Arkadimon's, ready to strike.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"What if we turn back?" I panted, suggesting the first idea that popped into my head.

"Our best bet is to get to the Temple!" Takeru insisted.

"Any idea where the Temple is from here?" I asked.

"Nope." He admitted nervously.

I couldn't dare to look back this time. Arkadimon was after us, and I knew that one hundred percent. I could hear the trees snapping and crashing toward the ground, and the sound only intensified my fear. If he caught us what would he do? If all he had to do was walk through a tree...

I couldn't think like that.

I needed to survive.

I needed to live!

And then all that hope faded in an instant when my foot got caught in a tangle of plants and I fell toward the ground, throwing my arms out to stop my fall. I gasped as I slammed against the ground, and looked to Takeru who was still running. Good. I couldn't have him die because of me. I couldn't have him die at all. He needed to live.

I frantically reached down to my foot, not daring to look up to Arkadimon, afraid of how close he could be. I began ripping at the roots and stems that had caught my foot, twisted around it from my fall.

Then I froze. The crashing of the trees had stopped.

"Dot Matrix"

"NO!" I screamed, ripping the plants from the ground and throwing them in the air, finally looking up to where Arkadimon towered over me. The wave of energy attacked the weeds and dissolved them, absorbing them into Arkadimon's being, just like he had to have done with Sora.

"Hikari!" I was suddenly being pulled a completely different direction, Takeru having come back to save me.

"It's no use!" I gasped, panting for breath, "I can't go any further Takeru—just—please! Save yourself!"

"Not going to happen Hikari." He warned, "Just hold on. We're almost there."

I appreciated the thought, but I knew him well enough to know that we weren't. He had lied. And we were doomed.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"How can you be there, if you're there?" Sora was standing near Neo who was still on his knees, holding his partner in his arms, stroking his head comfortingly. "I just don't understand!"

"Sora," I said firmly, "Do you trust me?" She turned to me and stared for a moment before nodding, "Alright, then everything will make sense in a bit."

"Fine." She sighed, finally giving in. She was so cute when she pouted, she was so cute when she was _alive_. Which she was. Sora was alive, and with us, and we'd be getting out of here for sure now since MetalGarurumon had digivolved to some form of Super Ultimate Awesome form. And it was all because of Arkadimon's Dot Matrix. Our enemy had made us stronger.

Unfortunately, ZeedGarurumon still didn't look to be strong enough to defeat Arkadimon.

"Blowback Breath!" ZeedGarurumon called out, arching his back and breathing in deeply before sending explosive air toward Arkadimon who held his giant arms out to block the attack. With one fell swoop, his arms had come out of the blocking motion and had swatted ZeedGarurumon out of the sky, causing him to crash land into the pond.

I clenched my fists and bit my lip. He had to win. He _couldn't_ lose. He had to win it for all of us—we needed to get out of here, or the entire world would fall. It was just as Mimi had said... all of us had to be there. All of us had to be alive. Even Neo.

Arkadimon fired his Dystopia Lances toward ZeedGarurumon before he'd even gotten from the pond. They wrapped around him tight, and lifted him high into the air before slamming him down toward the ground again.

"No!" Mimi squeaked, wincing and turning from the battle. Slowly she looked up to me, afraid of what might come, but I didn't need to fear for that. He'd overcome death _twice_ now. Both by Arkadimon—he'd win this for sure. Arkadimon could _not_ kill him.

"Zeed _Canon_!" ZeedGarurumon screamed out, sending a giant blast of energy from his canon, only to have it blocked once more by the great arms of the beast.

"What if we give him the last of our strength?" I heard Mimi ask from a distance. "Palmon, Biyomon and Dracomon... what if they help out? It's always worked in the past!"

"If they had energy left to give," Neo countered. And I hated to admit it, but he was right. Neo was right, and that meant that I was the only digidestined left standing. I turned to my partner as, once again, he was slammed into the ground. This time _I_ winced. He was loosing... and he was all alone.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"I don't have any energy left!" I screamed, unable to keep from crying now. Takeru I could see was holding back his tears and trying to be as strong as he could, but he was running out of energy too. There had to be a way to fight him without fleeing! "I can't go on!"

"We _have_ to!" Takeru insisted, as he pulled me through the trees. My legs felt so weak and every obstacle seemed like it was the end of the world.

Finally though Takeru had pulled me sideways suddenly causing me to scream, but eventually I saw that he'd found a clearing. A simple clearing of the trees—no. Not a clearing. The end of the trees! We were on a hilltop... and there was Taichi's house.

"Oh no." We groaned together, spinning around as one to see Arkadimon burst from the trees, grabbing one with the hundreds of tentacles that grew from his arm. Slowly he began advancing upon us.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Stop trying," Arkadimon laughed, "You'll never win!"

I wanted to argue with him—we'd always won in the past, so why wouldn't we win now? But I had no arguments to support our win... he was thrashing ZeedGarurumon around like a ragdoll... There was no way we could win if my partner couldn't fight him—and he was going to revert to Gabumon any minute with the amount of abuse he was taking.

I just needed to distract Arkadimon for just long enough for ZeedGarurumon to strike. That would work.

Before I could come up with a counter argument that would stop me from doing something stupid, I was running out into the battlefield.

"Yamato!" Mimi screamed, "Stop that!"

"Come back here!" Sora pleaded, but there was no way I could. I was on a mission to save her, and everyone else. As I ran I finally slipped my arms out of my leather jacket and slammed it on the ground. I wouldn't be needing that anymore anyway, even if it was one of my favourites. It was my own fault really for wearing it today.

I scolded myself for not focusing and leapt over the duck pond, slamming my feet into the ground. "Hey!" I shouted, "Arkadimon!" I waved my hands in the air, brushing my hair from my face and calling louder, "Hey! Over here stupid! You want the crest of friendship? Well it lives in me!" Arkadimon, swiped ZeedGarurumon out of the way and turned to me, his head tilted. "Your Dot Matrix might not work on Garurumon, but it'll work on me! So let me have it! C'mon!"

Apparently he didn't need any further convincing because he straightened his head out and said, "Dot Matrix!" With a simple gesture of his hand I could feel the wave of energy that was doomed to rip me apart coming straight toward me.

Someone had to die, right? Why not me? So long as Sora was alive, I didn't mind...

I felt something hard hit me in the side and I slammed into the ground, sliding through the dirt painfully, I sat up quickly and saw ZeedGarurumon had tackled me to safety. "What are you doing?" I asked sharply. "You were supposed to hit him! I was distracting him!"

"My attacks do nothing!" ZeedGarurumon shouted back. "We need to escape."

"You hit him before and he got hurt!" I countered, remembering MetalGarurumon's strike to Arkadimon's forehead. His forehead... exactly where UlforceVeedramon had beaten him last time. It was weakened. "You have to hit his forehead." I gasped suddenly.

"What?" He barked.

"Just do it!" I shouted.

We turned to Arkadimon to follow through with our plan but his attention was turned to the others. My heart stopped. He couldn't take them. He couldn't take all six of them—trading one friend for six? That wasn't fair. And I wasn't going to let it happen. If Mimi left then there would be no more time travelling, because he would get her key too. We had to save them—but they were too far away now!

"Dot Matrix."

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

"One crest down," Arkadimon said using Sora's voice, "Two more here. Two of the Holy Three. Today is a good day."

Arkadimon raised his arm and his tentacles shot toward us quickly.

"Hikari!" Takeru shouted as he wrapped himself around me protectively.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Mimi!" I screamed, pushing ZeedGarurumon into motion, "Palmon! Dracomon! Neo!" I was already out of breath, my heart and lungs seemingly wanting to shut down entirely. "Biyomon!" Lucky for me ZeedGarurumon was a lot faster, but he still wasn't going to make it. "Sora!" I cried out.

The Dot Matrix was already around them, taking them from me... from everyone and everything. Mimi and Biyomon screamed, as Neo and Dracomon tried to escape. Sora didn't do either though, she sat, facing Arkadimon a feared expression across her face, and then she was gone. In a burst of dust and light. All of them were.

"NO!" I screamed, falling to my knees, "SORA!" I looked to ZeedGarurumon, my teeth clenched together with more anger than I'd ever felt. "Kill him."

ZeedGarurumon slid across the grass, and, as Arkadimon threw his head back to enjoy his new energy, ZeedGarurumon leapt into the air and aimed his canon directly toward him. "Zeed Canon!" He shouted as the same blast of energy from before shot straight toward his forehead.

The energy sunk straight into the porcelain looking face as Arkadimon froze. Suddenly his face cracked as ZeedGarurumon shot through the air toward him.

"You're dead." He barked as he bit into Arkadimon's neck and snapped it quickly.

Arkadimon exploded into bits of data as ZeedGarurumon fell to the ground next to me.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

I found myself sobbing into Takeru's chest, screaming and crying. This was the end, and I was a mess. A pathetic, crying baby.

But I was _still_ a crying baby. Why hadn't I died yet?

"Takeru?" I asked quietly, unwilling to look up. "What happened?" Takeru stuttered but said no words. Slowly he released me and allowed me to see. I looked up from where I was looking and gasped. Arkadimon was gone entirely, vanished. Where had he gone? I started looking around frantically, trying desperately to find him. He had to be pulling a trick! Sneaking up on us for one last scare...

"Hikari." Takeru said flatly, "Look." I spun to find him pointing directly to Taichi's house which looked perfectly intact as if no one had touched it at all. Everything was as if Arkadimon hadn't been there at all. As if it had been inside my imagination... but he was gone.

There was no doubt now. That was just a terrible, terrible nightmare... with one benefit. We had broken free of Taichi's evil trap!

Takeru and I practically flung ourselves into each other's arms, wrapped tightly, laughing. I didn't know what had happened, but quite frankly, I didn't really care either. Arkadimon was right. This was a good day. We could still win this war—especially if the enemies kept disappearing like that.

Takeru tried to step out of the hug and looked around, spreading his arms up to the sky and laughing again.

"You saved me..." I said quietly, "Like a hundred times."

"I'll always save you." Takeru said, turning to me. "Hikari, you mean too much to me. If I ever lost you... I'd go insane."

With a quick flutter of my heart I felt like I'd walked right into a brick wall.

"_Takeru, this is my sister, Hikari." "I'm Takeru! Nice to meet ya! I'm eight!" "It's nice to meet you too, I'm eight too!" "We're gonna get along _great!_"_

"_Looks like you two are falling for each other."_

"_Together again." "Just like old times."_

"_Look, I care too much about you to let anyone take you without a fight." "Oh, well, you know what? I care about you too."_

"_Takeru! You're okay!" "Have I ever not been okay?"_

"_I forgive you. Conditionally." "Oh? And what might that condition be?" "I will forgive you if you promise to be my best friend again."_

_"Hikari, I'm going to miss you." "I'll miss you too Takeru... But we'll be together again soon enough." "We always end up together Hikari."_

_"Takeru! You're back!" "Didn't think you'd miss me so much," "Are you joking? You jerk! You can't just pick up and leave! You could've called! You could've visited! You just__left__. How could I not miss you? You complete__ass__! We're supposed to be best friends! Why would you just ignore me like that? Do you know how many times I tried to call you only get your Grandfather who told me that you'd gone to Bulgaria, or Russia, or Australia—and the worst was when he told me you were in America. You didn't even come to see me! And besides—you can't be gallivanting around the country! You're being hunted apparently! Ha! Yeah, that's right. We have to be protected again!" "I missed you too Hikari." _

_"Hikari... I never told you this. Not loudly anyway. I know you know... but I... loved you."_

"_Hope and light_ together_ keep the world from falling into darkness."_

"_You know, you and I always get shoved together in these things."_

"_Besides, I'm not sure I really understand my feelings." "I do. If you ever want to understand them... give me a call."_

"_You don't need my help, you wouldn't ever be able to believe what I tell you. Not now that you know how manipulative I get. And then you won't think your feelings are real, because I told you what they are. Just find them on your own. They're really obvious though…so it shouldn't take too long."_

I slowly looked back up to Takeru who was spinning around in the moonlight as the wind swept over the two of us. "Oh my God." I said aloud.

How had I not seen that before?

I was undoubtedly in love with my best friend.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"You did it..." I said quietly, placing my hand on ZeedGarurumon as he nuzzled his face up to me, trying to comfort me. But I didn't want to be comforted. I just wanted the others back.

"Not without you." ZeedGarurumon said weakly, looking into my eyes, "Yamato... I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" I asked him, swallowing the lump in my throat. "They were your friends too. I'm sorry too then." ZeedGarurumon nodded and slowly lowered himself onto the ground. I fell to my knees next to him and pet his back gently. We'd done the impossible, if only for a moment... we'd saved Sora... We'd defeated Arkadimon...

But how was I supposed to go back to the others and tell them that not only had we failed... but... how was I supposed to tell Koushiro or Jou that I'd killed Mimi? How would Hideto take Neo's death? And Tentomon's best friend was in that attack. Biyomon was gone now too. But at least she'd be with Sora now...

"Yamato..." ZeedGarurumon said softly.

"I don't really want to talk right now." I told him bluntly. I knew he'd understand, we'd done this enough times to understand each other well.

"Yamato," ZeedGarurumon insisted.

"What is it?" I asked impatiently.

"Look," He lifted his head slightly and I turned to see what he was looking at. My heart stopped again, and the lump in my throat returned as I stared toward the miracle before us. Arkadimon's data and dust was swirling around like magic as six figures appeared in the midst of it all. "Neo and Dracomon!" ZeedGarurumon exclaimed as the first two took shape, "And Palmon!"

I was already on my feet, running toward them with ZeedGarurumon following closely behind. Soon there was Mimi, looking down to a confused Palmon—and then Biyomon, sitting on the ground as if nothing at all had happened, and then finally—

"Sora!" I cried out, leaping into the swirling dust and throwing my arms around her. "Sora you're back!" She laughed as she hugged me back.

"Gee, thanks Yamato," Mimi said sarcastically, "Love you too."

"Yes, we're back." Neo nodded, "How though? If we came back due to his death then we didn't have to come back for Sora at all."

"What?" Sora asked, but we ignored her.

"That's true..." Mimi nodded, "How long were we gone?" She asked.

"Like not even a minute." I admitted.

"And you're already crying?" She joked, punching my arm, "You really did care!"

"Of _course_ I did!" I snapped, "You're all my friends. I would die without any of you..."

"I have a theory," Dracomon said quickly, and we all rounded on him as he sat in Neo's arms. Neo looked down to his partner as if he was shocked that Dracomon had a brain at all. "It took a long time for Arkadimon to absorb MetalGarurumon before he stopped it all and digivolved... perhaps we weren't fully absorbed yet."

"So you saved us just in time..." Neo nodded in understanding as he looked up to me with a grin, "Thanks Yamato,"

"Oh no problem," I joked.

"I helped," ZeedGarurumon added, and suddenly we were all laughing. I stopped quickly though and turned to Sora. I'd thought that I'd never hear her laugh again... but there it was... she was laughing, and alive and—happy.

"There's just one more thing I have to do." I said slowly, turning on the spot and running toward the duck pond. I cupped my hands in the water and pulled out a puddle of water before rushing toward the tree where Past-Neo was laying. I jumped toward him and dropped the water on his face, startling him into waking up.

"Wha-what?" He gasped, jolting quickly and looking around.

"Neo," I said seriously, kneeling down and looking him in the eyes. "What do you think just happened?"

"Am I dreaming?" He asked.

"Yeah," I agreed, "You are. Now what just happened?"

"I... Arkadimon got Sora, didn't he?" Neo asked slowly.

"Whatever you think happened," I said with a nod, "Now go tell Mimi and Koushiro."

"W-why?" He asked.

"They'll want to know." I told him, "Now go!"

He nodded and jumped to his feet and then was off. I did the same, rushing toward the others again. "Let's go." I told them, and with a nod, we were off, heading back to our own timeline.

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

"No!" Daisuke screamed. "We can't have made it this close only to fail now. We _can't_!"

"Doru Din!" DoruGoramon shouted, trying again to split open the hole that Yggdrasil had slid through.

"I'll just climb in after him," Daisuke decided. "I'd fit through there no problem."

"I don't like the idea of you fighting him alone, Daisuke," DoruGoramon told him, before turning around and shouting "Doru Din!"

"I don't like the idea of leaving all of our friends to die just because I was stupid enough to think closing the door would keep Yggdrasil in here," Daisuke snapped. "The fairy practically called him omnipotent. There's no way that he doesn't have his foot in each of the worlds so that he can watch over all of their progress. I mean, he sent Norn to spy on humans, didn't he?"

Ah, apparently hadn't know that about his little charge. I was torn between being pleased that we'd been on the same page for once, and feeling sorry for him. He'd given that girl food and clothing and a loving family and she turned out to be working for the enemy. Granted she was here pleading for all of our lives, so she learned her lesson, but still. She was his flunky.

"Doru Din!"

"What if the fact that I'm trapped her is enough to destroy all of the universe? I'm part of the Holy Three, and the queens were pretty insistent on us being important to the fate of the world. But I got myself freaking trapped in an alternate world, with no way of getting out. How did we get out of here last time?" Daisuke asked.

"We had to know our crests," I reminded him.

"Doru Din!"

"You're right," Daisuke said. "And clearly I know I'm important but acknowledge that I'm a giant screw up. That's pretty humble, isn't it?"

"Apocolymon was the one that sent us here last time," I said. "We didn't bring ourselves. Maybe that only works as an escape route if you're sent against your will."

"Great, so it's voluntary imprisonment. That's perfect," Daisuke snapped.

"You knew that when you closed the door!" I yelled at him.

"But I didn't know Yggdrasil could escape, did I?" Daisuke shouted back.

"Doru Din!"

"I'm not pointing fingers or blaming you," I said calmly. "I'm just trying to point out the facts."

"The facts are infuriating!" Daisuke screamed at the non-existent ceiling.

"I need a new alarm clock," Norn grumbled, rolling over and covering her ears.

"Norn!" Daisuke called. His anger melted away and instead of seeing only the betrayal of the small girl, he only saw the girl he'd taken care of for so many months. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? How could you ever work for a guy that could turn around and hurt you like that?"

"I'm a part of him, Daisuke," Norn said softly. "A part that until recently didn't realize she was her own person. Kurayami told me that. That's why I came here. To give Yggdrasil a piece of my independent mind."

"Kurayami's alive then?" Daisuke said excitedly.

"For now," I reminded him. "And unless we can get out of here to prevent Yggdrasil from fulfilling his promise, then she won't be for much longer."

"Doru Din! I'm trying as best I can, Ken," DoruGoramon said exasperated.

"You'll never get anywhere if you do that," Norn scoffed. "I can bring you where you need to go. All you need to do is tell me."

"Miyako…"

The word was out of my mouth before I could think it through. And I couldn't take it back either. Daisuke came over and laid a hand on my shoulder. "You can go to her if you really want to. I won't hold it against you. I really want to see Kurayami too."

"No," I said firmly. "We can't though. We need to see this through. We need to keep Yggdrasil from targeting our friends. Miyako is a strong, independent woman—or that's what she's always telling me at least. She can take care of herself. And she's always got Hawkmon to take lend a wing if she falls into any trouble, right?"

"I'm sure she'd be glad to hear you talking like that," Daisuke said with a grin. "So we're going after Yggdrasil?"

"We're going after Yggdrasil," I confirmed.

"Great," Norn said happily. She skipped over to DoruGoramon and took one of his fingers into her hand, dragging him along until she'd gotten a hold of Daisuke's hand as well. I was stuck holding on to Daisuke's other hand which was unpleasant with all the sweating it was doing. She then led us to the hole that Yggdrasil had used and closed her eyes tightly. The hole grew slowly at first, and then the sides came up and swallowed us in. We fell into a cavern of sorts, with eight winding paths, each with its own set of cords connecting it to Yggdrasil. There were thousands of cords in total littering the floor, each branching off into more the closer it got towards a gate, and most of them seemed to be focussing out of four worlds.

"The Dark Ocean," Norn said pointing to one. "Earth, the Digital World and Witchenly are beside it, and the Land of Fairies is over there. The cords are part of his attempt to eradicate life in each of those worlds. If the cords were to…_break_, then the forces that Yggdrasil is depending on would cease to work. You see, they are similar to televisions. If you unplug them, they can't work anymore."

"Interesting…" DoruGoramon said before turning around and slicing through a large portion of the cords. He laughed giddily, and went haywire on the rest of the cords. While he was having his fun, I turned to Norn.

"Do you know where Yggdrasil is?" I questioned.

"I am still a part of him," she said. "So yes. I know where he is at all times, just as he knows where I am. And what I'm saying. And who I'm with."

"Oh, okay then," I said with wide eyes. Should we be careful what we say? Or were the severed cords going to give enough of a message on their own. We wouldn't be able to hide the fact that Norn was helping us escape. We might as well let him know we were coming for him too.

DoruGoramon finished with his slaughtering of cords, and came back over to us with a renewed bounce in his step.

"So, which world are we headed to?" Daisuke asked, as Norn led us down one of the tunnels. I couldn't remember which one she'd said it was. Without all of the cords, I couldn't be sure.

"The Digital World," Norn declared, and we were surrounded by a blinding light as we stepped through the gate.

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

"What are you doing?" Hikari asked, her arms crossed as she hugged herself, looking up to the clouds drifting in the across the night sky. Even though it was morning. Someone really had to get that Erif guy to give the sun back, it was getting confusing and cold. "Takeru?" Oh right, she'd asked me a question. What _was_ I doing?

"I'm... looking for something." I responded as I crawled through the damp grass in front of Taichi's newly restored house.

"And what is that?" She asked.

"Just..." I leaned back and got on my knees, scanning the lawn. "Aha!" I cried suddenly when I saw a flash of silver. I pulled myself to my feet and rushed toward, snatching what I'd been looking for out of the grass and holding it up where it glinted in the light of the full moon.

"The sword?" Hikari asked nervously, glancing over her shoulder. "What for?"

"Protection?" I offered. "If we're going to get to the Temple I don't want Arkadimon to come back while we're unsafe."

"You're going to slay Arkadimon?" She asked with a grin.

"You've got a better idea?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"No, no." Hikari giggled, "Please, by all means. Go ahead." Was she mocking me, or not? I looked to her eyes and lowered the sword, disheartened, but the way she was smiling at me showed that she was just playing, which was cute. Even if it wasn't really the time to be joking around. "Ready to go now?" She asked.

"I am indeed." She smiled at me and then gestured for me to take the lead. "Right," I nodded, "I'll go first. I've got the sword." She raised one eyebrow at me but her smile didn't falter, and so I walked with a little spring to my step. Even with Arkadimon having just attacked us, I couldn't help but smile. We'd survived it, both of us, still together—out of Taichi's prison, and were headed off to help out in the battle that we were destined to take part in... if only we could find it. "How are we going to find the Temple?" I asked her.

"Hmm," She said, placing a single finger on her chin. "That's a good question." She wasn't done though, I knew she had something up her sleeve, she always did. "Well, Taichi wouldn't build his house too far from the Temple, his work place... which means it has to be close."

"Good point," I nodded simply, knowing that more was coming.

"And they walked that way." She said slowly, pointing slightly to the right from the direction I'd been leading her along the wide cleared path through the woods. "It's behind some magical bush, remember? It's probably just through those trees a bit."

"You're so smart," I said to her, looking into her wide open brown eyes. She looked back up at me and then blushed, looking away, shaking her head.

"Oh!" She said suddenly, changing expressions completely and reaching into the pocket of her jacket and pulling out her digivice. "How silly of me." She said with a laugh, looking to the screen and pressing a few buttons. "This says they're just over there." She said pointing the exact way she'd figured before. "Looks like you were right," She said, looking up, "I am kind of smart."

"Very smart." I corrected, taking the lead and walking the way she'd pointed, heading for the trees once again. It seemed much more peaceful without Arkadimon chasing us, but in a way it was scarier. He'd just disappeared, and some sort of army was supposed to be overtaking the Digital World, so they could be lurking in those trees too... but it was no time to chicken out.

"Coming?" Hikari asked, stepping into the trees and looking to me with a wink before leading the way, holding her digivice out in front of her as a compass. She walked ahead of me diagonally and without thinking I was following her... I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking... Was it me? The way she'd been looking at me... I almost wanted to ask, but I knew it would be a stupid question...

"Hikari," I blurted unwillingly. She hummed her response from ahead of me, "We've... been together since we were little, right? Little nuisances who just fell a lot and were always in the way... and laughing because we didn't really understand what was going on..."

"That is a true fact." She nodded.

"Do you think that was destiny?" I asked her quietly, "Do you think we were meant to be friends? Do you believe in destiny?"

"I do." She said simply, "And I think you and I being friends was destiny. I think all of us coming together was destiny."

"Oh." I sighed, "You're right. I mean... I think." Why was I acting like such an idiot? Talking in cryptic ways. Just say it Takeru. Just say what you want to say. "We ran pretty fast back there." Nope. That wasn't it.

"We did," Hikari laughed, nodding her head.

I figured I could try again. I knew what I wanted to say, and all I had to do was blurt it out. "We've been through a lot." I said, ignoring my blurting it out plan, "You used to cry all the time... being sick, and small—"

"Hey now!" Hikari objected playfully, "They were wonderful days, but there were plenty of sad things to cry about."

"I know," I smiled to the ground remembering everything we'd been through, "but now you're so consumed with light and strength... you grew a lot Hikari."

_Who is the focus of your heart?_

Simple question Takeru. Just say it. _Say_ _it._

"Thanks," Hikari smiled, looking over her shoulder. "Oh, hey!" She said suddenly, "Right before Arkadimon broke us out of prison you were going to say something." My heart skipped a beat and my stomach dropped. "What was it?"

"Oh, well, you know..." I trailed off. Why couldn't I just spit it out? Just say it to her? "There's a lot of things I want to say." I admitted. "I'm just not good with words." Hikari nodded with a small 'oh,' but didn't look back to me. "I just mean... you and I... we're always being protected and all... but I don't think we need it anymore."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I mean that we could protect each other." I said, feeling rather triumphant about myself.

"Yeah, we're a pretty good team," She smiled at me, and my mood dropped again. How could I make her understand what I was trying to say without having to actually _say_ it. Last time I'd told her that I loved her she told me she loved Willis... "But you know..." Hikari said looking to me for a moment before continuing to lead the way. "You were always protecting me anyway... weren't you? Even back then... against Piedmon, you were trying to save me. You've protected me all along."

"Well I couldn't let you get hurt..." I was still looking to the ground, watching as I dragged the sword through the tangles of weeds, "I told you that." She laughed a little but didn't say anything. Was she laughing at me protecting her? Was I not good enough for her?

_No. Takeru, you're over thinking this. Just walk, or say it. _

We walked in silence for a while, until finally I looked up to Hikari as she stepped over a fallen tree that looked rotten and as if it could be a home for many small bug digimon. "You're pretty quiet." I said.

"Well I'm just thinking," She admitted.

"About what?" I asked, tossing my sword arm over the tree and using it to help me follow Hikari and her directions.

"About what I would miss if I died in this battle." She said as if it were nothing at all.

"Don't say that." I shot.

"No," She said with a small smile, "It's okay, I was just wondering what was important to me."

"And?" I asked, "What did you come up with?"

"Oh you know, the obvious." She said, "My family. Gatomon, Taichi, Mom, Dad—Agumon and Kamemon—even Daisuke really, and of course all my friends..." She sounded like she had more to say so I didn't respond just yet. "And... oddly enough, your eyes."

"My eyes?" I asked as if it were one of the strangest things ever. And it was! Why was she grouping _just_ my eyes in with all her family and friends? Did she not like the rest of me?

"Yeah," She said with a smile, "I've always admired how beautiful your eyes are. Very blue... and wise. It's almost like they hold an endless sea of courage, and hope, and love. An endless source of knowledge and creativity. A reflection of doubtless eternity." She stopped walking and turned to me sharply staring across the gap between us, directly into my eyes. I tried to hold the gaze but my face flushed and I looked away quickly. She breathed a low laugh and then tuned again. "Can I just say something to you Takeru?"

"You can say anything you want." I told her with a smile, skipping up to walk next to her. She wrapped her fingers with mine and looked up to me.

"I'm... a fool." She said slowly, "An idiot really. I've realized something that's really important, and I know it should wait, but I can't make it wait. It's so important... and I should have noticed sooner, but I was so consumed with making something work when it wasn't destined to do so. And like you mentioned. Destiny is very real, and I think _this _is destiny."

"W-what's destiny?" I asked.

Hikari took a deep breath and smiled, looking up at me, "I—"

"The digidestined's destruction."

Both of us spun quickly to see a short man wearing a black cloak standing in a beam of moonlight cast down through the branches and the leaves. His greasy red hair fell limp to the sides of his face as his face cast a wicked grin toward us. His eyes were glowing orange, a strangely warm sensation washed over me. It was Erif. I'd met him before when we'd had to get rid of the Digimentals the first time and again when he kept me imprisoned in a cage when he'd stolen the very same Digimentals. We'd not gotten off on very good terms either time naturally.

"Just think about it," He said. "If it wasn't destiny, why would so many sources want it to happen?"

"If it was destiny," I growled, "Why do we always win?"

"_You_ don't." Erif pointed out, "Your digmion do. And lucky for me, I don't see any of them around."

"You don't think we could beat you?" Hikari asked sharply, and when Erif shook his head simply she grinned, "We'll see about that." I looked to her panicked and she just smiled sheepishly up to me. I looked back to Erif whose smile grew even wider.

"I like the sounds of that."

He threw his head back and looked to the sky, widening his jaw and letting out the most disgusting, painful sound I'd ever heard as his body and clothes began to stretch and rip. He fell to his knees as his scream began to gargle before burning liquid began pouring from his mouth. Hikari let out a squeak of fear as I bit my lip to avoid doing the same, raising the sword protectively. Erif's arms and hands shifted into stone with three steel toes, and soon his legs had done the same before all of them grew, stretching out his body even more until it too had turned to stone. His neck elongated as six mountains seemingly grew from his back and a metal plating grew around his head. And then, with a loud bubbling sound, black smoke shot from the six mountains on his back, followed by molten lava.

"Erif..." Hikari said, "You've got a little something... all over you."

"My name is Volcdoramon." Erif said boldly, "Still think you can win?"

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: **


	49. All Ends Meet

**Y/N:** So many things are going on in this chapter. It's almost overwhelming to think about it. And even harder to figure out what needs to be said here, so I think I'll just let the chapter speak for itself.

**U/N:** I reread Takeru's like six times people and it's not good, I'm just throwing it out there. Honestly, just read it go "okay." And move on xD I tried fixing it and it just got worse, so. YEP. ENJOY THE REST OF THE CHAPTER THOUGH!.  
FLIPPING CHAPTER four billion. In all actuality it's chapter 199 in total, and if you count the "go read 04 now" chapter in 03 this is chapter 200. Like. What? Life is nuts. But I genuinely do hope you all like it. It's quite the chapter... and it features almost every narrator. It was originally just Mimi, Takeru, Michael and Iori or something similar, but now it has like... everyone else. This chapter was very hectic to write since it was so many different story lines and also we wrote them separately obviously and just. It was interesting. Now go read it. And go like it. And review it.

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 49: All Ends Meet**

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

"Will someone _please_ tell me what's going on?" I asked finally as Mimi stuck a large colourful key into what looked to be a blue police box. Everyone was acting really weirdly, and there were two Neo's a few minutes ago, and honestly, I didn't know what was going on, but no one was telling me.

"Should we tell her before we take her back?" Yamato asked Mimi quietly.

Mimi looked over her shoulder nervously and then shook her head. "You'll see in three seconds." She decided before pushing me into the police box. I stumbled inside and tripped over a rock, rolling back out the door. Which seemed impossible...

Slowly I got to my feet and looked around. It was raining now—storming really, and the streets were torn apart and destroyed. Had they taken me to some sort of dystopian version of our city? What happened, "What does that key do?" I asked sharply.

"Well it's confusing," Mimi defended herself.

"It time travels." Biyomon told me, ignoring the silent conversation the others were having. "It's a time traveling key Sora, and we used it to go get you. We needed you for this battle. And we needed you for everything. We couldn't go on without you."

"W-what?" I asked. A time traveling key wasn't what had caught me off guard. That was relatively normal for us, and it was actually kind of interesting and cool—but why had they had to go back in time to get me? "Where am I here?"

"You... died." Palmon explained as Mimi, dragged Neo and Yamato away to discuss how to tell me what was going on. "In that battle with Arkadimon. Sora, you saved Neo's life and died, that's why we went back to save you. We brought you back to life and dragged you back to this time." I'd died? I was dead? I was supposed to be dead? They'd changed time to save me? Wasn't that bad?

Biyomon seemed to know what I was thinking because she shook her head and grabbed my leg tightly. "It's okay! Because we traded Arkadimon for you!" They'd gone out of their way—out of their _time_, come back and saved me, killing Arkadimon and bringing me to the war that they couldn't fight without me. Well, I couldn't help but feel loved.

"When is this?" I asked, looking around, as the rain soaked through my jeans, blouse and hair. "How much later is this?"

"Just one day." Dracomon informed me.

_One_ day? One day had caused this much damage? I turned quickly in a circle to get my bearings and found that we were near to Mimi's restaurant. I stopped when I was facing the direction of it and saw that there were piles upon piles of metal... something-or-others, all lying down in the middle of the streets. I could see Plesiomon's head poking up over some of the buildings.

"Alright," Mimi declared finally, "Sora, here's what's going—Sora?"

I was already running toward the restaurant. That was where the battle was happening, right? I wasn't sure if I was in the right frame of mind to be battling, but if this was for all the worlds, then it was worth it! Biyomon was flying alongside me, and Palmon and Dracomon were right behind.

"Sora!" Neo and Yamato shouted, rushing after me as well.

My heart practically stopped when I came up to the restaurant. All that was left was a giant pile of rubble. All of Mimi's hard work was destroyed—and all because of those robot things. Whatever they were... how deadly were they? If I'd died in this war—who else had?

I took a further look around and saw Meiyomon standing in a group with all of the crest digimon, some I didn't recognize. Aimon looked up and winked to me before returning to their conversation. Plesiomon and TyrantKabuterimon were next to each other, looking exhausted as all hell. Emiko's Monmon was sitting with Bearmon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, Impmon and Goblimon, all of them resting against pieces of rubble. Meramon was standing next to a Unimon the two of them speaking very seriously, as two digimon I didn't recognize played nearby—and I knew they'd have to be the digivolved versions of Lunamon and Coronamon. Kamemon was standing by a broken fire hydrant, playing in the water that was spraying out of it and into the air with my mother's Mushroomon who looked happy enough, so I knew my mother had to be okay.

Finally I spotted the humans. Koushiro was standing with Jou and what looked to be Katsue—I had to get to them! They were still alive! I took off at a run toward them, but my foot snagged on one of the fallen robots causing it to boot up with some remaining energy and fire a blast to the sky.

I let a scream escape me as I ducked out of the way.

A second later Koushiro and Katsue had both turned to me, their arms in some replica of the blaster that had just attacked me, poised and ready to fire at me. Koushiro's face fell and he dropped the arm, tearing across the battlefield toward me and leaping over the bot in front of me, wrapping his arms around me.

"They did it!" He gasped, refusing to let go as I hugged him back. I imagined the hug was likely more dramatic to him than it was to me, since I'd seen him only fifteen minutes ago in Mimi's restaurant, but I was happy to see him nonetheless.

When he finally pulled away, Jou and Katsue were standing next to me, the latter hugged me quickly, but Jou just looked to me with an attempted smile, "I'm happy you're okay Sora," he said, putting his arm on my shoulder. I knew he meant it, but there was something else—something bad had happened, and it was affecting Jou more than anyone.

"Where's Momoe?" I asked quickly, and he winced instantly, "Jou, where is she?"

"Woah-ey!" Mimi called, interrupting us as she stepped over the bots, "You guys were busy." She joked, "How'd you do it?"

"Well they—" Katsue started.

"No wait!" I shouted, "Start from the beginning."

Katsue groaned, and rolled her eyes at me, apparently it was a difficult task, but then she perked up and had an idea, "Monimon!" I looked to the others, confused as to what she was doing and saw that Koushiro was hugging Mimi now, glad to see she was okay. When I looked back to Katsue she had a small green television in her arms, "Watch carefully. I'm going to play it fast."

I didn't have time to question her because the screen was suddenly flashing through pictures. Robots filling the sky, and falling down, then a few quick shots of Katsue instructing Monimon to record it all when they got to the restaurant, Katsue defeated one, they were all fighting—everyone—there were multiple shots of my mother beating the crap out of the robots, and I couldn't help but smile at her. A quick rundown of Jou and Momoe getting married. I looked to Jou with a smile, but it fell when I saw the restaurant explode. My mind started going through everyone I'd seen a moment before—who was inside? Did they all die? Who were they? A second later, my mother rushed past, and I wanted to sigh with relief, but who were they? Was everyone okay? But I knew they weren't. Momoe had just run inside with Miyako—for _Emiko_. I didn't have time to mourn though because a second later Koushiro was dismantling a droid and filtering the air or something, and then the droids got bigger, and Jou called a retreat, sending everyone else to safety, Mimi gathered her team and left to go save me, and then they continued fighting until the robots unexpectedly fell to the ground, dead.

"What the heck?" Yamato gasped, bending over to look at the screen, "Why'd they die?"

"We have no idea." Koushiro said, "But they have a hive-mind, I expect someone has defeated Yggdrasil." I honestly had _zero_ ideas as to what that last word might've meant. Was it a different language? Why hadn't anyone else acted confused? Maybe I _should've_ stayed back and let Miyako explain all of that...

"You think it was Daisuke?" Mimi asked.

"It might've been." Jou nodded, "Now we've got to find Arkadimon."

"Nah!" Yamato grinned, "Got him." He pointed over his shoulder to ZeedGarurumon and Katsue, Koushiro and Jou all stared in awe.

"You beat Arkadimon alone?" Jou asked.

"We helped!" Neo and Mimi argued, but upon the look everyone gave them, they quieted down quickly.

"How can you be sure Yeeg-drag-seal is dead?" I asked.

"Yggdrasil," Koushiro corrected, "He's the God of all worlds, he rules over everything and is trying to destroy us all because he thinks we aren't worthy of living. He's mad at Arkadimon and his nine great evils, but now that Arkadimon is gone, that means no one is ruling them—that's probably bad, but there should only be two left if my calculations are correct." I understood most of that... "How can we be sure he's dead though?" Koushiro asked, "We can't."

"Which is why we have to go to the Digital World." Jou explained further. "We have to find Taichi and the others, if he's still alive we're going to need to fight him."

"And what about Earth?" Katsue asked, "If he's not dead then these things could come back at any second."

"Then you stay here." Yamato suggested, "You keep all the digimon, except ours of course. If they come back to life, then Japan is in your hands Katsue."

Katsue grinned and looked to the robot arm she had, "I like the sounds of that." She looked to Yamato suddenly, "But take Monimon." She let her digmon leap into Yamato's arms, "Don't question it—I need this footage okay? This is my big break. I need him to film the end of it all. Don't leave him behind."

"I promise." Yamato nodded.

"And don't die." She warned.

"I promise," He said again, "You... should stay alive too."

"Good idea." Katsue joked before turning to her new team, "Everyone rally up! I'm in charge!" She shot a glance over her shoulder at us, "Good luck." She said, "And don't fail. All nine worlds are in danger. You can do it though." She nodded firmly and then turned away once more.

"So are we goin'?" Monimon asked excitedly.

"Well," Neo said, "Mr Doctor, could you take a look at our digimon? They're kind of in pain."

Jou scanned his eyes over Biyomon, Palmon, Dracomon and ZeedGarurumon. "I'll do it once we get there." He nodded. "Right now we have to find a way to the Digital World and save everything."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Koushiro grinned, pulling his key out of his pocket, and opening a door out of nowhere. The arch of the door that appeared was perfectly intact but the door itself looked like it had endured an explosion—jagged pieces of wood stood up at odd angles and most of the door was just gone. Koushiro grabbed the remaining part of the door and pulled it open.

"After you," He offered, holding the door open for us all.

_**Michael Washington:**_

"What happened?" Mrs Yagami asked as we flew around the corner, to the side of the temple after having collected Anubismon and GigaSeadramon. I didn't have the answers she was looking for though. The metal Yggdrasil robot things were shut down, all strewn across the ground, as we carefully avoided them on our way back to the others.

I couldn't see anyone besides the robots, anywhere along the battlefield.

"Where did the others go?" I asked GigaSeadramon who looked down to me as he floated through the air next to us.

"Leomon told us he was going back inside," GigaSeadramon explained, "He told us to come as well, but chose to wait for the two of you."

"Was your mission successful?" Anubismon asked, running next to Kurayami as we leapt over the robots and manoeuvred our way back to the castle gates.

"He got away." Kurayami said quietly, "But... in a way, yes." I knew what she meant of course having been there. Her mission was complete because we'd finally dealt with her mother's issue, but the real problem was still out there, looking for a body to possess, and if he hadn't liked me, then he was left with only Emiko, or my sister. As we ran I looked out to the field of fallen robots, and saw, above the trees was a tree bigger than any I'd ever seen. Had that always been there?

We were on the bridge soon enough, but the doors were locked as he pulled on them. I started knocking loudly on them hoping for someone to respond. "Hey!" I yelled, "Guys! Open the door!" I looked back to the others to think of a new plan but they were all gone. "Guys?" Suddenly Anubismon was standing right in front of me, reaching forward and grabbing me around the middle. With a small yelp he had jumped into the air, flipping through the air and landing smoothly on the other side of the wall next to Kurayami and Mrs Yagami. "Well that works too..."

I turned and found that everyone had grouped together in the center of the temple, just down the street. I motioned for the others to follow and we all set off, running toward them to find out what exactly we'd missed.

It was Taichi who had spotted us, stepping from the crowd and practically running toward us. Kurayami jumped into his arms and hugged him. I hadn't realized either of them were even the slightest big close, at all, and apparently I was right because they both awkwardly released each other and stood apart.

"Where the hell did you go?" He barked.

"I kissed the devil." I blurted as a quick response. "He was possessing Kurayami's mother and then he finally left because of our digivices, she turned to dust and then he kissed me, taking over my body and then I died, but Kurayami brought me back to life."

"Oh," Taichi said awkwardly, "Alright then, if that's all. I'm glad you're okay."

"Because we're friends?" I asked.

"Yes?" Taichi said questioningly. "Of course. I may not act like it all the time, but I do care about everyone on this team. So yeah we're friends."

"Score." I grinned.

Taichi shot a look to his mother that read annoyance mixed with relief before turning to the others and strode toward them once again. Over the heads of Leomon, MetalifeKuwagamon, and an entire new set of digimon, were people I didn't expect to see. I stared toward them all as Mrs Yagami leapt into the arms of one of the new digimon.

My Father was standing looking around with excitement to all the digimon as his arm wrapped around Mary's shoulders. Mary looked disgusted of course, but there was definitely more to the look now, she was getting over her hatred for them, probably realizing that they were our only hope in this battle. Next to her was Willis who waved at me excitedly, he was standing with Tatum and Jenna, both of whom were still alive thankfully. Tatum caught sight of me and ran toward me, pushing through all the digimon and straight into my arms, throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me. I lifted her off the ground for a moment and then set her back down, smiling into the kiss.

"You're alive," She gasped, pulling away, hugging me, "Taichi said—and then you didn't—you weren't here—what happened?"

"I'll tell you later," I told her softly, kissing her forehead. "I'm glad you're okay too." Kurayami shyly stood next to me waiting for me to enter the circle first. I shot a glance back to GigaSeadramon and Anubismon, both of whom nodded as Tatum began dragging me into the circle. I grabbed Kurayami's wrist and took her along.

"Michael!" Dad and Jenna cried out the second I entered the middle of the circle for Tatum to drag me back to her spot on the other side. I felt bad for Kurayami, since no one was excited to see her, but to be fair her family wasn't here—and then I felt like a royal douche bag because her family was dead.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as Tatum finally stopped, spinning us around next to Willis. I finally got a good look at everyone and was fairly confused. When had Willis and the others gotten here? Where was Iori? Was that Marshall? What the hell was he doing there? Who were all these other knight digimon? Where were Terriermon and Lopmon? And was that Devimon? I ignored all of my own questions because Kurayami had one of her own.

"What happened to the droid things?" She asked.

"They shut down," Taichi said with a shrug, "I don't know why." I looked to him and saw over his shoulder, Hideto was sitting in a corner with Mari, holding her hand comfortingly. I didn't want to know what had happened. I wasn't ready to find out. "They just stopped fighting, and about time too—we were nearly ready to forfeit. We would never have won—they got stronger."

"Maybe they just used up all their energy?" Mrs Yagami suggested.

"Maybe," Taichi said, "In which case, they might recharge, so we should use this opportunity to plan our next move."

"May I make a suggestion?" It sure sounded an awful lot like Mimi. The knight digimon parted to reveal her and Koushiro making their way forward with Palmon and Tentomon. Taichi grinned at them, but they were very serious as Mimi practically strutted her way toward the center of the circle. Her father yelped and tried to run to her but she hissed something to him. Something about him ruining her dramatic effect and they could reunite later.

"Please do," Taichi nodded.

"I think it would be a good idea to go for Yggdrasil." Mimi said with a shrug.

"We can't," Kurayami said, "Norn had to open a special portal to get there."

"Well I have a sneaking suspicion he's here in the Digital World now." Koushiro said, "Yggdrasil, in Norse Mythology is a large tree that rules over nine worlds. Has anyone noticed any—"

"Large trees? " I cut in. "I have." Koushiro nodded and pointed to me. That made sense. Yggdrasil was now in the Digital World. Had Daisuke and Ken not managed to destroy him? Maybe he realized his robots were failing and came to do the job on his own.

"We should get there quickly," Yamato added, walking into the cleared area with Gabumon, Dracomon and Neo, "We don't know his plan."

"We could all die at any second." Neo added as Yamato joined the group next to Taichi, and patted his back, pointing to the clearing where Jou stood with Gomamon, Biyomon, and some girl who looked an awful lot like...

"Sora?" Rei gasped from somewhere in the group, "Taichi, you said she..." Taichi was already running for her though, throwing his arms around her. She laughed as he hugged her, spinning her in the air. "What happened?" Rei asked.

"Time travel," Jou shrugged his shoulders, "It's a long story."

"One that I'm not really sure I understand," Sora admitted when Taichi finally set her down, and led her into the circle where her father greeted her next, holding her in his arms and refusing to let go. After a while Rei rushed to her side to join the hug. Sora was blushing clearly not very pleased with all the attention, so I thought it would be best not to draw any more focus to her. I smiled at her and she smiled back, and then I knew that she knew just_ how_ happy I was that she was back.

"We can't yet." Taichi said firmly, returning to the tree idea. "If that's Yggdrasil we're going to need the Holy Three aren't we?"

"Well where are they?" Yamato asked, looking around and spotting _none_ of them.

"Who are the Holy Three?" Noriko asked. "Are they in danger?"

"It's Daisuke, Miyako and Iori." Koushiro filled her in quickly. Noriko and Natsuni looked to each other panicked, and I noticed just then that they were holding hands.

"Since when?" Sora asked, but she was whole heartedly ignored.

"No idea," Taichi admitted told Yamato as if the others hadn't spoken. "They could already be dead."

"No." Kurayami said flatly, "Daisuke isn't dead."

"Neither is Iori." Natsuni snapped.

"But how do you _know_?" Taichi asked.

"I just do." Natsuni and Kurayami said together. I turned to Kurayami and saw her eyes flick to the sky as she gasped.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quietly.

Kurayami turned to me, her eyes filled with fear, "He's here." She mouthed before looking away as if she'd said nothing. Which just wasn't true. She had. She'd said that _he_ was here, which was obviously the shadow we'd just been facing. Which was obviously... the Devil.

"Well we can't wait on them." Neo said with a shrug, "They'll come if they come, and if not then we have to do it without them."

"But we _can't_ do it without them." Mimi whined, "The fairy strictly said that we'll need them."

"And they'll show up." Koushiro said, taking Mimi's hand, "They have to. It's destiny."

"_Yeah_ it is," Willis grinned.

"Well..." Taichi looked around as everyone's eyes fell onto him. It was his time to make a decision, Daisuke wasn't here which made him the ultimate leader for us at that moment. Would we go, or stay? It was his choice now. "We're going." He decided finally. "Mom, Rei, Natsuni—you all stay here."

"Well what about me?" Noriko asked.

"You were included in 'all'," He informed her, "Everyone with a crest—" Neo glared at him, "—You can all get ready to go. We've got to save the world one last time."

"I'm coming too." Neo objected.

"No, you aren't." Taichi argued, stepping away from Sora finally to stand with Neo, "You get on my nerves all the time, but I don't want you dead. Your digimon can't digivolve past a champion, and it's because you don't have a crest. You Neo, are not ready to get out there and fight, and thus, you cannot do so."

"You can't just tell me what I can, and cannot do." Neo argued.

"I was voted leader here Neo," Taichi said firmly, "I need you to stay with Rei. I need you to make sure she's okay, because if you don't, and we fail, she'll be alone when she dies. And I can't have that."

Rei practically sprouted from the ground directly in front of me, staring me in the eyes, "What are the remaining two crests?" She asked. I jumped in surprise, but hastily reached into my pocket and pulled out the last two crests. One was brown and was most certainly the crest of trust, and according to all of Miyako's information, the crest would find its owner in due time, but it wasn't meant to happen until the future, which meant that the last crest we'd ever have to worry about was sitting in my open palm. It was a dark purple colour and the three curving lines formed a shape that reminded me of an eye, with one single dot in the middle.

"This one is honesty." I said, using my other hand to nudge the purple one forward. Rei's face lit up excitedly as she snatched it out of my hand and spun on the spot, throwing it through the air toward Taichi and Neo.

"I'm _coming_!" Neo shouted, "Because—!" He froze as the crest stopped flying directly in front of him and Taichi, glowing a deep purple colour.

Neo held out his hand and let the crest fall down into his hand.

"That's the crest of honesty," Rei told him with a grin, "And as we all know, honesty is your policy brother." Neo smiled at Rei and then looked down to the crest and to his partner. Slowly he looked back up to Taichi, holding the crest up for him to see.

"I guess it's settled then," Taichi decided reluctantly, "Neo fits the bill. He'll be coming along." Neo looked to Dracomon, both of them jumping with excitement.

"Where is Hikari?" Sora asked Taichi, before looking to Yamato, "And Takeru?"

"Safe." Taichi assured her before turning to the rest of us.

"Everyone get ready. We're leaving in two minutes. Say your last goodbyes. Because you might never come back." He turned to Rei finally and held out his hand for her. Rei was gone, standing with Taichi and Neo in a second, which left me to turn to Tatum.

"Don't worry," I told her, "I'll be fine."

"Because you're not going yet." Kurayami said from behind me. I looked to her, confused and saw her pointing toward Jenna whose hand was on her temple as Dad and Mary tried to console her. She shook them off and told them sharply that she needed to walk it off, and then she was walking off, through the Temple.

"You're right." I told Kurayami, there was no way I could leave now. The Shadow King was somewhere in the Temple, and my sister was wandering alone. I turned back to Tatum and kissed her quickly. She grabbed the collar of my shirt, but I managed to slip away, giving her a final look of assurance before running into Willis.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Tell the others that I'll meet up with you." I told him. I tried to get away quickly, assuming he'd stop me, but he let me go for a second, before stopping me, but not like I'd assumed.

"Michael," He said. I looked over my shoulder and saw that his back was still to me, "I'm happy that you're my brother," He said, looking to the ground, "it feels like it's been forever, when it obviously hasn't... I just need you to promise that you're not going to die on me."

"Well I can try," I told him.

"Please do."Willis pleaded.

"Goodbye Willis." I told him softly.

"Good luck." He countered. And then I was off, pushing past Mary and Dad gently, and then roughly past Marshall, Kurayami on my heels.

"Shouldn't we bring our partners this time?" Kurayami asked. I nodded and spun around, running backwards. I crammed my fingers in my mouth and whistled catching GigaSeadramon's attention. He took off into the air a second after gathering Anubismon's attention. We were running down the street that Jenna had gone, but it ended abruptly with only a few locked doors and an alleyway. "She must have gone down here." Kurayami said leading the way through the alleyway. GigaSeadramon was flying directly above the alley, and Anubismon had caught up, running directly behind us.

"Jenna?" I called out nervously and unintentionally as we ran. Where was she? If we couldn't find her that could mean that the shadow already had. On the other hand, if we couldn't find her, maybe he couldn't either... But he was searching from the sky... "GigaSeadramon!" I called, realizing how stupid I was, "Can you see her?"

GigaSeadramon scanned the area as we kept running, emerging on the other side of the alley, and turning down what looked like the market street. GigaSeadramon was still looking, so I kept running with no other lead. Kurayami and Anubismon were running alongside me, both of them searching just as desperately as I was. "JENNA!" I screamed as loudly as I could. What if she was taken? What if she couldn't fight the hold? What if she died?

No!

Jenna could never die! _Ever_! She was immortal or something! She had to be!

"I found her!" GigaSeadramon called from the sky. I relaxed instantly. She was okay. I followed my partners gaze straight toward the Temple wall where, just as he'd said, Jenna was standing, in her gothic attire. I didn't stop running for a moment, headed straight for the stairs that would lead directly up to her.

"Be careful," Kurayami warned as I leapt onto the steps, "He could be anywhere."

"I know," I told her over my shoulder. But the important thing was that Jenna was safe, which meant we still had the opportunity to keep her that way. Jenna was staring toward the Giant tree, her arms crossed across her chest. I reached the top of the stairs quickly and slowed to a stop, catching my breath and walking the rest of the way to her, "Why'd you run off like that?" I asked her, "You know how dangerous it can be."

"I know," Jenna said with a shrug, not taking her gaze from the tree. I stood next to her, and looked to Kurayami as she took her stance next to us as well, Anubismon following closely behind.

"There's a shadow out there," I told her, "He wants you dead."

"No he doesn't." Jenna said flatly. I felt her eyes boring into the side of my head so I slowly turned my attention to her, and jumped back, pulling Kurayami with me. Anubismon had already leapt in between us protectively.

Jenna's eyes were shining and red and her lips were curled into a wicked smile. "Oh, Michael," She said with a man's voice. "Michael, Michael, Michael... You never learn, do you? I don't want to kill you, _or _your sister. I just want your bodies."

"Which is twisted and sick," Kurayami said boldly, "just so we're clear."

"Oh boo hoo," Jenna growled, still using the man's voice. I wasn't sure I'd ever get the image out of my head—my baby sister was speaking to me using the voice of the devil with her eyes glowing a deep crimson red... "At least I'm not killing her—you should be thankful. I could easily kill her and you and everyone you know. But I'll let you live."

"Really?" Kurayami and I asked together.

"Then what the heck is your plan?" I asked.

"I just need a body." Jenna said with a shrug, "So I can release my shadows onto the world."

"And then?" Kurayami asked. I knew very well that the shadows he was speaking of were the residents of the Dark Ocean which was ultimately the equivalent of Hell, which meant that every dark soul in the history of time was going to be unleashed onto the world.

"They'll each find their own body, and take them over." Jenna explained, "So we can all live once more."

"Well," I said simply, "Here's the thing." I looked him directly in the eyes and shook my head, "That's never going to happen."

Jenna's face screwed up with anger and she raised her hand sending a spiralling blast of darkness toward us. Anubismon spun around quickly and pushed me into Kurayami, causing us both to topple over the edge of the wall.

Kurayami was wrapping her arms around me quickly as we fell fast, crashing toward the ground. I tried to think of a plan, but what was there to do? We were falling off of a very tall stone wall—

With a loud thud we'd landed on GigaSeadramon's back. I acted quickly and pulled Kurayami to a sitting position, positioning her in front of me to make sure she'd be safe. I couldn't let anyone die here—Sora had literally just come back from the dead, which meant that there was no room for failure. All hope was restored, and we were, under no circumstances going to die.

And that went for Jenna as well.

"Jenna!" I screamed loudly, leaning to the side so Kurayami's hair wouldn't be in my face, "Jenna, listen to me."

"She can't hear you." The Shadow King said using her body, "You don't think I'd fall for the same trick twice, do you?" GigaSeadramon stopped in midair within hearing range. My eyes flicked to Anubismon who was poised and ready to strike. Who was he kidding? If he hit my sister I'd probably knock him senseless! The Shadow King may have been the one doing the talking, but the burns on my arms and the cuts on my face were proof that her body would remain very much injured it, and ultimately _when_ he let her go. Which meant that if we killed her to kill the Shadow King, then my sister would be dead too.

"No," I admitted, "That would be stupid—but this isn't the same trick." Jenna tilted her head, her curled, messy hair falling to one side of her shoulder. "Last time I used the power of my crest to get out of your hold—and I could easily do it again. But Jenna doesn't have a crest."

"Are you accepting defeat?" Jenna asked, "Willing to let go and allow the shadows to take you?"

"No!" Kurayami and I shouted as one.

"Never!" I continued, "But you're stupid if you think Jenna will need a crest to get out of your hold. She's the strongest person I've ever met. She's brave, and truthful, and loving and kind—Jenna has mastered each and every one of our crests without it being her destiny to do so. Jenna doesn't need a stupid crest to figure it out. She's a smart girl. She knows she's wanted here. She knows how to get back—she just has to realize it."

"Micahael..." Kurayami said quietly, "Do you really think she can?"

"Of course." I said firmly. Kurayami nodded and shakily stood to her feet, "Sit down! What are you doing?" Kurayami set off, running down GigaSeadramon's face and then leaping through the air. I scrambled forward to watch her fall, and saw her land on both feet on the Temple wall, ten feet from where Jenna stood.

"She cannot find her way through the darkness!" The Shadow King laughed.

"Yes she will." I turned my head sharply and saw a woman standing near Jenna now. She was wearing a long draping autumn coloured dress and her hair was hanging in curling golden locks. She looked to me with the same green eyes I used to wake up to every morning, and suddenly I was choking on nothing at all. It was my mother. "Jenna," Mom said, moving toward her swiftly. Jenna waved her hand and shot more darkness from her, but it just shot straight through my mother's mostly transparent body. "Jenna, just remember what I told you when you were little sweet heart. The darkness isn't as scary as you'd like to think. It's all in the mind of the beholder."

"Oh shut it," Jenna shot.

"Jenna!" Kurayami said, reaching forward and placing a hand on her shoulder. Jenna's jaw dropped and a loud, growling roar escaped her mouth as she turned sharply and hit Kurayami in the shoulders, sending her flying.

"No," I argued, "Jenna, listen here!" Jenna jolted her head quickly to me and then kicked off the ground and was only two inches from my face a second later.

"I'm listening," The man insider her mocked.

"Think of Mary." I said loudly, trying to contact Jenna from inside. "Jenna—you don't hate Mary. You know you don't. You argue with her because you know what is right, and you want her to see it. You want to show her who you are and what world is right. Because of your purity, and your hope and faith in a new, better life. You can look down there right now and look at your mother—you see her even though she's dead because you love her so much." A tear started rolling down Jenna's pale skin and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"You should stop your attempts now." Jenna's hand wrapped around my throat and she slammed me down against GigaSeadramon's back. Suddenly his tail was swinging like mad trying to get her off of me.

"No!" I gasped, "Don't hurt her!"

"Aw, cute," the Shadow said.

"Jenna—I know you're there!" I shouted, clawing at her hand, trying to pry her off of me. "I know you're there because you crying—you can hear me. Why would the Devil of all people cry? He wouldn't—Jenna... Mom's here. Jenna, get rid of him."

"She _can't_." The Shadow said, "Stop trying!"

"Jenna _can_!" I insisted, "She can do _anything_!"

"Jenna!" It was a little girl's voice now, right behind me. I tilted my head and saw someone who looked an awful lot like Willis. "Jenna, let go of him. You're killing him." Why was this girl being so calm? She'd just said it! She was _killing _me! I couldn't breathe and my vision was blackening."Jenna, this is your brother. Both of you are here, and both of you can escape, just as long as you push this evil, evil man away from your mind."

Jenna's grip loosened on my neck and she looked to me, so much fear in her eyes. Suddenly she was jumping back again, landing on the wall again, looking up to me.

I was gasping, taking in as much breath as I could and then spun around to face the girl who had just been there, but I saw no one. I turned back for my Mom, but she was gone too. It was just Kurayami and I again. Kurayami was running to Jenna then, holding her with both hands.

"Jenna," She said frantically, "He's going to kill your body. The longer you stay in there the harder it will be. I don't know what it's like in there, he might be holding you, but you have the strength to get out. Just like Michael did. The strength is in the balance of the crests. It's like darkness really. Darkness is all about balancing light and dark, and strength is about balancing your mind and soul. Jenna, him being there isn't in your mind. Look through his darkness and get out."

"The darkness isn't so bad." I said, steering GigaSeadramon down toward the wall where I hopped off of him and stood by my sister. "Everyone always fears the Darkness," I looked to Kurayami and smiled at her, "But there's nothing to be afraid of. The darkness is just the unknown—the inevitable, the things that could or _should_ be. But none of those things will happen if you don't come back to us."

"You can do it Jenna." Kurayami insisted, "Just listen to our voices. You have the strength."

"Just look through the darkness and come to us." I added.

I almost let out a scream at all of the things happening at once. Jenna's knees buckled and she fell, clutching her head, screaming loudly in the man's voice as my digivice began to glow. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was completely black, and then I slowly looked up to Kurayami who was holding a shining white digivice.

"**Gigaseadramon digivolve to...**"

"**Anubismon digivolve to...**"

"**Splashmon!**"

With a flash of black and white, Anubismon and GigaSeadramon had been dragged together into an explosion of light and colour. Then, a moment later, standing down on the ground from the Temple wall was a man with white clothing and water flowing around his head acting as hair. I could see where he came from and all, the water from Betamon, and since he was a Darkness digimon, and a humanoid form... it sort of made sense. But he looked a bit like a lame superhero.

My attentions however were then turned to Jenna when the man's screaming disappeared and her own voice took over. I crouched over and threw my arm around her. I didn't know what to say, I'd never been in this situation, but she needed to hear my voice to find her way out, so I just started talking. "Jenna, our digimon is a superhero." I told her, "He's pretty cool—I'm happy to have a fusion digimon, that's for sure. I think we might've even beaten some of the others... probably not though, we seem to be behind all the time. But open your eyes. Just look at him. Jenna... just look."

Suddenly she was thrown backward, dragging me part way with her as she tumbled partway down the stairs that we'd run up. Her body lay sprawled out on them as a great shadow burst from her mouth and shot into the sky. I wanted to run to Jenna, but we couldn't let this shadow escape. If he did he'd be coming straight for Emiko having already failed twice.

I certainly couldn't let him attack a baby. There was no way that was going to happen.

The shadow was shooting quickly through the sky—getting away, but before I could even call out an order, Splashmon was in the air right in front of him. "Hydro Pressure." He said calmly, holding out both hands and sending drowning the shadow. The shadow came soaring back down to the castle wall where it hit like a cannon ball.

Kurayami screamed and jumped out of the way as the wall began crumbling beneath her. She landed smoothly, but the walls were still crumbling and the ground where she stood began to fall. I ran forward, jumping through the air and grabbing her hand.

"Ouuuuaagh!" I screamed when her weight pulled at my arms. I wasn't a weak person, but holding an entire human hanging from one arm, dangling above a great distance—that wasn't an easy task! I threw my other hand down and grabbed her other hand seeing the shadow beneath her begin to take shape into the pale man in the suit. The Devil himself. I pulled as hard as I could, pulling Kurayami out of the way, both of us collapsing on top of each other as the man sprang into the air. He landed somewhere behind us, so I hastily got to my feet, looking toward him.

He was staring down the steps toward my sister, and my heart was suddenly beating much faster—he couldn't control her—but that didn't mean he couldn't kill her. He raised his hand slowly, and tilted his head, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

"Bead-Drown!" Splashmon called from the air, clapping his hands together. A bubble of water appeared around the Shadow King's head and he froze. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge. He began to splash at the water with his hands, but it just fell back down to the bubble.

I figured I'd use the time of his confusion to get to Jenna. I checked to see Kurayami was alright before running toward the stairs as fast as I could, but before I could even catch a glimpse of Jenna the Shadow King had melted into the shadows, the bubble of water falling and splashing on the ground. I looked down and watched his shadow pass beneath me.

"Kurayami!" I shouted, turning to her as the shadow blob on the ground moved quickly toward her. "Come here!" She nodded and started running, but the Shadow King emerged right in front of her, stopping her, and causing her to run right into him.

"Hello pretty one," He said casually, cupping her face in his hands, "Oooh—you are _gorgeous!_" He leaned forward and I saw Kurayami's face blush—if he kissed her, he'd take control of her body!

Suddenly I realized that this man had kissed my sister.

I was running toward him, and before I knew it, I'd grabbed him from behind and threw him as hard as I could toward the edge of the wall.

He vanished instantly into a shadow on the side of the wall, and then shot straight back up, appearing behind me again.

"This has gone on long enough," He said simply, with a wave of his hand, "I'm no longer having _any_ fun at all." He pointed his fingers toward me, and I braced myself for the worst, wincing, but I was suddenly on the ground. Kurayami had saved me as a blast of darkness shot overhead.

"You saved me!" I gasped, surprised.

"Yes, well," She shrugged, "I owed you."

As we both turned back to the Shadow King we saw that he was pointing his fingers down toward us now—there was nowhere lower to go—we were dead!

But then Splashmon was in the way. "Michael," He said, "Kurayami, please stand back." We exchanged worried glances but hurried to obey, getting to our feet and backing up. "You're quite right," Splashmon said, "This _has_ gone on long enough." Suddenly his hair was wrapping around him in a sort of cocoon getting bigger and bigger until, with an explosion of water raining down, Splashmon was no longer a lame superhero, but instead was a giant ferocious tiger made of water and darkness.

"Now _that_ is what I'm talking about!" I laughed, punching the air.

"Well, cheerio," The Shadow King said, his face panicked. He turned into a shapeless shadow again and was shooting into the sky before someone leapt out of nowhere and grabbed onto his leg before it could join the shapelessness.

It was Jenna, angry and ready to fight. She pulled with all her might, dragging him back down to the wall. She spun toward him, now back in his human form, and she punched him directly in the face.

"Splashmon!" Kurayami ordered, "Now!"

"Duck Jenna!" I shot.

Jenna let out a little scream and ducked, throwing her hands over her head as the Shadow King recuperated from her punch only to have Splashmon's millions of golden teeth rip him apart.

"You know," Kurayami said quietly as we watched in horror as our partner devoured one of the Great Evils of the world, finally sealing off any problems we should ever have with the Dark Ocean. "I always thought light was the only thing to defeat darkness... but one shadow consumes another as if the second never existed. Darkness won over darkness."

"Strength helped," I joked, elbowing her lightly. She laughed nervously, but returned to our partner who seemed to be done now. He looked back to us and nodded. He was ready to continue this fight, and we had to be too. There was still Yggdrasil—that shadow wasn't the worst of our worries—but now that he was gone, we were one step closer to a happy life.

"You're leaving aren't you?" Jenna asked, looking to the three of our expressions. She looked to me finally, her lip quivering. "If you die, I'll kill you." She said.

"I feel like you two would get along..." I said quietly to Kurayami before stepping forward and hugging Jenna. "I promise I will _never_ die... today."

Jenna laughed and pushed away from me. "I'm serious. I'll go tell Dad and Mary and Tatum—but if you don't come back..."

"I will." I told her simply, "Simple as that. Easy peasy pumpkin and pie."

"You're such a dork." She laughed, punching my arm. I messed up her hair and laughed, sticking my tongue out at her and then ran for Splashmon before she could destroy me for being such a stereotypical big brother.

I was sitting on a beast made of water which was odd, I figured I'd sink into him, but he was solid enough for me to ride, so I had no complaints, the Tree was pretty far away and I didn't want to walk. I reached down and helped Kurayami up and then, with one last thumb's up to Jenna, we were off.

_**Iori Hida:**_

Piedmon flew toward the shadowy man. He looked far more solid than I'd expected him to. I couldn't see through him at all. He also wore a bowler hat. It didn't scream "Great Evil!" to me, but what did I know about that?

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon called as he neared Sigma. Both of Piedmon's hands sparked as he charged up an electrical current that he then shot towards Sigma.

"Stop," Sigma called out pitifully. "Stop, it _tickles_," he continued, before laughing maniacally. "You think something as weak as that is enough to beat _me_?"

"If that won't work, let's try another," Piedmon said. "Clown Trick!"

Piedmon reached into his red sleeve and pulled out a long white sheet that he proceeded to throw over Sigma. It covered the shadow from head to toe, and then it slowly descended to the ground.

"That's that then," Momoe said pleasantly. "I really thought he'd be tougher than that."

"Oh, but I am," Sigma laughed, hopping down from a tree branch. Piedmon cursed. "Circus tricks are too predictable. You can't beat me. I know you too well."

"You don't know _me_," Valkyrimon called, holding out his bow and screaming "Aurvandil's Arrow!" The arrow never missed its target, and was surrounded by a bright light. It hit Sigma right in the chest, before flowing through him. The light caused his torso to fade out of existence, but once the light died down, his chest grew back.

"Child's play," Sigma scoffed.

"Mjollnir!" Vikemon called, pulling the morning star off of his back and striking down at Sigma with a powerful blow. Vikemon was hot headed. While in a battle he let himself be fueled by rage. I worried about what Sigma's taunting would do to his control. "Mjollnir!" Vikemon shouted again, when Sigma was found remaining perfectly upright after his first attempt. He tried it three more times, each resulting the same. Sigma would not stand still long enough for us to get a hit on him. And if we were lucky enough to catch him, he would melt out of existence only to appear somewhere else seconds later.

"C'mon, Valkyrimon," Miyako cheered, thrilled beyond belief to have her digimon partner back with her. I was equally as pleased to see her alive and relatively well. I had instinctively thought the worst as Kiyoko and I travelled across the Digital World searching for the shadow that had plagued Kiyoko for so long. He seemed to be able to _feel_ Sigma's location. It was incredibly creepy, but I didn't care about that, not when it helped me find Miyako and Jou's family safe and sound. Kind of. Sigma wanted to possess Emiko in order to slaughter the other two, but he hadn't started yet, so I figured that we'd had excellent timing.

I wasn't as excited about Miyako about participating in this fight though. I was one of the Holy Three, but I didn't know what that meant. I was important to the fate of the worlds. The worlds were literally depending on me, but I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. Miyako had been facing this demon all year, and Daisuke had already taken out Lucemon, the great evil of Heaven. Adding to that, Daisuke on a mission in another world that Miyako told us was very important. He could be facing the ruler of those robots for all I knew.

But what had _I_ done?

I'd been infected by wrath, just as Daisuke had been taken by pride, but unlike Daisuke, I had no hand in freeing myself from that spell. Ken saved me. I'd saved Hikari by sacrificing myself, but Gennai had healed me right away. I ran away angry a lot, because everyone had treated me like a child. I'd run away when my fairy queen told me to, leaving her to face Lucemon alone. I didn't fight any of the sin digimon, I didn't save any part of the Digital World from the Death Knights. I participated in the destruction of MaloMyotismon only minimally, and Fanglongmon probably could have been defeated without me, and so could Apocolymon. He_ had_ actually, years before I'd ever had the chance to face him. If I was supposed to save the worlds, why had I accomplished _nothing_?

I felt weak and inadequate. And with the way the battle against the robots had been going, I knew I would have failed to help that fight too.

What did the fairy queen expect from me? What did she see in me that she didn't see in anybody else? I needed to know, or else I wouldn't be able to live up to her expectations, and I really wanted to make her proud of me.

"You really don't know how to fight, do you?" Sigma told Vikemon with in a snarky voice. As I predicted, Vikemon saw red. He launched himself into his Bazooka Howl attack, where he let out a long, loud howl, before unleashing all of his berserker rage. Sigma laughed wickedly the entire time.

"He's trying to tire them out," Miyako realized, as Valkyrimon threw himself into the fight as well with his Punishing Storm attack. He was whipping around in circles, raising his arms up as he summoned tornado after tornado to chastise his foe. And Piedmon was using several different Clown Tricks other than his popular sheet trick. There were rubber chickens created out of trees he'd hit when Sigma dodged, and several pied were being thrown in various directions.

"They won't last long," Kiyoko muttered. "But Sigma doesn't tire. He's lost his living body. He doesn't _need_ sleep. We have to defeat him quickly, if we want any chance at all."

"But—" Miyako protested.

"I don't know," Kiyoko told her, guessing her question and cutting her off. "But we'll have to figure it out. I can't let him continue wandering around. He needs to die."

"Momoe, take Emiko and go," Miyako instructed her sister. "I'll focus better if you're not here. I don't want to have to keep watching over my shoulder to see if you're okay."

"Come on baby," Momoe told Emiko, nodding to her sister. "You and Mommy are going on a little trip."

"Be quick about it," I instructed. "He never seems to get distracted from the prize."

Momoe took Emiko into her arms and started running behind us, as far and as fast as she could. Her loud scream caused me to turn around, wanting to know what the problem was. Sigma was standing in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere," he snarled. "I don't leave survivors once I've decided to kill. Give me the girl and your death will be swift and painless."

"You can't have her!" Momoe screamed, setting Emiko on the ground and standing in front of her with her hands balled into fists. Sigma melted into the ground and came up directly in front of Momoe. He lifted his arm and smashed it against her, tossing her aside like a rag doll.

Emiko let out a frightened scream and curled up on the ground, shaking. Sigma reached down and hoisted her into the air, letting her dangle in front of him as he clutched her left arm. Miyako and I moved toward them instantly, determined to save her from his gasp. Valkyrimon had the same idea and darted towards Sigma.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Sigma warned, shaking Emiko, causing her to cry out in pain on top of her sobs of terror. "You wouldn't want to be responsible for the girl's demise, would you?"

Valkyrimon stopped mid-flight and I grabbed Miyako's arm, who appeared to have not heard a word he was saying in her haste to save her niece.

"Miyako, _sweet_ Miyako," Sigma purred. "How I loved our nightly torture sessions. I longed for them all day while cramped inside the body of a scared, confused teenager. You brought out the demon in me. I'll miss you the most, I think, once you're gone. No more flesh to mangle, or will to destroy. Your mind would no longer be a playground for me to twist and contort."

"Stop," Miyako said shakily.

"And Kiyoko," Sigma said, turning to his old host body. "Miserable boy that you are, you served me well. Until you developed a feeble backbone that is. How are you faring without me? Such a lonely boy, you're a disgrace to your parents. Tell me, have they looked for you once, since you left? No. They wanted you to leave didn't they? You disgusted them. They made you into the pitiful boy you are now."

"Y-you did that," Kiyoko interjected. "N-not them."

"I only exploited the damage they'd already caused," Sigma laughed. "And your roommates hated you so much. Plotting to kill them didn't win you any favours. They could never love you."

"Friends love each other," Miyako insisted. "That's what makes strong bonds."

"Oh, but that's not the love he wants to feel," Sigma said. "He wants so much more than could ever be possible. He just wanted to catch his eye, to make his parents proud. But he can't. He's worthless. And everyone knows it."

"That's not true," I protested.

"But it is," Sigma countered. "If it wasn't, he wouldn't have depended on _me_ to keep him alive."

"That's true," Kiyoko muttered. His shoulders were shaking with each new point Sigma made. Points that couldn't be true, but Sigma knew Kiyoko's mind better than anybody else. He was getting Kiyoko where he knew it would cause the most damage. I didn't understand any of it though. What was he talking about his parents for? And was he referencing _Hideto_?

"It is true," Sigma agreed. "You know that you can't do anything to stop me. You cast me away when that foolish woman gave you the illusion of self-confidence. You're nothing without me. You were _born_ for my control."

"Don't listen to him," Miyako insisted. Emiko continued to shriek, trying to wriggle her way out of Sigma's grasp, but only managed to make him hold onto her even tighter.

"You did this to your so-called friends," Sigma said, gesturing to the world around him. "They'll all die today, whether it be by Yggdrasil's pitiful attempts at wiping out the populations, or by my hand. And _you_ were the one to introduce me to them. It was with you that I planned out each and every one of their deaths in graphic detail. I'd be honoured if you could stay and watch as I kill them, one by one, until only you remain."

Kiyoko was on his knees now, trying to control the shaking, tears falling despite his attempts to keep them at bay.

"It's all my fault," Kiyoko agreed, crying out. "I brought him to you. He sat in on your meetings. He knows all about you. I'm useless. I just led everyone to their death."

"I forgive you," Miyako told him instantly. "I forgive you for bringing him along, for giving him access. I'd even forgive you for letting him come and mutilate my flesh, if you even knew he was doing that. I forgive you."

I should have been the one saying it, but I was glad Miyako had. I wasn't particularly vocal about such things. I knew he didn't mean it, he hadn't been in control at the time and had no choice. It wasn't his fault. So I did the honourable thing, the _right_ thing, and I forgave him too, even if I didn't say it aloud.

Three lights burst into being, lighting up the darkness that had taken over the forests since the sun wasn't a possibility at the moment. At first, I was confused. But then I noticed little Emiko was now on the ground, clutching a small flashlight in her tiny hands, pointing it directly at Sigma. Her hands were shaking, and his arm was faded out. I knew it would come back, but for now, I was glad to see her out of his clutches.

The second and third lights however, weren't the same warm glow as Emiko's flashlight. They were coming from Miyako's and my digivices. Mine was shining a bright turquoise, while hers was a deep yellow. The colour of each other's crests. Honour and Forgiveness.

Miyako let out a bubble of hysterical laughter as she lifted her digivice into the sky. Our two digimon froze as they were swallowed by a brilliant white light, and started moving together at a great speed. Valkyrimon looked like he'd be crushed by Vikemon's great size.

"**Valkyrimon digivolve to…**"

"**Vikemon digivolve to…**"

"**Gaiomon!**"

He was a brilliant looking dragon warrior digimon, with black samurai armor with red detailing. He was humanoid, like Valkryimon and looked similarly light on his feet. But he seemed to possess a frightening set of battle instincts reminiscent of Vikemon. Long silver spikes of hair protruded from the helmet that covered his face. There was a crooked blade sticking out the top of his helmet, and he had a similar, short blade coming out of each of his shoulder plates. There were black billowy pants underneath his armor, revealing large, black dragon's feet, with sharp claws tipping each of his four toes. He wielded a sword in both of his hands, both swords just as crooked as the blades on his armor. There was a short blade spike extended from each bend in the sword, giving it a dangerous look. He was made for combat, and I was glad he'd arrived.

"Not possible," Sigma muttered, staring at our new partner. Miyako let out a giddy squeal, finally taking the time to rush over to her sister, leaving Kiyoko—who hadn't quite taken our words to heart until that moment—to pull himself together.

I took the opportunity to sneak in and snatch up Emiko while Sigma was distracted. She was determined to keep holding her flashlight, but she wrapped her arms and legs around me tightly and I had a feeling I'd have to pry her off when this was over. She was still shaking and crying loudly.

"No matter," Sigma declared. "I'll dismiss of you just as easily as I did the others."

"You have wronged my friends," Gaiomon told him. "And now, I will defeat you for your crimes not only to them, but to all the nine worlds as well."

"Bring it on then," Sigma ordered.

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

Once everyone was filled in on the Arkadimon situation, we piled onto Plesiomon and headed for the giant tree. How none of them noticed it, I didn't know. It was a bit of an eye sore. It wasn't particularly pretty. It kind of looked like an enlarged version of the tree I'd seen in the Tunnel of Time, and Jou mentioned seeing something like it in the park back in Odaiba. There had to be a connection there, and I didn't like where the connection seemed to be leading. The tree on Earth had opened up, allowing millions of robots to swarm the planet; this one too, had probably served the same purpose for the Digital World, only now it had grown exponentially. That could only mean that Yggdrasil was here.

What that meant for Daisuke, Ken and their digimon partners, I didn't know.

"I don't see anything," Taichi commented. He was seated next to me on Plesiomon's back. Sora was clinging to Koushiro, desperate to be kept away from both Neo and Yamato—who appeared to be back in the running for her affections. Mari was sitting solemnly in between Willis and Hideto. Yamato was sitting with Jou near Plesiomon's head, casting not-so-subtle looks in Sora's direction. Monimon was moving around, making sure to get everyone's reactions as we prepared for our battle with Yggdrasil.

"That's probably the point, Taichi," Sora told him, rolling her eyes.

"He's not going to open himself up to our assault," Koushiro agreed. "Though, we have no record of him, and therefore could be looking directly at him as we speak and simply not know it."

"I don't think he looks like a giant tree, Koushiro," I said wryly.

"I actually don't either," he said. "I was simply stating a possibility. In Norse mythology he is depicted as one, after all."

"He's probably down _by_ the tree," Willis suggested. "We should just go check it out."

"Bring us down, Plesiomon," Jou instructed.

From the ground, the tree looked bigger than ever. It was a horrifying shade of grey, looking more than just a little bit sickly, with black leaves filling out its branches. I scanned the branches, hoping to find _something_ that looked out of place, but aside from the actual tree, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Damn. I'd been hoping to actually meet this guy before he tried to kill us. I kept my guard up, waiting for him to come up behind us, and I screamed bloody murder when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I swung around, curling my left hand into a fist and swinging it quickly at my attacker.

"What the hell, Mimi?" Daisuke snapped, grabbing my hand mere inches from his face. "I'm on _your_ side."

"Daisuke?" Taichi said confused, looking at our goggle-clad companion. "Aren't you supposed to be in a different world?"

"We had to leave silly," a small girl in a frilly dress and a stylish dress said.

"Norn here helped us escape," Daisuke said with a grin, dropping my now relaxed fist. "Yggdrasil bailed on Ken and me when UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon fused into this awesome fighting machine." He gestured over his shoulder to a warrior digimon. He wore silver armor with dark blue accents, had a fantastic set of wings and was playing with some fire while Daisuke spoke. "This is DoruGoramon. He's great. Ken and I fused! Isn't that awesome?"

"You're lucky you don't have to be the humble one at the moment," Ken teased, rolling his eyes at Daisuke's enthusiasm. I could tell it was all show though. He was bouncing around on the inside freaking out just as much as Daisuke was.

"Congratulations," Sora told them happily. I didn't think she really knew what we were getting into. She'd been dead—a fact I couldn't ever forget, even if she didn't remember it happened—when the robots invaded Earth. She didn't know just how unbeatable they seemed to be. We'd told her, but sometimes you have to see something to truly understand, and I was pretty sure this was one of those times.

"Thanks," Daisuke said happily. "We totally beat Takeru and Hikari too."

"Uh…" Jou said glancing quickly at Shakamon who was looking down on Daisuke clearly not impressed.

"No way," Daisuke groaned. "Where are they? They've got some explaining to do."

"They're safe," Taichi insisted.

"They can't be," Hideto commented. "Those robots were all over the Digital World. And Earth. And probably all throughout all of the other worlds too."

"Don't forget about those great evils still roaming about," Mari added.

"Erif too," Neo concluded.

"Kiyoko and Iori are taking care of Sigma as we speak," Taichi said, full of confidence. "And Michael and Kurayami stayed behind to finish off "the devil", which I'm assuming is just the Shadow King. That's the last of the great evils guys. Things are looking up."

"Knock on wood," Yamato said, rapping his knuckles against the trunk of a nearby tree. "We don't want to jinx anything Taichi. We're close, but we're not out of the jungle just yet."

"Out of the oven and into the frying pan," I agreed.

"So…where is Yggdrasil?" Willis asked. "If we're going to talk the talk, we might as well walk the walk, you know?"

"That's the problem," Ken muttered.

"I _know_ he's here," Norn insisted, her blonde curls bobbing up and down as she nodded her head. "I just can't find him. I feel him though."

"Great," Taichi said. "He could be out there killing anyone right now."

"We need to get this done with," Jou said grimly. "I'm done with the waiting. I need this over."

"We all do," Mari agreed.

The two were hurting the most at the moment. Jou didn't know where his daughter was, or if his new sister-in-law was still alive like Valkyrimon suspected. We were pretty sure his brand new wife was dead. We just couldn't fathom a way for her to have survived. And Mari had lost her digimon in a way that none—other than Willis—had managed. And unlike Willis, she wouldn't be getting hers back.

It wasn't fair.

But then, war wasn't fair.

War was serious business, and we were standing around using clichés when we should've been hunting down Yggdrasil. I wanted him dead just as much as the others, but we weren't doing anything about it, though I could understand their hesitance. This battle would be our last. I could feel it in the air. We wouldn't be fighting after this, whether it was because Yggdrasil won, or because we'd finally made it to the end of our digital adventures, and could live in peace at last. Regardless, I needed to remember every last second of it.

WarGreymon was standing tall, eyes darting back and forth in the air. His muscles were tense beneath his orange, scaly skin, and his silver and gold armor seemed to shine in what little light we had to work by. Next to him was ZeedGarurumon looking stronger than ever—though I knew he must've been near exhaustion. He'd fought hard against Arkadimon already today, and before he'd digivolved, he'd faced Yggdrasil's army. His dark blue, armored body was looking a little worse for wear, and dirt clung to his once shining frame. His turquoise claws were digging into the dirt in anticipation. Phoenixmon was flying above us, scanning the surrounding area, her golden and deep orange plumage seemed to dance like flames as she flew, her armored head always searching. TyrantKabuterimon was following in her lead. His body was a beautiful shade of purple, one that reminded me distinctly of Koushiro's crest. His mechanical looking hands were clenching, and the whips at his waist were flitting about as he flew, his many wings fluttering a mile a minute. My own gorgeous partner was near me, dressed in skin tight red clothing, black heeled boots a white cape. Having her, in that familiar rose helmet gave my clenching stomach comfort. Her mouth—the only visible part of her face—was contorted into an anxious frown. She was twitching her fingers around her whips, wanting desperately for the battle to just start, just as I was. Plesiomon was still in the air as well, his large white body, decorated in simple stripes of purple with tufts of orange down his back. He was a giant sea creature, like the Loch Ness monster, and while he looked out of place hovering over a forest, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Shakamon was sitting cross-legged, meditating over a condensed ball of energy that was burning like a tiny sun. His golden garments glowed in the light the ball cast off, and his long silver hair seemed to shimmer.

It was hard to believe that these digimon, these powerful megas—and beyond—were the same digimon that had been waiting for us that fateful day we'd fallen from camp into a world we didn't know. Thirteen years it took us to reach this point, and those thirteen years had definitely treated our digimon well. They seemed so strong to me, but I knew they weren't a match for Yggdrasil on their own.

Luckily we had others that had joined us since the day we'd met those seven energetic In-Training digimon back then—including Gatomon.

DoruGoramon, the warrior that UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon had fused to for us to meet, was crouching down, his legs bent at the knees while he searched for any clues of Yggdrasil's location. Leopardmon held his rapier at the ready, the red sash tied at his waist fluttering in the gentle breeze. His long blonde hair fell down the back of his cat-like face. He looked so graceful with an underlying strength. Coredramon—though only champion level—was his opposite. He didn't look graceful in the slightest. He was big and bulky, with his thick muscles and blue scaled skin. He didn't look fearful, though he had every right to be. He was facing an enemy far outranking his capabilities, yet he seemed more excited than anything. Omnimon was stoic as always in his gleaming white armor. His red and white cape too, was moving with the wind. Only his arms signified the two megas that had fused to create him. One arm was armed with the Garuru Cannon, while the other readied his Grey Sword. The distinct lack of a second Rosemon, dressed in white and pink with the same fierce heeled boots as my own Rosemon wore, cut me deeply. I hadn't taken the time to get to know her, and now I never would. Even though I barely knew her, she was already missed.

The tiny Monimon that Katsue had sent with us was looking more than a little nervous. He was still recording everything around him, but he jumped at even the slightest of sounds.

While Omnimon and Coredramon were relatively new to our numbers, I'd fought with the others countless times in the past, and I knew they could make a difference. I just didn't know if it would be enough.

Where were Valkyrimon and Vikemon or Piedmon and their partners? When were Michael and Kurayami going to show up with theirs? I didn't know. And I didn't have time to waste wondering. There was still so much I needed to sear into my brain.

I was in a trance. I _needed_ to remember every little detail of my friends before the fight began, and I didn't know how much time I'd have.

Daisuke was holding Norn in his arms, propping her up onto his hip. They were murmuring to one another, trying to discern Yggdrasil's location. His brown hair was messier than usual, and the goggles were askew, hanging down past his ear on one side. He was wearing shorts, and his black high top shoes with the buckles. His vest was hanging open overtop of his blue striped, long sleeved tee. Norn was wearing a laced dress that bunched at her waist, and a tiny grey vest. There was a beret in her dirty, blonde hair, and she looked far too serious for a child of her age. She looked like she'd seen more than any of us could handle. It probably had something to do with her connection to Yggdrasil. Ken was leaning in to their conversation, adding in comments only twice, content with leaving the other two to speak. He was, as always, dressed in a pair of dark khakis, with slip-on dress shoes and a button down shirt, though he didn't look nearly as put together as he usually did. His long, dark hair was sticking up in places, and he looked exhausted. The frown adorning his face was the only sign that he was worried about his wife. He was trying to remain focussed on the battle at hand, but I knew he would have preferred to have her there. I think we all would have.

Behind those three, I caught sight of Mari's bushy hair. She'd tied it off on the back of her head, but it didn't seem to want to stay there. She wore a shiny, black headband as well, which stood out in sharp contrast with her blond locks. She had a short jacket on with pockets placed on her ribcage, and a black dress underneath it reaching down to mid-thigh. Her above the knee boots reminded me instantly of Rosemon's. I didn't know what she was thinking when she got dressed in that getup. How had she managed to survive the fight in New York wearing something as complicated to move in as that was? I didn't know. I'd barely managed in my sneakers, loose green shirt—tied at my waist with a black sash—and jeans. Her eyebrows were pulled together, and her eyes were blazing in a rage she was barely able to contain. She wanted revenge for her partner. Willis was holding her hand tightly. He seemed to realize just as I did that she wasn't fully stable at the moment, and was grounding her in reality. His blonde hair was dishevelled, and he had dirt smudged across his face. He wore a ruined white tee underneath a short-sleeved red button down that was hanging open, and a pair of dark wash jeans. His jeans were dark, though a lot of their colour was covered with dirt.

Taichi looked so different from his eleven year old self. It was the hair that did it mostly, though his determined face added to it. He'd matured so much, even if he was still instinctual and rash sometimes. He was still dressed in his council attire, wearing his suit pants and his deep blue button down, though he'd ditched the jacket at some point. His tie was hanging looser around his neck, and there were many rips and tears in his ensemble. His knuckles were red, and his finger tips were scraped up pretty badly. I didn't know what he was using to fight, but I could relate to the weapon related injuries. I had several slivers embedded into my hands thanks to my chair leg. One was bad enough to rip open my hand, and it had bled for awhile, though it had eventually stopped.

Yamato was next to Taichi, continually glancing at Sora out of the corner of his eye. He was battered, completely beat up. He should have stopped fighting ages before I forced him to. He was going to be a walking bruise in the morning. Several patches of his skin were already starting to turn purple. I didn't remember the last time I'd seen him without his leather jacket. He'd shed it during the Arkadimon fight, and the tee shirt he wore underneath revealed his impossibly pale arms. He really needed to get out into the sun more. He was on guard, ready to dart out and protect Sora in an instant, and she'd probably need it. Until she saw Yggdrasil, I doubted she would know why we were all so scared. Monimon had shown her his footage thus far, but I still didn't think she understood our fears.

Neo too seemed to be watching her. He was clutching his newly acquired crest. The deep, plum crest of honesty should have been so easy to hand out, but it had taken so long to do so. He really didn't have time to practice using it now. I could only hope that his honesty policy was enough to help him survive this. Coredramon couldn't do it along. Neo's white tee shirt was ripped and stained, and the black long-sleeve shirt he wore underneath it wasn't in much better condition. There were scrapes up and down his arms from our fight on Earth, and his white jeans? Forget about them. They were history. Blood and dirt covered them in tiny splotches, like little polka dots. His white hair was still wet, clinging to his face, and missing it's gravity defying quality I'd become accustomed to. Hideto was beside him in the perfect contrast. While Neo was white from head to toe, Hideto was black. His hair too, was heavy from the rain and his loose black pants were soaked and drooping. His shirt clung to his chest, and was torn across his back, revealing a nasty patch of scraped skin, embedded with bits of concrete. He was ignoring that very well though, glaring at the giant tree in front of us as if it were Yggdrasil himself.

"Yggdrasil is pretty strong guys," Daisuke commented, interrupting my memorization. "We might need more than just this."

"Kiyoko and Iori have their digimon with them," Taichi told him. "And Michael and Kurayami's are still at the Temple."

"Could you at least fuse?" Ken suggested.

"I don't know," Taichi admitted. "With ZeedGarurumon being a higher level now, I don't think I can. And if we do, we'll be losing power. From what I've gathered from their Arkadimon fight, ZeedGarurumon is just as powerful as a fused digimon. If they become Omnimon, we're losing a mega instead of gaining any power."

"You're not the only ones that can fuse, Taichi," Sora reminded him dryly. My eyes clung to her immediately, greedily drinking in her appearance one last time. She wasn't as worried and anxious as others were, but her face was serious. She wasn't playing around. She knew she didn't know what was going on, she realized she wasn't nearly prepared for this fight, but she was going to give it her all anyway. I felt my shoulders relax slightly. That was good. I'd been so worried about her. Her red flats, and black skinny jeans were paired perfectly with a loose, billowing red top with black buttons and accented with the black scarf she'd tied around her neck. She wasn't as beaten as the rest of us, but she was by no means untouched. Arkadimon's rough handling of her was evident.

My eyes were quickly drawn away by Jou's impatiently tapping foot. He looked as much like a drowned rat as Hideto did, having spent the entire battle in the rain, unlike Yamato, Neo and I, who'd taken a time out—get it?—back before it started to rain. He wasn't wearing his glasses as they'd been too damaged to stay put, though I could tell he was regretting that decision. He couldn't see what was going on. He kept squinting, and there were lines on his face that I'd only seen on grandparents. I was trying not to lose hope about Momoe, but I could see that Jou had already done so. He was resigned to being a widower already, and was barely clinging to the hope that Kiyoko had been right about his daughter. Even his clothing seemed to reflect that, as they drooped with the weight of the rain. The dark blue button down and his black slacks looked positively dreary now.

"Shall we?" Koushiro asked Sora. She nodded, and they pulled out their digivices. My lips quirked into a quick smile when Koushiro's eyes flickered to me before his digivice lit up red with the crest of love. Phoenixmon and TyrantKabuterimon flung together becoming one digimon.

"**Phoenixmon digivolve to…**"

"**TyranKabuterimon digivolve to…**"

"**Eaglemon!**"

The golden, metal eagle that emerged gleamed, but couldn't hold my focus. I didn't know how much time I had left, and I needed to take in as much as I could about Koushiro.

"Mimi?" Jou asked, but I couldn't do anything but look Koushiro from head to toe once. Just once. I noticed he was soaked, that he was wearing a striped red and black shirt with three-quarter length sleeves, and a pair of jeans that Sora had picked out for him. I saw that his hair was a mess and looked adorable that way. His left hand kept reaching up to touch his throat where the robot had nearly strangled him.

But I'd run out of time. Yggdrasil made his presence known.

"Such pitiful creatures the worlds have chosen to defend them," a metallic voice called from above us. Everyone's eyes moved as one to the very top of the giant tree. There I could barely make out a white robot shape, just like the hundreds I'd fought against in Odaiba, just like the millions that had tried to eradicate all life on the planet.

"Yggdrasil," Daisuke growled.

"Conceited much," Hideto commented. "All his minions look just like him."

"I don't," Norn said glaring at him.

"Norn," Yggdrasil said, noticing her presence. "You've become nothing but a disappointment to me. You are worthless."

"No I'm not!" she shouted at him. "I'm trying to prove their goodness to you."

"You cannot prove something that does not exist," Yggdrasil informed her.

"But it _does_," Norn screamed. "I've seen it."

"Enough of this," Daisuke said, adjusting the goggles on his head, the symbol of his leadership. "It's time to fight. DoruGoramon? Everyone? Attack!"

DoruGoramon led the charge, leaping into the air with the thrust of his large wings, shouting "Brave Metal!"

WarGreymon and ZeedGarurumon followed him, with calls of "Terra Force!" and "Full Metal Breath!"

"Mystic Break!" Eaglemon added, before Omnimon and Leopardmon followed with "Double Shot!" and "Black Aura Blast!"

Shakamon flew at the robot, aiming his sword at his head, and Coredramon launched himself up into the air screaming out "Blue Flare Breath!"

Monimon jumped up into a tree to get a better angle of the attacks—though I thought he was also probably hiding in fright. Plesiomon and Rosemon made up for it though, teaming up with their Rosy Cradle and Sorrow Blue attacks, meant to subdue Yggdrasil with a sad song and a shower of rose petals.

The resulting explosion of their combined attacks was deafening, and Yggdrasil was lost from sight in the accompanying cloud of smoke. We let out a cheer. We shouldn't have been so stupid. We _knew_ that Yggdrasil wouldn't go down easily.

"Is that all?" Yggdrasil asked arrogantly. "I was expecting…_more_."

"Hit him again!" Daisuke shouted.

The ten digimon agreed, and prepared for a second volley of attacks, but Yggdrasil wasn't going to sit back and take it again.

"You are fools," he declared. "If you think any amount of teamwork is going to beat me. I can create a team of my own to take you down in an instant. In fact, I'll do just that."

"What?" I asked exasperated. He was going to summon more of those stupid robots? That wasn't fair. I hadn't had enough time to memorize Koushiro yet. And the others that weren't here… No. I wasn't going to let him. I called out to Rosemon, who decided to try and attack him before he had the chance to bring in the robots, but he knocked her out of the way with ease.

The ground shook beneath my feet as one of the large roots of the giant tree lifted out of the ground. Slowly, it changed from a hunk of wood into something else entirely. It changed from grey to black, growing two sets of long, narrow arms with five claws adorning each hand they were attached to. One of those twenty claws was bright red, while the others were a glossy black. A white spike appeared at the back of each of the four elbows just as a pair of legs was beginning to form. Each leg was paired with a foot armed with three sharp, red, claws. A thin body formed, connecting the arms and legs, and then a head with a helmet reminiscent of Kabuterimon's, with dark blue hair sticking out the back and a toothy mouth hanging open with a long, red tongue. A large silver cannon came next, branching off of the back of the root creature, and finally a glowing yellow and blue aura of a similarly helmeted creature whose body was only made up of a pair of wings.

"Is that him?"

I turned as saw Michael coming towards us, his plaid shirt standing out against his dark pants and blonde, curly hair. He was pointing at the creature that the root had turned into. Kurayami was next to him, with her black hair pulled into a messy ponytail, her two bright purple streaks pulled along with the rest, creating a stripe down either side of her head. I looked beyond them, thinking I'd find Anubismon and GigaSeadramon but didn't. Instead, I found a giant, blue water tiger with sharp claws and more teeth than even Tokomon.

"No," Ken told him.

"Who is it then?" Kurayami asked.

"We don't know," Neo said sounding bored.

"Milleniummon," DoruGoramon said, sounding far more like GrandisKuwagamon than UlforceVeedramon in that moment.

"But he's been taken care of already," Sora said nervously. "You said so."

"So did the Winter Queen that Miyako was speaking with," Koushiro added.

"But isn't Milleniummon one of the great evils?" Jou asked.

"You hate the great evils!" Daisuke yelled at Yggdrasil just as the Millenniummon his root had turned into started to thrash about.

"This isn't one of the great evils," Yggdrasil said proudly. "It's just a version of one that has been perfected—he'll only do as I say, as they _should _have from the start."

"Millenniummon was really easy to defeat the first time around," DoruGoramon said. "There was just a champion and a rookie in the battle against him. You'll have to do better than that if you want to beat us."

"I did say _perfected_ did I not?" Yggdrasil commented. "But if you insist." Then he let out a spine tingling metallic laugh as he raised his arms. The ground shook again as four more roots raised out of the soil, slowly shifting forms into other creatures.

"What now?" Kurayami asked.

"We'll have to divide ourselves," Daisuke ordered. "But we can't forget about Yggdrasil. Someone has to stay on him at all times."

"Who?" Sora asked.

"Whoever's available after this," Daisuke said. "Ken and I will stay with Millenniummon. If he could get defeated by a champion and a rookie before, he can sure as hell get beaten by a fused pair of megas now that he's been "perfected." Keep an eye on the others. We don't know _what_ he'll turn into. It might be Arkadimon even."

He and Ken rushed over to DoruGoramon after that, leaving us staring at the other roots in horror. DoruGoramon let out a loud "Doru Din!" as he launched into the fight.

"I doubt it could be Arkadimon," Koushiro said anxiously. "He was a glitch to the Digital World. Yggdrasil only has access to what is supposed to exist, he's only able to draw on what is—or has been—because of his roots. A glitch doesn't technically exist, so he shouldn't have access to that data."

"We don't know if that's how this works though," Sora continued for him. "It's only speculation at this point."

"I'll take speculation," Taichi declared. "It's better than nothing. Who are we up against? Does anyone recognize anything yet?"

I scanned the four roots, trying to keep myself from just watching DoruGoramon and Millenniummon's fight, but failing at the same time. One root had changed its colour immediately to gold, and another to purple. The third was white, and the final root was now black, though it quickly gained both purple and red as it changed shape.

DoruGoramon was punching Millenniummon who didn't seem to feel any of the attacks, though Millenniummon did not fight back either.

"I think I know that one," Willis said suddenly, pointing to the red, black and purple root. It had changed drastically since I'd last seen it, though it had only been a few seconds. There were seven legs with red claws on the end. They were spindly and reminded me of a spider. The legs led up to a mouth that was nowhere near its head. Seven eyes surrounded the mouth, and just above the small body that the mouth was attached to, was a purple head. "It's Ogudomon."

"Who's that?" Taichi demanded.

"He's mine, that's what," Mari said glaring at the digimon angrily before she started to stalk towards it.

"Mari," Hideto protested. "You can't. You don't have a digimon."

"Exactly," Mari growled, and continued on her way.

"I'm coming with you!" Willis called. "Leopardmon!"

"Extinction Wave!" Leopardmon called throwing himself at the Ogudomon Yggdrasil had created.

"So he's not only using great evils?" Yamato asked, sounding confused.

"No," Koushiro said. "Tatum provided me with information pertaining to Ogudomon before. He was the combination of two of the deadly sin digimon. Reason makes me believe that this is—"

"A combination of all of them," Neo finished before Koushiro had the chance. "And that's what, two of the great evils right there?"

"That makes three," Jou commented.

"Four," Kurayami growled. Everyone turned to look at her and she simply pointed to the golden root. It had sprouted a tail and hundreds of spikes. There were three rows of eyes down its head, and two rows of five red orbs along its spine. It was huge and it was a dragon. It was—"Fanglongmon."

"Let's go then," Michael told her. "You want to take him on, so let's do it. Splashmon!"

"My pleasure," the large water beast purred in a low growly voice. It sounded positively evil. "Tiger Typhoon!" Everyone was doused in water as the tiger digimon threw himself—and his large wave of water—at the digimon that had held Kurayami's mind captive for so long.

"That's not going to be enough," Taichi warned the pair of them, as they started off to follow their digimon.

"They won't be alone," Sora informed him.

"Eaglemon!" Koushiro commanded. Eaglemon let out a thrilled call and followed after Splashmon calling out "Kaiser Phoenix!" as he did so. My four human friends ran towards the fight. I wanted so badly to run after them. I wanted to fight alongside them, so I could know that Koushiro would be alright, that Sora wouldn't just die again, that Kurayami and Michael wouldn't be swayed by Fanglongmon's mind tricks again. But I couldn't do that. There were still two more roots to worry about, and we couldn't spread ourselves too thin if we wanted to fight Yggdrasil at the same time.

"Is that?" Yamato asked.

"Apocolymon," Taichi confirmed.

I turned to see the third root, the purple one, had formed into the pentagonal box that formed the base of Apocolymon. Gold accents popped up and the claws came crawling out of the root as well. Finally, the tiny, creepy little digimon man sprouted out of the top, finishing off Apocolymon.

"I've got this one," Jou said firmly.

"There are others that can still help," I protested. "Let me help."

"Koushiro's not sure about his Arkadimon theory. You might be needed. If not, then go face Yggdrasil," Jou insisted. "If you defeat him, the others will fall too. We're just distractions anyway."

"But," I protested.

"Let the man do what he feels he needs to do," Hideto told me, dragging me away from Jou and towards the final root.

"No matter what this is," Neo said. "Yamato, you and Taichi need to go on to fight Yggdrasil. You're the most experienced fighters here. And you've got the most strength."

"And if it _is_ Arkadimon?" Yamato asked.

"Then we go down fighting," Neo said solemnly.

"I can't let you do that," Yamato countered.

"You won't have a choice," Neo declared. "Now go."

"Just do it," I told them. "Defeat Yggdrasil, and then we can all go home."

"You say that like it'll be easy," Taichi said laughing without humour. "Be safe."

"We will," Hideto confirmed.

I watched Taichi and Yamato rush over to the giant tree. The final root was still forming, and the others were effectively distracted by the digidestined that were facing off against them. WarGreymon lifted Taichi and Yamato to the first of the branches, before attacking Yggdrasil with his Mega Claw attack. The two boys struggled to climb up the branches while ZeedGarurumon flew up to attack Yggdrasil from behind with his Zeed Cannon. I caught sight of Plesiomon attacking Apocolymon with a Sad Water Blast, and Apocolymon attacking back with a loud "Reverse Digivolve!" which Pleiomon was thankfully able to dodge in order to throw a Shaking Pulse his way. Fanglongmon's loud call of "Dragon Smash!" had me looking towards his battle against Splashmon and Eaglemon. Eaglemon flew out of Fanglongmon's range before his tail could catch him, but Splashmon just stood his ground, letting Fanglongmon's tail slash right through his watery body. Fanglongmon decided to try a biting attack and headed in for a Koutei-no-Kiba but I didn't get a chance to see the results, as my attention was diverted by Millenniummon, who was trying to use his Ultimate Fusion attack—which from what I gathered meant trapping his foe in a pocket dimension he created—but DoruGoramon easily flew out of his range, attacking with his Brave Metal attack. "Catedal!" It was Ogudomon, attacking Mari and Willis, foregoing Leopardmon and aiming for the source of his power: Willis. Leopardmon jumped in there and swung his rapier, screaming "Black Aura Blast!" and attacking Ogudomon just in time.

"Mimi," Hideto called. "Mimi, do you know who this is?"

"What?" I asked, forcing myself to look away from the others' battles. I caught sight of the digimon that the root turned into. He was covered in a silvery white set of armor with dark blue and red accenting on his elbows, hips, shoulders and hands. There were wings sticking out the back of his shoulders, and faces on his kneecaps. The artilleries on his shoulders were alive, and his pelvic area had another face. A bat-like red mask covered most of his face too. "MaloMyotismon."

"He's one of the weaker ones, right?" Hideto asked.

"He was beaten by dreams last time," I explained.

"I don't have one," Hideto said awkwardly. "I don't have a dream to use."

"My dream just got blown up," I pointed out, thinking of the restaurant that was nothing but a vacant lot now. "What about you Neo?"

"I wanted to marry Sora," he said slowly.

"We're doomed," I gasped.

"We can still fight," Shakamon reminded me, hoisting his sword in the air and rushing at the armored vampire digimon, and slashing at his knees. Omnimon jumped in after him, with his Transcendent Sword attack, slashing at his shoulders with the Grey Sword. With his Strike Bomber attack, Coredramon rushed forward, smacking MaloMyotismon in the face with his tail. Rosemon held back, staring at MaloMyotismon, waiting for him to make his first move before she tried anything.

"Pandemonium!" MaloMyotismon boomed. He started secreting a gas-like substance that caused Omnimon, Shakamon and Coredramon to be engulfed in a cloud. When the cloud cleared, Omnimon was using his Blaster Blade technique, blasting at Coredramon with his Garuru Cannon while dueling with Shakamon with his Grey Sword.

"What are you doing?" Hideto demanded.

"He's confused," Rosemon informed him. "They all are. They don't know who is ally and who is foe. I must do something. Now."

"Then do it!" Neo snapped, angry with his digimon for being so easily distracted. I couldn't help but relate with the confused digimon. I was so easily distracted. I knew I needed to focus on this fight, and leave the others to their own battles, but I couldn't help but look any time I heard a digimon call out an attack. I needed to know they'd survive each attempt the enemy made at their lives. Plesiomon was calling out "Water Tail Blaster!" and struggling to fend off Apocolymon's Death Claw attack, only for Apocolymon to follow that attack with his Shokushu Kougeki, a slight variation of Death Claw, just to catch Plesiomon off guard. Our beloved sea monster was caught in Apocolymon's grasp!

"Thorn Whipping!" Rosemon screamed, tossing her whip around MaloMyotismon's neck, trying to convert him to our side using her influencing technique. She was going to use MaloMyotismon to stop Apocolymon, while our allies continued to fight, but she couldn't. She tugged on her whip multiple times, but MaloMyotismon didn't listen to any of them. "Come on!"

MaloMyotismon just let out a deeper version of Yggdrasil's laughter. He reached up and tugged the whip, sending Rosemon crashing into the ground at my feet.

Then it clicked.

"These aren't digimon, Rosemon," I told her. "They're just a part of Yggdrasil, like those robots were!"

"So they don't have a mind of their own," Rosemon concluded.

"And they're probably indestructible too," Hideto grumbled. "Just to make things even _more_ difficult."

"What are we going to do?" I asked in a panic.

"We fight," Rosemon informed me. "Beauty Shock!"

Oh God. I was having a hard time figure out what to think. I wanted to remember everyone just in case, but I was drawing a blank as to what my mother's hair colour was. How big was my dad's smile? What did Koushiro like with his jellybeans on his eggs? I couldn't remember things. This wasn't good.

"Mimi," Hideto said, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Breath slowly. You're hyperventilating. You're the most experienced fighter we have with us. You can't freak out. Calm down."

"I can't!" I screamed, tears starting to fall down my face. "Everything is going wrong. This is our last fight. I know it is. And I don't think we win!"

Smack!

"You can't think like that," Hideto said, having slapped me across the face. "I know that was wrong, hitting a girl and all, but I don't have time for such nonsense. I have to win this, because I need to find a dream to work towards. I need to help you rebuild yours and I want to help Neo find a better one. So smarten up Mimi, because we _have_ to win."

"Right," I said, taking deep breaths. Everything was too much, clouding my focus. He was right, of course. I'd been saying it all along, I needed to focus, I needed to stay on guard. Why had I lost sight of my own brilliant advice?

"Enough of this!" Rosemon shouted at her three allies, after failing to take MaloMyotismon out on her own. "Beauty Shock!" she screamed, shocking each of them in turn with her whip. That seemed to be enough to shake them of their confusion.

"Coredramon, digivolve," Neo commanded. Coredramon nodded, and Neo's digivice turned the same deep plum colour as his crest immediately. Coredramon was lit up win a white sort of spotlight.

"**Coredramon digivolve to… Wingdramon!**"

It wasn't fair how he could digivolve so quickly after getting his crest, but I didn't care so much at the time. We needed all the help we could get in defeating Yggdrasil's creations. Wingdramon was just as blue as Coredramon had been, and was still covered in dragon scales. He was clutching a yellow orb in each of his clawed hands though, and wore a mask with two red spikes on the tip. Orange tufts of hair burst out from under the helmet, and he had gigantic wings now, and a longer tail. He had what appeared to be smaller wings along the back of his arms as well, and a lance strapped to his back.

"Attack!" Neo told him. Omnimon, Shakamon and Rosemon followed suit. Wingdramon let out an Exploding Sonic Lance, accelerating up to maximum speed in a nose dive, and striking MaloMyotismon with the lance on his back. Shakamon attacked with his sword again, and Omnimon tried just his blaster this time with his Supreme Cannon attack. Rosemon followed it up by using her Ivy Hug to tangle MaloMyotismon in her vine whips, allowing Wingdramon to swoop in with another attack. This time he used Blaze Sonic Breath, shooting a blast of fire at MaloMyotismon. But MaloMyotismon just burst out of Rosemon's hold, using his Screaming Darkness attack, blasting Shakamon and Rosemon to the ground with attacks shot from the living artilleries on his shoulders.

"We need more," Hideto said, pointing out our thoughts. How could Jou and Willis handle the battles with only one digimon? I looked to see that Plesiomon had burst out of Apocolymon's hold, and was pelting him with his Hydro Impact Crusher, and that Leopardmon was behind attacked by Ogudomon's Gradus attack, which he was using to pulverize Leopardmon with his gigantic legs.

"Then we'll get more," Neo growled. "Wingdramon, one more time!"

"**Wingdramon digivolve to… Slayerdramon!**"

Slayerdramon was more like Coredramon than Wingdramon, in that he was more humanoid. He was white from head to toe—kind of like Neo—with only hints of gold breaking up the gleaming colourless armor. He wore a hunter green cape, and a curved sword—made of several spiked pieces seemingly welded together—that was nearly as large as his body was clenched in his left hand.

"Let's try this again!" Neo commanded. "We've got to beat this guy."

"Koryu Slash!" Slayerdramon shouted, stepping in closer to MaloMyotismon, and curling his sword around his indestructible body, and attempting to shave off his shell, layer by layer. Of course it didn't work, and only sparks flew.

"Rose Spear!" Rosemon tried, straightening her whip into a rapier, and attempting to crack MaloMyotismon's armor at the same time that Shakamon slashed at him with his sword.

"Ultimate Uppercut!" Omnimon called when the two had failed. He used the Grey Sword to send MaloMyotismon into the air, then jumped up after him, repeatedly firing his Garuru Cannon down after him.

Still nothing happened.

"Where's Kiyoko?" I questioned with a whine. I was frustrated okay! "Maybe you two could fuse."

"I don't need him," Neo said confidently. I didn't know what he meant, but the wheels seemed to be turning in his head. Hideto caught on to my confusion.

"Neo's a master at Jogress," Hideto explained. "He's the reason we were able to fuse those digimon we were infecting back when we were still against you."

"Oh," I said, remembering a time when I watched Mari's Rosemon inject two digimon and then saw the two digimon meld into one. It wasn't a very happy memory.

"Slayerdramon, fuse!" Neo commanded.

"With who?" Slayerdramon said, just as confused as I felt. He looked around, finding only MaloMyotismon who didn't already have a fusing partner.

"Yourself!" Neo shouted, exasperatedly.

"O-Okay," Slayerdramon said…but then both he and Neo's digivice were glowing a dark plum colour, and his shape was changing.

"**Slayerdramon digivolve to…**"

"**Brakedramon digivolve to…**"

"**Examon!**"

"Who is Brakedramon?" I asked. My head was hurting. I was too confused to make heads or tails of this. I took the time to take in the newest member of our fused ranks. He had wings that were each at the very least twice the size of his dragon body, and he had wings at least his size hanging off of each arm. His tail was three times as long as he was tall, and the mechanical weapon that was his right hand, was the same length as his height. He was bright red, with a white underbelly, and if he were to stand, I knew he'd stand upright. He had long horns sticking out the back of his head.

"Brakedramon is Dracomon, in a different time," Neo told me. "You gave me the idea really, when you brought me back to get Sora, and I saw my past self. There was the potential for him to become someone far different than who I was at the time I saw him, and I remembered that Dracomon could have gone two very different ways, depending on his moral ground at the time of his first digivolution. Had I still been excessively evil, he would have become a green Coredramon, which would then become a Groundramon, then finally Brakedramon."

"So you fused Dracomon with his evil self?" I asked.

"Cool, isn't it?" Hideto asked with a grin.

"So we have a chance right?" I guessed.

"Who knows what this guy can do," Hideto laughed. "Omnimon, tag team him with Examon."

Examon flapped his wings once—not even a full time—and he was already far above our enemy. "Dragonic Impact!" he called, before flying down at MaloMyotismon, lighting with fire as the friction he was experiencing due to his speed reacted with his skin. Just as MaloMyotismon tried to recover from that blow, Omnimon rushed foreward with his Sword of Ruin, which apparently was an attack that created a ring of energy around himself and MaloMyotismon, which he then caused to explode, landing a direct hit on the root imposter.

But when the smoke cleared, nothing much had changed.

"We can do this," Hideto said, repeating himself over and over again.

"Even if we can't," I told him. "We're going down fighting."

"Ain't that the truth," Neo agreed with a slight smirk.

_**Kiyoko Izumi:**_

Sigma was staring at Iori and Miyako's newly fused digimon, anticipating his first move. But Gaiomon was perfectly content with just staring back, occasionally moving his weight from one foot to the other to keep Sigma guessing.

Somehow, Iori and Miyako had managed to find it within themselves to defend me against Sigma, despite Sigma being one hundred percent correct in all of his statements. I was weak. I was useless. I was a disgrace to my family and an unworthy friend. I didn't _want_ to be those things, but I was. The desire to change was enough for my crest to function though, so I never had to force myself to change.

Emiko continued to sob, and I empathized. I wished I could do the same without seeming even weaker than I was. I could curl up somewhere and just let it all out to the point that I'd be starting with a clean slate. But I wasn't a child, and I didn't have anyone to comfort me as she did. Iori was forced unwillingly into the role of comforter for her, but he didn't even second guess it. She was a child and therefore needed comfort.

I didn't have anyone that would offer that to me.

Maybe Yoshie, but that could be pushing it.

I hadn't had anyone other than Sigma in a long time. I had trouble functioning without him. I found myself staring at things and people far more often than is socially acceptable. I didn't have Sigma to keep me from making a fool of myself. I didn't know how to fully be in charge of myself. It was very nice at first, deciding everything for myself. But it was exhausting. I had been thirteen when I first met Sigma. I wasn't old enough to be on my own. He raised me into the man I was today, however weak a man that was.

And so _what_ if I wanted Hideto to love me! Was it a bad thing to want love? I didn't think so. I craved that feeling, and Hideto was perfect. He didn't _have_ to love me back. It was his decision to make though, not Sigma's. He hadn't said it…but he hadn't said he didn't either. Or that he couldn't. Until he told me flat out, I wouldn't know. And Sigma wouldn't know either. He couldn't. He only knew _my_ mind inside and out. Not Hideto's. He_ hated_ Hideto anyway. He didn't like the way that Hideto sparked something in me, made me brave enough to fight against his hold on me.

Everything I was able to contribute to the cause, I'd learned from him. But that didn't mean I couldn't use what he'd taught me against him. He knew me better than anyone, and the same could be said in reverse.

I kept my face to the ground as I tried to carefully brush the remaining tears off of my cheeks without letting anyone see. They'd been nice enough to not mention that I'd been crying like a baby. But I wasn't a baby and I couldn't afford to let my fears continue to get the better of me.

I had to prove my worth to Sigma, but more importantly, I had to prove it to myself.

Sigma was wrong about one other thing too. I _did_ have a friend: Piedmon. He'd never confused me with Sigma. He refused to call me Sigma, even when Sigma had demanded he do so, calling me only "Sir" instead. Piedmon believed in me. Yoshie believed in me. All that was left was for _me_ to believe in me.

"Rinkazan!" Gaiomon said, breaking the silence that had permeated the battlefield. He used his two swords and sliced them forward toward Sigma, and through him. He left behind an eerie track of light that would have destroyed Sigma, if he hadn't caught sight of it in time. He melted into the ground and appeared behind Gaiomo, using his fists to slam the digimon into the ground.

"I really thought you'd be more interesting," Sigma drawled. He kicked Gaiomon, causing the digimon to roll across the forest floor, smashing into trees and knocking them over.

Miyako furiously shook Momoe's shoulders, desperate to wake her up. She wasn't going to be able to drag Momoe out of the way if a tree started to fall in our direction. But Momoe wouldn't budge. If it were possible, Emiko's cries got louder, and she clung to Iori tighter. He tried to pry her arms from around his neck with little success. He was murmuring in her ear, though what he was saying, I couldn't hear.

Piedmon decided to join in the fight, sending his swords flying at Sigma, trying to catch him off guard before he jumped onto Gaiomon, but the swords passed right through Sigma without him attempting to humour us. He was serious now, and that did not bode well for us. When Sigma said he was going to kill something, he killed them. I remembered a junkyard dog that had fallen into his grasp by daring to growl as we walked passed. I distinctly remember scrubbing at my hands for weeks, trying to wash the feel of the fur beneath my fingers away. Sigma called me weak then too. Mari's old hamster lost its life the same way. I still hadn't told her about that though. She was really frightening.

Sigma landed on top of Gaiomon, drilling his knee into his throat. Luckily, Gaiomon's armor made it difficult for Sigma to get in that great of a hit. Unfortunately, Sigma was a shadow, and seemed to remember that face. He took his hand, and reached inside of Gaiomon's chest, determined to kill him from the inside out. Miyako let out a horrified scream and Iori stared with wide eyes. Their new digimon was going to die so soon after digivolution. A part of me wanted to turn away, but I couldn't. I stood in transfixed, morbid fascination, watching as my previous possessor scrambled a digimon's insides. I wondered briefly if all digimon had organs, or if they were like Whaemon—lacking any sort of insides.

Sigma had really done a number on my brain if that was what I was focussing on, instead of trying to figure out a plan to stop him. Piedmon, however, wasn't as easily distracted. He knew his attacks wouldn't work on the shadow, and decided to tackle him while Sigma was laughing at Gaiomon's pain. Piedmon was able to get Sigma away from Gaiomon but the shadow noticed what was going on just a second later and faded from being, allowing Piedmon to travel through his body. It was enough time for Gaiomon to get to his feet though.

"Rinkageki!" Gaiomon called, noticing Sigma's location and preparing his swords for another light attack. This time, instead of leaving a trail of light where the sword had slashed, he moved them in a complicated set of movements, causing a trail of light to appear behind Sigma—a trail that was heading for the shadow.

"Damn," Iori growled as Sigma caught sight of it and jumped out of the way, slamming down on Gaiomon with his leg. Gaiomon fell to the ground, rolling along the forest's floor. None of Sigma's physical attacks—except for his organ merry-go-round—seemed to be causing Gaiomon any damage. Gaiomon was simply losing his footing because he was always a step behind Sigma. That was how Sigma worked though. He used his opponent's predictability against them.

Could I make that work to our advantage?

My mind was reeling. I was pulling at my memory bank, trying to learn what I could remember about Sigma's attack strategy, and combining it with what I knew about Piedmon and Gaiomon. Piedmon wasn't strong enough to win, but he _could_ play the role of distraction fairly well.

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon tried, once again drawing Sigma's attention away from Gaiomon only to bring it onto himself. Simga sunk into the ground and appeared at Piedmon's side, slamming this joined hands into my partner's side. Piedmon came flying towards Miyako, Momoe, Iori, Emiko and I, landing on the ground in front of me.

"Try this on for size," Gaiomon growled, lifting his hands into the air. "Gaia Reactor!"

All the energy in the atmosphere seemed to fly toward Gaiomon, and he condensed it into a powerful orb in front of him. He looked to Sigma and chucked it at him, slashing it with his sword just before it got out of his reach. The resulting explosion tossed us off our feet. Iori landed on his back, before rolling over to protect Emiko from the blast. Miyako threw herself over her unconscious sister, and Piedmon crawled over to hold my hand, squeezing it tightly, trying to assure me that we'd be alright.

When the shockwaves finally died down, I risked a peek at the battle site. The trees within a fifty foot radius were all demolished, but Sigma remained standing, laughing at Gaiomon.

"A valiant attempt," Sigma complimented. "I almost didn't realize what you were doing, but you were too obvious. You'll need to work on that if you hope to beat me."

"I don't hope," Gaiomon declared. "I _plan_ on it."

"You're a cocky one aren't you," Sigma commented with another laugh.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Momoe!" Miyako said in delight. "You're awake."

"Yeah, I'm awake," Momoe said impatiently. "What just happened to the trees?"

"Doesn't matter," Iori said firmly. "Take your daughter."

"Emiko!" Momoe called happily. She pried Emiko off of Iori, and hugged her baby close to her chest, whispering sweetly into her ear.

I caught Piedmon's wrist just before he jumped back into the battlefield. "Wait," I told him. "I need you to do something for me." I whispered instructions into his ear, and told him to go distract Sigma so that I could give Gaiomon his own set of instructions.

"This is for Kiyoko!" Piedmon shouted much to my embarrassment—and secret pleasure—as he kicked Sigma in the side of the head, causing the shadow to fly towards the edge of the clearing Gaiomon had created. I took that as my opportunity to rush towards the samurai dragon, and set off running, ignoring Miyako and Iori's protests. I winced as I saw Piedmon get thrown into the trunk of a tree, before Sigma flew at him and punched him in the chest, knocking the tree he'd been leaning against over.

"My turn," Gaiomon muttered just as I reached him.

"Stop," I hissed. "I've got a plan."

He listened as I murmured my idea, nodding after I'd finished. "It's worth a try," he agreed.

"Excellent," I said, thrumming with excitement. Sigma could be defeated! But we only had one shot at this. If we missed and tried again, he'd know our plan. It would be predictable. Sigma preyed on predictable. But _we_ weren't the only ones that were predictable.

I caught sight of Piedmon flying through the air once more, after Sigma had hit him. Sigma was rushing after him, but froze mid-step before turning toward me.

"What have we here?" he asked. "Is someone pretending to have a back bone again?"

I didn't answer. I just stared at him, breathing heavily. My plan had to work. My plan _had_ to work. I kept repeating it over and over in my mind as if hearing it enough would make it true.

"Let's see how easy that back bone is to crack," Sigma suggested. He sunk into the ground and appeared in front of me, picking me up by the front of my shirt. "Goodbye, Kiyoko," he hissed before tossing me into the air, whirling around and kicking me in the chest, sending me flying through the air. I managed to scream out a choked "NOW!" before landing roughly on the ground, rolling over and over again until I landed painfully on my back.

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon shouted. I knew what he was doing, though I couldn't lift my head to see—it was too painful. He was holding his hands out, electrocuting Sigma. It wouldn't work, but I wasn't expecting it to.

Sigma had a pattern. If someone attacked him, he'd sink into the ground and attack them in close combat. It was a constant in his technique—one that I'd known for ages, but hadn't realized its full potential until now.

"Rinkageki!" Gaiomon called.

Good.

That meant Sigma did as I predicted. He moved to Piedmon's side, allowing for Gaiomon to send his long distance light attack towards Sigma. Sigma would dodge, though he'd be confused. No one sent attacks in such quick succession. Not at _him_ in any case. He would follow his own pattern though, and appear next to Gaiomon next.

But Gaiomon would be ready for him.

"Rinkazan!" Gaiomon called. I heard the sound of his swords, metal on metal, as he prepared his attack, so that he could launch it just before Sigma rose out of the ground, catching him off guard, and blasting him with the full power of the light attack.

I needed to see it.

I grunted in pain as I rolled myself onto my stomach, lifting my head just in time to see the scene I'd longed for since I'd forced Sigma from my body. The trail of light was directly in his path, but he didn't see it until it was too late as he rose from the ground. He let out a scream as the light lit him on fire, burning him until there was nothing left. I let out a shaky laugh.

"We did it!" Miyako screamed from across the clearing. Momoe and Emiko were doing a happy dance—though Emiko was still crying. Iori strode towards his digimon partner a conflicted look on his face. He knew, as I did, that the fighting was far from over. Sigma may be gone, but he wasn't the last foe we'd face.

Piedmon jumped over to my side, and helped pull me to my feet. Once I was upright, the pain didn't seem quite as bad, though it was definitely still present. I walked gingerly over to the others.

"Hey, what's that?" Momoe called, pointing into the distance.

"A…tree?" Miyako guessed. It sure looked like one, though it was as large as Infinity Mountain at the very least.

"I think we've found out next destination," Gaiomon announced.

"The Temple first," Iori said firmly. "Then the tree. We need to drop Momoe and Emiko off with Yuuko and the others that won't be fighting."

"I want to help," Momoe protested weakly.

"Then help your daughter," I suggested. She glared at me and for once, I didn't flinch at a mean stare—though it was mostly due to pain. It still counted though.

"Come," Piedmon suggested. "We've a long way to go, and destiny awaits."

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

I couldn't believe this was happening.

I couldn't believe it was happening because if I did I'd have to accept my imminent death. A dinosaur made of rocks and lava was generating fire from its open jaw and spitting it toward me while I held a sword. The sword was probably the least weird part of the whole situation, and yet, at the same time, for me, wielding a sword was most definitely not a natural, or common occurrence. And yet, if I could possibly survive it... it would be the absolute, best, most wonderful chapter to my book.

Hikari was standing back from me as I frantically jumped out of the way of the blasts of fire being shot toward me. I knew Hikari was hoping for me to win the fight, but as far as I could tell, the statistics were _not_ in my favour.

Luckily, all those years playing soccer with Daisuke, Taichi and Ken proved useful and I was fast enough to evade the blasts with only one coming close to me—and even being three feet from me, I could have sworn the hair on my bare shins had been scorched. This was no ordinary fire, but did I ever really believe that it was? Nothing was ever so simple in the Digital World.

"Would you just stay still?" Erif asked with a growl.

"Don't do it!" Hikari shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"I didn't _plan_ on it!" I shouted with exasperation as I, yet again jumped out of the way of the blasts of fire. I was fast, but jumping side to side with a heavy metal sword meant that I was eventually going to run out of energy, and the dinosaur in front of me was losing next to none of his own.

I needed to think of a plan. I didn't have anything to fight with besides the sword, I couldn't drag Hikari into the battle. I couldn't let her get hurt. Besides, she didn't have a sword handy like I did. I didn't have _time _to think of a plan though! I needed someone smarter! Someone like Koushiro or Willis! What would they say?

"_Prodigious, serendipitous, pandemonium, loquacious!"_

Of course I didn't exactly understand that. Koushiro could be so confusing sometimes... I needed Willis! What was his interpretation? What did I have to do? What did that last word even mean? Loquacious...?

I just needed to channel Koushiro. I needed to channel his crest—mine wasn't helping me just then. I needed someone else's. Alright. Loquacious...

To talk a lot.

Talking.

Buying time!

"Why now?" I shouted suddenly, "Why us?"

Voldcdramon tilted his head and looked closer to me, leaning his head down slightly, "What do you mean? Who else would I pick?"

"No," I shook my head, turning to Hikari and trying to register what I needed. I needed a plan. A simple plan. "Why _us_? Why weren't you in the battle? You're working for Arkadimon aren't you? Why aren't you doing what you should be doing?"

"How do you know that this isn't exactly what I'm supposed to be doing?" Erif asked.

"Because you're avoiding the question." I pointed out. I looked to Hikari who flashed a grin to me, still hopeful, but I could tell her brain was spinning as she too tried to find a plan as well. I could only hope she was more successful than I was.

"Very well, "Erif grumbled, straightening his neck again, "I'm on my own mission."

"A-and what's that?" I asked, my voice faltering for just a moment before I shook off the fear and stood tall. Taichi had locked me up with Hikari, and although he did it to fulfill Yamato's request, I knew he'd want me to protect his sister. He'd want me to stand tall and courageous. I'd just have to channel Taichi this time. I'd have to channel our leader, the hero. "What mission?"

"Why would I tell you?" Erif asked, squinting his eyes as the lava in the chasms on his back began to bubble again.

"Why wouldn't you?" I countered, "If you're just going to kill us, why wouldn't you tell us your plan?"

"Yes, but if you escape then I have a problem now don't I?" Erif scoffed, "I'm not that stupid."

"How could we possibly escape?" I asked quickly, pointing to Hikari who was staring at the ground now, "She's got no weapon and I've got just a sword. At least satisfy my curiosity before you kill me." I had to force myself not to raise his suspicions by smiling. This was more than I could have asked for in a million years. I felt like I was in one of my favourite comics or television shows. "Come on."

"Oh alright," Volcdramon rolled his glowing yellow eyes and then looked down to me again, "You remember our last encounter? I took the digimentals. I activated them. I activated their powers before you digidestined could take them from me. And although I didn't take their powers it didn't matter. They will scatter into the air, and I'll take them from there."

"What?" I asked, thoroughly confused, "Why do you want the digimentals so bad?"

"You fool," Erif-dramon growled, "I want their _power_ not the digimentals! You children win every time, why is that?"

"Because of the crests." Hikari responded, almost scaring me to death. But she didn't. So it was okay. She was now standing right next to me, looking up to our enemy with the same amount of ferocity as I was. I wanted to tell her to get back to where she'd been standing before, out of the line of fire. I couldn't have her get hurt! I had to have her live through this apocalypse. Before I could react however, Erif had spoken again.

"Because of the crests." Volcdramon agreed, "And since they're a part of your heart, I needed to find a new way to get those same crests."

"For Arkadimon." Hikari guessed as I realized what Arkadimon had done with Sora. He'd literally taken her crest... he absorbed her with his Dot Matrix attack—and it was like the others had been saying. Just one crest made the opponent ultimately stronger... that's why Meiyomon had been so angered by Ken and Michael losing the new batch to Syakomon... Why had Arkadimon needed to absorb Sora if his ally had found a simpler method? Why would Arkadimon go out of his way to make things more complicated...?

"You weren't telling Arkadimon." I noted, "You were going to take those crests for yourself! You were going to overthrow Arkadimon to prove your worth—to prove your strength."

"Obviously," Erif rolled his eyes. But why would he need to overthrow Arkadimon? Why couldn't they just work together? Something told me it wasn't just a simple as him wanting to do it on his own... but what did Arkadimon rule? Nothing really... Arkadimon only ruled over the evils of the worlds... and the evils of the worlds were set to take over the worlds... which meant that... if Erif wanted to overthrow Arkadimon, then he wanted to overthrow Arkadimon's only true threat as well. Yggdrasil.

"You want to rule all nine worlds." I said, absolutely positive.

"I'm evil." Volcdramon said, "Isn't that always the case?"

"He's got a point," Hikari said from the corner of her mouth. I turned to her to stick my tongue out, but instead I saw her expression turn to a shocked one very quick. I turned back to Erif as his foot came hurtling toward me. I acted quickly and heaved the heavy sword in a slicing motion, cutting his ankle. His foot jerked back with a roar escaping his mouth. "Takeru!" Hikari exclaimed, "Good news! I've thought of a plan!"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Run." She said with a grin.

"What?" I gasped.

"Run!" She screamed, grabbing my arm and pulling me along with her, through the trees, not daring to look back for even a moment. "We have to get to the Temple!" Hikari declared. "We need Shakamon."

"We can do this without them!" I shouted, shaking my head, "We can't lead him toward them! It's dangerous."

"They're our only hope." Hikari gasped, "Takeru, you're amazing, but you cannot slay a digimon! You're just a human! If there's one thing I've learned over the years, fighting your own battles is dangerous. We need the others."

She had a point, and yet somehow I just couldn't see it in myself to lure him all the way to the Temple. I knew we were headed that way anyway, but there was no way I could put them all in danger! I had to change direction... I had to keep Erif away while keeping everyone else safe. And that included Hikari.

"There's the bush!" She cried out, still holding her digivice for directions, "There it is! We're going to make it!" Behind a single green bush stood everyone I was trying to protect... I couldn't go through there. I had to protect my friends. And I had to protect Hikari.

"Perfect," I told her. "Now go."

"What?" She gasped, "No—you're coming. You're absolutely coming." She grabbed at my arm and tried to pull me toward the bush but I pulled from her grasp. "Takeru!"

"Go!" I shouted, glancing back to the lava dinosaur racing toward us, setting the entire forest on fire. "GO!" I was practically in tears now. "Hikari, you said it yourself. It's our only hope. Go!" I tried to push her through once more but she stopped me, slapping my arm and then we both froze, staring to each other the moment before we were doomed to die.

"They aren't our only hope." She said quietly, "You are. _You_ are our only hope."

"Hikari... please just go." I said, just as quietly.

"I'll never go." She shook her head, "I'll never leave you."

"Volcanic fount!"

Hikari screamed as I acted as fast as I could. I grabbed her arm and pulled her as fast as I could in a different direction, rushing from the lava shooting straight toward us.

"What about Marrow?" Hikari screamed suddenly, pulling from my grasp and turning to Erif again. "What about Marrow!"

"Volcanic fount!" Erif shouted again, dropping his jaw and allowing his mouth to fill with more magma.

"Stop!" Hikari screamed, "I just have one more question! I thought Marrow was in charge!"

Erif growled, causing the magma in his mouth to bubble and pour from his mouth, dripping to forest floor. With a snarl he spit the rest of the lava to the ground. "Marrow was a fool. I fed him the ideas so you'd all think he was in charge. If he was of any use he wouldn't have failed his only mission. All he had to do was cause problems with you children. Make you suspect him."

"Well he did that." I pointed out.

"Maybe, but not well enough, clearly." Erif snapped. "Now, any more questions before I kill you?"

"Why have you never transformed before?" I asked quickly.

"Yggdrasil's monsters are sucking the air away." Erif said. "You can still breathe. You've just noticed there's still air. Why is that? Because digimon don't need it. My smoke however replaces the air, the smoke from my volcanoes, if breathed in by a digimon will cause them do die within minutes. You humans are different. You can just step away and breathe normally once more, but while working with the other death knights I couldn't very well transform or they'd all die." Just one more reason why I couldn't drag Patamon and Gatomon into this battle. They'd die without a chance to fight him... so that really meant it was up to us. "Now, I'll give you three seconds to come up with any further questions. Ready?"

"Yes," Hikari said boldly, "I've got one. How fast do you think two exhausted humans could run?"

"What?" Erif asked. With a simple squeak Hikari was running again, with me just seconds behind her. "Oh, not again!" I heard his heavy footsteps coming after us, but didn't look back. As long as I could distract him long enough for the others to win the war they were fighting... then perhaps they'd be able to team up and find a way to defeat him and then I'll have done my duty. I couldn't burden them with this when they had so much to deal with already!

But then there had to be a way. Destiny would give us a chance—it wouldn't doom us to a hopeless battle. Surprisingly, there was always hope. Always and everywhere... funny how the crest of hope chose me—I was almost annoyingly optimistic...

Crest of hope... the crests—Erif wanted the crests because they made him stronger—well then perhaps they could make us stronger too. And suddenly what Iori had told me shot through my mind. _We need love_.

"Hikari!" I said loudly as we ran, hand in hand, keeping my sword arm held at a distance. "There's something I've got to tell you!"

"Well I don't want you to say anything you wouldn't say if we weren't about to be killed by a giant digimon!" She responded sharply, "It'll just ruin it!"

"But it's really important!" I insisted.

"Yes, well, alright," Hikari nodded, leaping over a large stone, "Then I have something to tell you too."

"Me first." I objected.

"Together?" Hikari offered. I turned to her with a nervous smile and nodded, "Ready? Three... two..."

"I love you!" We blurted at the same time. "What?" We gasped as one, both laughing with excitement. "I love you!" we said again. She loved me? When did that happen? _How_ did that happen? Well, quite frankly, it didn't matter! I couldn't stop smiling, with a new found source of energy and adrenaline.

Iori was right. We did need love. I now knew what to do.

I stopped running and released Hikari's hand. There was nothing that could stop me from doing this. It was what was right. I couldn't allow Erif to get away from this—I couldn't let him get to Hikari or the rest of my friends. I had to keep them alive, and I had to keep the unspoken promise I'd had with Taichi to keep his sister safe.

"Takeru!" Hikari gasped, stopping and turning to me, "Come on!"

"No." I said flatly. "I'm tired of running. No more running. I'm ending this."

"Takeru look out!" Hikari screamed, lunging forward and pushing my shoulders as hard as she could. I fell hard to the ground, and as if in slow motion, watched as the long, burning tail of Erif swung just over my head as I fell to the ground.

Suddenly everything was speeding up again as I rolled out of the way and jumped to my feet, turning to see Hikari who had been hit by the tail, slamming against a tree. She fell to a heap on the ground and my knuckles began to turn white with the amount of force I put into squeezing my hands into fists. My nostrils were flaring as I spun from my best friend to the monster that had hurt her.

"You're going to pay for that!" I shouted loudly, "You're going to pay for hurting her! She means _everything_ to me, and that means that by messing with her, you've messed with me. And let me just tell you—no one who has ever messed with me, has gotten away with it."

"Because you've always had your partner!" Erif laughed.

"No." I objected, "Because I have hope. Patamon and I are connected because of our hope. And that means that if he can do it... then I can do it too." I'd never thought of it that way, but it was true. The moment Angemon had come into my life, the moment I'd gotten Angemon to finally digivolve into ultimate. The moment I was under Apocalymon's spell and I'd finally mastered my crest to get Seraphimon to enter the fray. It was all because of my hope. I'd always been hoping—hoping Sora would become my sister, and she was the closest I'd ever get, hoping that when I jumped down the tower where the Sovereign were keeping our partners—all I did was hope that I wouldn't die upon landing. And then I didn't. And of course, for so long I'd been hoping for Hikari to love me... and now she did. Hope was all around me, and that was all I was going to need for this battle. Hope, and the rest of the crests. Love, Knowledge—Courage.

All the crests. All at once.

I felt my heart lift as I ran toward the beast. I wasn't sure if it was stupidity or destiny, but whatever it was, I knew what I had to do.

"Volcanic Fount!" Volcdoramon shouted, the magma pouring once again from his mouth as he shot it down to the ground. Just like soccer—avoid the opponents. I leapt to the side and then sprang into the air, slamming my sword into his back leg. Erif cried out in pain as I used the sword to pull myself up onto his back before pulling the sword back out. "No!" Erif shouted. "Circle of Death!"

I had no idea what that attack would do, but I knew it couldn't be good. I found out quickly though as the volcanoes on his back began to bubble and pour lava out into puddles collecting all over his back, and overflowing, dripping onto the ground as the great black smoke he spoke of shot into the sky. The lava pouring onto the ground moved quickly and created a large circle around the two of us. I looked to Hikari quickly and saw that she too, was in the circle.

Circle of _death_ didn't sound too charming—I had to stop him before he killed us all!

And then I was running along his back, leaping over piles of lava, pulling my hat from my head and covering my nose and mouth, blocking the smoke from my lungs. The bottoms of my shoes were melting as I passed the second set of volcanoes.

I looked to the circle and the lava was bubbling like mad as the smoke clouds thickened within the circle around us. If he was a digimon, could he breathe it in?

I didn't have time to risk such a reckless plan.

"You're just a human!" Erif laughed, "You're too late!"

"It's never too late!" I cried out, jumping out of the smoke toward his neck, the sword thrown over my shoulder. Before landing I slashed with all of my strength toward the base of his neck, the blade of the sword slicing straight through his neck.

I dropped the sword as Erif's body fell limp, his knees buckling as his body fell toward the ground. The lava was splashing with the movement—I had no choice, I had to jump! I readied myself and ran to his shoulder and leapt into the air just as his body exploded into the golden dust leaving behind a simple orange orb.

I couldn't help but scream as I came crashing toward the ground. "Urraaaaaaaaagh!" I screamed as I slammed into the ground hard and painfully. I groaned and rolled back and forth, clutching my elbow before roaring with pain.

I sat up quickly and started pulling at my shoes that were scorched and slightly on fire. I winced at the touch but flung them from my body and jumped to my feet, spinning, and grunting, biting my lip as I clutched my elbow.

Why was I in so much pain? The heroes never had to go through this after their battles! I found myself jumping up and down to avoid crying in pain again.

"Y-you alright?"

I spun quickly and found myself staring at Hikari who was clutching her head with both hands as she laughed at me. Between the two of us sat the orange orb.

"Me?" I asked, stopping my crazy dances, "I'm fine, perfectly fine." I started walking toward her, busying myself in picking up the orb to avoid letting her see my blushing face. The orb was hot to the touch, but I picked it up anyway, throwing it over my shoulder where it smashed against a tree behind me. "How are you?" I asked her, staggering toward her, exhausted. "You okay?"

"Oh you know..." She said as I fell to my knees next to her, gently moving her hands to look at her head. There was a little bump, but she'd be okay. "I was just chased through a forest by the thing that killed my friend, and then my best friend killed a dragon digimon with a simple sword!"

"Ah, well," I laughed, "It happens to the best of us."

"Really?" Hikari asked, blushing and looking from me. "Because I feel like it's only _ever_ happened to me."

"Exactly." Without thinking, I scooped her face into my hand and brought it toward me, kissing her full on the mouth just as dawn cracked on the horizon. Hikari wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back, and even though we were in the middle of a war, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, just that my first kiss was with my soul mate. The girl I loved, the girl who finally realized her love for me, and we were together at that moment. And forever.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

The sun was rising. I didn't know if anyone else noticed it, but I sure did. It was giving me a miniscule amount of hope for this battle. It seemed symbolic, in a way. The sun was rising on our final battle—because that's what this was, the _last_ one—something that was bittersweet to me.

This was the hardest battle I'd ever had to face—not only because Yggdrasil was the toughest foe we'd ever laid eyes on either. It was the location that did it for me. Yamato and I were clinging to the uppermost branches of the giant tree Yggdrasil had created in the Digital World, watching as our digimon struggled to keep pace with the floating, whit robot of doom. The only good thing about him, was the green cord that kept him attached to the tree, since that meant he couldn't leave the area—and as a result the five different digimon our friends were facing off against couldn't either. They weren't digimon though. They were "versions" of the great evils that had been "perfected," whatever that meant. I didn't get a chance to learn though, since I wasn't fighting against them like the others were. I kept trying to peek down to their battles, to see if they needed me down there with them, but I could never see clearly enough. I knew who was fighting who—unless they'd changed since I'd left them—but I couldn't even begin to guess how they were faring.

We weren't doing too well though. ZeedGarurumon was able to hold his own at first, but he was already exhausted from his fight with Arkadimon, and was growing even more tired as the fight went on. WarGreymon was seriously outclassed, and was falling behind no matter how hard he tried to keep up.

What I didn't understand, was how Yggdrasil could fight against us so flawlessly while focusing so much of his attention on those roots he'd morphed into the great evils. He couldn't be _that_ powerful, could he? No. It was just his shell that was causing the problems.

"War Driver!" WarGreymon called, building up energy in his claws so he could slash Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil merely tossed him aside, and turned to ZeedGarurumon who was preparing an attack of his own.

"Blowback Breath!" he shouted, spewing explosive energy from his mouth.

"C'mon," Yamato groaned when that didn't work. We'd be trying for awhile now with little to show for it, and from what I heard of the battles below, they were in very similar situations. "What do we try next?"

"We can't do anything except keep fighting," I told him. "Give it another go!"

"Great Tornado!" WarGreymon called, spinning himself at a tremendous speed, like a tornado, and launching himself at the white robot.

"You will soon fail," Yggdrasil commented. The cord he was attached to the tree with kept him firmly in place, so WarGreymon's high winds didn't affect him in the slightest. "Your energy is already depleting, and your "friends" are losing as well. How does it feel to get so close only to have victory slip through your grasp?"

"I don't know," called a familiar voice. "Why don't _you_ tell _us_?"

And with that, I heard the whooshing sound of metal flying through the air, and watched, amazed, as a club sword that I recognized from my living room wall sliced through the green cord attaching Yggdrasil to his inter-world connection. I caught sight of a blonde boy—young _man_—in a bucket cap and bare feet clinging to a branch on the opposite side of the tree with a shocked amazement on his face.

"Takeru," Yamato gasped.

I was going to congratulate him on a job well done—since Yggdrasil seemed infuriated by this new development—but the severed cord was whipping around, and caught me off guard, knocking me out of the tree. I fell quickly, and despite my desperate attempts to grasp a branch as I passed, I wasn't having any luck. I had pretty much resigned myself to a very low survival rate when someone caught my arm, swinging me under a branch and stopping my fall.

"And you think _I_ need protecting," Hikari laughed. "Aren't you glad I showed up now?"

"Incredibly so," I told her. Shakamon—who I'd learned had brought both Takeru and Hikari up into the tree in the first place—helped Hikari pull me up onto the branch she was resting on. I pulled her into my arms immediately, noting her exhaustion and less than perfect condition. What the hell had she and Takeru been up to? And where were his shoes? They were supposed to be staying at my house, staying safe…but if they hadn't listened to their own hearts, I wouldn't have been alive, and we would have been fighting an endless battle against Yggdrasil.

Speaking of Yggdrasil…

I looked up, about to order Shakamon to bring me back when I saw WarGreymon whizzing past us on a one way ticket to the ground. He smashed into the hard soil, sinking beneath the surface, followed by Yggdrasil, who was taking Takeru's actions out on my digimon partner. ZeedGarurumon was carrying Yamato and Takeru down, and once he deposited them, he ran at Yggdrasil, intending on stopping him, though he didn't have any attacks that seemed up for the job.

"Can you get us down there?" I asked Shakamon hastily, and he nodded, taking Hikari and I down to the ground. As we were descending from the now decaying tree, I noticed each of the five "great evils" was decaying as well. Their colours faded to the sickly grey of the tree's trunk, and their limps fell off in dead clumps. Plesiomon shot his Shaking Pulse at Apocolymon to speed up the process, while Rosemon, Omnimon and some red digimon I had to guess was Dracomon at a higher level took pleasure in massacring MaloMyotismon's remains. Mari had decided to help Leopardmon in finishing off Ogudomon's remains in revenge for Lalamon, while Splashmon utterly destroyed Fanglongmon for Kurayami. DoruGoramon ignored the decaying Millenniummon—realizing he'd finish himself off soon—and flew at Yggdrasil, letting out a loud "Doru Din!" as he tackled Yggdrasil off of WarGreymon, letting out a destructive shockwave.

"Hikari!" Mimi called happily, ripping my sister away from my side. Everyone was making their way to us, eyeing Yggdrasil warily as he fought off WarGreymon's Ultra Tornado, DoruGoramon's Doru Din and ZeedGarurumon's Zeed Cannon. "You're back!"

"And I'm going to stay," Hikari declared. Takeru walked over to her side and took her hand firmly in his own, saying "We both are."

"We can't send you away at this point anyway," Yamato decided. "We're so close…but I don't know how to do this."

"We got him once," Daisuke said. "DoruGoramon cracked his shell, but only once. So it is possible. We just need a lot of power."

"That's something we've definitely got," Miyako announced, sneaking up behind us.

"You're okay!" Ken yelped, grabbing his wife into his arms with such quick speed, causing Miyako to burst into laughter as she hugged him back. She clung to him fiercely, whispering through happy tears how glad she was that he was okay. How she didn't think he would be. He responded similarly, peppering her face with quick kisses. I looked away from the happy reunion, turning my attention to the other companions that had recently arrived.

"Sigma's gone," Iori said firmly, walking towards us with a samurai digimon at his side, and Kiyoko and Piedmon were behind him.

"That's great!" Hideto exclaimed.

"It really is," Kiyoko said, hiding a grin—or he _was_ grinning, until Jou had him by the front of his crumpled white jacket. His face was screwed up in a mix of pain and fear after Jou did that.

"Where's Emiko," Jou demanded. "You said you were going to get her."

"Sh-she's with her mo-mother," Kiyoko gasped out.

"She's dead!" Jou screamed, shaking Kiyoko violently in his horror. He yelled it so loudly that even the fighting digimon stopped what they were doing, and Yggdrasil let out a bone chilling, pleased laugh. My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. That wasn't supposed to happen. It was bad enough I'd been told that Momoe had to have died in an explosion, but to watch as Jou was informed that his daughter had just joined her…that was a whole new, horrible experience.

"Leave him alone, Jou," Hideto instructed, heading over with Mari to try and rip Kiyoko out of Jou's grasp. He didn't seem to realize that the poor kid was pretty badly injured already. Not that I blamed him exactly, it was absolutely horrible news.

"He let my baby die," Jou said shakily, finally dropping Kiyoko when his hands started shaking too badly to hold him.

"I did not," Kiyoko protested.

"Jou," Miyako said calmly. "She's fine. She's at the Temple with Momoe. Neither of them are dead."

"N-none?" Jou asked pleadingly.

"None," Iori confirmed.

Jou sank to his knees, his hands shaking and tears streaming down his face. I didn't know if he was overjoyed, or just overwhelmed, but _I_ was beyond thrilled to hear that. Yggdrasil however was not, and started fighting with even more vigor than before.

"Jou," Mimi said softly, taking his hands into her own. "Emiko's fine, and will be fine for a long time if we can just beat Yggdrasil. Are you with me?" Jou gave her a jerky nod, and their digivices lit up with each others' crest.

"**Rosemon digivolve to…**"

"**Plesiomon digivolve to…**"

"**Lotusmon!**"

A distinctively feminine digimon remained after the lights faded. She wore purple thigh-high boots and a layered white skirt over her light purple skin. She had a purple top with white sleeves, and a yellow and purple helmet. In one hand, she held a rainbow-coloured-flower staff, and in the other she held a Caduceus with a white snake and a black snake weaved around it.

"Let's do this, Lotusmon!" Mimi cheered, and Jou got to his feet, letting out a small smile at her enthusiasm.

"Go Gaiomon!" Miyako and Iori called together.

"You can do it Shakamon!" Hikari and Takeru yelled, holding their joined hands in the air.

"Fight hard, Eaglemon," Koushiro and Sora asked of their partner.

"Let's beat this guy!" Daisuke and Ken called to DoruGoramon.

"You beat the devil, Splashmon," Michael called.

"This should be a piece of cake," Kurayami finished.

"For Alice," Willis instructed Leopardmon, though I had no idea who Alice was. Then he glanced at Mari. "And for Mari."

"For our futures," Hideto added to Omnimon.

"Do it for Earth, Examon," Neo said.

"For all nine worlds," Kiyoko corrected to Piedmon.

I looked to Yamato, who just rolled his eyes at their motivational speeches. We smiled at one another before shouting out, "Just kick his metal ass!" to our two digimon that were still fighting Yggdrasil. WarGreymon led the charge with his Terra Force, which Yggdrasil batted away with his metal arm. ZeedGarurumon tried a Full Metal Breath attack, releasing a blast from his Zeed Cannon whilst simultaneously firing all of the other weapons throughout his body. Yggdrasil let them hit him, laughing as they exploded as if ZeedGarurumon was just tickling him. Eaglemon and Splashmon tried together, letting out a Mystic Break and a Tiger Typhoon at the same time, but Yggdrasil lifted himself in the air and shot a blast back at them. He was growing frustrated. Not good. Lotusmon threw a Serpent Ruin in his direction, and Omnimon followed right behind with a Double Shot, with Examon adding a Pendragon's Glory into the mix. Before Yggdrasil could attack them in return, Gaiomon sent out a Rinkageki—some sort of long range light attack—which Piedmon piggybacked on by sending his Ending Snipe out after it. DoruGoramon attempted yet another Doru Din, while Leopardmon and Shakamon tried their swords once last time.

Nothing.

Power wasn't going to be enough, no matter what Daisuke thought. We'd need some sort of strategy. I just needed time to think. I prayed I'd have enough time to at least attempt it.

"I do not take kindly to incompetence," Yggdrasil informed us mechanically, raising his arm and shooting to the left. "I hope this fuels your fighting. I'd hate to go entirely unchallenged."

"No!" Iori gasped, catching sight of the dark haired girl that Yggdrasil had aimed at. She was hiding behind the trees, looking up at Monimon—who was in the branches. Iori moved to go after her, but he knew he didn't have enough time. Natsuni was a goner.

Or so I thought.

Michael had already jumped into action, before anyone else had known what was going on. He pushed Natsuni out of the way, hitting the ground just in time for Yggdrasil's blast to hit the tree trunk, causing the tree to topple over backwards and Monimon to fall. Michael stood up just in time to grab the television digimon.

Somehow, in the flurry of digimon attacks that Yggdrasil was surrounded by after that little stunt he'd pulled, I caught sight of something. Just a small something, that glinted in the light of the still rising sun. The crack Daisuke mentioned… And it got me thinking.

Apparently whenever I think, I rush into things headfirst before the thought has fully processed in my brain, causing me to do some pretty stupid stuff, such as running into the battle myself, clenching my fists and planning—however subconsciously it may have been—to exploit Yggdrasil's only known weakness in a way that might've worked better had I been a digimon. I ducked under Shakamon's swinging sword, and weaved my way around Eaglemon's Mystic Break and Gaiomon's Rinkazan attacks. I nearly lost my head when WarGreymon went to use his Mega Claw technique. He stopped though, when he saw me. I thought I saw him trying to get to me, to take me away from the scene, but I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to. My clenched fist slammed into Yggdrasil's shell, the hit reverberating up my arm, shaking me as a whole. Of three things I was absolutely positive. First, that had to be one of the stupidest things I'd ever done in my life, and that was saying something. Second, my entire arm was in an insane amount of pain. And lastly, everything was orange.

I mean everything.

It took me about a second to realize it was just _me_ that was orange. I was shining like the rising sun, and Yggdrasil slammed one of his arms into my side, knocking me across the battlefield, while I was figuring it out.

"**WarGreymon digivolve to… VictoryGreymon!**"

I rolled through my landing, ending up with a face full of dirt.

"What the hell was that?" Yamato demanded, ripping me off the ground and getting into my personal space. "You could've been killed!"

"But I wasn't," I said with a grin, looking to see my new digimon partner. He didn't look too different than before, except for his lack of clawed gauntlets and the presence of a giant sword. His helmet was a little different, as was his chest plate and the shield on his back, but over all, he wasn't that different. The differences though, made him look so much cooler—something I didn't think was possible.

"You jerk!" Hikari screamed at me, smacking me across the arm as soon as she arrived.

"Well, this jerk has just figured out how to win," I said proudly. "We just need to have all of the digimon attack a teeny tiny little spot at the same time."

"That's not impossible or anything," Yamato said sarcastically.

"No one digimon is strong enough on their own though," I explained. "We need their combined strength."

"Then you'll get it," Yamato said slowly, a form planning in his mind. "ZeedGarurumon, give your strength to VictoryGreymon!"

ZeedGarurumon looked confused for a moment, but he removed himself from the battle, feeding his strength to my new partner, and promptly returning to his Gabumon state.

"Shakamon," Hikari called out. "You next!"

"As you wish," Shakamon told her, jumping back from the fight and giving his energy to VictoryGreymon, leaving only Patamon and Salamon in his place. Hikari, Yamato and I made our way back over to the others, who all eyed me warily, as if I'd just suffered a tremendous, mental breakdown instead of saving everything in existence.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"We're giving our strength to War—I mean VictoryGreymon," Gabumon explained. "Taichi found a way to win."

"Lotusmon!" Mimi screamed immediately, followed closely by Miyako's call of "Gaiomon!"

Both digimon gave their energy, reverting to four rookies, who quickly made their way over to us. Michael called for Splashmon next, followed by Willis' shouts for Leopardmon to go next. Neo didn't seem overly pleased to be instructing his digimon to give up the strength he'd worked so hard to digivolve literally minutes ago, but he ordered Examon anway. Hideto and Kiyoko called for their digimon afterwards too, leaving only Eaglemon, DoruGoramon and VictoryGreymon as our fighting team.

"Eaglemon!" Sora called out finally. "Just do it."

"You too, DoruGoramon," Ken said awkwardly.

Didn't they have faith in my strategic ways? Probably not. I was a bit too rash for either of their tastes.

"Okay, buddy," I called out to the now glowing VictoryGreymon. "There's a very specific spot I need you to hit. Can you see it?"

I didn't want to be too specific, or else Yggdrasil would know my plan, which wouldn't cause a lot of problems I just didn't want to deal with at the moment. VictoryGreymon clenched his large sword, and flew at Yggdrasil.

"Dramon Breaker," VictoryGreymon shouted, striking Yggdrasil in the tiny crack in his armor. At first nothing happened, and I held my breath. If VictoryGreymon couldn't do this with the combined power of all our digimon, we were doomed.

And then there was a beautiful breaking sound as the metal that made up Yggdrasil's body started chipping away, shattering into a shimmering shower of metal as the sun's reflection danced off of them.

"We did it!" I shouted, astonished.

"Yes!" Mimi screamed loudly. Other's joined in the celebration. I couldn't believe it. We'd won. It almost seemed too easy, but I disregarded that feeling as Agumon—who had reverted from his super-ultimate form after giving all his energy to the attack—ran at me, jumping into my outstretched arms.

"We did it, we did it, we did it," Michael and Willis were chanting, whilst jumping up and down. Lopmon and Terriermon were rolling around on the ground, knocking Palmon, Tapirmon and Gatomon over in the process. Mimi was screaming in victory, dancing in a circle while dragging Koushiro and Sora along with her. Takeru was holding Patamon in the air, swinging him around. Mari tackled Kiyoko with excitement, and tears in her eyes. Miyako was pressing little kisses all over Ken's face, while Wormmon and Veemon celebrated at their feet. Hawkmon and Biyomon were fluttering about the air happily, with Tentomon by their side. Natsuni still looked upset about being scolded, but was hugging Iori anyway. Labramon was bouncing around Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon, and Gomamon was laughing happily. Betamon was quieter than the other digimon, choosing instead to surround himself by the equally quiet Gabumon and Dracomon, where he wouldn't overexert himself. Hikari was hugging Kurayami, who was hugging Norn, and Daisuke was hugging all of them at once. Neo was off to the side, though Hideto was trying to get him to cheer along with the rest of us. Armadillomon was at Jou's feet, trying to get him to cheer, but wasn't succeeding. Jou wouldn't be able to get excited until he'd seen his daughter and Momoe alive and well with his own two eyes. That just left Yamato.

I expected him to be looking at Sora longingly, but he wasn't.

He was next to Monimon, who was shaking badly, both of them staring in horror behind me. I turned around and caught sight of a blue, crystallized creature. It was pale blue, with a white cape and arms. There were a lot of diamonds shapes forming its body.

"Don't let _me_ keep you from your celebrations," he drawled. "However unnecessary they may be."

"Yggdrasil?" I gasped, looking towards our digimon. There were nothing but rookies surrounding us. Everyone let out strangled gasps and screams as they noticed Yggdrasil's presence.

"No one has ever broken through my shell before," Yggdrasil commented. "I commend you for it. But of course, I'll have to destroy you as well. There's no getting around it."

I pushed Agumon behind me. He was exhausted. My hand might've hurt, but I was in better shape than he was. I saw that most of the others did the same thing, stepping forward, clenching their fists and preventing their digimon from fighting.

"Bring it on," I said with false vibrato.

"I shall," Yggdrasil said, starting to move forward, stopping only because of the melodic voices that rang through the air. "Meddlesome fairies."

"The time has come," one voice said. Iori's eyes lit up, making me place this as that green fairy queen of summer that had removed the memories of the world combination from three years ago.

"The moment of destiny that we've foretold involving the Chosen Three," a second fairy said. This time it was Miyako that looked excited. It was the Winter Queen.

"Embrace your traits, for you need them now," the first continued.

"But what do we do?" Miyako pleaded.

"Look to Humility," a third and final fairy—the fairy of spring—instructed. "He knows what needs to be done."

As one we all—Yggdrasil included—looked to Daisuke.

"Traits," he said. "Our crests."

"Got that," I said. "What about them?"

"Um…" he said, looking around wildly. His eyes landed on the small girl in the lacy dress. "Norn."

"Not so fast!" Yggdrasil said, flying at us.

"Split up!" I ordered, and we all headed in three different directions, leaving Norn behind, where Yggdrasil could get her.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

We were all running, spreading out. I looked over my shoulder to see we'd been separated into three distinct groups. And then I noticed that Norn was left behind. I started to run back for her, but Taichi caught my arm, swinging me around.

"Not so fast," he said. "She's going to need our help—we've got the crests after all—but you need to tell us what we've got to do to help her. She can't win if you don't."

"She's a part of Yggdrasil," I explained quickly. "But she realizes there's good in the world, _all_ the worlds—except for maybe the Dark Ocean, but that's beside the point. She can list the crests, but she doesn't understand them. With the power of our crests, she'll be able to beat Yggdrasil, from the inside out."

"Sounds like a plan," Taichi said, wincing as he watched Norn fall to the ground. Yggdrasil seemed to be taunting her, laughing as she continually tried to explain the good she knew had to exist. She needed help. She needed _me_.

But before I had a chance to start running, Taichi strode forward with Agumon at his side. "Hey Norn," he called. "Courage is great, but can be ridiculously stupid sometimes. It's having nerve or gallantry."

"It's going out to do something, even though it scares you," Agumon elaborated. Norn looked to the pair of them, and nodded, pulling herself to her feet despite her shaking knees.

"Friendship is an emotional bond that develops over time and companionship," Yamato explained. "It's having someone that won't judge you, no matter what decisions you make, unless they're really, _really_ bad."

"If lots of people have friends," Gabumon asked. "How can they all be inherently evil?"

"You're right," Norn agreed, flashing a look in my direction. I smiled at her, hoping to convey my support.

Both Agumon and Gabumon placed their hand on my waist, and I was suddenly glowing with the light of both the crests of courage and friendship.

"Kindness in itself is good," Ken said quickly, looking at the glowing in excitement. "It's the quality of being friendly to others, being generous and considerate."

"And there's a glimmer of kindness in even the darkest of hearts, that can grow tremendously," Wormmon added, looking to Ken, before scuttling over to touch my leg. A magenta glow joined the orange and dark blue surrounding me.

"Darkness isn't evil," Kurayami said firmly. "It's just a balance. And balance is just the even distribution of something enabling someone or something to remain steady."

"Without darkness, there is no light," Labramon said, cutting off whatever else Kurayami was going to say. "Goodness is literally dependent on its opposite to exist at all."

Norn smiled at both Ken and Kurayami, taking a step toward Yggdrasil, who merely swatted her away. My chest clenched at the sight. Labramon rubbed his nose against my leg in comfort, adding his black aura to my collection.

"Honesty is being free of deceit," Neo yelled at her. "No false pretenses."

"Being truthful is good," Dracomon said. "Even though the truth sometimes hurts people. It's better to feel the sting of truth early, then the pang of betrayal later."

Norn nodded, pulling herself to her feet. Dragomon laid his hand on my back, casting forward a deep plum into the mix.

"Pride can be bad," Hideto admitted. "It's one of the deadly sins after all, but it's more than that. To feel pleasure in your accomplishments isn't bad. It's when you build yourself up too high, and get obsessed that's the problem, because you're always going to fall down hard."

"You have to be careful," his Agumon warned.

"But it's not wrong to feel good about who you are," his Gabumon concluded. They each came forward and touched my elbows, casting a pale blue into the assortment.

"Humility plays into that," Veemon instructed Norn. "It's keeping your head during those times."

"That doesn't mean you have to put yourself down," I warned her. "It means that everyone is equal, and that you remember you're not better than everyone else is."

Veemon moved to stand in front of me, leaning back against me, adding my peach coloured crest to the concoction.

"Now what?" Neo demanded.

"I don't know," I admitted.

_Use the crests, dummy_.

The voice came in my head, and it was unmistakably Spring. I nodded, though no one else heard her voice. I moved my hands forward, bringing them together in front of me.

_Let them go,_ Spring instructed. _Lend Norn their power, so that she can learn them to their full potential._

Lend them to Norn? Got it. I unleashed the mishmash rainbow at the little girl I'd invited into my home ages ago, orange, dark blue, magenta, black, deep plum, light blue, peach; courage, friendship, kindness, darkness, honesty, pride and humility.

"You can do it Norn!" I shouted.

_**Iori Hida:**_

What was Daisuke doing? I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Norn seemed to be able to, and was starting to hold her ground better. And then Daisuke threw a colourful array of light at her, which hit her and lifted her into the air.

"What's going on?" Takeru asked.

"They're the crest colours," Michael commented.

"Are they giving up their crests?" Jou asked confused.

"No," I said firmly, repeating the words as I heard my fairy queen speak. "They're lending her their power, teaching her the crests."

"Should we be teaching her too?" Kiyoko asked.

"Yes," I said, once again repeating the words of the fairy queen as she spoke directly into my mind.

"Hey Norn!" Takeru shouted. "We've got some lessons for you too!"

She looked down at us from her cocoon of coloured light and nodded.

"Koushiro, go ahead," Takeru ordered. Koushiro's eyes widened and he took a few steps forward.

"Knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education," he called to her. She looked confused—as expected—by his definition. He sighed and tried again. "It's the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject."

"It's curiosity that matters," Tentomon said before Koushiro could get frustrated by Norn's still clueless look. "Or rather the satisfaction of that curiosity, while the application of the information retained due to that curiosity is important as well."

Norn tilted her head, pondering it for a second before nodding. Tentomon placed one of his claws on the top of my head, mimicking what the other digimon had done to Daisuke, and I was surrounded in a bright purple light.

"Faith is having confidence in someone or something," Jou called. "It's being dependable and knowing that you can depend on other things."

"It's like a promise," Gomamon elaborated, knocking into my left knee, adding a silver gleam to the purple.

"Strength is complicated," Michael admitted. "But at the same time, it's so simple. It's focus. The focusing of your mind, body, character, emotions… It's finding the balance of all of that, the balance of the crests."

"You're mind and soul," Betamon insisted. "There's more to strength than muscle."

Norn nodded, turning to watch as Yggdrasil stalked forward to get her, despite the shining shield she was encased it. Betamon nudged my right leg, adding a shimmering white to my aura.

"A feeling of expectation," Takeru said with a grin. "Knowing that if you can imagine it happening, you can experience it too. That's hope."

"Without hope, there would be no light," Patamon said proudly, landing on my shoulder, and adding a yellow as bright as sunshine to my collection.

"Desire can consume you," Kiyoko said. His voice was so soft, I could scarcely believe that Norn could hear him.

"But it isn't bad," Tapirmon said quickly, before Norn could get scared.

"It's a strong feeling of wanting to have something," Kiyoko explained. "It's _wishing_ for something. It's like…magic."

Norn seemed to perk up at that, though she started to back away from Yggdrasil. She wasn't ready yet to face him. Natsuni grabbed my hand and I resisted the urge to pull her close. I was surrounded by digimon—even Tapirmon, who had floated up to rest by the shoulder opposite Patamon's perch, adding a lilac colour to the mix—and didn't want to disrupt the power they were giving off. Norn needed this to fight against Yggdrail. And I wasn't going to stand in the way of that.

"Oh," Michael gasped. "Trust….uh…"

"It's probably just believing in the words and actions of others," Takeru commented.

"And not worrying that whatever they're saying isn't true," Jou added.

"Here," Michael said, tossing a light brown crest at me. I caught it, and the brown added itself to the rest.

"Not feeling angry or resentful to someone when they do something to upset or hurt you, is forgiveness," Armadillomon called to Norn. He came to a stop in front of my, tapping my shin with his tail. The dark yellow of forgiveness exploded around me, and I gained the confidence to talk to her myself.

"Grudges don't do any good," I told her. "They make you worse of a person. They weigh down on your heart and mind, causing inner resentment and stress. My grandfather always told me that giving forgiveness was easier than gaining back a friend. He lived by that, and I'm trying to do the same thing."

_Iori. It is time. Give the energy to Norn._

I aimed my hand towards her, and shot the purple, lilac, silver, white, brown, with both bright and dark yellow towards Norn, tossing hope, faith, desire, trust, strength, knowledge and forgiveness at her.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

_You must do your part as well_.

Right. She said it like I knew what she was talking about. She may have been the Winter Queen, and therefore had some sort of omnipotent presence, but I was just a human. A human scared out of my mind and wishing more than anything that this was over already, and a human that had no idea what Iori and Daisuke had managed to do. They'd become walking rainbows, and had encompassed Norn in their a colourful ball of energy.

_Explain it to her_.

"Explain _what_?" I demanded.

"No one said anything," Sora pointed out. Willis rolled his eyes.

"They're obviously doing something important," he said. "They're two thirds of the Holy Three, right? So _you_ ought to know what we need to do."

But I didn't.

_Figure it out. The clues are there._

Clues.

In a life or death situation for the entirety of all nine worlds, she wanted me to look at the clues and piece together what they were doing. Well, the colours were very specific, and there wasn't any red or green, so it wasn't a real rainbow…

They looked more like the crests…which Daisuke mentioned would be important before we split up. And then he said Norn—who was covered in the light of the crests.

_Good. Now tell her._

"I think we need to explain our crests to Norn, so she'll be able to use them against Yggdrasil…." I decided.

"Okay then," Mimi said happily. "If it has a chance of helping us win, I'm game. Hey Norn! Purity rocks. It's being yourself even when others say you shouldn't. Because only _you_ know who you are, and you shouldn't care what others think of you. You need to love yourself before others can love you!"

"Mimi thought I was ugly for a long time, and told me that a lot of times," Palmon said seriously. "But I didn't let that change me, and she didn't stop saying it either, since it was something she really believed."

"That's horrible," Mari whispered in astonishment, but I was distracted when Palmon leaned against my side, covering me in a bright green light.

"In the end, I became strong enough to push the goodness and beauty I knew was inside of me to the surface because of that stubbornness we shared. I digivolved," Palmon concluded.

"Light is emotions," Hikari shouted quickly. She seemed to realize just how short Norn was on time, and was getting straight to the point, rather than tell a story, like Palmon had. "It's _feeling_ when things happen and not forcing yourself to ignore the bottled up emotions within you. It's letting them out."

"It's natural," Gatomon added, reaching over to touch me as well, adding a light pink. "Instinctual."

"Love is an intense feeling of deep emotion or affection," Sora said awkwardly.

"Sora," Biyomon scolded. "Love is wonderful, but it can't be described by one of Koushiro's standard textbook answers. Love can be felts so many ways. For family, friends, lovers, digital-partners-that-mean-so-much-more-than-those …"

"You're right, Biyomon," Sora said. "Love is complex, and ever changing, growing and spreading."

"It's a miracle," Lopmon interrupted. "It's surprising and welcome, and can't be explained by science. It's highly improbable, but it's absolutely extraordinary."

"She's right," Willis said. "But it could also be destiny." He paused to look at Mari, letting Terriermon take over from there.

"It's something that _has_ to happen sometimes," Terriermon said. "The events are laid out in front of you, you just have to find them—and you will, when the time is right."

The three digimon came forward. Lopmon and Terriermon jumped up to my shoulders, and Biyomon leaned against me. Gold, bronze and red coloured the air around me.

"Tenacity isn't meanness," Mari said. "It's determination. You don't let anyone push you around. You stand up for yourself and your friends, because you think that it's right."

I waited for Lalamon to speak before realizing she wasn't there. I was a horrible friend to have missed something as important as this. All I could do was squeeze Mari's hand extra tight when she slipped her hand into my own, adding her own light green flair to my blinding batch of coloured light.

"Honour," Hawkmon said. "Is your integrity."

"It's your allegence to your own moral standards," I continued.

"It's respect," Hawkmon added.

"For yourself, and for others," I concluded. Hawkmon slipped his wing into my other hand, clenching my hand tightly, and adding the familiar burst of turquoise light to complete the light show.

"Now what?" Mari asked me.

"I—" I started to say. I didn't know, and I was going to admit it, but the Winter Queen stopped me. She whispered into my mind. _Give it to her._

"You?" Mari urged.

"Hang in there Norn!" I screamed, pushing the light energy at Norn with my arms, pulling Mari and Hawkmon along with me. Love, light, purity, tenacity, honour, destiny and miracles were all tangled up in the mess of light and dark green, pink, red, gold, turquoise and bronze. The colours collided with the others, making for a complete set of crests. "It's up to you now!"

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

There she was. Standing in front of the blue, crystallized version of Yggdrasil, glowing like a beacon of all that was good in the world. All that was important.

I couldn't let go of Daisuke's hand as we watched her—the little girl we'd found on the street, now fighting for all of mankind. I needed to help her—but how? How could I possibly help her when all that needed to be done was for her to use the power of the crests against the greatest evil ever—oh God. It was impossible.

"Norn!" I blurted, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to destroy him with the crests!" She responded as she leapt out of the way of his attacks, "Using my lifeforce."

"Doesn't that mean you'll die?" I asked loudly, but she didn't answer.

I finally released Daisuke's hand and was running forward, rushing into the battle to help her. There was no way I could leave her there alone. And then, as if I'd given them all the idea, everyone was rushing forward in a giant mob of humans and digimon alike. All of us coming to save the little girl who was our only hope.

Yggdrasil froze, clenching his fists together.

"ENOUGH!"

His voice was so loud and clear. I felt it vibrate through my body as he shot crystals around to us all.

"I will not stand for this!" He said—his voice echoing in my head. "Now. Stand still while I kill you all." Why would we stand still? It didn't take long though to realize what he'd meant when he said that. I couldn't move. At all. I was frozen still. From what I could see of the others, they were too, all of us mid run—unable to move...

Well, not all of us.

_Daisuke, Yggdrasil's spell doesn't work on you. You must go._

My eyes flicked to Daisuke who was looking around as if everyone had gone mad. He could still move. He looked to me, panicked, unsure of what to do. I tried my hardest to reassure him, but I couldn't move an inch. He turned slowly to Yggdrasil as he lowered a giant crystal down to the small girl in front of him.

Daisuke was tearing across the ground between the two of them—I'd never seen anyone move so quickly. Soon he was diving through the air, tackling the glowing girl out of the way. The crystal slammed into the ground, piercing through the dirt.

Yggdrasil turned his fiery eyes to Daisuke and raised his crystal again, slamming it down hard. I screamed inwardly as it barely missed him. He rolled away and frantically got to his feet. He looked to Veemon, but he too was frozen. It was just Daisuke and Norn. Left to win this together—or so it seemed.

As the crystal came down once more, heading straight for them, a stick flew straight through the air, hitting Yggdrasil in the side of the face.

_Now is the time I spoke of my Forgiving Knight. Do your duty to all nine worlds._

Iori was rushing forward, clutching another stick as if it were his kendo stick.

"Step aside little one." Yggdrasil ordered, "Or I'll end your life _first_."

"_Little?_" Iori asked sharply, "Oh, screw you." And with that he was lunging forward, smashing the thick branch against Yggdrasil's face-hard. Yggdrasil fell back for a moment but responded quickly, his hand wrapping around Iori's neck.

"How _dare_ you—" Before Yggdrasil could finish his sentence Daisuke had jumped through the air and grabbed onto his arm, biting it as hard as he could. Yggdrasil released Iori and both he and Daisuke fell to the ground.

"Stop fighting!" Norn screamed to Yggdrasil, "Stop this!"

"I gave you a mind of your own to do my bidding," Yggdrasil growled, "not to form your own thoughts and opinions. Silence you wretch."

"She's just a little girl!" Iori barked, clutching his stick even tighter.

"She's a human. Just as bad as all of you." Yggdrasil said, easily swiping Daisuke away as he ran in for another hit.

"Like I said," Iori said, watching Daisuke fall, "_Screw_ you." He was running again, with his stick, hitting Yggrasil across the face as hard as he could shattering the stick into a million pieces.

"ENOUGH!" Yggdrasil bellowed, clapping his hands together and sending both Iori and Daisuke flying away from him. He turned his attention to Norn, "So you're the only hope these worlds have? I find that to be quite pitiful seeing as you're me."

"No." Norn said flatly. "I'm you, but with a sense of dignity! A sense of honour! And all the other crests! I'm far more than you'll ever be!" I wanted to punch the air excitedly—she'd learned so much. She was a fierce little fighter.

_Honour._ Another voice floated through the winds. _The prophecy foretells this to be the most universal—the most important crest. It's up to you._

I could tell everyone's eyes had shot straight to Miyako. All except for Norn and Yggdrasil, each of whom seemed not to hear the voice. Miyako was standing nervous, afraid to fight, afraid to move. So many awful things had happened to her over the past year, and now she was being told the entire weight of the world was on her. Daisuke had saved Norn, Iori had stopped Yggdrasil—it was now up to her to save the worlds.

She shook her head and was running forward, her eyes shut, and her fists clenched. She let out a scream of fear and anguish. Yggdrasil turned his head toward Miyako as her violet hair billowed around behind her, her running speed was incredible as she shot toward Norn.

Finally she stopped, taking Norn's hand.

"This is it." Miyako said boldly. "The end of your reign on the nine worlds. It's time for someone new to take over!"

"Oh?" Yggdrasil asked. "And who might that be?"

"Norn." Miyako said as if she'd known it all along.

"Me?" Norn asked, but then with a sense of finality, "Me!" She bellowed raising her hands and firing the colours of all twenty one crests. The beams of light hit him square in the chest and he let out a blood curdling scream. Norn turned her head to me and smiled. "I love you." She said before, with a bone chilling 'boom' everything went white.

_**Jun Motomiya:**_

"Should they be taking this long?" Katsue asked.

No one could answer her. I didn't know. They were saving the world—lots of worlds actually—was there a time limit on something like that? There _should_ be. I was waiting there, with my stomach all tied up in knots, waiting for my little brother to come back to grin at me. But he wasn't coming back. Shuu was tapping his foot next to me, which only made my nerves wind tighter.

"I don't know," Shin told her finally, when she repeated herself. "I've never been around for these things."

"Me either," Isao said. "I should have been though."

"Yes," Shuu said. "You should have. But this isn't the time for that. We can't start feeling guilty. It makes it seem like we've given up on them."

"I feel guilty," Toshiko told him. "And I don't even have any hope left to fix it."

"I didn't mean—" Shuu said awkwardly.

"I know," she said, dismissing him. "I was just saying."

"Takeru and Yamato are strong," Natsuko said. "They'll be fine. Takeru has always assured me that there is always hope, even in the darkest of times. And Yamato firmly believes in his friends' capabilities. They'll be fine."

She didn't even sound like she believed it herself. I don't know how she planned on convincing everyone else.

"Taichi and Daisuke are good leaders," Mr Yagami—I thought his name might be Susumu—pointed out half-heartedly. "They'll bring them home?"

"They'd better," I growled.

"What chance do they even have?" Chiziru cried. "Miyako and Momoe have already gone the way of the dinosaurs, not to mention that other friend of theirs."

"That "other friend" was my _daughter_, Sora," Toshiko snapped.

"We know," Mantarou said placating. "She's just panicking. She's really mean on a good day, though…"

"My son didn't leave me," Fumiko insisted. "He couldn't have. He promised not to."

"It's hard to keep promises when you're in the midst of a battle," Mimi's waitress, who insisted we call her Izumi, told us. "You focus only on the task set before you. You can't worry about what's going on outside of the fight. You just can't."

"And you know this, _how_?" Katsue demanded.

"I've had experience," she said dryly. "But I have every faith in these new digidestined."

"The ones that used to be evil?" Mimi's mother—Satoe, maybe?—asked.

"All of them," Izumi corrected. "They aren't the first set. And I doubt they'll be the last."

"Koushiro liked to research the original set," Yoshie said softly. "Do you know much about them?"

"I know everything there is to know," Izumi said with a wink. "I'd be happy to talk to him about it, when he gets back."

"If," Kae corrected miserably.

"_When_," Izumi said firmly.

We were waiting on the remains of the street. We'd demanded that the giant dragon take us back when we noticed that the robots had all fallen to the ground, completely useless. When we got back, though, the others were already gone. Those jerks left us behind, where we could do nothing but wait, and pray that they'd be okay. We'd lost three—probably Emiko too though—already, and I dreaded the thought that Daisuke would be the next added to that list. Meiyomon was tossing broken pieces of the street into the air, exploding them with his mind. He was getting impatient. I could tell he wished that they would have brought him along, instead of leaving him in charge of the fight on Earth. He wanted his brother back.

Kae and Fumiko gasped loudly, rushing forward, we all turned to see what caught their attention, and Yoshie, Satoe and Natsuko started running after them. There, in the middle of the broken street, was a shining yellow doorway, with a pair of blonde boys walking out, followed by a smaller, blonde girl, a pretty brunette, a red headed male and two blonde adults.

"Willis!" Susumu called instantly. "What happened?"

The boy that had to be Willis shook his head, clutching the two rabbit like digimon in his arms tightly to his chest. The other boy had to be Michael, and the blonde girl had to be his sister. She was hugging their father, while Michael held on to the pretty brunette—Tatum, if my memory served me correctly—his girlfriend. The redhead didn't look like he knew what was happening, and I decided to ignore him, since he wouldn't have the answers I desperately needed. There was Betamon, with Monodromon on the ground, walking together, and a Kudamon—Shuu guessed—with them.

They all moved out of the way of the door, when Taichi walked out, holding his girlfriend in his arms, before she could crash back down to Earth as her legs gave out under her. Rei was smiling, with two baseball sized digimon dressed like devils floating around her head. Taichi's Agumon was walking proudly next to a blue dragon, and a man with such blonde hair that it was white followed behind them. He had to be Rei's brother.

Behind them came Yamato, Takeru and their father, Hiroaki, who both Fumiko and Natsuko ran forward to greet. It was pretty awkward, let me tell you, when Yamato and Takeru noticed what was going on between their parents—they were not in Happy Town any longer, but it didn't matter when two seconds later, Fumiko went racing towards her son, Iori, as he came through the door holding hands with that Natsuni girl, and leading the horrible one, Noriko. He was instantly in her arms, and she dragged him away from the doorway, stopping near me. Armadillomon ran after his partner, who'd dragged Natsuni along with him. An Impmon and Goblimon followed them out.

"You're okay," Fumiko cried happily, water coursing down her cheeks in an instant.

"I told you I would be," Iori told her, awkwardly patting her back.

"I tried to believe you, but you took so long," she said.

"He had to beat the bad guys," Meiyomon called as he tackled Iori into a hug.

"I'm happy for you two, you know," she continued. "I didn't know if you knew that, and I needed to make sure."

"I'm glad," Natsuni said, hugging the older woman. "I really think we could be friends."

Kae's happy squeal drew my attention away from the happy scene, and I saw her hugging her son close to her, and then scream even louder when she caught sight of Miyako, who wasn't dead after all. Chiziru ran at her, dropping her façade of being the mean big sister, and sank to the ground crying with Miyako in her arms. Mantarou was too stunned to do much of anything other than open and close him mouth repeatedly. Though he did manage a smile after awhile. Wormmon and Hawkmon tried to escape the scary, crying females, and went to talk with the digimon partners instead.

"Hikari!" Susumu yelled. "Yuuko. You're alright."

"Did you ever have a doubt?" Yuuko said with a false laugh, before clinging to her husband. The pair engulfed Hikari in their embrace, and before too long, Taichi wandered over to join them, having left Rei with her brother. Gatomon and Dorumon looked around awkwardly, before going over to talk with Wizardmon, Patamon and Gabumon over by the Takaishi-Ishida family.

A little television set walked through the door next, and Katsue went wild, running over to pick it up, crooning at it about being so brave—and did it get the footage? I had a hunch I knew what footage she was talking about, and I didn't want to see it. It would put me on edge, I wouldn't be able to relax—especially since Daisuke didn't seem to be coming home…

"Yoshie!"

Yoshie rushed forward, jumping into the man's arms. I took it that this was Mr Izumi. Mostly because Koushiro was standing at his side, rolling his eyes at his parent's show of affection. He didn't protest much though, when his mother pulled him into a group hug. His face just turned bright red when his girlfriend laughed at him as she walked through the door behind him with a man—who I assumed to be her own father—at her side.

"Keisuke?" Satoe called confused, pulling Mimi into a hug regardless.

"Why haven't you come home?" Keisuke asked.

"I have to be with Mimi," Satoe told him. "She's my daughter, and I have to be there for her."

"What about your job, and your life in New York?" Keisuke asked.

"We'll discuss it later," Satoe said firmly.

"I'll be off then," Keisuke told her, wandering back through the door to the Digital World.

"Come back, Daddy!" Mimi screeched.

"Don't worry," Tatum assured her. "We'll take care of him."

"We've got to get back to New York anyway," Willis said. "Bye everyone."

"We'll talk to you soon, okay?" Michael added, before they—and their family—rushed off after Mimi's father.

"Well…bye," Mimi pouted.

"Where're they going?" a black haired guy asked.

"New York, I guess," a blonde girl commented sadly.

"Kiyoko!" Yoshie shouted, grabbing the third person, a blonde boy, and dragging him into her family hug. Mimi grabbed the dark haired guy—calling him Hideto—and dragged him off towards Izumi, as they were her work family.

The blonde girl stayed where she was, looking at all of the families gathered around her and awkwardly shuffling her feet. Kiyoko pushed his way out of Yoshie's hold, and walked over to her, stopping next to her for just a second before wrapping his arms around her. They both froze.

"This is even more awkward," she told him.

"I thought so too," he said, quickly dropping his arms.

"Thought you'd start the party without me, did you?" Hideto asked, dropping his arms around their shoulders and laughing.

"Never," the girl said sarcastically.

"Ahh!" Toshiko screamed, running forward, making everyone around her stop whatever they were doing and watch as she engulfed a young woman in her arms. "They told me you were dead!"

"I _was_ dead," Sora told her mother. They both burst into tears and her father—who had followed Sora through—joined their embrace immediately. "I think so anyway."

"Then how are you here?" Toshiko demanded, but thought better of it. "I don't even care. I'm just glad you are."

"Me too, Mom," Sora said through her tears. "Me too."

"I love a good reunion," Shuu said from my side—though his words were strained. He too seemed to notice that neither of our brothers had come out yet. They would though. They _had_ to.

"Looks like you'll get yours now," I commented when I caught sight of blue hair coming through the doorway. Jou walked out standing tall, with his little girl curled into his chest, clinging to him with all of her might. Gomamon came in after them chattering away. Jou looked so much older than he had when the fight had started. He stopped walking and looked back to the door, holding the hand that wasn't holding his daughter out, and gripping the hand of the next person.

I screamed like an insane person as I ran at her. I thought she'd exploded. I thought I'd witnessed her death, but there she was, a little worse for wear, but alive, holding her boyfriend's hand. She laughed as I tackled her, telling me not to worry, that she wasn't going anywhere, but I couldn't let go. Not until I saw him. I stared deeply into the doorway, and for a horrible minute, nothing happened. I thought he didn't make it. I let Chiziru and Mantarou jostle me about as they too wanted to hug their sister. I wasn't feeling anything except fear anyway.

There was a commotion behind me and I whirled around, desperate to distract myself from my brother's lack of presence, and saw Rei—Taichi's girlfriend—screaming from her place in Taichi's arms.

"Pal, Pul, don't!" she screamed.

"We can do it," they shouted back. "We wanna help."

"It's too big for you!"

"We're super strong, don't worry," the male looking one called back.

They were trying to lift up one of the robots, starting the cleanup I supposed. But Rei was right. The robot was far too heavy for them to handle. They were just too small to be much help. And why they decided to start with one on an awning on one of the nearest stores I'd never know. It didn't matter either. The robot was shaking in their hands, and then it was plummeting towards the street, which wouldn't have mattered so much, if Koushiro hadn't been standing directly underneath it.

"**Otamamon digivolve to… Gekomon!**"

My little tadpole digimon digivolved to a large green frog with a French horn wrapped around his body. Gekomon flew at Koushiro knocking him out of the way just in time for the robot to hit the street.

"No," Koushiro complained. "Not _you_."

"I did good, huh?" Gekomon asked, starting to glow again and reverted to Otamamon. "Whew. That was a lot of work."

"You did good," I told him, smiling, though it was a little strained. I looked back to the door, waiting, _hoping_ that he'd still come.

And then he came, holding his girlfriend's hand—who I felt guilty about forgetting—and grinned as he caught sight of me.

"We won," he said simply, and then I burst into joyous laughter, grabbing him and holding him close. "It's fine Jun. I'm fine."

"You are now," I said. "I'm not going to let you leave my sight, you know that."

"I hope that's not true," Shuu said, taking my hand, and pulling me away from my baby brother. What could possibly be more important than Daisuke right then? "We could have died today, Jun. I don't like that I can think that, and have it be true. And it made me realize how dumb I've been. I've been putting our lives on hold because of a piece of paper from my childhood. Because of that, we might not have had a chance to fully be together, and I don't want that. We'll never know when something might happen again. It might not be something as big as this, it might even just be a car accident, but we can't _know_, and I don't want to miss out on anything. Not with you."

"What are you saying?" I asked slowly.

"Sorry Jou," Shuu said. "But I need to do this."

"Do what?" I asked.

"Go ahead," Jou said with a short laugh, holding Momoe closer to him. "It's not a problem."

Shuu squeezed my hand tighter, and lowered himself to one knee. My heart started racing. No_ way_ was this happening!

"Jun," Shuu said. "I love you. Will you marry me?"

"Yes."

It was an instantaneous response, not nearly as enthusiastic as I once imagined it would be, but I was exhausted, and too busy crying silent tears to worry about jumping up and down for joy. I was just so _happy._

"Sorry I don't have the ring on me," Shuu apologized, pulling himself to his feet. "I didn't really think I'd need it today. This was really not planned."

"I don't care," I told him. "Just kiss me."

And he did.

**Next on Digimon Adventure 05: ** The ending is here, it's time for everything to get wrapped up in the final chapter of Digimon Adventure 05.


	50. Next Chapter

**Y/N:** This is the end of the final full length story in the Digimon Adventure series. There are still a few more one-shots headed your way and a six chapter epilogue, but this other than that, this is it. I do hope that you're ready for a long read though. It's a big one. I wrote Taichi, Koushiro, Mimi, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Ken, Hideto and Kiyoko this time around too. Everyone plays a role in this chapter.

**U/N:** ALRIGHTY people. Are you comfortable? If you plan to read this in one sitting you MAY be here a while. It's QUITE the chapter. The true 200th chapter, which is a good way to end things off, right? If only they were finishing off...

Just a quick rundown of the future chapters: four oneshots will go up this week that take place between this story and the final six chapter epilogue piece. So we're not totally over yet since Iori got his six chapter story and Miyako got hers, its Daisuke's turn.

Back to this one, I hope you like it, really I do. I wrote Yamato, Sora, Jou, Takeru, Hikari, Michael, Willis, Kurayami and Mari. In case you all forgot. Because EVERYONE get's a part here. We tried really hard to include every non-narrator too.

Anyway, I'm really happy that those of you are still here are... well, still here, thank you for reading our endless rants through our stories and thank you all very much for reviewing. It would be so much more boring to do this without the constant feedback, so thanks xD SO. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and leave a review :)

**Title: ****Digimon Adventure 05**

**By: Yukira and Urazamay King**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.**

**Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds**

**Chapter 50: Next Chapter**

_**Jou Kido:**_

"Perfect," Koushiro said to me, smiling. It was weird to think he was actually happy for me. Actually interested in the relationship Momoe and I shared. He'd always seemed too passive and uncaring. But he was most definitely smiling, "Momoe?" He slid the papers closer to her and she looked up at him, excited to sign the papers. She scribbled her name down quickly and then passed it back to Koushiro, "Now, Mimi and Miyako—I'm going to need you to sign it as well."

"Obviously," Mimi grabbed the papers from Koushio and took the pen from Momoe, with the same amount of excitement in her voice, "That's why you made us come." A couple seconds later Mimi had signed the papers, and passed them to Miyako. And then, finally she was sliding the papers toward Koushiro again.

"Alright," He said, flipping through the papers, and nodding, "Everything seems to be in order. I officially pronounce you husband and wife."

I tuned to Momoe instantly. Just the thought of those words being spoken in my general vicinity would usually boost my spirits and make me think in rants about how excited I was for my own wedding—but now it was over. Now my wedding was done, and _I_ was the husband to my beautiful wife—and the words had opened up a whole new world of feelings and thoughts. I couldn't stop myself from picturing our life in the future, where we'd live, or even what we'd be having for dinner because now, for sure, I knew Momoe would always be with me, there by my side. Through everything. And we'd be able to do it in peace now. Because the worlds were officially saved. Well, all that we were destined to do anyway.

Momoe, whose head was rested in her hands turned to me slightly and smiled, "What now Husband?"

"We could go find our daughter?" I suggested, sliding off the stool in our kitchen.

"No," Momoe said quickly, "We can't! Your Dad is testing his Grandfather skills with her right now, we have to give him some space until he's ready to come to us."

"You left Emiko with your dad?" Mimi wasn't even looking as she said it, she was helping herself to some food from our cupboards. "Isn't that a tad dangerous?"

"Why would it be dangerous?" I asked quickly, the feeling of imminent danger rising inside of me quite quickly. What did Mimi know that I didn't? What was he going to do to her?

Mimi shrugged it off with a simple, "I dunno."

"No, what were you thinking?"

"Just that... your dad's always been a little... controlling. Don't you think he might change her a bit?" She asked awkwardly, pulling a pan out of the cupboards and placing it on the stove top.

"Don't worry about that," Momoe insisted, "He's come to his senses. Really he has. He and Aimi took Emiko out for lunch, and I really do... trust him." Momoe's hand surprised me as it slipped into grips with mine. "He's a good Dad."

"A great Dad." I agreed. It felt weird to say, but he'd realized his mistakes and made all his wrongs right again. There was nothing better than that.

"Can I cook something?" Mimi asked, as she dropped some vegetables into the already heated up pan.

"Help yourself." Momoe said sarcastically. Mimi grinned at her and winked.

"If... you don't mind," Miyako said, "I'm going to go now. I just want to be with Mari."

We all looked to her as she stood up, sliding her stool back into its place, "We understand." Momoe said with a nod. "Please, tell her we send our love." Miyako nodded and hastily hugged Momoe before heading to the front door, and weakly waving goodbye.

"Is anyone else hungry?" Mimi asked.

"Oh me!" Momoe said.

"And me!" I grinned.

"Koushiro?" Mimi prodded his head with the end of her wooden spoon, "Are you listening?" Koushiro was staring down at his computer that he'd pulled out. There was a crack on the screen, not too big, but still recognizable. There was also a large dent on the bottom of it that was clearly visible, and a large piece of plastic missing from the corner. If there was one time in my life that I'd found a symbol of growth in Koushiro, it was right now. With _that_ computer. He had never overly been fond of that particular computer, and always missed his old one, but at the same time, it was still his computer, and he'd gave it up for not only Mimi, but everyone else. He tossed it aside and looked at things in the right perspective. "Anyone who has the name of 'Koushiro' should answer me immediately."

"Guys..." Koushiro said, having literally just not heard her at all, "What happened?" It didn't take long for us all to know what he was talking about because we'd all been wondering the same question. That flash of light was the last thing that made sense, and then between that light and our leave of the Digital World there was just nothing else that seemed real.

"Stop talking about it!" Gomamon shouted from the living room. "Gosh! You guys are so hung up on this!" A second later he was in the room, pulling himself onto the stool that Miyako had left unoccupied. "You humans need to let it go. I have. I know it'll never make any sense."

"But it _has_ to make sense." Koushiro insisted, "I need to know what happened. It's just who I am."

"Well then your best bet is to talk to Kurayami or Miyako, now isn't it?" Gomamon said. He had a point... the flash of light had blinded us all, but the second it had surrounded us I'd felt free. Happy. Better. It was like a lifelong ache in my shoulder had finally been relieved. It was the best thing I'd ever felt. But then the light faded and Norn was floating in front of us all, talking to Miyako. Kurayami ran toward her a moment later and the three of them had a private conversation until finally, with another small flash of light, Norn was gone, leaving Miyako and Kurayami to keep her secrets. But was it even a secret? Had anyone even bothered to ask them?

"You're right." Koushiro said, standing quickly, "I'll do that just now!"

Mimi slapped her spoon onto the counter, "No, Koushiro," She turned to face him and put her hands on his shoulder, "We won. We really, truly, won. No more Arkadimon, no more Apocalymon, no more Yggdrasil—no more evil. We got Sora back, we saved all nine worlds. Don't you think it's time to just let it all go? At least for now? Can we please all just take a nice, long break and relax in the sunlight? We can go to the beach or something."

"Well it's a bit cold," Koushiro pointed out, looking to his computer. "You're right Mimi. I'll figure it out later. Now is time for celebration! Our friend was just married!" I'd honestly never heard so much excitement in his voice than I did at that moment.

"Oh my goodness!" Mimi gasped, "You two didn't have your first dance!" She nudged Koushiro out of the way and began clicking away at her laptop. Momoe squeezed my hand, and when I looked to her she was positively beaming. I didn't know what it was about the first dance, but it was definitely important to Momoe, so it was important to me.

Soon Mimi had picked a song and it began playing loudly, if not distorted, from Koushiro's speakers. I jumped to my feet and pulled Momoe after me, "May I have this dance?" I asked her, causing her to giggle.

And then we were dancing. I was an awful dancer, I knew that, Momoe knew that, and the others knew that. But it didn't really matter because I didn't care what they thought—only that I was dancing with Momoe.

"Can I cut in?" Mimi asked, poking Momoe, "It's customary for someone to ruin the first dance." Momoe nodded and stepped aside, allowing Mimi though to dance with me as Momoe scooped Gomamon into her arms and began to spin around with him. "Jou..."

"Yes Mimi?" I asked as she looked away, biting her lip and flaring her nostrils. Was she trying not to cry? What did she have to cry about?

"You know how you always wanted to be a hero?" She asked, and I nodded, "You are a hero. You've saved the world countless times. You took on Apocalymon all on your own. You were the leader to us on Earth—a great leader. A perfect leader. You are the best father I've ever seen—the best husband now, and you're _my_ best friend." There were tears in her eyes now, and one even escaped and rolled down her cheek as she turned to look directly into my eyes.

"And I just want you to not hurt him," I heard Gomamon saying, "You be good to him." I couldn't help but smile as I spun Mimi around.

"Thanks Mimi," I said, unable to keep from smiling, "You're my best friend too."

She nodded, "I know," She laughed a little, and then added, "And you know how you've always wanted a happy family?" She was interrupted as Koushiro pulled her from me, spinning her into his arms. Bearmon was poking his head into the room a second later, and interrupted Momoe dancing with Gomamon. Momoe practically tossed Gomamon to me as she started dancing with her partner.

"Momoe needs to work on not mon-handling me." Gomamon said, rolling his eyes. Finally though he looked back to me, "Jou, this whole marriage thing is weird. You humans have weird rituals. I mean, does it really change anything?"

"It changes everything," I told him as I tossed him into the air with a laugh, "Now Momoe and I are a true, perfect couple. I mean, the marriage thing isn't important, but to me it is. I've always wanted the happily ever after, and now I have it."

"Well, I'm happy for you." Gomamon said, "But are you sure you've got everything you've ever wanted?"

"Yes," I said, but even as I said it, it felt like there was something missing.

"Jou, are you _sure_?" Gomamon asked, and this time I shook my head. How did he know that there was something off? How did he know, when I didn't even know? Did he know what it was?

Mimi practically ripped Gomamon from my arms as Koushiro spun Momoe toward me. She landed in my arms and looked up at me with her big eyes. "I love you Jou Kido," She said, standing on her toes and kissing me.

"I love you too Momoe Kido." I grinned at the sound of her new name. I wasn't sure I'd ever get over that.

Well, the loving moment didn't last too long, as it was interrupted by a mangled drowning sound as the song died. Koushiro froze and moved around the counter to look at his computer. His face fell instantly. "This cannot be happening." He groaned, "No! No, no no!" With a quick _snap_ there was smoke coming from the computer. "I'm taking this outside." He said, grabbing it and running for the door. Before he could get out however, the door had flung open and Aimi led the way in with Emiko in her arms.

"Daddy!" She screamed, "Mommy!" She slipped out of Aimi's arms and ran toward us. Momoe scooped her into her arms and spun around, kissing her on the nose.

"I missed you!" Momoe cooed.

I looked to the door as Koushiro slipped past my Father who had entered the room next looking pleased with himself, and yet a bit awkward. He smiled at me so I waved, and then he and Aimi were walking into the kitchen. Aimi launched into the stories of their day instantly to Mimi and Momoe as Gomamon and Bearmon looked really bored.

"Jou," It was Dad, his hand on my shoulder, "Could I talk to you for a moment please?" I nodded and followed him to the Living room, aware of Gomamon following behind me. Dad sat down on the couch, so I sat down on the other side, allowing Gomamon room to sit between us.

"What did you need?" I asked Dad.

"I don't need anything," He insisted, "I just want to talk to you about something." He turned and pulled out a bag I'd not noticed him carry in. He pulled out a familiar blue book and showed it to me. "Your diary."

"It's a journal." I defended myself.

"Well it's really just a diary," Dad said with a shrug, "I'm sorry, but I read it."

"I don't really mind." I said nervously, "There was probably some stupid stuff in there." But Dad shook his head quickly.

"No, no there wasn't." He said, opening the book to the first page, "It stars with you getting the diary from your mother, and then about how awful I was treating you, and how annoying your brothers were and how much you loved Asami. And then how much you missed her. And then you stopped writing in it for a while." That seemed pretty accurate, but I could honestly not remember writing any of it, so I wasn't sure where this was going. "And then there was only one more entry." Dad said, "August sixth nineteen-ninety-nine."

"Just a few days after we met," Gomamon noted.

"Yes, well..." Dad said, clearing his throat and looking to the page. "The entry is about how you don't want to be a normal doctor. You don't want to do what everyone else thinks you're good at, or what they think that you want. You want to do what you want no matter what it costs you."

"But—" I started.

"No," He cut me off, "You were a very smart kid Jou. And I'm sorry for not allowing you the freedom that you deserved in planning out your future. If your mother was here you wouldn't be where you don't want to be, and so I have to tell you exactly what she would tell you. Do you remember what the last thing she said to you was?"

_"Jou!" Mom called, "One more thing. If your father ever has a new woman in his life—I want you to love her exactly how you'd love me. Okay sweetheart?"_

"_I will pretend. But I can't love anyone as much as I love you."_

_"I love you Jou..." She said._

_"I love you forever."_

Slowly my eyes turned to the kitchen, to Aimi. I shook my head. I knew that wasn't what Dad was talking about, but I did promise Mom that I'd try to love Aimi... and so I'd start doing that. I would try very hard to love her.

"She said that she loved me." I tried.

"Oh," Dad said, "Well... not that. She said she was going to tell you... we had an argument about it—" As Dad started to explain the details of his argument with Mom I knew exactly what he meant. They only ever had one argument about me, and so I knew what he was talking about.

_"Jou, I want you to promise me, that no matter what happens to you, or what happens to those around you... you will always stay exactly who you are. Always be Jou. Always be responsible—wise, caring... and when you grow up—promise me that you will follow your dreams, and__not__as your father instructs."_

"She told me to always be true to myself." I said quietly.

"Yes—that one." Dad said, clapping his hands together. "Jou... I admit to you that I've not been there for you when I should have been, but now I have to be. And as Asami would say, 'look inside your heart and find what you truly want.'"

"But I have everything I've ever wanted."

"No," Gomamon and Dad said together.

"Jou, you're not happy." Gomamon said.

"You don't want to be a normal doctor, Jou." Dad added, "You've never wanted that, and now here you are, being just that, because I drilled it into your brain, telling you that's what you wanted."

"But I'm also a veterinarian," I added quietly.

"But why?" Gomamon prodded, "Why did you want to be a vet?"

"So I could help Digimon and animals too." I explained, "I really am happy with this..." But was I really?

"Taichi moved to the Digital World." Gomamon pointed out. "You... could too?"

"You could become a Digimon doctor." Dad suggested, "Jou, you are the most fragile and frightened person ever, and yet you've been on so many adventures to save those digimon. You care so much about them. It's time you looked at what you truly wanted and put it to use. Unimon told me that there's never been a Digimon doctor before. That's you Jou. This is your destiny."

As he said it, I knew full well that it would be right for me. I knew that I wanted to be a doctor for the digimon that I'd fought so hard to protect. But I couldn't do that. I could never get money for that, and without that money I'd never be able to support my family...

"We're buying a house here in Japan," I said shaking my head, "I can't."

"But you can." Dad said with a grin. "Gomamon was helping me out..." he turned and pulled the bag back up and pulled out a folder full of papers. "That egg digimon and your quiet architect friend helped too."

"Who?" I asked.

"Kiyoko," Gomamon said, "Just hush up and listen."

Dad showed me the papers and instantly I felt like my entire world could fall into place. It was basically designs for an add-on to the house I was about to buy—but the add-on was in the Digital World. The location of the house was in exact correlation of my new home. The portals would lead to one another—I could have one big home spread across two dimensions. That way my family could still be on Earth, and I could be in the Digital World. Doing my job. Emiko could still live a normal life, and yet Bearmon, and Monmon, and more importantly, Gomamon, could live their lives in the world they were supposed to.

There was no downside.

Except Money. But before I could even bring that up, Dad had explained how he was paying for the add-on to be built to attempt to make up for all the wrong-doings he'd done to me in the past.

Everything was perfect. I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

"I helped!" Gomamon growled, hugging my waist.

"Isao?" We all turned to see Aimi in the doorway of the kitchen, "We really should get going."

"Oh, right!" Dad shouted, jumping to his feet, "We're going to be late! We have a date you see," he explained as his face flushed.

"I'll see you out." Momoe said. She led them to the door, Mimi at her heels and with a few quick goodbyes, they were all out the door.

"How do you feel?" Gomamon asked as I picked him up to head to the kitchen to find Emiko.

"Like everything in my life is perfect." I said with a giant smile, "You're the best Gomamon. Thank you."

"No problem." He said as I picked Emiko up before she could do anything evil.

"Daddy!" Emiko squirmed in my arms until I tickled her a little. She began laughing loudly and then snuggled up to me, tired after a long day with her grandfather. I was so happy that she'd have him in her life now. I was so happy about everything.

As I stepped into the living room I saw a frame of pictures that I usually would just walk by, and I remembered what Mimi had said.

_You know how you've always wanted a happy family?_

It really _was_ all I ever wanted...

I was standing right in front of the fame of pictures now, looking at them all.

There was one of Momoe in the hospital after Fanglongmon's defeat, a few of my trips to New York to visit Mimi, the one that we'd taken after fighting Apocalymon, a slew of pictures of all of us from Miyako's wedding, a picture we'd taken the other day to symbolize our own wedding day, pictures of Iori and I on countless picnics and hikes and all the other things we'd done, a picture of Emiko throwing Daisuke's noodles back at him, and of course, the center picture. A picture of Gomamon and I on our first adventure together.

"Gomamon," I said suddenly, my smile even wider, "I finally have everything I've ever wanted. My life is perfect."

"For now." Gomamon joked, "Just wait until this one gets older." Emiko, as if on cue, had started pulling Gomamon's hair ferociously.

"Emiko!"I said loudly, "Not nice."

"Sorry." She said.

"I'm glad." Gomamon said, rubbing his head. "That your life is perfect. But why are you telling me?"

"Because it's important." I said with a shrug. "And the turning point, where everything started falling into place... was when I met you."

"Enough with the mushy stuff!" Gomamon said, but he was blushing, and I knew that he was happy. Just like I was. My life was going to turn out pretty darned well.

_**Daisuke Motomiya:**_

"Ramen's ready!" I shouted happily, ringing the bell, even though Jun was standing right next to me, rolling her eyes.

"I get it," she said. "You're thrilled to be working at your noodle-cart, whatever. We're your only customers right now, Daisuke."

"It's ten in the morning," I pointed out.

"Exactly," she said, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the picnic table next to my cart. I had set up in the park today, planning to use the various picnic tables to my advantage. "So sit down, and relax. You're not going to miss anything."

"And if anyone comes," Kurayami added. "You'll see them."

"I guess…" I said, sitting down, awkwardly watching Jun, Shuu and Kurayami eat their noodles. They had all ordered something different, and were sampling each others' dishes. Kurayami was being really enthusiastic about my new udon recipe, and Shuu was stuffing somen into his face at an alarming rate. They couldn't seem to stop themselves from raving about the food…which would have been great, had I not realized they were only being so enthusiastic because I happened to be sitting with them. The food was good don't get me wrong, it just wasn't _that_ good. Not shout-it-from-the-rooftops good, like they were acting. I was all about the practical food choices that managed to be delicious. Mimi was insisting that I work on some healthier options…but I was a noodle cart. There was only so much I could do on that front.

"You should definitely try the somen," Shuu announced.

"I've tried it," I told him. "I created the recipe…"

"Right," Shuu said slowly. "So…"

"So…." I repeated.

"The wedding's coming up," Jun said. "It's going to the best wedding you've ever been to. I guarantee it."

"That's not hard," Kurayami pointed out. "The only weddings I remember attending were disastrous."

"Mine won't be," Jun said firmly, as if daring the world to prove her wrong. I was just glad there'd be a chance for her wedding to _be_ destroyed. Not too long ago, things were a little iffy. We didn't know if there'd be a world to get married in. Now we did. And I was pretty sure that anything could've happened at her wedding and she wouldn't care, so long as she was Mrs Shuu Kido at the end of it.

"What's new with you guys?" Shuu asked, stuffing more somen into his mouth.

"Nothing, really," I said with a grin.

"How boring," Jun commented.

"Exactly," I said with a laugh. "We aren't risking our lives; we aren't a step behind some mysterious villain. Nothing. We are just relaxing. I mean, I'm working, but it's a noodle cart, it's not saving the world. It's a nice change of pace."

"I'm going to America soon," Kurayami offered. "With my father. There's something we need to do. Together. As what's left of our family."

"I hope you can manage to have fun while you're at it," Jun said uncertainly. I loved Kurayami, really I did, but sometimes I could've sworn that she said things _just_ to see how Jun would react.

Shuu reached across the picnic table and rested his hand on top of Jun's. She smiled at him brilliantly, and turned her smile at us. She didn't say anything, she just exuded happiness. Veemon and Labramon were running around the park, having a blast as they played tag.

"Where are Otamamon and Meramon?" I asked.

"At home," Shuu said. "They're bonding because of the wedding. They're going to be family. They want to get along better, like Jou and I, or Jun and you, Daisuke."

"I make fun of Jun all the time," I said, causing Jun to slap me in the arm with a gasp. "Not to your face!"

"That's worse," Jun said with a laugh.

"He's just covering up the fact that he raves about how awesome of a big sister you are," Kurayami told her, giggling.

"Really now?" Jun asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Kurayami," I hissed playfully. "That was a secret."

"I love secrets," Jun said. "Especially ones like that one. I _am_ an awesome big sister, aren't I?"

"When you're not being pigheaded," I teased.

"I am not!" she gasped, pushing me again.

"Excuse me?"

We turned to see a conserved, middle-aged woman. Her brown hair was cropped shorter than I remembered, and it was starting to streak with grey. She was looking at me nervously, and fiddling with the strap on her purse.

"Do you need something?" I said. I had to admit I was being cold, but she hadn't even attempted to contact me in four years. I was being perfectly justified.

"C-Could I get an order of noodles?" she asked quietly.

"You're going to need to be more specific than that, I've got several varieties to choose from."

"Some soba, perhaps?" she questioned. I sighed, she wasn't being very helpful, but got to my feet anyway, and threw some noodles into the pan, hesitating only for a second, as I tried to decide whether to give her a cilantro noodle bowl, just to spite her—as she didn't particularly care for cilantro _or_ broccoli florets—but went with a different recipe instead. I tossed the noodles with a creamy ginger dressing and topped them with crispy tofu, tarragon and toasted delicata squash seeds. I put the noodles in a takeaway container and offered them to her. She handed me more money than necessary, and then refused to take the change.

"Keep it," she said. "It's not a big deal."

"Neither am I," I told her, only a little bit bitterly.

"You are though," she insisted.

"What are you doing here, Mom," I asked her with a sigh.

"I wanted to see my son," she told me, her eyes watering. If I hadn't felt the sting of abandonment for four years, the tears in her eyes might've warranted sympathy from me.

"Tired of the low grade food my competition offers?" I asked.

"This _is_ far better," she admitted. "But that's not why."

"Why now?" I asked. "Why not when I needed you?"

"Jun said something," Mom said softly. "And then the world was invaded by giant robot monsters, and I didn't know where either of my children were. Or if you were okay. No one contacted me afterwards, and I assumed the worst. I've been trying to find you. Even before the attack. But I didn't want to seem weak. I wouldn't ask for help."

"Pride does that to you," I told her. "It's makes things harder, it's dangerous. I would know, not that you cared then either."

"I did care," she protested. "I've always cared."

"You've got a funny way of showing it," Jun said, taking my hand and standing next to me. "You started looking for him because of what I said? What part of my speech? The part where I told you that all Daisuke wanted or needed was love and support, or the part where I said you couldn't come to my future wedding unless you made up with him?"

"Both," she said. That wasn't such a fun thing to learn. Attending my sister's wedding was more important than me? Harsh.

"You should go then," Jun snapped. "He doesn't need a half-assed attempt. He needs his mother."

"I'm trying to give that to him!" Mom shouted. Jun stared at her with wide eyes. She hardly ever yelled when Jun was involved. The last time we'd had a conversation, there was a lot of yelling going on—mostly on Dad's part, but still…

"I miss him," Mom continued. "I've always missed him. There's a part of my heart that's been ripped away from me, and nothing I did could ever fill the void it left behind. You're my son. My baby boy. Your father is wrong, and I know that now. I didn't have the strength to disobey his orders before. But thinking I lost the both of you in that attack made me change my mind. Hearing Jun refuse to invite me to her wedding—thinking I pushed her away from me too—made me change my mind. I want my children."

"Why did it take so long?" I asked sounding ridiculously choked up.

"Daisuke," Kurayami said softly. "Are you okay here without me? I have to pack for my trip, but I can postpone it if you need me."

"Go ahead," I told her, looking between my girlfriend and my mother, my future and my past. It was time to face that past. "Send Veemon over though?"

"I will," she promised. She leaned over and kissed me softly on my cheek, but I caught her as she was pulling away, and gave her a swift kiss on the lips instead. I watched her walk across the grass to our frolicking digimon.

"She's pretty, Daisuke," Mom offered.

"Try gorgeous," Jun snapped.

"That too," Mom said softly.

"She is," I smiled. "She's great. Not perfect—she keeps reminding me—but nearly."

"She feels the same about him," Jun said. "It's almost sickening just how adorably in love they are, you know? Oh that's right. You don't know. Because you haven't been around."

"Jun, sweetheart," Shuu said. "Sit down and eat your noodles. Daisuke can defend himself. This is something he needs. Don't scare your mother away."

"But she could hurt him," Jun said. She was close to tears now, and I rolled my eyes. Mom couldn't hurt me much more than she already had.

"I don't want to hurt him," Mom insisted. "Not anymore."

"You could just be saying that," Jun protested.

"Sit down, Jun," I said. "Veemon can protect me, can't you buddy?"

"Sure can," Veemon said as he skipped to my side. "What are we talking about?"

"Doesn't matter bud," I said, patting his head. "Let's go for a walk Mom."

"Your noodle cart…"

"Jun can watch it, right Jun?" I asked.

"Sure, because I support it fully and always have," Jun said, not being able to resist another jab at Mom. I rolled my eyes, but found that a small part of me—just a teeny tiny part that was buried really deep down—was pleased to see that Mom winced at that. I led Mom down the path, and she took a second bite of the noodles she'd paid far too much for.

"I love you," Mom told me. "It might be hard to believe, but it's true. And nothing is going to change that, even if you do something that worries me, like open a noodle cart instead of furthering your education."

"I did further my education," I said. "I went to school for cooking. I know what I'm doing Mom. I've got a vision, and I'm really stubborn. I'll reach my goals. You know that."

"I don't know that," she corrected. "Not for sure. And that's what scares me."

"So instead of making sure I'd be okay, you send me off to fend for myself?" I asked with a snort. She was ridiculous.

"You left," she said. "I didn't make you leave."

"Yes, you did," Veemon informed her.

"You don't think you did, because you never said it. But it was either head to the streets and find happiness, or stay in a warm house and be miserable. It wasn't a real choice Mom," I told her.

"You lived on the streets?" Mom asked with wide eyes.

"No, I lived with the Yagamis," I said. "Now I live with Kurayami and Takeru Takaishi. I'm doing okay, Mom."

"I'm too late, aren't I?" she asked sadly.

"I don't know," I admitted.

"I _am_ sorry…" she said, looking for all the world like she was going to burst into tears, but was holding it in. "I can just go."

She turned away from me, and took six steps before I could bring myself to do anything.

"Wait," I called. "You're still my Mom. There's a lot that's happened to me since I saw you last…if you wanted, you could stay. You've still got some noodles, right? I could maybe…tell you about it."

"I'd like that," she said.

"I don't know if this'll go anywhere," I warned.

"And I won't assume," she assured me.

"Go sit down," I instructed. "I'll meet you there."

She nodded and headed off to the picnic table, where Jun gave her a steely look, but let her sit down. One well placed comment about wedding plans, and Jun was suddenly blabbing on and on about her centre pieces.

"Are you sure about this Daisuke?" Veemon asked.

"You're goal was to be a Knight, and you did that. Mine was to connect with my family, if I could," I told him. "I can't risk missing this chance. This could be the only one I get, and I _want_ my mother back."

"If it's going to make you happy," Veemon said. "Then go for it."

"I don't know if it will or not, but it might be fun to find out," I said with a grin.

"Then we'll both be happy," Veemon concluded.

"Finally," I agreed.

It sparked something in my memory though, of a time that seemed to be years ago, but only six months. On New Year's Day I made a vow to make sure my friends were as happy as I was then, with Kurayami. I didn't do a thing to work on my goal. If anything, with my bout of pride, I did the exact opposite. Hikari and Takeru got together, and were happy though. And Mimi and Koushiro were still together. Rei and Taichi started dating too. Yamato was alone again though, and so were Willis, Mari, Hideto, Neo and Kiyoko…

And Sora.

She'd had the worst year of us all. She'd dated Neo twice, ending it both times, and she didn't make it into school, and there was the hate club and of course…she died too.

She was the perfect choice. I'd have to do something to help her get to happiness. It wouldn't involve a guy though. She didn't need that. She needed something for her. Just for her.

"Hey, Veemon," I called suddenly, looking over to the picnic table quickly, noticing that Shuu's brother Shin had joined them, and was trying to steal what was left of Jun's noodles. I supposed I'd have to get back to work.

"Yeah, Daisuke," he asked.

"I was thinking of hiring someone to help out at the noodle cart," I told him. "What do you think?"

"Sounds…good…I guess," he mumbled.

"I'm looking for someone about three and a half feet tall, preferably a bright blue, ancient digimon. Any ideas?" I questioned. He looked up at me with wide eyes.

"You mean it?" he asked with a grin. "You said no one wanted to buy noodles from a blue dinosaur thing though…"

"Nah, with Katsue's new movie coming out, everyone's going to want to buy from the mon that saved the world. So, what do you say?" I asked. "I'd really like to work alongside my very best friend."

"You got yourself a deal," Veemon said, jumping up and down in excitement. "Now let's talk paycheck."

I started laughing, and he broke into peals of laughter not long after. "C'mon," I said, sticking my hands in my pocket and gesturing over to my noodle cart, where my mother was waiting. "Let's get to work, partner."

"I'll race you there!" Veemon shouted, and we started running.

_**Takeru Takaishi:**_

"Are you sure I should be doing this?" I asked nervously, confused as to how the whole relationship thing worked since the only one I'd ever been in was sort of one sided. Hikari was walking with me, her hand in mine—everything I'd wanted for the longest time—and Patamon was sitting on my head. The three of us were headed through the crowded street toward the airport to see Catherine off. She'd come and stopped by after the big battle to check in on us all. I was relieved to find that she was okay, but she didn't say a word to me, instead she'd just sent me a text message in mostly correct Japanese telling me to come see her off at the airport.

"Of course." Hikari insisted, "Takeru I love you. I think I trust you enough to say goodbye to your ex-girlfriend."

"Well she doesn't know we're dating." I told her quietly, "What if she tries to get back together with me?"

"Then you do what you think is right." She said. I felt her hand twitch a little in my hold and I had a feeling I knew what she was thinking. She was scared I'd leave her for Catherine—which was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.

"Hikari," I said, stopping and looking to her, pulling her hand up high and holding it with both of my own. "I love you too. So much. I always have. No other girl, and that includes Catherine, could ever change that fact. I know you probably have trust issues due to your relationship with Willis—but you genuinely don't have to worry about anything like that. I'll be with you for as long as you'll let me to be."

Hikari bit her lip as she looked up to me, and with a sudden jump, she'd thrown her arms around my neck and kissed me again. "You..." She stumbled, "You just..."

"You don't have to say anything," I told her with a laugh, unable to force the smile away. That was only the second time she'd kissed me—I'd waited so long for that, and it was going to take a lot of getting used to. In a good way.

"No, I do." She insisted, shaking her head, causing her little braid to bounce a little. She was wearing a pink shirt that almost looked like a dress, with white capris underneath, and a white cardigan as well. She was so pure and wholesome—all the time. And it was adorable. I wasn't wearing anything similar at all—which was good because I probably couldn't pull that look off. I was wearing a buttoned t-shirt with one of Yamato's hand-me-down jackets—not leather of course, he'd never let them go. "Takeru, just listen for a minute. I'm terrible with words." She laughed nervously then shook it off.

"Just say what's in your heart." Patamon suggested. I looked up at him and rolled my eyes, but when I looked to Hikari she was smiling.

"Well," She said, "it's weird because this feeling has always been there—_always._ But I never really noticed it because I never understood it. I just thought it meant that you were close to me—which it did, but it meant _so_ much more than that as well. It meant that I was in love with you, and it meant that I always wanted to be there for you, and it meant that we were meant to be together. And Takeru... I am so sorry for not noticing it sooner—"

"Don't be." I said flatly as I continued walking, her hand in mine again, "It doesn't matter about our past relationships, really, because we're together now, and we have the rest of our lives to work that out."

"You're moving pretty fast there." Patamon pointed out. "I'm not even programmed for relationships and I know that."

"I don't mind though." Hikari said, staring to the ground, "We deserve an odd relationship. We're quite an odd couple." I looked to her confused, "Well, I mean, how many couples can say that they got together in the midst of saving the world?"

"Koushiro and Mimi," Patamon said quickly.

"Yamato and Sora," I pointed out.

"Taichi and Rei," Hikari added quietly. "So just three."

"Daisuke and Kurayami," I said.

"Alright, well four." She laughed, "Out of all the couples in the world. That's pretty spectacular if you ask me."

"Spectacular..." I said slowly, "That's a good word to describe us." I motioned my hand across the sky, "'Takeru and Hikari, the spectacular couple.' It'll be on signs everywhere!" Hikari laughed but Patamon just rolled his eyes. I could tell because he did the dramatic sigh he always put along with it. We continued walking toward the airport which was only another ten minutes away.

So much had happened in the last few days. First Iori had had a seizure mixed with a prophetic vision, then Sora was killed, then we had a giant battle for all nine worlds, then Sora came back, Hikari and I got together and we saved everything.

Except Lalamon.

I felt terrible for Mari. I sympathized with her well having lost Patamon twice, but I'd never had to face the music when it came to losing him for good. Lalamon was killed on Earth with no chance of her coming back. It was the worst thing that could have happened. We get one friend back just to lose another. I was hoping desperately for a happy ever after for every one of us. We all deserved it, really we did...

But at the same time, Sora coming back was a giant miracle. Honestly I hadn't noticed. Not even for a second, and I felt terrible—but to be fair, Hikari and I had arrived in the heat of the battle, there wasn't exactly time for us to notice our friend had come back. But when we had...

"_What do you think they're saying?" Jou asked quietly, as we watched Kurayami and Miyako talk to Norn who was glowing and floating in front of us. I could see that Daisuke wanted to go over and talk too, even more than I did, but we both knew this was between the three of them, for whatever reason. But Daisuke definitely had more right to go over than I did, being one of the Holy Three, and her adoptive... friend person._

"_Honestly, I have no idea." Koushiro muttered, "I'm not sure." As he said it, the other two groups were merging with ours, until all of us were watching together. "It's probably something about Norn ruling over the worlds or something."_

"_I still don't think it's fair that I can't go." Daisuke groaned._

"_Tell me about it." Ken sighed._

"_Oh get used to it boys." Sora said, "When you want to get in on private conversations in this group of friends you only find yourself in a state of constant disappointment." She was obviously talking about how she'd been constantly nagging Taichi and Koushiro in attempts to join the ranks of the Council that Taichi ruled over._

"_Oh boo," Taichi said, "You listen in on every meeting."_

"_Plus every other private conversation any of us have ever had." Iori said._

_Sora stuck her tongue out at him and I remembered that the two had had a falling out over Iori dating Natsuni. That was right before Sora had gone out after Neo and—died._

"_Sora?" I said suddenly. Apparently the shock in my voice had flipped a switch in Hikari's brain too because suddenly she was staring at her as if she was a crazy monster—not that I blamed her—the last time we'd seen Sora she'd transformed into a giant monster trying to kill her. Sora turned to me with an attempted smile on her face as if she was confused. "Sora...?" I said again, unable to say anything. She nodded and then I was hugging her, with Hikari doing the same a second later._

"_How?" Hikari asked, squeaking with excitement._

"_Ask Mimi." Sora said, waving her hand lazily._

"_How?" I asked, turning to Mimi instatntly._

"_Well," Mimi started._

"_You went back in time?" Hikari cut her off, and Mimi nodded, "Brilliant! Mimi that's brilliant!"_

"_You can go back in time?" I asked._

"_Of course I can," Mimi said with a shrug of her shoulders, "I told you this."_

"_You were serious?" I asked her, my voice rising._

"_Brilliant!" Hikari said again, before turning to hug Sora._

"_Was it though?" Mari asked quietly, "You went back and saved Gennai and everyone died. What... what if saving Sora... does that again?" Mari winced at the looks everyone gave her, but if what she said was true, then she had a point. Plus she had nothing to fear, no one would ever say anything to her that would hurt her—she'd just lost her partner._

"_It won't." Mimi assured everyone, "Gennai made it clear that all the Digidestined had to survive, and need I remind you all that we completely won? And saved the world? What could possibly go wrong?"_

"_Well, theoretically—" Koushiro started._

"_It was a rhetorical question dear," Mimi said, rolling her eyes. And I was most definitely on her side. I turned my attention back to Sora and hugged her again._

In the midst of our celebrations back on Earth I had demanded that Sora and I spend a day together—she was back and I couldn't waste any of my time with her. We'd set a day on the weekend where we were planning on going to the beach or someplace fun.

"Well," Hikari said, drawing my attention back to her and the present time, "We're here."

I looked up and almost groaned when I saw that we were standing in front of the airport. There were so many people moving in and out of the building. How was I even going to _find_ Catherine?

"Well, let's go." I said, trying to pull Hikari along with me, but she stood her ground and her hand slipped from mine. "Uhm, you forgot to come."

She smiled and shook her head, "This one is all you Takeru." She said with a wink.

"Okay." I nodded, "You wait here, come on Patamon." I turned to walk to the door, but Patamon was floating away from my head a second later, heading toward Hikari. I turned and glared at him, "You too?"

"It's like Hikari said," He said, "This one is all you."

"But I can't do it alone!" I said, "I'm scared!"

"You slew a dragon with a sword Takeru," Hikari giggled, "I think you can handle a pretty French girl."

She was right of course. It was just Catherine. What was the worst that could happen? I waved fairly confidently to Hikari and Patamon before turning and striding straight into the crowd heading into the building.

Inside was cramped, and as the crowd moved there was no getting away from them, I felt like a sheep being herded. They were surrounding me and pushing me around, and stepping on me. There were so many different voices painting the air in front of me that I couldn't even concentrate on what was happening in my own head. I decided that the best chance I'd have would be to get out of the crowd and find some higher ground to find Catherine with, but getting out of the crowd wasn't an easy task. Eventually I did however find myself stumbling away from the crowd and toward a wall.

I slammed into it and spun around seeing that most of the crowd itself had stopped as well. They were all staring up at the television set above them. On the screen was a man in the top right corner talking about the events taking place on the rest of the screen. It was Yamato and MetalGarurumon fighting against the metal beasts that had rampaged our world.

"...we don't really know what went on," The man was saying, "But we're here with someone who does." The screen changed to the man again, sitting behind a desk, and next to him in a comfy looking red chair was Katsue, looking particularly nice. "Katsue, is it?" She nodded, "Alright, will you tell us what happened in the battle against Earth and these creatures."

"I can." She nodded.

There was a long moment of silence before the man said, "Will you tell us?"

"Nope." She said with a shrug, "The full, complete story complete with footage, not only on Earth, but also the Digital World—where the true battle took place. It'll be released in a bit, I just have to throw it together. I'll release it to the world when I have it edited, and have recorded a few interviews. I'll let you in on a little secret though. It involves Digimon."

"Boo!" I jumped, turning to see Catherine. Her hair was pulled back in a bun and she was wearing jogging pants and a sweater—comfy clothes to go flying in. Clearly she hadn't bothered with looking her best, which set my mind at ease a bit. "What are you watching?" She asked. I pointed to the screen and she turned to watch as well.

"Well, sir," She said with a shrug, "Digimon are creatures that have been constantly erased from your minds. They've been here so many times, and a lot of you might think I'm crazy. But just wait until my movie comes out. You'll all be amazed—I'll be filling you in on all the little details. That stack of books that you think looks out of place—take a closer look at it. It's not a stack of books at all. It's a digimon that has a spell placed on it to confuse your minds."

"Alright, we'll be back right after this," The host said, "Hopefully with a sane guest."

"She's not crazy!" Catherine shot loudly, but no one listened, everyone was just laughing and moving on. How could they find that crazy when they'd just been invaded by those giant robots. Well they wouldn't think she was crazy after seeing her movie. At least, I hoped not. Or did I?

"Do you think it's a good idea for her to tell everyone about the digimon?" I asked, turning to Catherine.

She nodded quickly and simply, "Yes." She said, "I think it's more important than any of us know. Don't you think it's time that everyone got a partner? Every human has a digital representative—so why aren't we allowing them to meet up? I think it's about time."

"You're right." I said with a small nod. She really was. Who were we to keep them from having their partners? I mean, it wasn't Catherine's decision to make, nor mine, but if it was, I'd let them have them. They were all missing out right now, and that wasn't fair. Iori's grandfather had only barely had time to meet his own partner—what if others didn't get even that chance?

"So," Catherine said, "I don't have much time, I just wanted to say something really quick."

"What's that?" I asked her.

"I'm so happy that you and Hikari are together," She said quickly, and before I could respond she was talking again, "I know I threw myself at you a little bit—but I really just am happy for you. Hikari and you deserve each other and it was obvious the two of you were meant to be. I'm happy."

"Thank you," I said as she hugged me. How did she even know we were _in_ a relationship? She'd barely seen us—maybe it was just that obvious, either way, I was so happy that she was happy for us rather than angry or resenting us.

"I mean, I'm sad," She said, "But I'll get over it. And one last thing." She put her hands on my shoulders. "I want a copy of your finished manuscript. Is it done yet? Whenever it is—I need it."

"I think it finally is done." I told her. "Why do you need it?"

"Well my cousin works in publishing," She said, "He will most definitely publish it—especially when your friend Katsue releases an action movie starring all of the characters in the book. Everyone will want to know the whole story—and _you_ are the only one who can tell it."

"Catherine—" I wanted to tell her how thankful I was, and how much it meant to me, but she just stood on her toes and kissed me on the cheek.

"I have to go." She said, "My plane is boarding. Send it to me!"

And then she was backing up before suddenly melting into the crowd, leaving me alone there. I was genuinely happy though. Everything seemed to be turning out perfectly. The humans wouldn't be helpless, my book was getting published, Hikari and I were together—what else could be fixed?

As I stepped outside and saw Patamon sitting alone, I had a feeling I was going to find the answer to that question. I looked around for Hikari for a second, but didn't spot her, so I hurried to sit with Patamon.

"Oh, you're here." He said, looking up at me with a smile, "I just have something to say." I was excited for whatever it was, and I wasn't even sure why. I could only hope it was good news.

"One of my biggest dreams has always been to feel love," Patamon said bluntly, "And I knew digimon weren't meant to love though. We don't need to. Mummymon was definitely in love with Arukenimon, but that was because they were programmed from a human. Oikawa—so I thought my life was doomed to be love-less. And when Sora died, I really thought it was a sign. But then I remembered what Kiyoko told me... you don't have to be able to reproduce to feel love."

"That's a good point," I nodded.

"Yes," He said, "Well, one day I hope to really find someone to love. But until then... I really don't need it. Because I have you. And I love _you._"

"I love you too Patamon," I said, pulling him into my arms. "I'm happy you came to terms with all of this, but you know you can tell me anything, I could've helped you."

"Well I wasn't sure if you'd understand."

"I would _make_ myself understand. Just for you." I said.

"You're the best!" He said, snuggling further into my arms. "Hikari's waiting for us to finish by the way." He pointed over toward a tree where I saw her sitting, looking toward us, she waved when she noticed us looking her way. I waved back and then turned back to Patamon. "I'm kind of hungry."

"Do you want to go to that all day breakfast place?" I asked, "I know you like eggs and bacon."

"Is that another pig joke?" He asked loudly, "I'M NOT A PIG TAKERU!"

"I know," I told him with a smile.

_**Willis Kennedy:**_

"Won't be needing this..." I said sadly, dropping a picture of my mother into the trash in the corner of my bedroom.

"You can't move," Michael said flatly, "You just can't."

"I'm telling you once more," I told him calmly as I placed a pile of my boxers into the open suitcase laying on my bed. "I'm not moving Michael." Michael was sitting at the end of my bed in the center, his legs crossed, pleading me not to do something I was already not doing. Betamon was in his lap watching the two of us. It was hard to not stare at the gauging scars lining his back, but I knew it was rude to do so—they were just so frightening. How could someone have done that? I know Michael said that it had been the shadow who wanted his body—thus the Devil himself, so did he have any remorse? Probably not.

Terriermon and Lopmon were there too, jumping around across the floor like a rabbit and a dog who likes to jump.

"You certainly look like you're moving." Michael said, waving his hands dramatically at everything I'd packed, which was virtually everything. There were three suitcases already filled with my clothing, and a few boxes here and there filled with random trinkets I held close to my heart.

"Well I'm not." I assured him as the door was kicked open. Jenna led Kudamon into the room while holding a tray of fruits and cheese. The moment she'd entered the room Terriermon and Lopmon stopped playing and turned their heads toward the tray.

"I want the fruit!" Terriermon argued.

"I want the cheese!" Lopmon settled.

"Fine!" Terriermon barked, "Then _I_ want the cheese too!"

"I wanted it first!" Lopmon shouted.

"NO I WANTED IT FIRST!" with that, Terriermon had tackled Lopmon to the ground and the two started rolling around trying to kill each other. I froze and watched them for a moment, unable to keep from smiling. On one hand, their fighting was a bad thing, on the other hand, they were fighting again. Which meant that Lopmon was truly happy again. She'd been living so far in the clouds that she hadn't paid any mind to those of us down on Earth, but now she was back with us.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" Jenna asked as she placed the tray of food on the bed. Betamon and Kudamon were hurrying toward the food a moment later.

"Right," I said quickly, moving toward the two of them and grabbing Terriermon around the waist, pulling him into my arms so Lopmon could escape. Terriermon and Lopmon were still screaming at each other before bursting into laughter. "Do you think Alice and I would fight?" I said, putting Terriermon down.

"Well it's hard to fight with someone who's..." Jenna trailed off after realizing what she was saying.

"Dead, I know." I told her, "I just... siblings fight right? I think Terriermon and Lopmon's relationship is a lot like how my relationship with Alice would have gone." It made sense to me... we were twin siblings after all, and ultimately I felt like that meant we'd love each other more than anything, but also hate each other to the core of our being. But I never got that chance. I never got the chance to do anything at all... I wondered for a moment what kind of music she would have liked, or what kind of food she ate. For some reason I had painted a detailed picture in my head as if I knew her, but how could that be? There was no way she could be the person in my head... and I had no way of asking her these things.

Slowly my eyes narrowed in on the rusted key laying on the top of my dresser.

"No." I said aloud. Jenna and Michael turned to me, but I didn't elaborate. I couldn't go, Alice had told me that it was a bad idea. Besides, she'd helped me out before... maybe she'd appear again and I could just talk to her then... I did however know that I was going to be tempted to use that key. Could I possibly go a whole lifetime without using it again when I knew that I could?

"So where are you headed?" Jenna asked, tossing a grape into the air and catching it with her open mouth.

"He's moving." Michael said flatly.

"Am not!" I shot, "I'm just spending some time in Japan for a while, okay?"

"He's moving." Michael clarified wrongly. Jenna was looking back and forth between the two of us and finally gave up trying to make an opinion.

"Just tell me what's going on." She said.

"Hikari and I broke up because our relationship sucked," I said simply. Both of them looked to me as if I was crazy, but it did tie in if they'd just sit and listen, so I continued before either could interject. "She was an independent person, and I sort of expected everything to be in my favour. That's not what love is. Love is about making sacrifices, especially when the other person needs someone there with her."

"You're living in Japan to spend time with Mari?" Jenna asked.

"Well... yeah." I admitted, "But only for a while. I'm moving back here eventually. This is my home guys. It's my dream house. I can't give it up."

"Even for Mari?" Michael asked.

"It's her dream house too." I said, "We used to sneak around and stare at it all the time. With Marshall."

"That idiot?" Jenna laughed, "Where is he anyway?"

"I dunno, lost track of him." I admitted.

"Just don't go!" Michael whined, laying down on the bed. "I don't want to be alone with _her_."

"You won't be." I said as Jenna slapped the back of Michael's head. "Your girlfriend lives here too, plus you have Betamon, and Monodramon and Kudamon. I promise I'll be back anyway. Why don't you believe me?"

"Because you're packing that." He said pointing directly at the nearest box. The box was topped with a photograph, and underneath it all was everything about Alice and my dad that I'd found in the attic. I moved toward it and grabbed the photograph. It was of my Dad holding Alice and I as babies.

I turned to the mirror hanging above my dresser and stuck the photograph between the frame and the glass. "There." I said. "Now you know I'll come back." I had no intention of not coming back, so it didn't hurt me to not bring the picture... but as I stared at it I found that my hand had acted on its own, grabbing the key from the dresser top. As I turned around I was placing it in my pocket. "You know I couldn't leave you guys. You're my family now."

"I finally have the brother I always wanted!" Jenna and Michael said together.

Everyone turned to Jenna confused, and she simply shrugged, "What?" She asked, "I never wanted _you_." She poked the side of Michael's face and he swatted her hand away as I laughed.

"Well I've always wanted a sibling too." I said, looking over my shoulder the picture for a moment. "I think it was clear in my childhood that I needed one. That's where Terriermon and Lopmon came in. They changed my life completely."

"Yeah. You changed ours too." Terriermon said, his face full of grapes.

"We didn't have a life before Willis..." Lopmon pointed out, "We weren't born yet."

"Exactly!" Terriermon said.

"Well..." I said, grinning at the two of them, so happy to have things back to normal. Even if I was throwing caution to the wind and moving to my little apartment in Japan for a bit, potentially screwing up the 'normal' I'd fought so hard to get back. "Anyway, the two of you remind me a lot of Alice." I said to Jenna and Michael, "I mean, I don't know her well, but at the same time... I just _do._" I turned to Jenna, "I know that she wouldn't take crap from anybody. I know she was smart and courageous..." I turned to Michael then, "And I know she wasn't afraid to be herself, and she cared so much. And she was as strong as ever..." there was a moment of silence that I found to be quite awkward, "Also she dressed gothic," I pointed to Jenna.

"I'm over the gothic look though." Jenna said, "I'm thinking I'm going Victorian next! It'll be great."

"That sounds amazing," I smiled to her. The two of them talked for a while as I packed my things, throwing my socks into my suitcase. After a while Terriermon perked his ears up and jumped up to the window.

"Hey!" he yelled, "hey! Hey! Hey!"

"Oh my God, you are a dog." Jenna laughed. "What is it?"

"Someone's coming in the lane!" He shouted, "HEY!"

I moved to the window and pulled the curtain aside and groaned. The car had stopped and my mother was getting out of the driver's seat. How splendid.

"You guys wait here." I suggested.

"No way," Jenna said, shaking her head, "I'm not hiding from anyone."

"I like bothering her." Terriermon said honestly.

"Me too." Lopmon grinned.

"Well... alright," I said with a sigh, "Just don't intentionally cause a scene."

Jenna, Terriermon and Lopmon all rolled their eyes in unison, but didn't object. Michael decided he'd wait for us to get back, and spend some time with Betamon and Kudamon instead of putting up with Mom. We all pretty much knew that this was going to be a mess. It always was with my Mom. The four of us hurried down the hall and to the top of the stairs, the others walking with so much more confidence than I was myself.

At the bottom of the stairs Tatum was wearing some sort of billowy dress that looked far too fancy for everyday wear. I had a feeling my mother was going to point that out, and I was about to find out because Tatum was opening the front door.

My mother stepped through the door and smiled uncomfortably at Tatum, and then turned to see me.

"Welcome to the home of Sir Kennedy," Tatum said in a mocking voice, "May I take your coat, perhaps prepare a cup of tea for you?"

"Oh," Mom said turning to her and nodding, "That sounds nice."

"I was joking." Tatum said, her face falling. Jenna snickered, but I ignored her, I just wanted to get this talk over with. I walked down the stairs, aware of the others following me. "I'll just go then?" Tatum offered, backing up quickly.

"No, don't!" Mom shouted. Tatum froze and turned back to her slowly.

"Well I'm not going to stand here and let you insult me again." Tatum said boldly, "I'd really rather you didn't make me cry myself to sleep again." I had a feeling Tatum hadn't actually cried herself to sleep, and was instead using this as a form of guilt tripping her.

"Well I wasn't planning on it." Mom said awkwardly.

"Then what were you planning on doing?" Tatum asked, "Because every time you talk to me I feel worse about myself. I imagine you've come to talk to your son, so please, feel free to do so, but in the process you don't need to make everyone else feel upset."

"I wanted to apologize." Mom said quietly.

I wanted desperately for someone else to say anything because I didn't know_ what_ to say. No one was saying anything though, and as I looked around they were all stone faced, just like I was. She'd been so... evil... and suddenly she wanted us to forgive her...? She was apologizing? What had happened?

"Well," Terriermon said, finally breaking the silence. "Didn't see that one coming."

"That's my fault," Mom said perfectly calmly, taking a step forward. She stopped when she noticed everyone retracting with confusion and then she began to panic. "I didn't mean for it to come so far—I just wanted—and then—and we—Willis, can't you—And I—"

"I think you'd better take a breath and relax for a minute." Tatum said, moving toward her and putting her hand on Mom's arm. Mom nodded quickly and did as instructed. After a few seconds of just breathing she finally relaxed and readied herself for her much needed apology.

"When... Willis," she looked up to me as if pointing me out. I knew who I was Mom. C'mon. Move along with the story. "When he was all I had left I had to put myself out there more than I was comfortable doing. And I didn't mind. Because I knew it was all for Willis... but everything in my life had gone wrong. My parents were right. Keith wasn't the right man for me—and they kicked me out of their house only for Keith to leave me and take my daughter with him." She cupped her hand around her mouth, her eyes watering. I was already scared to where this was going. I had no perception or predictions of what she might be aiming for. I looked to the top of the stairs and debated hiding from the story, but my mood changed quickly when I saw Michael's leg around the corner. He was eavesdropping, and that was pretty funny.

"That's great," Jenna said, "but I'm still not sure how that is an apology."

"I'm getting there." Mom said adjusting the strap of her purse, "I promise." She cleared her throat and looked to the floor, "I was an independent woman. The type of woman I always looked up to but never aspired to be. I was more of a damsel in distress. I'll admit it. Then when I found that you were a genius—and were able to take care of yourself... You didn't need me. And so I found myself feeling worthless, bathing in self pity. And then I found that you could support _me_ too. Then there was no need to work, or even leave the apartment... and I began using you. Using you without realizing how awful it was—I was the worst person I could imagine... and when you started standing up to me... I thought I was losing you. I couldn't lose you because you were still the only thing I had left. And without you... I'd die. I needed your money."

"And the Mom-of-the-Year award goes to..." Jenna said sarcastically.

Mom looked to her, worried, and then back to me, hoping for a reaction, but my face was still expressionless. "Then I met Michael, and I honestly felt true love. I kept forgetting that he was rich. I was just... I had something else to fight for. But then I found that those two... things."

"They still have names." I said, finally saying something.

"Terriermon," Lopmon said.

"And I'm Lopmon," Terriermon joked. "Nice to meet you. I'm a girl rabbit who likes looking for things."

Lopmon glared at him, "And I'm a boy rabbit who is fat and mean and dumb."

"I'm a _dog_!" Terriermon barked, ready to tackle Lopmon. Jenna and I reached down in unison and picked one up each.

"Yes... you two. Terriermon and Lopmon." Mom nodded, "Well... I found out that they were doing your chores. They were taking care of you. You may have been a genius, but you weren't fully independent. You really did need me... and I wasn't there for you... but they were. And I resented them for it... when I should have been angry with myself."

"It's not your fault," Lopmon said from Jenna's arms, "When we came around you were still working. You were trying to be around."

"You just had too much to do, and Willis was alone." Terriermon said. "But he raised us really well. Because you raised him well."

"For a while." They clarified together.

"Then you screwed up." Terriermon finished.

Mom pointed to him, "That." She said, "That is what my problem was. I screwed up raising Willis, and then everything went to my head in awful, terrible ways. I began thinking that since I was rich that I was better than everyone else. I was better than your two... digimon creature... things... because... Well, I was rich, I had raised you, I knew best. Of everything. But I didn't. Jenna, your gothic attire bothered me because I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it when Keith had sent me a photograph of my daughter dressed almost the same as you either. And I thought I was the better parent because Willis turned out fine. So I tried to parent you too. And it was wrong. Because I was wrong. I wasn't the better parent... you were, Willis."

"Me?" I asked, pointing to myself with my thumb, and Mom nodded.

"I just wanted you all to know that." Mom said, "I wanted you," She turned to Tatum, "to know that you are gorgeous. Your hair is so red and pretty—I'm jealous. You are perfect Tatum. I'm so sorry for telling you otherwise. And Michael... he's such a smart boy. I haven't had much time to bond with him, but you and he will make the most beautiful children one day."

"Mom!" I hissed. Tatum's face turned red and I heard Michael choke on some sort of fruit at the top of the stairs.

Mom looked past me and to the second floor, "Michael?" She asked, "Is that you?" He leaned over and waved, but said nothing. His face was bright red since he'd just choked.

"Hi!" Betamon shouted, jumping into view with Kudamon on his back.

"And those two!" Mom said smiling, "I don't even know them. But I'd love to. As well as your friend." She said, turning back to Tatum. "I would love the chance to make things right with all of you." She turned her head to Jenna who squirmed under her gaze, "I am genuinely sorry for everything I've said and done to you. I am not your mother, and I cannot fix you."

"We—" Jenna started.

"Because there is nothing to fix." Mom said quickly. "You are a brilliant girl, and I hope we can have a bond that I've always dreamed of. I hope you can be the daughter I've always wanted. You are everything I want to be Jenna. Smart, brave, kind, strong..."

Everyone was looking at Jenna who was staring at Mom as if she was about to explode, but she said nothing, so Mom looked down to Lopmon and then over to Terriermon. "I want to apologize for taking so long to learn your names." She said, "And hating your kind because of my petty disgusting reasoning. You two saved me more times than I can count, and I need to thank you for that."

"We've saved you twice." Lopmon said.

Terriermon cupped his hands around his mouth and whispered loudly to Lopmon, "She can't count very high!"

Mom raised her eyebrows and almost laughed, which was incredible. It was so rare that I could see her smile, or laugh or genuinely be happy, and Terriermon and Lomon, who she'd hated for so long, had almost made it happen already.

"And I'd like to thank you for being there for my son when I should have been." Mom said slowly, "I owe you two more than I could ever pay you back." And finally she turned to me. "And Willis..."

"You don't have to say anything." I said, stepping off of the bottom step and walking toward her until I was standing only a few feet away.

"I do." She said.

"You've said enough." I told her, "You've said it all."

"I'll have never said enough." She corrected.

"Then there's really no need." The two of us stared at each other for a while, and as Terriermon climbed up on my shoulders I stepped forward and hugged her. "I never lost hope that you'd come back."

"I never left Hon," She said, gripping me tighter. "I was always there... just with a clouded vision. It's good to be back."

I pulled away and smiled at her, but then paused, "I do have one question though."

"What's that?"

"What brought this on?" I asked.

"Two things." She said quietly, "Firstly, your friend Marshall—" "—not my friend—" "was an ass. He was so mean and vile. I hated everything about him. But he was exactly like me. In so many ways. I realized that I thought I was better all because of the money I had. The only difference between us was that he was poor—which was awful. I truly realized how awful I'd been..."

"Marshall actually made something good happen." Terriermon laughed.

"By being a jerk," Lopmon said.

"And the other thing?" Tatum asked softly, "What was it?"

"I just... missed you Willis." Mom said, her eyes watering again. We were hugging again after that, and Terriermon and Tatum joined in. Soon Lopmon, and Michael, and even Betamon, Kudamon and Monodramon were hugging us, and I could hardly breathe...

But then we all turned to Jenna who was standing by herself, her lips pursed and her arms crossed. She looked deadly with her gothic clothing.

"What about you Jenna?" Mom asked, "Could you forgive me?"

Jenna stepped carefully off of the steps, her heels clicking against the tiled floor. She slowly looked toward Mom and sighed, "My motto is to always treat people with the respect that they treat you. And so," she stepped toward the crowd of us and reached for Mom's hand. "How about I make you that tea you wanted?" Mom took her hand and smiled brightly before pulling her into a hug. "Oh, actually," Jenna said, "Not really much of a hug person." She pushed away from Mom who was still beaming at her.

"Where is Hikari?" Mom asked, "I need to apologize to her as well."

"We broke up." I told her. Mom gasped, "Like a month and a half ago."

"I'm so sorry..." She said.

"No, it's for the best." I told her.

"I guess we have a lot of catching up to do..." She said, nervously looking away.

"How about we do that over the cup of tea?" I offered.

"Sounds perfect." She said.

"I'll be right there." I said, looking up the stairs. "I just have one thing to do first." She nodded and allowed Jenna, Michael and the digimon to lead her into the kitchen. I looked to Tatum who was staring to the other side of the room, a shocked look on her face. I spun around quickly.

Standing at the other side of the room was a woman in an autumn coloured kimono with blonde locks, a young girl in gothic clothing with her hair tied in two blonde pigtails, and a man who smiled to me with the very same mouth and eyes I saw every time I looked in the mirror. I turned back to Tatum and smiled at her, and when we looked back, the three of them were gone.

I looked back to Tatum again who just nodded and headed toward the kitchen allowing me to run up the stairs two at a time and whip down the hallway and into my bedroom. I looked around at all my packing—I'd finish that later, but as for that moment...

I reached into the trash and pulled out the picture of my mother, smiling at it before adding it to the mirror where the picture of Dad, Alice and I was still placed.

"What are you doing?" Lopmon asked, poking her head into the room.

"Just putting things back where they belong." I said with a grin as I fell back to sit on the bed, staring at the mirror.

"Well that's just cheesy." Terriermon added, jumping up onto the bed and scooting over to sit next to me.

"Sometimes cheesy is necessary." Lopmon said, reaching for the tray of food and picking up a piece of cheese, "I, for one, quite like cheese."

"I like it more." Terriermon shot.

"Guys," I said sharply, "Seriously. Important moment here." They both nodded and moved even closer to me. "Honestly... I always hoped she'd come back you know... I wanted you two to get to know her. She's really a good person deep down."

"Oh, I know." Lopmon said with a smile.

"Me too." Terriermon agreed.

"How is that?" I asked.

"Well, it's like we said," Lopmon said, "She raised you. You're the best person I know Willis."

"What about me?" Terriermon asked.

"You're the best dog I know." Lopmon smiled with caused Terriermon to blush. "We're all really awesome—but without your Mom to raise you, you wouldn't have raised us right, and if your mom wasn't a good person she'd never have made us all so amazing."

I couldn't help but smile then. "All three of us." I nodded, "We really are amazing aren't we?"

"But I'm the best." We all said together.

_**Kiyoko Izumi:**_

It was hard, letting go of Sigma entirely. There were so many things he managed to leave behind both for me and within me. The problems he caused for me would have to be dealt with over time, perhaps with help from Kurayami, who also knew what it was like to be possessed by someone so completely, that you forget who you really are. She had managed a full recovery from Fanglongmon's hold, and I hoped she could assist me in doing the same—though I couldn't fight off the bout of doubt that had embedded itself within my heart.

The physical objects that Sigma left though…I could deal with them quickly, and was sitting at the table in the kitchen of our apartment doing just that when Mari came down the steps at a sedated pace. She wasn't the same feisty girl that I'd become accustomed to. She was a watered down version of her true self, wallowing in both guilt and mourning. She'd lost her partner forever. It was going to take her time to get over that loss, just the same as it would for me to be rid of Sigma, though the sources of our internal torment were on opposing sides of the spectrum.

Tapirmon, who had been seated at my side, searching through the same papers I was contemplating over, dived under the table just in time for her to catch sight of me sitting "alone" at the table. He had been doing things like that since we got home after the final battle. He said he didn't want to rub his presence in her face, since Lalamon wasn't with us anymore.

"She probably wants you to treat her like normal," I muttered.

"What?" Mari asked, slipping into a seat across from me.

"Nothing," I told her hastily. "Just thinking out loud…like always."

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of living Sigma-less," she said with little enthusiasm. I didn't expect much from her though.

"You talked," I blurted out in surprise.

"Yeah, I can see that getting annoying real fast," she drawled, picking up a stray piece of paper and looking up at me with a raised brow. "You keeping this?"

It was a detailed blueprint of the bank down the street, with very precise instructions on where one should exploit the building's weak points, and when the best time of night was for getting around the security systems, as there was a two minute window of opportunity when the system reset itself.

"It's really interesting," I said.

"Also illegal," she pointed out, picking up another blueprint from the middle of the table. "This one is for a police station."

"I know," I told her. "I'm hoping to find a paper shredder before I throw them out. I don't want anyone getting their hands on them. I can't help but wonder what all Sigma was using them for. I don't even remember drawing some of them."

"You remember most of the other things, don't you?" she asked. I nodded.

"In excruciating detail," I said.

"Then maybe he did this when you were sleeping. He clearly had a night life, even if you didn't. He spent ages just ruining Miyako's life."

"I suppose," I said slowly.

"What?" she demanded.

"I just don't like that I wasn't good enough for him," I said, slapping my hand over my mouth and glaring at her.

"You _were _good enough for him," she insisted.

"Too _good_," I grumbled. "But I wasn't enough. I'm never going to be enough. Not when I can't keep anything to myself."

"Just look at your papers. Let me know if you find anything interesting," she instructed.

"As if I have a choice," I mumbled.

I looked through blueprints, and schemes. There were some sketches, and a couple of newspaper articles as well. Sigma might've been evil, but he was very open about his nefarious plots. He wrote everything down. All that was missing was the motive. I didn't know _why_ he kept certain things, or why he wrote others. I unfolded a large newspaper article and let out a gasp as I caught sight of the picture accompanying it.

"What?" Mari asked quickly, rushing over to my side. "Is it bad? Wait. Who are they?"

"My parents," I said quietly. "I wondered why they never bothered to look for me. Well, I _knew_ why they didn't, but I always hoped that they might…"

"_The Izumis were killed in their homes when the building went up in flames. The neighbours called in emergency vehicles, but it was too late for the firefighters to save the couple. Their son, however, has not been located. Sources say he ran away from home a year ago, and has not been seen since, though an officer admitted to not having received word of the missing child, causing many to wonder whether the Izumi's son was truly a runaway, or if he was cast out,_" Mari read. "No way. You said you ran away six years ago."

"They've been dead for five of them," I said thickly. "I hated them. I still hate them."

"You don't mean that," she protested.

"I do. They hated me so much, and I didn't do anything wrong," I said, forcing my emotions to relax. "Yoshie said so."

"Maybe they didn't really hate you," Mari offered, though it was a weak attempt. Her own parents were not like the loving family that most of the digidestined seemed to possess. She knew it wasn't all sunshine and daisies in the real world. There were people that simply weren't fit to be parents, and resented their children for one or more reasons.

"They didn't report me missing, Mari," I said. "The paper says so."

"The paper also questions the fire," Mari added. "Listen. _Many speculate whether the fire was indeed an accident, as no evidence was found to support such claims, but neither was there evidence to suggest the foul play that has been hinted at._"

"That rat bastard killed my parents."

"Don't hold anything back there," Mari said sarcastically.

"He kept the article because he did it. I know he did. He _had_ to have. He had no qualms with murder. I was there when he killed a dog," I told her.

"The police have been looking for you," Mari said, pointing to the end of the article. "_If anyone has word on their son, one Kiyoko Izumi, police are asking you contact them with the information. They would much appreciate it. They wish for the boy to be found, and brought into proper care._"

"I found my own care," I said.

"You found Sigma," Mari said dryly. "That's not what they meant by "proper"."

"Sigma led me to you and Hideto," I said softly. "And Yoshie."

"You going to be okay?" she asked awkwardly patting my back.

"Will you?" I retorted, and immediately wished I could take it back. She glared at me and snatched up the only folder on the table that hadn't belonged to Sigma, opening it angrily, and rifling through the pages.

"What the hell is this supposed to be?" she demanded, holding up a coloured sketch I had drawn. It was my pitiful attempts at merging two very different digimon together.

"I wanted to know what Piedmon would have looked like if I had gotten him to fuse," I said, grabbing the picture away from her. "It's not my best work."

"I'd hope not," she said. "I don't know why you wasted your time though. You'll find someone to fuse with someday."

"No I won't," I told her firmly.

"What about Trust?" she asked.

"It wasn't supposed to be trust, it was supposed to be you," I snapped.

"W-what?" she stammered.

"Tenacity is the crest I need to learn the most, and you struggle with desire. We would've helped each other and our partners would have fused. I _know_ it's you, so there's no point denying it. I just wondered what they would have looked like, is all," I explained.

"They would've been much prettier than that. Rosemon was gorgeous. Granted the varying colour schemes of the two digimon clashed horribly. They still wouldn't have looked like a demented circus flower," she said firmly.

"Are we friends?"

She hesitated. I knew why. It was such a random question, one that I hadn't meant to say aloud, but without Sigma there to act as a protective wall, my thoughts escaped so easily.

"I'd like to be," I confided in her.

"Because I need friends in my time of need?" she said sarcastically.

"Because I don't have many, and I actually trust you," I corrected.

"I might like that then," she said softly. She didn't smile—she hadn't since the battle—but she wasn't mad at me anymore, which was good.

"There's one more picture in there," I told her, gesturing to the folder that was limp in her hands. She glanced back at the pages and back to me. I nodded, urging her to find it.

"I'm proud of this one. I think it's great," I said without thinking and flushed bright red as a result. She rolled her eyes at me but turned back to the papers quickly as she caught sight of the sketch. Her eyes gathered up tears, and her lip quivered, but she didn't cry. She didn't smile either though. It was a drawing I'd made of her and Lalamon. They weren't doing anything special. I'd just caught sight of them on the couch one day and was inspired to draw them, so I did. She got to her feet, clutching the drawing in both hands, sending the rest of the folder sprawling to the floor, and raced out of the kitchen. I heard her feet pounding down the hallway as she hastily made her way to her bedroom.

"That could have gone better," I said. Tapirmon was gathering up the scattered pages under the table, and I turned back to the newspaper clipping about my parents. The police wouldn't _still_ be looking for me, would they? "Probably not. I'm eighteen now. They don't need to worry."

"Are you talking to yourself again?" Tapirmon asked from the floor.

"Sorry," I grumbled.

There were three sharp knocks on the door. I turned to look at it, but didn't feel much like having company, so I ignored it. I kept the newspaper clipping aside, and piled up the rest of Sigma's work. I'd have to find a paper shredder soon. I didn't want the papers cluttering up my life anymore.

Four more knocks came, louder than before. I heard someone move about upstairs, heading for the stairway.

"Here, Kiyoko," Tapirmon said, holding onto the folder.

"Keep it for a minute," I instructed, dumping all of Sigma's pages into a box.

Six quick knocks thundered through the apartment.

"I'm coming!" Hideto shouted. "Hold your horses."

He came scrambling down the hall towards the door, and then he caught sight of me.

"Didn't you hear the door?" he asked.

"I'm not feeling sociable," I told him.

"Answer it next time," he said.

"If you'd stop avoiding me," I murmured. "I want to see you _sometime_."

"What?" Hideto asked, but thought better of it and shook his head, opening the door to reveal Neo and Michael.

"A strange combination if ever there was one," I commented.

"Yeah, I guess so," Michael said with a grin. "Can we come in?"

"Hideto will let you even if I say no," I mumbled, watching as Hideto did just that.

"What brings you to Chez Alias III?" Hideto asked.

"Don't call it that, that sucks," I told him.

"Snarky these days, aren't you?" Hideto teased.

"He has a point though," Neo said. "That's a terrible name."

"I believe he asked a question," I said.

"Huh? Oh, right," Michael said. "We're here because we're friends now. And I was wondering whether you wanted to be my friend too."

"I already am," Hideto commented.

"I meant Kiyoko," he said sheepishly.

"Me?" I asked. "What do you want to be friends with _me_ for?"

"Don't sell yourself short, kid," Hideto told me, causing me to wince.

"Kid," I grumbled. "I don't want to be "Kid"."

"I'll take that as a no then," Michael said awkwardly.

"Hey now," Neo said, throwing his hands in the air in front of him, motioning for Michael to wait. "If _I_ decided to be your friend, he will. Even if it's only to get his name off your stupid list."

"What stupid list?" I asked.

"The list with all of the digidestined on it. He wants us all to be his friends," Neo explained. "You and Iori are the only ones left on it. Even without you two, I'm pretty sure that makes Michael the most universally liked member of the team."

"And you _really_ want to be my friend?" I questioned. "You aren't just making fun of me?"

"I want to be your friend," Michael insisted.

"Okay then," I said. "We can be friends. I'll have two."

"Three," Hideto and Neo both corrected. "You forgot me."

"Mari, Michael and Neo," I decided. "And Yoshie. And Tapirmon, as well as a handful of other digimon…"

"We'll just let you two deal with your little problem," Michael decided looking between Hideto and myself. Neo nodded his agreement, and they backed out of the doorway, closing the door behind them.

"Oh _god_," I groaned. "We're alone."

Hideto chuckled lowly and awkwardly. "That we are."

I wasn't ready to talk to him. Not if he was going to continually avoid me. That gave me a pretty clear indication as to where the conversation would head, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

There was another knock at the door, this time just a light tapping. Hideto raced to the door simply to end our awkward encounter.

"Hi, hello, welcome," he said quickly. "You should come in. I'll take those. They look delicious." He headed to the counter with a tray of delicious smelling muffins, letting the woman at the door inside the apartment.

"It's Yoshie!" I cheered. And then I blushed, as my mental cheering did not stay within my head.

"It's me!" Yoshie joked. "I've come to celebrate." She stopped and looked between Hideto and myself. "Unless I'm interrupting something?"

"No," I said quickly.

"I was just leaving actually," Hideto told her, grabbing his black coat off of the hanger and slipping on his running shoes. "I'm going to find Mimi or something. Maybe we'll look into her insurance policies or something. I gotta go. Bye!"

And he was out the door in a second. I sighed. He didn't appear to be ready to talk either. Yoshie however was brimming with excitement. Her long hair was pinned back with a large clip, and she was wearing a knee length overcoat.

"What are we celebrating?" Tapirmon asked, floating in the air next to her.

"Kiyoko here sold two of his designs," Yoshie exclaimed. "Digitamamon loved one of them, and he's set to start rebuilding his restaurant any day now. And I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to remodel my kitchen. I picked one of the other designs. Masami is going to work on it next month. Two designs so soon into your career."

"It's not a career," I said sheepishly. "It's just a hobby. Architecture and interior design. They're just fun to me."

"Either way, you've got two sales," Yoshie said happily. "I'd love to stay and chat, but Masami is in the car waiting for me. He's got his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting this afternoon, and I don't want him to miss it. He hasn't been drinking too much since I got back, but he says they help, and I don't want to cause him to relapse. I'll see you soon sweetheart. Don't be a stranger. Drop by whenever you want. We could talk about your little crush some more."

I didn't bother to say anything in response to that. I couldn't even think of one, which was probably just as well. Did she know it was Hideto or did she think it was some stranger still? I supposed I'd find out eventually. She wouldn't exactly drop the subject.

She seemed to understand though, and let herself out. Tapirmon floated over to the counter where Hideto had set the tray of muffins. They had carrot in them, if my nose was correct. Tapirmon brought the tray over to the table and picked one up.

"I'm glad you're expanding your social circle," he commented. "I worry about you, you know."

"You don't need to," I told him, picking up a muffin of my own. "I'll be fine."

He nodded, and went to take a bite of his muffin, stopping when it was an inch from his mouth. I'd just taken a bite of my own, and with my mouth full _had_ to ask, "What?"

"Didn't Koushiro say something about his mother and Yuuko making muffins that managed to defeat an ultimate level digimon?" Tapirmon asked. "They exploded on contact…"

I spit the muffin into my hand and set the rest of it carefully down onto the table.

"Just to be safe," I told him. He put his down too, nodding.

"Perhaps we should go for a walk?" he suggested, backing away from the muffin tray.

"The park sounds nice," I agreed. We raced to the door. Tapirmon grabbed my white coat and I slipped on my boots and we raced out of the apartment. I could only hope the muffins wouldn't explode on Mari while we were gone.

_**Kurayami Higorashi:**_

"_You Holy Three will have less stressful lives now," Norn had said, "You will be able to move forward. You will live normal lives. You've done your duty, and now I'll step in and take over."_

"_You can't though." I said to Norn as she slowly floated upward. "Don't go!"_

"_I have to Kurayami," Norn said, "If I don't do this, then no one will."_

"_Anyone else would!" I shot, "Ask anyone. Anyone would love to rule over the world."_

"_But they would all die." Norn said, leaning forward in midair and kissing my forehead. "It's my duty now, as part of Yggdrasil, to fix the mess he's caused. To fix the mess everyone caused. I'm going to create harmony and peace."_

"_You can't," Miyako said, "Peace will only be found when the last of the great evils is defeated."_

"_True peace, yes." Norn nodded, "And that won't happen for many years to come, but I can create as much peace to fill the silence as I can. And that's what I plan to do. I cannot allow you humans to live in your world of chaos—and that's not the only world that's falling under the fog of destruction. The Digital World, Witchenly, the Dark Ocean—nearly every single world is falling to bits. It's not safe for them, and I have to make it safe. It's like a giant being is reaping all the souls from those who still live. The chaos must be eliminated."_

"_But why can't someone else do it?" I asked, trying to stop crying now._

"_You know why." Norn said quietly. _

"_Then take me too!" I shouted._

"_You would leave Daisuke and Labramon?" Norn asked. I faltered and turned to look at them. "Goodbye Kurayami."_

_I spun back quickly, "Norn, please don't go! I have so much I need to apologize for!"_

"_I know it all though," Norn said, now so high I had to crane my neck to see her. "I know it because I can see your heart. Your heart full of sadness and love. Kurayami, I don't know if I'll ever see you again, so know this. You are an amazing person. I love you very much, and one day I hope you see the person you truly are. Everything you want is around you if you'd just turn on the light."_

Ironic really. Turning on the light. Why couldn't it have been to turn _off_ the light? That would have been easier. I mean, I genuinely wanted to continue keeping the peace and balance I'd found inside of me with the crest of darkness, and Hikari was amazing, but she had nothing to do with my happiness. Did she? No—that wasn't possible since we'd pretty much worked out all of our problems. We were friends again, especially now that she lived in Japan again—which again, was ironic since I was actually in New York at that time.

Not only was I in New York, I was in the very place Daisuke had met my father, and met the real me. The me not consumed with total darkness. If only for a moment.

I was in the graveyard where my mother's stone laid.

I was on my knees reading it over and over. It was a lie. It said she'd died years ago, when she hadn't. She'd died a mere week ago. Maybe a week and a half. I hadn't been keeping track of days too well. But I didn't care that the stone lied. It just made it more personal. Only those of us who truly knew her knew when she died. That was fair. Because the real her died on the date on the stone anyway.

"Kura," Dad said quietly, his hand on my shoulder.

"Dad?" I asked turning to face him.

"Are you going to tell us what we're doing here now?" He asked. He was right behind me, and behind him was Labramon and Grandfather, in his wheelchair. He'd been in the hospital, but he was better now.

"_Kura!" Dad shouted through the telephone, "Get to the hospital right now."_

"_Dad?" I gasped, "What happened?" But I hadn't waited for a response. I dropped the phone and was out the door a second later racing down the unfamiliar streets of New York until I found exactly what it was I was looking for. I wasn't too nice to the nurse lady who was helping me find him because I was in such a panic. He couldn't be dead. I wouldn't allow him to be dead!_

"_There's my little Blackberry!" Grandpa laughed joyously as I stepped into the room. He was eating some pudding and I couldn't help but laugh. I ran to him and hugged him as the nurse explained that he miraculously got better. She didn't know what it had been, or what had happened, but he was better, and he was alive, and he was still with me, and—well those all meant the same thing. But I was just too happy to care._

"Kura?" Grandpa prompted, pulling me back to the present. How could I tell them what we were doing here? It just seemed mean to explain it all to them if they didn't need to know. But I'd gathered them here to do just that, and they deserved to know.

"What happened in that... battle thing you kids went to?" Dad asked.

"Mom was there." I said flatly.

Grandpa looked very confused and looked to the grave, adjusting his glasses to read the date. Dad never told him what had happened? I'd have to backtrack a bit.

"When she took the darkness from me..." I said quietly, "She didn't succeed. Instead she just opened herself for a separate darkness. It was... well, it was the Devil. He was inside of her, but her body wasn't good enough for him. He tried to use my friend Michael instead, but—" I choked emotions that I'd been trying to keep down as I remembered the look in my mom's eyes. "But when he left Mom's body... she turned to ashes."

Suddenly Dad was crying, biting his fist to try and stop, but it wasn't working, the tears were streaming down his face faster than I'd ever seen on anyone.

"I don't understand." Grandpa said slowly as he scratched his head. "Your mother opened up to the darkness? Why would she do that?"

"To protect me." I said slowly, "She'd been doing it gradually though. She was taking the darkness from me and releasing it elsewhere I assume—but it sometimes got the best of her and she... well, she didn't do it. The darkness used her to kill Yukai."

Dad turned away when I said that and Grandpa gasped loudly.

"It doesn't matter." I said, "Well it does. I wish he was still around. But I mean that it shouldn't lessen what we think of my Mom. She didn't do it. It wasn't her. Someone else did it. That someone else was the Devil. And because of that Yukai is trapped on this Earth looking for the light, and he may never find it. He may never move on. But that isn't Mom's fault."

"Kura," Grandpa said, "I'm not sure my old mind can follow all of this."

"I'm sorry," I said quickly, "I know you probably didn't even want to know, but I thought you deserved it. And if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them for you."

"I do have one..." he said, "You said your mother failed at taking the darkness from you... so where is it now?"

"Oh it's gone." I said, nodding quickly. "Well, the evil is gone. The darkness will never leave. The darkness is my life force really. It's what keeps me alive and balanced."

"So you're okay?" Grandpa asked.

I had a feeling he was asking me if I'd ever end up like my mom, so I turned to her grave and sighed before nodding to him, "I'm fine." I couldn't ever change and be like her, not with Labramon at my side all the time. I let my eyes fall to him and I smiled. He was a good partner—so much better than Apocalymon.

I looked to Dad who was still crying, so I stepped toward him and took his arm. Slowly he turned to me. "Are you okay?" I asked him, "I know that was a lot to hear—"

I was cut off as he threw his arms around me, hugging me tightly. I wasn't sure at all what I'd done to deserve the hug, but I hugged him back anyway. "You saved her." He said, answering my unasked question, "She was stuck in the darkness for so long and you saved her. You set her free. She can move on and be free now, because of you Kurayami. I love you so much."

"I love you too Daddy." I said, hugging him tighter as the tears started falling. I always hated crying in front of people, but this time I didn't care—I didn't even think about what the others thought of me, because both Labramon and Grandpa came to join the hug as awkwardly as a dog and a wheelchair-bound man could.

I couldn't stop crying for a while as I just hugged everyone, unable to even see clearly, but when I saw a flash of light in the corner of my eye I stopped abruptly and spun on my heel through the damp dirt and grass to see the glowing girl standing off by herself.

"N-Norn?" I stuttered, releasing my father and running directly toward her. I slipped through the stones in the graveyard and fell to my knees in front of her, hugging her as tight as I could.

"Kura!" she gasped, "You' gonna kill me!"

I released her quickly and we both laughed a little, "I thought you said we'd never see each other again?" I said, absorbing the sight of her in case this was the last chance I'd ever get to. She was wearing the same clothes as before, the little beret, the vest, the dress—but everything was clean now, her hair was brushed, but it still had two thin braids in it, and she was smiling to me with a set of perfect teeth.

"I said I didn't know when we'd get to see each other again actually." Norn corrected. "But I figured it out! Here we are!"

"So we can see each other more often?" I asked. Norn nodded quickly and I sighed with relief. I didn't want to lose her. She was just really important to me. Too important to lose. I couldn't lose anyone else. Not anymore. "How are things going, ruling over all of creation?"

"Oh it's fun," Norn said with a giant smile, "I started with the Land of Dreams since it was the easiest to fix, and then I headed to Witchenly and they threw a party for me, and there was a big bonfire and weird, exotic food, and everyone was so friendly. The Digital World didn't actually have much to fix, nor did Earth. Not anything I could fix anyway. Buildings aren't something I can just make. Tell your friend Mimi that I'm sorry about her restaurant."

"I will," I nodded seriously. Norn was telling me about this great adventure where she'd traveled to all nine worlds and fixed _everything_. It was definitely the most interesting story anyone was ever going to tell me.

"I steered clear of the Dark Ocean for a while, but eventually decided to take a trip to see what all the fuss is about... the shadows are just looking for light, you know?" she asked, "They were looking for something to purify them. So I used the crest of light that your friend showed me and I guided them all up to The World Above. That's where I met the person who brought me here."

"W-who?" I asked.

"It was your mom, Kurayami." Norn said calmly, which was incredible since I felt like I'd just walked into a big old brick wall with a magical hand that reached into my stomach and twisted up the insides. What had my mother said to her that brought her here? "She wanted you to know that she loves you, and that she's with you every step of the way. And that if you get consumed by the darkness to just remember that so many people love her and are watching over you." All of what Norn said made my heart flutter, but none of them compared to the realization that washed over me. My mother was in Heaven. My mother had truly been fixed and blessed. "Also Gennai said that he's proud that you understood your crest. And Haruki said hi."

"Who?" I asked.

"Yeah he doesn't know you," Norn laughed, "He just thinks you're cute." I couldn't help but laugh. "I have to go now though," Norn said. Before I could even think about what I was doing, my hands were around her wrists, keeping her still. "I promise I'll come back, silly. I just have to go through all of time, check on the fairies and then return home to take one last look around everything before I do."

"So how long will that take?" I asked her.

"I'll be by your house Friday at eight," Norn winked at me. I relaxed my hands and she turned to go, but froze and slowly turned back to me. "Can we be like sisters?"

"Pardon me?" I asked.

"I don't have a family," Norn explained, "I'm hardly even truly existing. Can we be sisters?"

"I thought we already were," I shrugged with a smile. Norn hugged me again. "I have the coolest little sister in all the nine worlds."

"And I have the biggest sister—I mean that best big sister!" Norn giggled into my shoulder and then finally pulled away. "Bye sister!" She said and with a flash of bright light she was gone.

"Bye Norn." I said, standing up and turning back to my family. I walked back to them with a strange amount of confidence. The biggest thing I'd taken from her speech was that she'd purified all the dark spirits trapped within the Dark Ocean. That meant that the place that had haunted my nightmares was officially vacant. It was officially the most unthreatening place ever. I'd have to make sure to tell Hikari that.

"Who was that?" Dad asked.

"Your new daughter," I said. He looked confused so I shrugged my shoulders, "We're honorary sisters. She rules all nine worlds. But don't favour her just because of it, I might get jealous." Dad laughed, but I turned to Grandpa when I felt his hand in mine.

"Kura," He said, "I love your smile... You should smile more often."

"I smile all the time Grandpa," I told him.

"That's true, she does." Labramon said. Grandpa looked to Labramon and shook his head. Clearly he forgot, once again, that Labramon was a digimon and not a normal dog.

"Well I don't get to see it..." Grandpa said. "I wish you would come visit me more Kura. I don't even know anything that's going on in your life. What are you doing? Where do you live?"

I smiled at Grandpa and set into the explanation of my life immediately. "Well I live in Japan you see with five of my friends, Labramon, Veemon, Patamon, Takeru and Daisuke. We have a lot of fun there. I'm enrolling in school for next September after my year off, and I'm going to become a therapist because I need to help everyone else out. I need to help them through all of their trials and depression. Because I know how now. And I know that any help is helpful in some way."

"That sounds like something you'd be good at," Grandpa said, "Your grandmother was a therapist before she died. Did you know that?"

"No," I said, "I didn't. There's a lot I don't know about you Grandpa."

"Then perhaps you really should visit more," He said, "Before we run out of time."

"I promise." I said with a smile.

"Perfect." He said with a grin. "Are you seeing anyone?"

I felt my face blush as I proceeded to tell him all about Daisuke and how we ended up together and how he was the love of my life—how I would never have been standing there if it weren't for him. I needed Daisuke just as much as I needed air, because he was the one who pulled my from Fanglongmon's hold. I loved him, and he made me strong enough to work and live on my own as an individual. I was sure I'd never be able to do to him what he'd done to me, but I would never stop trying.

After a while Grandpa decided that it was time to get back home before it started to rain, so Dad took him away with a quick farewell. I promised them I'd be there in a bit, I just needed to finish saying goodbye to my mom.

I was on my knees again, the sadness kicking in for a moment before I remembered what Norn had said about my mother watching over me. She was happy now. And that meant I should have been too. I didn't really know what to say then, so I whispered a quick, "I love you." And then turned to Labramon who was waiting with me.

"Have you found your resolve yet?" Labramon asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, getting to my feet and wiping the grass off of my pant legs.

"I mean, did you find what you were looking for?" He asked, "You didn't know what it was that you wanted. Do you know yet?"

I nodded and patted his head. "It was you." I told him, "And Norn, and Grandpa and Dad—and Mom, and Michael and Hikari—and of course Daisuke."

"A family?" He asked.

I nodded, "A family was all I ever needed. And I always had it, I was just too blind to see it."

"So you turned on the light?" Labramon asked.

"No, you did." I smiled down at him. "You're the perfect partner for me. And I'm sorry I made you wait so long in that egg for me while I spent time with Apocalymon. I mean, who was I kidding? The others got little pink blobs so I thought it was fair that my partner was _Apocalymon_?"

"Well I'm glad you're smarter now," Labramon joked.

"Hey now!" I laughed, "Actually, I'm glad I am too." I turned to Labramon and smiled, "Thank you for showing me when the time to fight was. Thank you for showing me that you were always there, and thank you for showing me how to be strong, and brave, and truly myself."

"You're welcome," Labramon said boldly, puffing his chest out as we walked after my Dad and Grandpa. "Thank _you _for being everything I could have ever asked for in a partner."

"Oh!" I fell to my knees and hugged him. "You're the best." I said to him.

"You too." He said, snuggling his nose into the hug.

_**Michael Washington:**_

I lifted the lid off of the silver platter that sat on the cart of food in front of us revealing a large vanilla cake decorated with fresh strawberries. It was room service since Tatum and I were staying in hotel for a while in Japan making sure all the loose ends were tied up after the battle with Yggdrasil while Jenna bonded with Mary. Well, that was the general lie anyway. I really just didn't want everyone to keep leaving me. It was getting really hard to cope... sure I had Tatum, and of course I had Jenna and Dad... and even Mary... but Betamon was taken from me, Mimi left me, and then Willis jumped in as my brother, and then ditched me too. It was just getting really hard to live a life where everyone kept leaving me. And sure, maybe I was going over the top _just_ a bit with trying to keep Betamon around, but he deserved everything I did for him since I was the jerk who let him be tortured for years...

"Michael," Betamon said with a sigh that was just a touch overdramatic. And that was coming from me. "I really don't need all of this."

"Yes you do," I countered, "I will get you anything and everything you want for the rest of your life."

"Well that's just a bit extreme..."

"I'm an extreme person." I shrugged it off, "Now eat up, I ordered a whole lineup of different desserts for you."

"Michael," Betamon groaned, "I don't need it though!"

"But you deserve it." I said flatly.

"Are you sure you're not just really super confused?" I asked.

"I'm sure."

"Positive?"

Betamon looked to me and rolled his eyes. Was he annoyed with me? Was I doing something wrong? I couldn't let him be annoyed, I'd have to do what he wanted. He didn't want desserts—he was a fish—he wouldn't eat meat though... maybe I could order him a gigantic salad! I snatched the menu from the cart and flipped it open.

"...are you even listening?" Betamon asked.

"What?" I asked him.

"I was just saying that you're trying too hard." Betamon sighed, "Just relax. We've been at this for over a month Michael. My time in the coliseum wasn't even this bad." I turned to him, hurt, "That was a joke Michael." I let my shoulders fall, relaxed. If I was treating him worse than the Devil, well, then that would be a pretty awful feeling. "That's just what I mean Michael."

"What is?" I asked.

"I'm ready to joke about the whole ordeal," Betamon said, shifting in his spot on the giant couch in the middle of the room. "And you're still trying to make amends for something that wasn't even your fault."

"But it is my fault." I said flatly, "I was the one who didn't notice."

"But _not_ the one who took me." Betamon argued. "Not the one who told me to go into the waters. Not the stupid one who obeyed. Not the one who whipped me and hurt me. Not the one who insulted me and tortured me to get me to forget you. Because even the enemy knew it wasn't your fault."

"Well the bad guys are always wrong!"

"Michael..." Betamon sighed, "W-what are you doing?"

I was, once again, flipping through the pages of the menu, "Looking for a salad that you might like."

"Michael!" Betamon argued, "You don't see the point at all, do you?"

"Not really," I admitted.

"You don't have to make amends for something you didn't do!"

"If it's not my fault, then why do I feel so guilty?" I yelled loudly.

I expected Betamon to reply with as much enthusiasm as I had but instead he just stared at me with his big red eyes. "Michael," he said softly, "you feel guilty because you're a good friend. You care enough about me to feel guilty because you're too hard on yourself."

"But..." I just didn't want to lose him again. I'd lost him before, thought I had anyway—and it was the hardest thing I'd ever gone through until I found that he was still alive. Which was even harder. And nearly every night since then I'd woken up to Tatum trying to calm me from my nightmares. Every single time it was the same thing. Betamon revealed himself to be another fake and the Shadow King was back, torturing him even further. It wasn't fair... Gennai had picked me to save the world... and instead I'd just been scarred for life.

"But nothing." Betamon said flatly. "Tatum told me about your dreams." I rounded on Tatum who was sitting at the kitchen table across from Monodramon reading a thick book. She looked up when she heard her name but looked away quickly when she saw the look I was giving her. "Michael, I'm never going to leave you. This is the real me. I'm here for you, and I _know_ you're here for me. So stop whatever it is that you think."

"It's not that easy."

"But it should be." Betamon said. "Sit with me." I thought it over a moment before obliging, sitting next to him on the couch as he slid over a little so I could fit. "Michael... do you remember the first time we met? When I saved you?"

"Yes." I said simply.

"Do you remember how you were scared of me...?" He asked, again I nodded, "And then we met up again a while later and we fixed our problems?" All I could think to do was nod again. "We fixed our problems then, and we'll fix them now. Because we always do. You're the strongest person ever Michael, that's why you have the crest of strength. You can move past this. Especially if I'm with you. I'm pretty strong too."

"But—"

"Just stop thinking about it." Betamon said harshly.

"It's hard to do when every time I look at you I see those scars."

"Speaking of those—Jou thought to give me a cream. He said it should help out." Betamon said with a shrug. "They'll never go away completely, but they'll fade he says. That's something. Will that help out?"

"I don't know Betamon." I said flatly. How could I ever just forget it had happened?

"Well, try okay?" Betamon asked. "Michael, I need you to try for me. I told you. I need to forget it happened even more than you do, and I can't do that if you're always trying to make up for things. They'll be a constant reminder forever. They don't make me feel better—they make me feel worse."

"Well... I don't know how to act anymore..." I said quietly, "I understand what you mean, but what do I do if I don't make up for it?"

Tatum cleared her throat and both of us looked to her. She had her finger in her book as a bookmark as it sat on the table. She was looking toward us with a thoughtful look, her red hair pulled back in a braid. "If I may?"

"Please do," Betamon prompted.

"Well, you need to go on more picnics." She said simply, "That's what you always used to do. I remember getting hundreds of reply texts telling me that you couldn't hang out because you were going on a picnic with Betamon. That's what your normal used to be. Take that cake and that salad you thought to order and go off on a picnic. It'll be fun." I turned to Betamon to see if he liked the idea and he nodded quickly, a smile spreading across his face. "On second thought," Tatum said, looking to the cake, "Leave a piece of that. Or two. Or the whole thing." We all laughed, but her face fell suddenly, "I'm not kidding."

Half an hour later we were stepping out of the elevator in the hotel, entering the lobby with a large basket in my hand. We'd stuffed it full of sandwiches, and fruit, and muffins and the likes. The lobby was way too crowded for my own likings, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it, so I just held the basket out in front of me and attempted to part the crowd so I could lead Betamon through. He was catching a few stray glances of fear or disgust, but I tried to ignore them all since Betamon wanted to pretend it never happened.

Just as I was getting to the door someone had stopped me, a hand on my shoulder.

"Pet's aren't allowed in the hotel sir," I spun around to see the manager of the hotel. He turned to look at Betamon and smiled to him kindly.

"I'm sorry," I said, thinking it was kind of a stupid time to tell me, especially when I was about to leave.

"Wait," He said, looking up to me, "That's a digimon isn't it?"

"You can see digimon?" I asked, shocked.

The man only nodded and then his eyes widened at the sight of me. "You're one of them, aren't you? One of the saviors?"

"Oh, well I don't know about that." I said quietly, "Why don't you just go read Takeru Takaishi's books, or watch Katsue's movie on the battle. I hear they know what's going on."

The man looked to me like I was the most awful person who ever existed because I didn't explain anything to him, but he hung his head and turned to leave. "Don't worry about your pet then," He said and then was gone, melting into the crowd.

"You realize they would have treated you like you were the king of the world had you admitted to helping save it, right?" Betamon asked as we slipped through the door and into the street outside.

"Yes," I said slowly, "But if we all go around telling everyone what happened Takeru's books aren't going to sell well, and he kind of needs them, doesn't he?"

"You're trading world fame for your friend's happiness." Betamon noted, "You've grown a lot Michael." I didn't really know what to say. 'Thank you' sounded too formal and misplaced so I just said nothing. I really hadn't changed too much... I had friends now, that was the main difference. The list that was compiled on the phone in my pocket was nearly all completed in some way or another. Everyone seemed to consider me a friend now, and that's really all I ever wanted. Well, Iori didn't, and he was the last name, but to be totally honest with myself, I'd never expected his name _to_ be crossed off. Like, ever.

"So that manager didn't seem to hate digimon," Betamon piped up as I led him down the mostly barren street, and as if on cue, a digimon and his partner were flung out of the shop next to us.

"Keep that filthy creature out of here!" The man who had thrown them out yelled loudly to the partners on the ground. "How... how _dare_ you!" With that, the man had slammed the door closed before I could yell at him for being a total asshole.

I turned to Iori who was on the ground next to Armadillomon and offered him my hand to help pull him to his feet. He looked at it but decided against using it, and instead pulled himself to his feet and then kicked the door of the shop he'd just come out of. "Jerk." He muttered.

"I'm sorry about that Iori," Armadillomon said, "I didn't mean to!"

"What happened?" I asked.

Iori looked up at me, his eyebrows raised but didn't answer, so Armadillomon did instead. "The shop saw me through the fairy's spell as a dog or something, but I accidentally spoke and the spell broke and he freaked out. I guess not everyone accepts digimon quite yet. Even with Katsue's declaration."

"Shouldn't the spell have made your voice sound like a dog barking?" I asked.

Iori let his face relax and finally decided to take part in conversation. He shook his head, "I guess since they all know that some people believe in digimon, most of them are on the fence about it which makes the spell weaker. Or something, I'm not really sure."

"I hope one day we won't need the spell," Armadillomon said, "I hope humans see us as friendly."

"Some do!" Betamon smiled, "The manager at our hotel does!"

"Well we're on our way the—" Armadillomon started, but he was cut off by a loud bang as the door to the shop opened up and the shopkeeper poked his head out the door.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave or I'll call the police for loitering." He said simply, "You're scaring the customers away with your... things."

"I think what's scaring your customers away is the giant zit on your forehead." I said bluntly. The man looked taken aback and then, with a huff had retreated into the shop. "Let's go." I motioned for the others to follow but they were all laughing. I grinned at them until their laughter subsided and then we were on our way.

I looked through the shop windows and saw that it was a tuxedo rental shop. Slowly I looked to Iori with a grin, "What were you doing in there?"

His face turned red and he looked away. "Iori has to go to a thing with Natsuni in a few days!" Armadillomon explained, "He promised Natsuni he'd go!"

"Well don't rent a tux," I said with a shrug, "Buy one. You're going to need it, you're a grown man, you're probably done all your growing so it'll be safe to get one. I mean, Jou and Momoe, and Miyako and Ken are married, but everyone else still has to get married, you're going to need one for their weddings—and your own."

"I don't have enough to buy one." Iori explained, "I mean, I do—but I need to keep my money because I'm looking for somewhere that... isn't my mom's house to live in."

"Ah," I nodded, "I'll buy you a suit then."

"I can't ask you to do that." Iori said quietly.

"You didn't." I pointed out. "Besides, I have more money coming in from my dad than I'll ever know what to do with. And one day I hope to earn this money myself too!"

"You will!" Betamon assured me. "You're going to be the best actor ever!"

"Maybe one day," I winked.

Iori didn't say anything for a while as we walked down the street. I was leading us since I knew where the best shop was, all the while carrying the basket of food that was getting progressively heavier. Or, seemingly so anyway. Betamon and Armadillomon were playing around us, laughing and having fun, and I couldn't help but realize that Betamon was right—it was time to get over all the things of the past. He was free, happy and having fun. What more could anyone ask for really?

Finally we were in the shop and a man was measuring Iori whose face was growing redder and redder the more measurements the man took until finally he was told he could move. The man grabbed a pinstripe suit and held it up, but I shook my head before he could even try it on. He tried a few more, but I just kept shaking my head until he pulled out one with a thin collar. That would be perfect.

The man helped Iori into it, and I was right. It did look perfect.

"I can have the alterations done for next weekend," The man explained.

"Can you get it done by tomorrow?" I asked.

"No," The man said simply.

"I'll pay you double?" I offered him, and suddenly he was grinning like a madman.

"Tomorrow it is." He declared loudly.

A few minutes later we were walking out of the shop, a deep yellow bowtie in a brown paper bag and a pair of shiny black shoes. Iori was standing quite awkwardly alongside me as I started leading the way down the street. "I can't ever pay you back Michael," Iori said quietly. "I don't have that kind of money."

"Let me ask you something Iori," I said, "On Christmas day, when you open all the presents from your mother do you look at them and tally up how much money you owe her?"

"No..."

"Exactly." I said flatly. "You don't owe me anything because this is a gift. You're welcome."

"T-thank you." Iori stuttered, looking to me and then sighing.

"Have any plans for the rest of the day?" Betamon asked Armadillomon and Iori.

"Not really, no." Iori shrugged as Armadillomon looked up to him for the answer.

"Then you should come on our picnic!" Betamon declared loudly, "It'll be fun!"

Armadillomon started drooling instantly and his stomach screamed for the food in the basket, "That sounds amazing." And then we all turned to Iori who slowly nodded.

The second we turned to walk down the street we spotted another familiar face who was rushing down the street. It was Jou with Bearmon scurrying after him.

"Hey guys!" He said loudly on the way by, "Can't talk, forget to get toilet paper! Momoe's—well..." He cleared his throat and then was rushing off.

"Jou!" Iori called, "By the tree?"

"Friday at seven," Jou confirmed, running backwards.

"Always." Iori and he agreed together before turning their separate ways. I really admired the friendship between the two of them. They told each other virtually everything, went through no drama at all and were just genuinely good friends... maybe I didn't need a list of friends. I just needed _one_ good friend. Or a few I supposed. Willis was my brother, that didn't count, Betamon was my partner and Tatum was my girlfriend, so neither did they...

"Michael," Iori said suddenly when we were stepping through the arch and into the park. Betamon and Armadillomon ran off immediately to find a good place to have our picnic and so I turned to Iori. "I'm sorry." he said flatly.

"Sorry?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "I... hated you." He said that really bluntly as if I didn't already know. "But I forgave Ken, and Kurayami, and Neo and Hideto and Mari, and Kiyoko, and—"

"Got i!" I interjected.

"Right," Iori cleared his throat, "Well, I had no reason to hate you, I just liked getting my anger out all the time... but... the more time I spent with my mother the more I realized something. She hated Natsuni for no reason at all, and she got over that... and I realized recently that you don't deserve to be hated for no reason at all. I need to forgive you, because you've done nothing at all to deserve such negative emotions."

"Well thank you," I said with a smile.

"No, thank _you_." Iori said.

"Oh, the suit?"

Iori shook his head, "Natsuni." He said, "You saved her in the battle with Yggdrasil. Without you I wouldn't have her anymore. You're a good friend Michael, and I'm sorry I haven't treated you like one."

"You can make it up to me by babysitting my unborn children all the time." I said.

"Why's that?" Iori asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I dunno," I shrugged, "Seemed like the right thing to do." We both laughed and headed to find our digmion who had found a place between a few hills so we'd be all alone on our picnic and we started eating—and _then_ I realized what Iori's talk with me had meant.

Firstly, it meant my list was complete.

Secondly, it was like a sign. A sign from some holy force of love and peace. Because he'd basically talked me into forgiving myself. I didn't deserve the negative emotions—I was a good friend—the 'Forgiving Knight' had helped me move forward.

"You okay?" Betmaon asked after taking a large bite of a watermelon.

I smiled down at him and rubbed his head with a nod. "Yeah, yeah I think I am."

_**Iori Hida:**_

"I am proud of you, son," Mother told me as she fixed the tie that hung loosely around my neck. "You've come so far, so quickly, despite my standing in your way. I really am sorry."

"It's fine, Mother," I assured her awkwardly. She'd been apologizing for ages. She'd taken part in a complete turnabout. She no longer wanted her nose in any of my business. In fact, it was the complete opposite. She showed too little interest, though I could see her curiosity burning in her eyes. She couldn't just turn off a switch, she was still trying to find the balance that would give us both what we needed.

"Your father would be proud too," she said. Tears threatened to surface, and she dropped my tie, dusting imaginary dust off of my shoulders. "You're growing up so fast."

"I've already grown Mother," I said gently. "But that doesn't mean I'll need you any less. I promise. I just need you differently now."

"I know," she said, choking on her tears. "I should have seen that before, but I didn't. And now I've lost so much time."

"Accepting my choices, like you have, you've pretty much guaranteed that you won't be getting rid of me. I'll still be around," I said. I would've thought I'd be better at this by now. Dealing with crying women would just never be my forte. If I ever had a daughter, I knew I'd be doomed. Or one of those overprotective fathers. Hopefully not to my mother extent though. Just threaten to rough up some kid if they think they can break her heart. I shook my head quickly. Why was I even thinking of that? If it were to happen—_if_—it was still a long ways off. I had something more pressing to deal with first.

"You'll visit?" she asked surprised. "I was worried you wouldn't. And you're moving in with two girls…"

"Mother," I said warningly.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing you. You look real sharp tonight, Iori. You'll sweep young Miss Ando off her feet," she told me lightly.

"It's not Natsuni I'm worried about, Mother. I'm currently more focused on getting in the door," I told her anxiously.

"Nonsense," she scoffed before sending me a wink. "Natsuni has already ensured that your name is on the list. Had to resort to a plot from a spy movie to get it done, but she was so excited about it that she didn't mind the sneaking around."

"Sounds like her." I smiled.

I glanced at the clock. Not long now. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't belong at societal events like the one that Natsuni insisted I accompany her on. I'd stick out like a sore thumb. My manners and natural disposition could only get me so far. Though my lack of desire for most social interactions might suggest to other attendants that I had an air of superiority about me—a complete farce of course, as I didn't feel anyone was worth more than any other, with the exception, perhaps, of Natsuni—and believe that I did in fact belong there after all.

"I should get going," I murmured.

"Let me take a picture first," Mother insisted, rushing to hunt down her camera.

"Big brother?" Meiyomon asked. The little rookie digimon—my little brother—came ambling down the hallway with a collection of colourful fake flowers and feathers. Purple and blue flowers were accompanied with a large green leaf, a polka-dotted yellow lily and a large, curled red feather. "Take this with you. I made it just for Natsuni. You need a cort-saj don't you?"

"A corsage?" I clarified, smiling at his excited nodding. "Thank you. I'd completely forgotten about getting one."

"I know," he said proudly. "It's all of her favourite colours too. So don't forget to give it to her."

"I won't," I promised.

"And I really can't go with you?" he wheedled.

"No," I said firmly. He'd been asking me near constantly if he could attend. If _I_ wouldn't blend in, I doubted a digimon small enough to appear a child and dressed entirely in a jester's attire would. "Armadillomon?"

"Yes, Iori?" he asked, slowly making his way away from the television that he and Kotemon were watching.

"Keep an eye on him," I instructed. "Don't let him go anywhere without you and Kotemon, alright?"

"No fair!" Meiyomon whined, storming off into his room. Mother came back then, as Armadillomon agreed to my request, snapping a few pictures of me, despite my protests. She moaned about the lack of Natsuni's presence, claiming she really ought to go with me so she could get a proper picture, but I put my foot down at that. It was ten minutes later that I was finally able to escape the apartment. And I was six minutes late. I wasn't going to leave a very good impression.

As I had no car, I needed to walk to Natsuni's home. Mother could have driven me I supposed, and would have saved me time, but Natsuni enjoyed walking. She also particularly enjoyed not having Mother there to watch over us, no matter how much she claimed the two of them got along. I was inclined to agree with her. I didn't like knowing that the two of us were separated from my mother by a single wall when I was trying to kiss my girlfriend.

Walking along the sidewalk under the stars, my path lit only by the light of the moon, I realized just how difficult it was going to be to knock on her door. This nervousness only increased the nearer I got to building. I slowed my pacing the moment I saw it. Her mother would be there. God. Her _father_ would be there. I really should have taken her advice and just allowed her to come to my house to get me. But no. I had to be a freaking gentleman and go to her instead.

I shook my head again.

I saved the world—multiple times—seeing my girlfriend's father should be a piece of cake. Even if it _was_ the first time I would see him since he found out I was dating his daughter. Sigma and Yggdrasil were nothing compared to the dread I felt for this meeting.

It only got worse when I knocked on her door. The evilest woman I'd ever seen opened the door and peered down her nose at me with narrow eyes. Her makeup made her look even more frightening with the severe black lining. And her heels made her taller than me, giving her a looming presence.

"It's you," she hissed, opening the door. I took a deep breath, preparing for a verbal lashing. And it came. "I don't know what you're doing here boy. You're ruining my daughter's future. You didn't think of that when you tempted her away from me did you? No. She's destined for much greater things then you."

"I know how that is," I said casually. "Being destined for great things I mean. I did just recently save the world…but you know. Societal rank takes precedence or something, right?"

"You cocky little bastard," she growled.

"Enough."

The voice was firm, low and smooth. Mrs Ando shut up immediately and wiped the fierce look from her face before turning to see her husband. He was dressed in a suit, just as I was, and was looking at his wife with barely disguised disgust.

"The boy is speaking the truth. Our daughter wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him," he informed her.

She gaped at him. "You can't believe his tall tales, darling!"

"The hell I can't," he said. I was just barely suppressing my grin. "I've heard the stories from our daughter and her friend—Goblimon. There have been many accounts on the news of the battle in downtown Odaiba. Now I don't know if this young man was there—"

"I wasn't," I admitted.

"See! He's just filing Natsuni's head with lies," Mrs Ando complained.

"I was in the heart of the battle in the Digital World," I said, narrowing my own eyes at _her_ for once. "But my brother was fighting in Odaiba. My _little_ brother. I didn't see you fighting anywhere though…?"

"Well—" she said, preparing some pitiful defense, but her husband didn't let her get it out.

"He protected our daughter in this Digital World," Mr Ando said firmly. "And he deserves our respect for it."

"He may have yours," Mrs Ando hissed. "But he doesn't have mine. And he won't. Not until he gets rid of these foolish fancies and let's go of his hold on my daughter."

"That could take the rest of your life, mother," Natsuni said, walking into view. She was beautiful. The blush that spread across her cheeks told me that she noticed my gaping, and appreciated it. I felt a flush of my own coming and had to look away. Mr Ando looked amused, and Mrs Ando was furious with her daughter's comment.

"It's a good thing I don't need her respect then, isn't it?" I quipped. Natsuni looked at me and laughed.

"It is good," she said. "Thank you, Daddy, for accepting him."

"Anyone who puts the fate of the world above his own life—and puts my baby girl's life above the fate of the world—is alright in my books," he said with a small smile.

"I would," I told him. "I'd put her before everything."

"You already do," Natsuni said. "Though I wish you wouldn't."

"You're just saying that," I teased. "You _like_ it."

"I do," she said sheepishly. "But not in the battle. I didn't like it then. You need to take care of yourself too."

"What do I need to do that for?" I said with a smile. "Not when I've got you and Armadillomon looking out for me."

"Is that for me?" she asked, changing the subject as she cast a quick look at her father. He looked uncomfortable with the declarations of our loyalty to one another, though he did seem slightly pleased. She was pointing to the corsage in my hand that I'd forgotten about entirely.

"Yes," I said. "It's one of a kind."

"I can see that," Mrs Ando snipped.

"It's perfect," Natsuni said. "And might I ask who made it?"

"Meiyomon of course," I said. I flitted my eyes between Natsuni and her father before awkwardly moving to pin the corsage to her dress.

"I'll be the talk of the town," Natsuni joked once I'd finished. "And it goes so well with my pale blue gown too."

"You don't_ have_ to wear it," I offered.

"I _want_ to," she countered, leaning in close to kiss my cheek.

"It's time for our departure, don't you think?" Mr Ando said, clearing his throat. There was only so much he was willing to witness. He was thankful that Natsuni was okay and that I helped save the world. That didn't mean he wanted to see us kissing anymore than I wanted to kiss in front of him.

"I concur," I said quickly, squeezing Natsuni's hand once before letting her lead me to the car that her father had rented for the event.

"A perfectly good waste of money now," Mrs Ando had commented when she saw me splutter at the sight of the limousine. Apparently she didn't think there was a reason to have rented it now that Natsuni was going with a date. She didn't need the added attention it would bring anymore. Oddly enough, I was pleased at that. But I still wanted to ride in the limousine, so I held my tongue. Natsuni rolled her eyes at me.

"You're cute when you're jealous," she muttered as I helped her into the vehicle.

"I'm not jealous. There's nothing to be jealous of," I murmured back. She just rolled her eyes at me again.

The trip there was long and nerve wracking. Mrs Ando kept a hawk's eye on me leaving me floundering for an escape, but not willing to show her my weakness I simply stared right back at her. Natsuni kept resting her hand on my leg, and I could _feel_ Mr Ando's eyes narrow in on her hand, but she never noticed. She only moved her hand so she could point out different sections of reconstruction to me, making comments about the battle as we drove through the street it had taken place on. When the vehicle finally did come to a stop, I nearly flew out onto the pavement, stopping only long enough to hold my hand out for Natsuni, helping her out too. I debated for a moment before holding my hand out again for her mother, but wasn't surprised when Mrs Ando refused, deciding to lower her standards and get out on her own accord instead. I could do no more than shrug my shoulders before Natsuni was dragging me towards the party.

There were so many gowns and tuxes that I didn't know where to look. I didn't think I would've recognized anyone even if I did know them outside of the party. Everything looked far too elegant for me. I really didn't belong. But Natsuni didn't seem to notice. She was dragging me around and introducing me to people with a proud look on her face. I'd never seen her so happy, especially when it came to her mother's social events.

"This is Iori Hida," she was telling an elderly gentleman. He held out his hand for me to shake, and seemed both pleased and surprised at my firm handshake. I didn't know if I ought to be flattered or insulted.

"Is this man your suitor, young lady?" the man asked. It felt weird for anyone to refer to me as a man. Theoretically, I knew I was one, but it was nice to hear just the same. I wasn't a little boy anymore. I straightened up at the sound of it and Natsuni giggled.

"He is. And I love him very much," she said.

"I must say, I had hoped you would choose my grandson, but who am I to dismantle happiness such as your own?" the man said, before excusing himself from the conversation, and wandering over to Mr Ando, who grinned and sent a pleased look his daughter's way. Natsuni preened in her father's acceptance.

"I love that man too," she commented. "Did you know he yelled at my mother the moment she stepped in the door, demanding that he disown me? He's proud of me and what I've become, even if I'm not the little socialite he'd been hoping for. According to him, I'm something better."

"Of course you are," I told her.

"Let's dance, shall we?" she asked. Without comment, I tugged her hand, leading her to the dance floor, where I started swaying with her back and forth. "Dancing like high school students?"

"Is there any other way?" I asked with a smile.

"I'm sure there is," she said. "We're grownups now, but this is good too."

"I love you Natsuni," I murmured into her hair as I held her close. "I don't say it enough."

"You've said it plenty," she assured me.

"Not before the battle," I pointed out. "And I'm not making that mistake again. I'm going to make sure you know how I feel, because it's important."

"Well," she said, pretending to contemplate it. "I suppose I'd have to say that I love you too."

"You don't _have_ to."

"But I feel it," she whispered.

"If it isn't the talk of the party!" Noriko's loud voice was unmistakable. Natsuni reluctantly pulled herself away to look at the intruder. "Did I interrupt a moment?"

"Yes," I said. But it didn't matter, because Natsuni was quick to assure her that she hadn't at the same time. I rolled my eyes.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I just wanted to see how you were. The battle took a lot out of _me_ and I wasn't even in the thick of things."

"Better than I expected, really," I said. "I thought there'd be a lot to work through, post traumatic stress or something, but all I feel is relief."

"You never have to risk your life again," Natsuni said happily.

"Not for the sake of the world, at least," I allowed.

"I suppose you'll risk your life for her though," Noriko said, raising her eyebrow at me. "I wouldn't fault you for that. You love her. It's painfully obvious. Sickening almost."

"What about you, Noriko?" Natsuni asked softly.

"Do I have a new love interest?" Noriko clarified. "I do actually. I've been dating him awhile now. He wants me to move in with him, and I'm really thinking about it. He goes to school north of here, and I just happened to be accepted there as well. My life's really turning around."

"And you don't…_stalk_ him…do you?" I asked nervously.

"No," she said with a laugh. "I don't feel the need to like I did with you. My therapist helped me with that. You'll be my only stalking victim."

"Don't I feel special," I grumbled. I was saved from anymore painfully awkward conversation by loud, high-pitched screams.

"What is that?"

"Who let _those_ in here?"

"Call security!"

I closed my eyes and prayed it wasn't what I thought it was. But Natsuni dashed any hope I had by calling out to the disrupters.

"Meiyomon, Armadillomon, Goblimon! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"We wanted to play too, right?" Meiyomon said cutely, trying to play up his innocent child look. It wasn't going to work with me. I opened my eyes to glare at him, but then shifted my glare to Armadillomon who was supposed to be watching him.

"I didn't let him out of my sight, I swear!" was Armadillomon's only defence.

"Get those monsters away!" Mrs Ando screeched.

"Meiyomon," Noriko called loudly, casting an angry look in Mrs Ando's direction. "Could I have this dance?"

"Yes," Meiyomon said, bouncing up and down. He ran over to Noriko and bowed clumsily. Noriko rolled her eyes and scooped my little brother's hands into her own, before waving them around between them crazily. Meiyomon squealed with laughter.

"I call dibs on Goblimon!" Natsuni called out over the silence of the shocked crowd. She ran at Goblimon and jumped into his arms. He lifted her high into the air before pulling her into a hug, swaying her as he did so.

"I'm next!" called a girl in a bright pink dress.

"No, me!" her friend screamed at her.

"Would you look at that," Armadillomon said shaking his head. "Just a couple days ago we were thrown out of a shop because I existed, and now they're fighting over dance partners."

"Do you want to jump in line?" I teased.

"No, no," he said. "Now that your girlfriend is busy, you'll need some company."

"Thanks," I said lowly.

"What's wrong?" Armadillomon asked after a long, drawn out silence.

"I can't help but wonder if Grandpa would be proud of me. I miss him all the time and I never told him about Natsuni. I should have though. He would've understood," I said.

"He knew though," Armadillomon said confidently. "He had to have. He was insightful and noticed almost everything about you. He was very proud of you then Iori, and I'm sure he's even more proud of you now."

"How can you know though?" I asked, watching Goblimon swing my girlfriend around in large circles. Her laughter filled the entire room.

"Because he used to say that there was nothing you could do that _wouldn't_ make him proud," Armadillomon said. "And you just saved the world. How could he not be proud about that?"

"I guess you're right," I said softly. "So…do you want to dance?"

"How about we hit the punch bowl instead?" Armadillomon suggested quickly.

"Let's," I agreed just as fast. We looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh.

_**Miyako Ichijouji:**_

It wasn't as easy as I expected, to just slip back into a relaxed way of living. I'd been wound far too tightly for far too long to just forget it ever happened. And maybe that was the point. Everything I'd been through had shaped me into the person I was now. There would be more events in my life that would change me further still—though hopefully not as drastic of events as saving the world—and I would be okay with those changes too. It would just take time for me to relax, to accept that I _was_ a victim of Sigma, and that I _had_ saved the world multiple times. The hardest thing to accept wasn't either of those though. It was the fact that we were done. There would be no more world saving for us. No sir. We'd have to slip into normal, everyday, _boring_ lives.

I just wasn't ready to let go of the adventure. I wasn't ready to let the Digital World's safety be placed in some other person's hands. I wanted to be sure that it—and subsequently all other worlds—was safe. And I couldn't be sure unless I had a hand in it. But life doesn't always give you what you want. It does, however, give you what you need. I just had to learn what to do with what I was given.

Ken would help me. I was sure of that. And Momoe and Jou. And baby Emiko. Hawkmon would too. He was perhaps the most important asset I'd have in my recovery, and he was also the only shining light I could see in our adventure-less life. He wouldn't be on the front lines anymore. I wouldn't have to suffer panic attacks thinking he wouldn't make it out of our newest fight. He could have fun, we could spend time together, bond even more than we already were simply because we were friends, and not due to the connection of our crest.

Hawkmon was sitting on the floor, discussing the downward spiral his favourite television show was taking. He'd had such high hopes from the beginning. It was the only time he'd ever branched out of his typical real-life crime shows. Wormmon didn't seem to have any problems with the turn the show took though. He actually _preferred_ the more romantic feel to the action packed, anxiety riddled show it used to be. I rolled my eyes at the now arguing pair. I was so glad that they'd be safe from now on. I couldn't imagine my life without them. They were a part of Ken's and my family.

"Can we be in love again?" Ken asked, drawing my eyes away from the digimon.

"I thought we always were?" I said dryly.

"I want to go back to a time where we shared things with one another, not kept them away," Ken said walking over to me and grabbing my hand. "We used to be so in tune. What happened?"

"I got scared," I told him.

"And I was too determined not to mess up," Ken added. "I had to keep the crests from you because of Meiyomon. I shouldn't have. You would've been able to help. I'm _sure_ of it."

"You could have helped me too," I said sadly. "But I was too scared. Scared to show you my weakness, and far too scared to show it to anybody else. I didn't want them to think _you_ were doing it. Mari thought that immediately. I was just trying to—"

"Protect me," Ken finished for me. "I was too. I didn't want you to get attacked by that digimon that stole the crests from us. I didn't want Meiyomon to have any reason to blame you when things turned sour. He's a scary little guy."

"Not as scary as Sigma," I countered with a feeble laugh. "Or Daemon. I was so happy to see you when you came to get me. I was so scared and I didn't know what they were planning on doing. I'd all but given up hope. Armadillomon was the only ray of sunshine I could find, and even _he_ was getting depressed. But then I heard your voice and it was like nothing could hurt me anymore. Because you were there."

"I don't know what I would've done if I'd been even a second late. I don't want to even speculate. I couldn't lose you. I _can't_ lose you," he murmured, pulling me into his chest and kissing the top of my head. I threw my arms around his chest and clung to him, hating the fact that I was crying, but loving the warmth he gave me.

"Thank you," I cried. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"You've saved me from the darkness before," he said. "It was just time to return the favour."

I couldn't help the bubble of watery laughter that escaped me. I kissed his cheek and just held him for a few minutes.

"Are you alright?" Wormmon asked us.

"Did something happen that we were unaware of?" Hawkmon wanted to know.

"No," I said. "I'm just so happy."

"I'm happy too," Hawkmon told me.

"I think we're _all_ happy," Ken concluded. "Do you need some tea to help calm down?"

"That would be nice," I said. "You know, we're going to have to put child locks on all of our cupboards now."

"Why?" Wormmon asked.

"Because I'm not being terrorized anymore! I don't have to worry about Sigma getting Emiko or Masa if I have them over here. I can actually babysit my niece and nephew. I can _bond_ with them. Oh I can't wait!" I squealed. "I'm so excited. I can't wait to have the sounds of little feet filling the empty, lonely apartment while Ken's away at school!"

Ken came out of the kitchen holding an empty mug and fixed me with a strange look. He seemed both wary and intrigued…and a little bit excited—but it was as if he was desperately holding that excitement at bay.

"Are you saying you want to have kids…?" he asked.

"I need to be doing _something_," I confirmed. "And watching Emiko and Masa would be a dream come true. I just love kids!"

"No," he said to clarify. "I meant…one of our…own…"

I was shocked. It hadn't crossed my mind before that, but thinking about it, I really did want to have kids. I hated being one of four growing up, but there were too few of us in the apartment for me to be at ease. A couple of kids wouldn't hurt. It could be wonderful. No. It _would_ be wonderful.

But was I ready right then?

I'd have to think that through. It didn't take me very long to come to a conclusion. It was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I—" I started. I was interrupted before I could get any further.

BAM!

My hand flew to my heart and I turned wide eyed to the door of our apartment. I just about screamed before I noticed that it was only Momoe. She burst through the door as if she owned the place, balancing Emiko on one hip and holding a file folder in the opposite hand. Her eyes were alit with excitement, and her short, brown hair bounced as she walked towards me with a hop in her step.

"Don't _do_ that," I hissed. She looked somewhat apologetic, but only for the smallest fraction of a second.

"I just got the _best_ news I've ever heard in my life," Momoe declared, setting Emiko onto her feet as Ken closed the door that Momoe had left open behind her.

"I might've too, if you hadn't interrupted," I heard Ken grumble, and I had to hold back a bubble of laughter as I rolled my eyes.

"Well?" Momoe asked impatiently.

"Well what?" Ken asked with a little bite. Apparently he wasn't being very patient either. We had a long time of peace ahead of us. I didn't think an extra couple minutes of waiting for his answer would kill him.

"Aren't you going to ask what my news is?" Momoe demanded.

"What news?" Emiko asked excitedly.

"Since _someone_ asked," Momoe said, glaring in my direction. She grabbed the folder she'd been carrying, and opened it on one of her palms. She picked up the paper on the top of the pile and held it out to me. It was one of the most boring pages ever. It was a lot like those Terms and Agreement documents that websites make you read before you can use their services. I read it, but it was very dry.

"And?" I asked.

"Didn't you read it?" she asked with a gleam in her eye.

"It just goes on and on about what an employee can and cannot do while in employment with some sort of company," I said confused.

"_I_ am that employee," Momoe shrieked in excitement. "It's telling _me_ what I can and cannot do. Isn't that the greatest thing in the world? I'm going to make a paycheck and take the load off of Jou's shoulders. Not only that, but the job sounds super cool and interesting. It might be a little time consuming at first, since I'll need to be trained, but once I get the hang of it, I'll be able to be home with Emiko more too."

"That's great," I said with a lot of enthusiasm. And it wasn't until that exact moment that I was able to pinpoint my true feelings about Momoe's job search. I was jealous. She was married, had a daughter, and was well on her way to having a great career. I was married—and I loved my husband and that marriage very much—but other than that, my life wasn't going anywhere. Even my job at the library wasn't secure these days. The owner—Mari's grandmother—had passed away recently, and no one knew for sure whether it would remain open when all of the legal paperwork was done. I thought that perhaps Mari was designated to inherit the place, but with all that was going on in her life, I didn't know if she was going to want the added pressure.

"I know what you're thinking," Momoe told me with a smirk. "And don't worry. I've got it covered."

Clearly, she couldn't know what I was thinking. She couldn't possibly think she could fix the hole in my plans for my future. Who thinks things like that?

"Aunty 'Yako!" Emiko squealed, clinging to my legs, arms wrapped around my knees. She lifted her legs off the floor and nearly made me topple over. She was giggling up a storm though, and it was one of the most amazing sounds I'd ever heard in my life: a child's laughter. Of course it was ruined a bit a second later when I felt something oozing down the back of my right calf. She let go and ran off after Ken. He looked at her cautiously before calmly removing himself out of her target zone—basically, he ran for the bedroom like a chicken. This movement caught Emiko's interest, and she seemed to be scheming something entirely new, racing off after him with a battle cry.

"Miyako," Momoe said softly. "Willis got me the job. It's a new branch the government is working on, and it's to help monitor activities between the Digital World and Earth. A lot of people are scared of digimon, and a lot of scared digimon accidently fall through to Earth. My job is to find those digimon and help them get home before the scared humans try and attack it, prompting it to fight back in self-defense."

"You're the Digi-Gatekeeper then?" I asked.

"Hopefully I'm just one of them," she said. My mind took a few moments to process what she was suggesting.

"You want _my_ help?" I asked in shock.

"I have very strict guidelines to work with, but otherwise, I get to pick my partner. They need to know that we'll be able to work together without fail, and having prior knowledge of the Digital World is a must. You also have the added bonus of knowing what you're doing when you use a computer, and you won't look at me like I'm stupid if I ask about a digivice. It's happened twice with people they suggested for my partner. No. I need you, no one else. How about it baby sister?" Momoe pleaded.

"I…" I hesitated, though I didn't know why. This was practically perfect for me. I would be able to continue my work at saving the Digital World and the digimon that resided there. No, I wouldn't be facing big tough digimon with Hawkmon at my side, but I _would_ be protecting the digimon from humans that wanted to hurt them, and that was just as important. We needed to live in peace and harmony, not continue fighting.

"Please?" Momoe said eagerly. "You're perfect. Who better for the position than you, who was the most important person in any of the worlds for like ten seconds during the final battle?"

"It was actually 12.7 seconds," I said sheepishly. I blushed at the embarrassment I felt for knowing that. "Let me meet with the boss for an interview. I can't make any promises, but—"

"You're going to love it. I just know!" Momoe screamed ecstatically.

"Emiko don't!" I heard Ken yell from the bathroom. "I need that to shave my face!"

Emiko let out a squeal, and came running into the living room holding Ken's lather brush and wiping her face with the soft bristles.

"Do you think that you could watch Emiko for me this afternoon?" Momoe asked suddenly. "Jou and I really need to go out and celebrate my new job, and I think it would be better if we made a date of it, you know? We haven't spent much time alone together since Emiko was born, but we spent even less time since the problems in the Digital World started up."

"Go ahead," I told her. "I haven't watched Emiko before. I'm going to really love this."

"You say that now," Momoe joked—but I could tell she was more than a little bit serious about it. Emiko was a handful. She loved joking around and getting into trouble. But between Hawkmon, Wormmon, Ken and me, we ought to have been able to handle her. Speaking of the digimon…

While Momoe excused herself from the apartment after a quick hug and kiss to her daughter, I was on a hunt for the digimon. They couldn't have got too far. They weren't usually a quiet pair. Maybe on their own, but never when they were together. I found them, tied up with plastic wrap and gagged with a pair of socks, in the hall closet. I quickly removed the socks and asked what happened as I ripped at the plastic.

"Emiko happened," Wormmon said, nervously flicking his eyes up and down the hallway, as if he expected my little niece to jump out at any second.

"Someone really should put a leash on her," Hawkmon commented.

"How bad did she ruffle your feathers?" I asked incredulously. "She's a little girl. She doesn't need to be tied up."

"And we did?" Hawkmon asked with a snort.

"No," I told him. I let out a loud, triumphant shout when I finally tore through the remainder of the plastic wrap. Wormmon scrambled to mine and Ken's bedroom and slammed the door behind him. I could've sworn I heard the faint click of the lock a second later.

"Miyako!" Ken called loudly from the kitchen. Hawkmon and I looked at each other before racing to him for different reasons. Hawkmon probably thought Emiko was going to kill Ken or something, but I was just worried that she'd hurt herself with one of the utensils.

"Is she okay?" I demanded as I burst through the door. Emiko hadn't been in any danger at all. In fact, she was seated perfectly still on the floor staring wide-eyed and open mouthed at the shimmering blue fairy in front of her.

"It's good to see you," the Winter Queen said. She looked so very out of place next to the faded yellow cupboards and the counter that was littered with dirty dishes. I really should get doing those. No matter how long I waited for him to do it, I knew Ken wouldn't. He didn't like touching them while they were dirty. What a baby. He'd put them away and dry them though, so that was _something_.

"Good to see you to," I said awkwardly.

"I need for you to come with me," she said nobly.

"We were kind of in the middle of a life changing discussion," Ken said. The Winter Queen turned to look at him and suddenly he got nervous. "But it'll still be there when she gets back. Go ahead honey. I'll hold down the fort."

"Wimp," I teased, but nodded at the Winter Queen to let her know I was ready. Hawkmon fluttered over to my side and caught hold of my hand just in time for my apartment to melt away from us and for a majestic, magical forest to be painted in its place.

Daisuke was already there looking very confused, wearing his apron emblazoned with his noodle cart slogan "Noodle Noodle, Come Get Your Noodle!" He was standing next to the Spring Queen we'd saved together. She looked a little less frazzled, but I didn't expect her to be back to normal for awhile yet. She'd been tortured for information for ages. She was bound to have some difficulty recovering—just like I was. Veemon looked even more confused than Daisuke did, and kept looking around with wide eyes, expecting something to jump out of the trees and attack us.

Iori appeared just after I did, a serious look on his face, and Armadillomon was standing by his feet. His "aunt" the Summer Queen was looking jovial next to him as she chattered away to her Forgiving Knight. She stopped talking not long after their arrival, and took a few steps toward the centre of our little gathering.

"Thank you," she said loudly. "You have gone above and beyond our expectations over the years and we must thank you for it. I feel guilty, that we did not ask your permission when we laid out your destiny. It was far too much for us to ask of any of you. But I am so very proud of you. All of you."

"We would have done it anyway," Daisuke said firmly.

"I could say I forgive you, if you think that'd help," Iori offered with a shy smile.

"It would help immensely, my dear Forgiving Knight," she said happily.

"Then I forgive you," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Daisuke was right though. There was nothing to forgive, because we would have done it anyway."

"Miyako?" the Winter Queen asked nervously. I hadn't said anything, but it wasn't because I was mad at them. I was just confused.

"No one is ever asked if they want their destiny," I said. "They're given exactly what they can handle, whether they believe it or not. I would have done it if you asked, but you didn't have to. You _knew_ I could handle it, and for that, I should be thanking _you_."

"Thank you," the Winter Queen said softly, bowing her head to me. I felt the need to bow back almost immediately, and did so, nearly falling on my face and causing her to laugh. Her laughter sounded like bells tinkling over the sounds of the enchanted forest.

"We will not ask of any more from any of you," the Spring Queen said. "It isn't our place to do so."

"We will never be far, if ever you be in need of assistance," the Summer Queen added. "We will not remove ourselves from your lives unless you ask us to."

"Never," Iori said quickly.

"Is…is that all?" I asked. "Not that I don't want to be here, but Ken and I _were_ having a discussion…"

"We simply wanted to thank you, and tell you that you have completed all that we could ask of you," the Winter Queen summarized. "We wanted to tell you that we are working diligently to calm the masses in our domains. Summer in the Land of Dreams, Spring in Witchenly and myself here, in our Fairy home."

"If ever you need us, give us a call okay?" the Spring Queen reiterated. "We asked so much of you, it's the least we can do. So long as it isn't ridiculous. I won't make you a millionaire or anything, just to warn you."

"Okay," Daisuke said. Iori and I nodded solemnly. The fairy queens moved to give each of us a hug. Before they sent us home, they paused to thank our digimon for their hard work, and they hugged them too. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and when I opened them once again, I was back in my kitchen.

"Well?" Ken asked. I knew he was asking about the meeting with the queens and not demanding an answer to his earlier question, but I couldn't help myself.

"Yes, I'm ready for kids!" I blurted out. I quickly looked around the apartment, waiting for yet another interruption, but none came. I looked to my husband and caught sight of his big grin.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes," I confirmed.

Emiko's squeals filled the room and Wormmon's frantic cry of "No Emiko! Put that down, it's not a toy!" followed after it. Ken's eyes widened and he ran out of the kitchen to save his digimon partner for a change. It was usually the other way around.

"Are you sure you're ready for an Emiko of your own?" Hawkmon asked nervously.

"I think so, yes," I told him.

"She's a little demon in disguise you realize," he warned me.

"I'm ready," I assured him. "And that's just Emiko. Most babies aren't _that_ enthusiastic. But it probably won't happen right away. It takes time for that. It'll happen when it happens, but you know, I'm really excited for when it does."

_**Mari Goutokuji:**_

"Everyone hush!" Hideto hissed, pulling his blanket up to his face as the light from the television flicked over him and the rest of us. "This is the best part!" The room was dark since Miyako had pulled the curtains across the window to make it appear as if it were night. Miyako had issued a girls night wherein we would watch all those lame, sappy movies about love and heartbreak, but I'd brought a few horror movies instead.

As the monster jumped out from behind the door the woman began screaming at the same time as Hikari, Sora and Mimi. Mimi, still screaming, began fumbling with the remote until the television turned off dissipating all light in the room.

Suddenly the lights turned on and they were all screaming again, this time with Miyako.

"What's going on?" Ken asked, his finger shaking by the light switch. "I thought you were watching romance movies!"

"We were going to!" Miyako snapped, getting off of her couch and kicking the blanket away from her feet, "But someone thought it was a good idea to scare the crap out of us all."

"I found it rather enjoyable." Katsue said through her hysterical laughter.

Everyone turned to her as Miyako threw open the curtains allowing the sunlight to pour into the room. Katsue was sitting on the floor with Monimon, Hikari and Gatomon on one side of the couch while Sora, Biyomon, Miyako and Hideto took up the couch leaving me to sit with Mimi and Palmon on the other side. When I looked back to Ken I saw that Wormmon and Hawkmon had come to see what was going on as well.

"You agreed to watch a horror movie?" Ken asked, "After what you went through?"

"Well I didn't know it was a horror movie, now did I?" She said loudly, throwing her hands up dramatically.

"It's called 'Nightmare's revenge.'" Sora pointed out.

"And the opening scene was a murder." Biyomon followed up.

"And the whole time there was suspenseful music." Palmon added. I looked lazily toward Katsue who was sitting in front of the television now. For some unknown reason I couldn't find energy to do anything lately. And it wasn't actually an unknown reason either... I just didn't want to think about it. Or did I?

I came back to focus when Katsue moved aside to reveal Monimon plugged into the television. We were all on the screen and then everyone started screaming, their faces panic stricken. Katsue and Hideto were both laughing uncontrollably again as everyone else glared at them.

"Let's watch it again!" Katsue laughed.

"No," Miyako moved quickly and picked Monimon up, unplugging him from the computer. "Let's never watch a horror movie again."

"I agree." Hikari declared.

"I dunno, they're kind of fun." Gatomon shrugged. "Watching all of your reactions anyway. You were all more scared than a cat that's just seen a giant squid monster."

I saw everyone turn their heads to her, but I kept mine rested on my arms.

"That's not a good pun." Hikari pointed out.

"Uh, not a pun," Gatomon defended, "Everything would be scared of a giant squid monster. That's just a fact." Everyone was laughing at her, and a moment later I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I didn't bother looking though. I could tell it was Hideto.

"You okay?" He asked quietly as the others all started talking. I shook my head, but still didn't say anything. "Mari, everything will be okay."

"Don't tell me that." I shot in a whisper. He knew I hated that. He knew that I hated how everyone kept telling me lies, and that everything would be fine when I knew that it wouldn't. He knew that it wouldn't.

"Sorry," Hideto said, patting my shoulder lightly and then retracting his hand. I relaxed and retreated into my mind for a brief moment before someone had grabbed my hand. I looked up and saw that Hideto was standing, pulling me to my feet.

"What?" I said quietly, not looking at him as I straightened my shirt out.

He didn't respond yet and instead just led me to the fire escape where he helped me through the window and then closed the window. He finally looked to me and sighed. I could see that he wanted to help—it was written all over his face, and in his eyes, but that didn't mean I was ready for it. "Mari," he said, "You haven't cried in days. You haven't eaten at all, and you're not even sleeping. You need to let out your emotions."

"Shut up." I snapped, looking away from him.

"Mari, please." Hideto said, still holding my hand. "Just talk to me. Just tell me what's going on inside that feisty little brain of yours." He used his free hand to brush a strand of hair from my face, so I slapped it away, anger rising quickly.

"There's nothing going on." I told him, "I'm just sad. I have every right to be."

"You do," He nodded, "But you also need to live, Mari. You are like, my best friend."

"I thought that was Neo."

"It is." he said, "But it's you too. And Kiyoko. And Agumon and Gabumon—all of you."

"Yeah well, I think Kiyoko is my best friend now." I said, "I don't know."

"Well fine," Hideto said flatly as I looked to the streets below. "I just want you to know that you aren't alone Mari. You think you are, I know you think you are. But you're not alone. You're never alone. You never have been, and you never will be. We'll all _always_ be there for you." I didn't say anything to that. I didn't know how. I knew he was wrong. That's what I wanted to say, but... but I couldn't. "Look at me," Hideto said finally, putting his hand on my cheek and bringing me around to face him. "Talk to her."

"What?" I shot.

"Talk to Lalamon." He said quietly. The tone of his voice told me very clearly that he was serious. I stared at him for a while, the light from the sun beating down on his face as the cool summer breeze blew through his messy black hair and my blonde hair that I'd tied into a ponytail. "Just tell her... what you'd say if she was here."

"I'd say that I missed her," I said through gritted teeth. I wanted it to be embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't. It was just true. I just wanted her back.

"No," Hideto said, "Say it _to_ her."

I glared at him, as his phone vibrated, but he ignored it. I then turned away, ripping my hand from his grip and looked over the fire escape and down at the city. "Lalamon... you... you took my hand and showed me how to live. You promised that you'd always be there..." It was not an easy thing to do with Hideto standing right beside me, so I closed my eyes and ignored his presence, picturing Lalamon in front of me. "And if someone said three years ago that you'd be gone... I'd stand up, and punch them out, because they're all wrong. I know better. Because you said forever."

"Mari," Hideto tried, reaching for me again, but I slapped his hand away.

"No." I said firmly, "I don't want to do this okay!" I shouted, stepping closer to him, my eyes starting to water. "You're making me hate myself! I don't resent her for it! I don't blame her—but I just said I did! I don't though! It's not her fault!" I punched his shoulder as hard as I could and bit my lip, turning for the window, and trying to open it but finding it was locked.

I punched it too.

"Mari," Hideto said, "Just tell her that you'll miss her. Tell her that you'll keep her in your heart until you meet again."

"But I won't!" I shouted loudly, "I'll never see her again!" I spun back quickly and elbowed the window this time. "HEY!" I screamed.

Suddenly the window was popping open. I peered through it and saw Miyako looking to me confused. "You alright?" She asked. I shook my head and climbed through the window, leaving Hideto there. "Do you want to help me in the kitchen?"

I walked right past her without saying anything and then suddenly froze. For some reason I really did want to. I wanted so badly to be in talking to Miyako. I turned back to her and grabbed her hand and dragged her directly into the kitchen ignoring Hideto's look.

"Are you alright, Mari?" Miyako asked the moment I let go and spun to face her. "I know how hard this must be for you. If I lost Hawkmon... I'd need someone there for me. I'd need a hug."

I nodded suddenly and stepped forward to hug her, but a scream interrupted us, and Miyako looked to me apologetically before running into the living room. I followed her and saw that Mimi had accidentally turned the television back on and the monster had scared her. I needed to get out of there. I just...

I strode across the room past the others who were all clutching their chests in fear except for Hideto and Katsue who were laughing hysterically.

"Shut up!" Mimi yelled, throwing a pillow at Hideto, "What are you even _doing_ here? This is a girl's night!"

"I'm an honorary girl!" Hideto joked. "I'm kind of amazing that way." I decided to tune them out as I got ready to leave. I couldn't be around people anymore. I needed to do something—anything at all, or else I'd explode. I was putting on my boots when I heard Hideto say my name. "Right Mari?" I turned to them and froze. What were they saying? "You want a talk show too, don't you?"

"We could be co-hosts!" Katsue said loudly, clapping her hands together.

"Sounds fun." I said flatly.

"Uh, Mari," Hikari said, moving forward quickly, "Where are you going?"

"Out." I said, reminding myself of a teenager again.

"No," Mimi said bluntly, "You can't leave yet."

"And why is that?" I asked, zipping my boot up. "I'm just going for a walk. I can't sit around right now, okay?"

"No, you really can't go though." Ken said. I noticed they were all holding their phones. What did they know that I didn't? Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Oh, Mari, could you... get that?"

I stared at him expressing all my confusion and anger into one death glare before turning and pulling open the door.

"Willis?" I asked. He was standing on the other side of the door standing taller than I, even with my heeled boots. The others wanted me to answer the door because they knew Willis was coming. Why did they know? What did the messages on their phone say?

"Hey," Willis smiled. "Going somewhere?"

"I'm going for a walk to be alone." I told him.

"Great, I'll come with you," He said with a smile. I just raised my eyebrows and then stepped out the door passed him. "Bye guys!" Willis called as I strode down the hallway, ignoring him. As I was waiting for the elevator Willis had caught up. He didn't say anything though all the way down to the bottom floor. "After you," he said as the door opened finally.

I obeyed and walked out into the lobby of the apartment building and then out the front door. Instantly I was greeted with a gust of strong wind. I threw my arms out and stood in the wind with my eyes closed for a while.

Finally, when I opened my eyes Willis was standing with me.

"Willis," I said quietly, "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to be with you." He said, "I'm going to be living here in Japan until you're back on your feet."

"Oh look, I'm on my feet." I said as the wind picked up causing me to lose my balance. Willis caught my arm and pulled me back to my feet, shaking his head. "That was poor timing." I growled to the wind.

"It was perfect timing." Willis corrected. "Mari, no matter how sarcastic you get I'm going to be staying here. I'm always going to be there to catch you. Ever since I met you I've wanted you to be truly happy, but I've never seen it happen. Now, I'm going to do anything, and _everything_ in my power to make sure that it does."

"And why would you do that?" I asked, playing with my hair as I looked away.

"Because I love you Mari."

I turned around, my hands clenched into fists, "Why would you say a stupid thing like that?" I asked sharply, "Willis, I never ever want to be in a relationship. Ever."

"That's fine." He said so quickly and firmly that I had to believe him. "Whatever you want, I'm happy with that. Because as long as you're happy I think I could actually be happy."

Wow he was good at this. Was he though? Or was it really just my heart getting the best of me again? Loving someone was the biggest mistake of my life every time I'd let it happen. Grandma, Marshal, Lalamon, Willis... it wasn't safe. It was too much of a risk because I didn't know if I could lose anything else and still stay alive.

"I just want to die." I blurted before I could stop myself.

"Don't say that," Willis shook his head, and took my hands, "Mari, think about Lalamon. The trait the two of you shared and worked towards was tenacity. She'd want you to power through it and move forward."

"But I can't move forward." I said through gritted teeth as I held back my tears, avoiding eye contact with him.

"You can though."

"I _can't_!" I shot, "Not when all I want to do is punch someone in the face and die."

"Mari..." Willis said so softly that it actually drew my attention to him. I looked up to his blue eyes and saw the same amount of sadness that I felt reflected in the glassiness of his eyes. He was equally sad about all of this. Because he really _did_ love me. And I hated myself for loving him back. "Mari, let's go for a walk." He released one of my hands and then took the lead, practically dragging me along.

We walked in silence for a while as I constantly ran my fingers through my hair. I could tell Willis was waiting for me to say something but there was nothing I wanted to say. Nothing that felt right. I couldn't find anything that made enough sense. Nothing that ran through my mind had the right amount of emotion that I felt. No words could describe how I felt. There were too many feelings. And I was all alone.

Willis was holding my hand, but he was so far away. There were too many clouds in my mind to find him. The only family I'd had left died... and then Lalamon too... I just kept looking through the fog expecting someone to hold me but no one was there to do so, and whenever someone got close I just got scared and pushed them away. I couldn't hold on. I was slipping.

"Mari," Willis said finally, "Do you remember Lalamon's last words to you?"

"'I love you Mari!'" I said quickly as if I knew what he'd ask. But I didn't. I just couldn't get them out of my head. The entire conversation kept playing out as I'd held her in my arms.

"I love you too," I almost punched Willis for saying it again before I realized that it wasn't him that had said anything at all. "There. I said it." I turned suddenly and found myself staring at Marshal standing dramatically in the wind, his hair. Why was it that he always came equipped with a dramatic entrance.

"Oh this should be good." Willis said, rolling his eyes.

"Shut it." Marshal snapped. "You are more than unwelcome here." Marshal was moving forward now using the same tactic he'd used a thousand times on everyone he'd ever bullied, standing tall, his muscular chest pushed out and his arms tight to make them look bigger. "You live in New York. Get back there and let me and my future bride be together. Just accept it. You've lost."

"Marshal, you live in New York too." Willis said, rolling his eyes.

"I moved here."

My stomach fell at his words. I didn't have enough energy left in me to put up with Marshal.

"Me too." Willis said, stepping forward, between Marshal and I. Marshal glared at Willis and then turned to me, his expression lightening.

"Rebecca, you've done some wrong in your past," He said, "But I forgive you. So please. Just... leave Willis out of this so we can finally be happy."

"Marshal—" Willis tried, but Marshal acted quickly, using the back of his hand and smacking Willis across the face and causing him to fall to the pavement.

I reacted with anger immediately, swinging my fist toward him, but he swatted it aside easily. All the better. Rosemon wouldn't have wanted me to resort to violence. "'Lil Willy needs to know when to shut up." Marshal snapped, "And Rebecca needs to know where her place is. As a woman you are weak. You are beneath me. You obey me. You will marry me because I know how to handle you. And because my life doesn't involve all those deadly creatures like that crazy spider thing. Willy's got two of them. You had one too, but now you're free from her. Free to be with me. I can fill her place."

"Mari—" Willis warned. He knew was I was going to do before I did myself. But there was no stopping me. I wanted to punch someone, and Marshal popped up. Call it destiny.

I swung my fist as fast and hard as I could toward his face, striking him in the jaw. He gasped and fell back a couple steps, but I wasn't done. I fell to the ground and swung my foot at the back of his knee causing him to fall over, and then I was back on my feet. I turned to walk away, but he had grabbed at my feet and I fell too. Willis was pulling himself to his feet, but both Marshal and I were faster, and I turned to punch him again, but he hit me first.

His open hand struck my face.

Before I could respond once more, Willis had punched Marshal harder than I ever could—harder than I would have thought that Willis could himself.

Marshall fell back and landed on his butt on the hard concrete sidewalk as I rubbed my arms which had caught my own fall only moments prior.

Marshall looked up, angrily and used a streetlight to pull himself to his feet. "So you wanna play that game, do you?"

"What_ game_?" I asked loudly. "Marshall you're very good at this game that neither of us are even playing. You're a jerk. A bully and to be totally honest, you're a total ass. You need therapy or something. Acupuncture therapy. With swords. In your _face—_"

"I think what Mari is trying to say," Willis said, "Is that you bullied us and used us for _far_ too long and we've let you. But here's the thing. I'm stronger than you. Maybe not physically, but I did throw a pretty good punch there."Marshall grumbled something as he wiped his face where blood was pouring from an open wound on his cheek where Willis had hit him. "But mentally I've always been stronger. Spiritually, and emotionally I've always been stronger, and so has Mari—but to add to that, from what I just saw she's also physically stronger than you. You've been causing mayhem for too long Marshall, so you're going to get up and walk away."

"I don't think so." Marshall objected.

"But I do." Willis said, stepping forward, "And what I say goes in this case. Because if I ever see your face again, I'll send both of my giant digimon to squash Lil' Marshy in his sleep."

"You wouldn't—"

"Try me." Willis was being far more bold and strong than I'd ever seen him be, and I was honestly just very impressed, but it didn't change anything.

Marshall turned and stormed away without another word, and I could only hope that I truly wouldn't ever see him again...

I found that I was shaking in fear as I stared at him, finally leaving me, and Willis took my hand. "Mari," he said calmly, "Tenacity means you stand up for yourself. But it doesn't mean you have to do it alone." As I turned my head to look at him I saw that the fog surrounding my mind was clearing.

"I just want to go home." I said, my voice shaking.

"No, we can't." Willis said, shaking his head, "I have something to show you first."

He set off at a run, our hands still intertwined, and I looked over my shoulder to Marshal whose eyes were fluttering open.

Willis led me to the end of the street and through the town hall parking lot, and then straight into some trees. I wasn't sure where we were going, but he seemed to have an exact place in mind because he kept stopping and holding his chin, thinking and examining trees with a soft 'aha!' every now and then.

Finally though he turned to me smiled. "Close your eyes." He said.

"Willis..." I groaned.

"Just do it." He pleaded. I obliged and closed my eyes. "Alright, mind your step," He said as he guided me. I felt the hard dirt covered ground change under my feet. I knew there was grass where we were, and I felt the sun on my face—we were in a clearing in the trees... "Ready?" He asked and I nodded, shrugging my shoulders, "Okay, open your eyes."

As I opened my eyes I couldn't help but gasp. I was right, we were in a clearing in the trees where grass was growing all over. There was a stone path that led through the middle—but most importantly we were surrounded by hundreds of flowers. All sorts of different kinds of flowers, and different colours were bathing in the sunlight, reflecting it back up so each one was glowing softly in their own colour creating a rainbow. It looked and felt exactly like magic.

"You made this?" I asked, finally cracking a smile as I turned to Willis.

"No." He said, pointing to the end of the stone path where there was a large round stone. I looked to Willis, confused but he didn't say anything, just continued pointing, so I walked down the path slowly feeling more and more free with every step I took, further into the garden.

Finally I was close enough to the stone to read it, and my heart practically stopped. I fell to my knees and ran my hands over the words engraved along it. "I love you Mari" I read slowly, "A garden of flowers. One flower for every time you said that you loved me." My eyes were watering immediately, my hand flying to my chest. I couldn't breathe. I looked back to Willis. "Lalamon?" I asked.

"Yeah." I turned back to the stone to see Lopmon poking her head out. "Sorry," She said, "Did I scare you? You said Lalamon went off and did her own things sometimes. So I asked her what it was, and she told me."

"It's really beautiful." Terriermon said quietly, stepping out to stand with his sister.

I nodded to them and stood up, turning to face Willis. I tried to speak, but no sound would come out. I was choking on my tears, and I couldn't even tell which emotion they were being caused by.

"We're here for Lalamon's funeral." Willis said quietly. "Because she deserved one." I was biting my lip now, using all of my energy to force the tears to not fall.

"And it won't be another quiet funeral." I turned to see who else had joined us and found Michael stepping out from behind a tree. "Because I know how you were scared of your and Lalamon's funeral being alone."

Suddenly there were people and digimon all around me, stepping out from the trees. Hikari and Takeru—and Koushiro and Gomamon—and Kiyoko and Neo and Rei—everyone.

"But you never had to worry about that." Kiyoko said softly, "Because we would all drop anything to be there for you Mari."

"You're not alone." Hideto added.

I didn't know where to look. Everyone was smiling comfortingly to me and I was still just trying really hard not to cry. I found myself turning sharply on my heels and hugging Willis, the tears practically exploding as I sobbed into his shoulder, our arms wrapped around each other.

He kissed my forehead and I pulled from the hug, kissing him on the cheek before walking back to Lalamon's stone. This was her funeral? A time to say goodbye. A time where everyone would pay their respects because she was the most important flower to ever walk into my life. And one of only two who ever had. I fell to my knees again and read the stone once more as everyone watched me. All my friends. I wasn't alone.

"I love you too Lalamon..." I said quietly as the fog from my mind cleared away.

_**Koushiro Izumi:**_

It was a wonder, at times like these, that anyone questioned my desire to be immersed in the escape my laptop could provide. Unfortunately, it was broken. The Damn thing overheated, and I wasn't sure it was salvageable. It was a shame, but I wasn't nearly as devastated this time as I was when I watched my first laptop fall from the cliff top. Granted, I saved Mimi instead, and I still stood by that decision, but I did miss it.

I would've even taken the piece of junk that was my new laptop over the lingering silence. I was seated in my desk chair in my bedroom, swinging from side to side; the soft squeaking of the chair was the only sound that filled the air. I would need to oil the chair later, or perhaps exchange it with the desk chair in the living room. There were two desks in our house, and this was the one I used when I needed to get some serious work done, as it wasn't nearly as noisy in the bedroom as it was in the living room, where everyone gathered together more often than not.

Tapirmon was fluttering in the air, looking between his partner and myself. I sighed and began tapping my foot. He still hadn't told me why he bothered to come to me, rather than my mother. He seemed far fonder of her than me. He was sprawled out on mine and Mimi's bed, staring up at the ceiling with a forced blank expression. His chest rose and fell slowly.

"Stop looking at me," he muttered.

"Kiyoko," Tapirmon scolded.

"It's bugging me!" he complained, rolling over onto his side so he could face Tapirmon and me. "I don't mean it in a mean way."

"You're simply saying what is on your mind," I said. "I completely understand. I act in quite a similar way most times. Mimi has tried to cure me of such behaviour, but I find myself compelled to share my opinions and thought processes."

"At least you have a choice," he grumbled.

"Why don't you talk to him, Kiyoko? He might be able to help," Tapirmon offered. I was instantly intrigued. Kiyoko was quite an intelligent individual. He was able to create an entirely different world in a small pocket of space with his computer alone. While I was sure a portion of that intelligence—as was the case with Ken—had been given to him directly through his connection with Sigma, but the fact remained that he was able to use his strategy and intelligence to assist with battles after he managed to cast the evil presence out. He even used it against the original source when he created the strategy used to defeat Sigma once and for all.

"It's not something he'd be interested in," Kiyoko dismissed.

"You're wrong on that front. You have piqued my interest," I told him.

"It's about my love life, more specifically my lack thereof," Kiyoko warned me.

Oh.

I wasn't sure I was quite as interested anymore. This was definitely not my area of expertise. I wondered briefly if I shouldn't go get Sora to help him.

"It's Hideto," he said sounding miserable.

"What exactly is it about him?" I said slowly, calculating my chances of getting out of this conversation. I had to admit, they weren't good.

"Everything," he said. "He's great. He's charming, and he has an uncontrollable desire to help others with their problems. He never admits to his own though, he just covers them up, but I can see them, and I want to help him with it. But he won't let me."

"I see…" I told him. But I didn't. I had no idea what he was going on about. How exactly did Hideto fit into his love life issues?

"I took his advice, you know, and I told him how I felt, because he said that's what you do, and…nothing…" he complained.

"So…you _like_ Hideto?" I guessed.

"I thought you knew…" Kiyoko murmured embarrassed.

"I do now," I told him. I wasn't too bothered by the surprise news. Sora and Mimi both told me—quite often really—that I was horrible at noticing "matters of the heart" whatever that meant.

"I don't think it would've been this bad if he just _told_ me he didn't like me the same way," Kiyoko complained. "But he hasn't. He hasn't been alone with me since I told him, except for one time, and that was the most awkward moment of my life."

"It's the lack of knowledge that's bothering you," I assumed.

"It's the stupid glimmer of hope that keeps rearing its stupid head that's getting to me. If he'd just crush my dreams, I could get over it with enough time. But he won't. He won't even sit in the same room as me anymore, and he keeps calling me Kid. Is he just trying to let me down easy without making a big production out of it?"

"I don't know…" I told him. I didn't like not knowing, but in this particular instance, I thought there would've been quite an awkward conversation involved while getting this particular information, and decided I didn't need to know _that_ badly. "Do you think it could be because you're a boy? I don't mean to say it's a bad thing that you're feeling this, or that Hideto thinks so, but do you think that might be the root of the problem?"

"No," Kiyoko groaned. "He doesn't seem to care whether it's a girl or a boy he's flirting with. He just gets obsessed with their hair. He doesn't flirt with you because your hair sucks."

"Thanks," I said dryly.

"He's got a thing for both Taichi and Willis," Kiyoko continued. "He keeps playing with their hair every chance he gets."

"And you don't think it's just the hair he's interested in?" I asked as gently as I could…which actually amounted to a fairly blunt statement.

"I don't know!" Kiyoko exclaimed.

"We've been going in circles like this for days," Tapirmon informed me. "He always works himself up over it. It's not pretty."

"Who has Hideto been interested in—that you know for certain—in the past?" I questioned, seriously considering fetching Mimi or Sora if Kiyoko didn't come to some sort of conclusion quickly.

"That's the problem," Kiyoko groaned. "He hasn't been with anybody. He flirts up a storm, with anybody and everybody he meets, but he doesn't actually date them. Not for more than one date anyway, if that. I don't know why. But it's not helping matters."

"I don't understand how Hideto thinks," I told him honestly. "Your best chance would be to actually talk to Hideto himself."

"He's avoiding me," Kiyoko said.

"You haven't tried to get him alone either though," Tapirmon reminded him.

"I don't want to know. I mean I do, but I also don't…" Kiyoko said sadly.

"You want a positive answer," I concluded. "But you won't get one. Not at all if you don't actively hunt for it. Hideto isn't going to come to you with his answer, so you'll have to go to him. And don't let him get out of it. It might be uncomfortable, and perhaps heartbreaking, but you'll _know_. And isn't that worth it?"

"Not really," Kiyoko grumbled, pulling himself into a seated position. "But I can see your point. There's no point moping if I don't know for sure that I have to."

"That wasn't exactly what my conclusion was implying—" I protested, but he got to his feet and murmured a reluctant thanks. He still didn't want to talk to him, but he would. I sighed as I watched him walk through the door. Being the older cousin was hard. I was only thankful that I wasn't an older brother, like Taichi or Yamato were. A brother was meant to supply far more advice than a cousin was. I was really fortunate in that aspect.

"He'll appreciate it more later… probably…" Tapirmon said by way of thanks before rushing out the door after his partner.

I heaved a sigh of relief. I now knew with complete certainty that I was not fit to be a councillor of any sort, and was looking forward with dread at the next encounter I'd have to face.

"Kiyoko sure left in a hurry," Satoe commented from the doorway. I nearly groaned. Why couldn't she just leave our house? She lived in New York, she ought to be there with her husband instead of sticking her nose into every second of her daughter's life. She and I got along better now, but I would've much preferred to have smaller doses of her company. "You didn't say anything to anger him, did you?"

"No. He's just on a mission, if he builds up the courage to do anything about it," I told her.

"Good," she said. "He's a nice kid. I don't want you or anybody else hurting him. He helped save me you know. He and your mother did. I wouldn't be here today, able to help make up for my behaviour if it hadn't been for them."

"You _could_ make up for it in New York. Mimi really enjoys phone calls. She talks to your husband all the time," I told her. It wasn't even a subtle hint, but she ignored it regardless. She stood there smiling and I could do nothing more than stare back at her, wondering when she would leave. She finally noticed when I started tapping my foot.

"I'll just watch a movie with Palmon and Minervamon, shall I?" she asked.

"They'd like that," I agreed, relaxing when I heard the door click shut. I wasn't prepared to have long conversations with her without Mimi present as well. There were too many uncomfortable lulls that I just could not fill with inane chatter like she could.

I fleetingly pondered contemplating Kiyoko's situation, but decided against it, turning toward the near empty notebook lying open on my desk. Typically I didn't have trouble pouring out long recounts of events, cataloguing the events as I remembered them, and following up my firsthand account with various bits of information I'd gathered from interviewing others. I preferred to have multiple views on events, as they weren't as simple as a solid fact. There was a lot that added up to the total event, and I needed to know what all added up to our victory. This time it wasn't even just a personal desire to see it before me. I needed to compose it for the Council meeting that was coming up.

But with the pitiful three jot notes looking up at me from the page, I knew I wouldn't be done on time. I'd never failed to complete a task like this in my life. But I couldn't concentrate. The rough feeling as the pencil scratched across the page was horrible, and the pen I had started out using left me with smears of ink both on my hand and across the words I'd written. I had never realized just how atrocious my handwriting truly was. I'd depended on my computer for so long that not having it in front of me was a handicap I couldn't afford to have at that moment. I couldn't bring myself to be ashamed of the fact though. I simply longed for my computer more than ever.

A distraction would be equally acceptable, however, though I didn't wish for Satoe to come back, or for more awkward attempts at dealing with another's love.

"Koushiro?" Mimi called from behind the closed door.

She was most definitely welcome.

"Come in," I told her, tossing the stupid pencil onto the desk and standing up. She opened the door, balancing a box carefully on one hip as she did so, before returning her second hand to hold the box firmly in front of her. I walked up to her immediately, leaning over the box and kissing her quickly on the mouth.

"What was that for?" she asked with a laugh.

"Thank you," I said. And I didn't even mean for the distraction either. "Thank you for helping us get passed that awkward stage we'd been in for so long of wanting to be together but not wanting to talk about it. I was on the other side of that today and I really feel sorry for the people that were around us."

She gave me a strange look, but shook her head, leaning in to kiss me quickly on the cheek. "You're welcome, I guess. Listen. I got you a present, and I really think you're going to like it."

She stuffed the box into my arms. I looked between the box and my girlfriend, raising an eyebrow, but when she glared at me I sat down with it on the bed and ripped the tape off the top. She packed the box with tissue paper, and a card fluttered down when I pulled it out.

_Koushiro,_

_Thank you for giving me a second chance. I thought you deserved one too, with something you loved almost more than me once upon a time._

_Love, Mimi._

I looked at her curiously, but she mimed sealing her lips and throwing away the key. I rolled my eyes but pulled a grey and yellow machine out of the box with an almost reverent sense of awe. "How?" I asked in amazement as I stroked the slick edges.

She pulled her key out of her pocket, put a finger to her lips and winked at me. I could hardly believe it. She'd gone back in time to catch my laptop after I'd chosen her life over it. "You look so sad without a laptop," she said shrugging as I tried to piece the idea together in my mind. She'd spent so much time hating this particular laptop, demanding that I pay attention to her instead, and she gave it back to me, the laptop that I used throughout all of my childhood, the laptop that Gennai altered for digivice compatibility. "I know there'll probably be about a million updates that need to be done, but I caught it _before_ it hit the ground, so it should still work."

I forced myself to place the laptop down carefully, before pulling her into my arms and kissing her soundly. She laughed against my lips, and threw her arms around my neck.

"Koushiro!" Tentomon called frantically, flying through the open door and interrupting our moment.

"What?" I asked resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn't be getting a moment's peace any time soon.

"Satoe is getting unbearable. I was sitting there peacefully, watching a delightful and very informative television program about the life cycle of a tree frog when she announced that she and the others were going to watch a movie. Thinking perhaps that she would be watching a documentary, I allowed her to turn off my program, but it wasn't something interesting at all! She wanted to watch a romance movie. It wasn't even comedic to detract from the romantic scenes. It was tragic. I can't stand it," Tentomon complained.

"I'll talk to her," Mimi said, rolling her eyes. She knew how worked up Tentomon got about his nature shows. He was just as interested in learning about the creatures that inhabited Earth as I was about the various digimon indigenous to his own home. Satoe was his exact opposite. She couldn't stand anything that wasn't scripted, and held romantic films in high regards. Though she preferred the story telling of the Broadway Musical best, it wasn't as readily accessible.

I watched with a sigh as Mimi left the room to deal with her mother.

"I was interrupting, wasn't I?" Tentomon asked.

"Yes," I said, because complete honesty was a policy we stood by. "But it's fine. I really should've been working on my report anyway."

"Anything I can assist with?" he queried.

"You did have an aerial view on the attack in Odaiba…" I murmured.

"Shall I start at the beginning?" he asked. I held up a finger, telling him to wait a minute, and booted up my trusty old laptop, no older than it was the day I lost it, grinning like a fool when I caught sight of the desktop background. A picture of Tentomon and myself back in 2006, when Gennai informed us we'd never see each other again. We'd come so far since even just then. I shook the thought away and pulled up a word document.

"Okay," I told him. "Now don't leave anything out."

"Precise details," Tentomon promised, and he started his version of the tale, and I revelled in the feeling of my fingers flying across the keys, documenting every single word he said, just to be safe.

_**Taichi Yagami:**_

"This is nice," Rei commented, leaning against me, curled up in my arms on the couch in my living room. And she was right. It was relaxing. I didn't need to constantly worry about another Death Knight or a Deadly Sin digimon coming my way. I could simply sit back and revel in the presence of my girlfriend, who was a very understanding individual, and completely agreed with my need to run off to save the Digital World at a moment's notice. Not many girls could be said to do the same. Not that it mattered so much anymore. Peace was finally back, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I was getting into the swing of things with my job at the council and with the government, who continued to contact me, even though I often times forgot that _they_ were the ones that hired me. They had a lot planned for me now that Earth was fully aware of the Digital World's existence, thanks to both the fighting we did to protect them and Katsue's announcement of her upcoming documentary. It was time for me to actively be an ambassador, rather than just holding the title. I was now officially the representative on Earth for all of digimon-kind. It was scary when I thought about it, but sounded like another adventure—hopefully with fewer attempts on my life this time!—and made me really appreciate my days off far more than ever before as well, now that I had two very _full_time jobs to deal with.

"I'm going to get you," Pal yelled. "I really am!"

"No!" Pul countered. "'Cause I'm gonna get him first!"

The two, round devil digimon were chasing Agumon around the house, laughing as they did so. Agumon seemed to be enjoying himself, letting the relaxing atmosphere sink into himself as well. He was in very high demand these days too, as a council member and the trainer of the Knights. The Knights had chosen a leader in Alphamon, but Alphamon looked to Agumon with reverence whenever he was in his Super Ultimate form, VictoryGreymon. He practically worshiped him—which of course only led to Agumon trying even harder during practices to keep up with his Knights.

"Catch me if you can!" he shouted back to the two little devils playfully. I was glad to see the pressure wasn't getting to him though. He was still the same fun loving guy I met when I was younger, he was just more powerful.

I liked to think I'd matured since then though, however little it may be.

"I remember when you seemed to be afraid of girls," Rei teased. My mind flashed to the Demon Sora I'd faced in Apocolymon's induced nightmare and shivered. Of course I'd been afraid of girls after that, though it was mostly due to my deplorable treatment of Hikari that I'd stayed away for so long. "Now look at you."

"Happily in love," I told her proudly, squeezing her tightly.

"Love?" she asked with a smile. I nodded and kissed her cheek, only for Pal and Pul to attack my head.

"Stop that," the she-devil cried.

"That's gross!" her brother agreed.

"Go and play," Rei told them laughing, before she snuggled up even closer to me. They pouted, but Agumon snuck up on them and tagged them, before running off once more. They took to the challenge and rushed after him. "I love you too, Taichi," Rei murmured.

"That's a relief," I joked.

"Thank you," she said suddenly serious. I was worried for what would come next. "You're so wonderful and patient with me. You make me feel like I'm worth your time and love, even though I sometimes doubt it."

"Never doubt it," I told her gently. "You're something special, Rei. I knew we'd be close the day I met you. There was just something about you that drew me in. Of course I never imagined coming this far, but now that I'm here…I couldn't imagine it any other way."

"Now you're just sucking up," she laughed. "But I mean it. Thank you, Taichi."

She kissed my cheek this time, and I waited for Pal or Pul to come in and chastise her as well, but they didn't seem too bothered. I actually heard them screaming with laughter as they dived down from the air to catch Agumon. I took advantage of their distraction and planted a proper kiss on Rei. It didn't last nearly as long as I would've liked however, as my watch started beeping.

"Damn," I sighed as I pulled away from her. "Duty calls."

"I'll still be here when you get back," Rei promised. "If you're lucky, I might even hang some decorations on your walls, or cook a little dinner."

"I'll cross my fingers," I told her with a wink, before hunting Agumon down. We had a council meeting to attend to, and we really ought to check in on the Knights after it finished. Agumon and I walked at a brisk pace through the trees for awhile after leaving my house. He seemed to want to continue relaxing, and to be honest, I did as well, so we weren't rushing like we might have on a different day.

"I wonder what we'll discuss today," Agumon commented as he watched some fluffy, white clouds shift in the bright blue sky to block out the shining sun. The trees cast shade upon us, and the stray twigs snapped beneath our feet as we trudged along the earth. Wind breezed through my cropped hair, and I could hear the trickle of a nearby stream. It was good to have the Digital World back to its proper glory.

"I'm not sure yet," I told him honestly. "But I'm sure Sora's got an idea. She eavesdrops enough."

"She doesn't seem very happy," Agumon said.

"She died, and then came back. She was thrust into a world that she couldn't make sense of, even if only one day had passed between the time of her "death" and the battle. Her parents are really clingy at the moment, not that it matters, because she quit her job ages ago in order to apply to that school she didn't get accepted into," I told him. "She's upset because everyone else seems to be follow their plans for the future, and she doesn't even know where to start rewriting hers."

"She's got a lot of friends," Agumon said. "She really should ask for help."

"Some things are just meant to be dealt with alone," I informed him. "This is her decision to make, and anything anyone else suggested would just make her feel pressured to follow their instructions, and she wouldn't be happy in the end."

"Maybe she could just live like in the Digital World," Agumon suggested. "There sure are a lot of digimon that would be willing to hire the digidestined of love. She helped save our world so many times."

"Maybe," I allowed. "But I don't think that's what Sora's going to pick. I don't know what it'll be, but I really think she'll go out and make a name for herself on Earth."

"Hey Taichi?" Agumon said brightly.

"Yeah buddy?" I asked. He reached over and hit my elbow with his large, clawed hand.

"You're it!" he called giddily as he raced ahead of me. I laughed and followed after him. The whole way to the Temple we played one continuous game of tag. I was "it" once again when we made it to the main gate, which was being repaired as we arrived. Leomon had been in charge of gathering digimon to help work on it, and it was going along swimmingly. Leomon himself wasn't present at the moment, as he was no doubt preparing for the meeting in the council chambers, but it was nice to see he was prompt with his duties. I ran into Yamato near the bottom of the stairs leading up to the hall where the council met. He was patting Gabumon on the shoulder.

"Hey Yamato," I called, a little out of breath from all the playing Agumon and I had been doing on our journey. "Long time no see."

"It's been awhile, hasn't it," he agreed. "It's not the same, without you living with me. It's really quite actually. Katsue moved out of course, and Gabumon here isn't much of a talker."

"I thought you said silence was golden," I joked.

"Sometimes," he said nodding. "But it's kind of depressing right now, after all the excitement and cleanup. It's just so empty."

"Maybe your next tour will liven things up," I said. "When is that anyway?"

"After I write some songs for a new album," Yamato said dryly. "A job I haven't been paying much mind to. I think I've got half of one song worked into something somewhat decent, but the rest are horrible. I wrote most of them when sloth was first getting to me. They're really boring songs."

"Get your band together for some all night jam sessions then," I suggested. "Those always gave you inspiration before."

"I might just do that," Yamato agreed. "Thanks."

"What are best friends for?" I asked with a laugh. "Sorry to just rush off, but they're probably waiting up there for us."

"Right," Yamato said. "See you later Gabumon. I'm going to walk around for a bit. Maybe the renewed beauty around me will be enough to spark a song. There's a lot of material to work with."

Gabumon called goodbye to his partner and we trekked up the stairs, waving to Sora as we walked passed her—sitting primly with a newspaper and a pencil in hand on her bench—into the chamber.

"There they are," Benjamin called happily. "Our leaders to victory."

"Stop, you're embarrassing me," I joked.

"I meant Agumon and Gabumon…" Benjamin said awkwardly.

"Oh," I said just as awkwardly.

"I'm only kidding Taichi," Benjamin laughed. "You helped too. From what I hear you attacked the big boss with your bare hands. That's awfully brave."

"It was, wasn't it?" Agumon agreed, nodding his head quickly.

"Shouldn't we be talking about our business?" I asked, my face flushed with the praise. "A lot's happened lately. The time line syncing up again being a major news factor."

"Neverland is flourishing once again as well," Tinkermon said merrily.

"The water dwelling digimon are beyond pleased by the turn of events," Divermon added.

"The sun has allowed for the plant digimon to thrive once more, and for that I must thank you," Babamon told me.

"It wasn't just us guys. Koushiro and Sora and all the others helped too," I pointed out. Koushiro looked down at an oddly familiar laptop, trying to hide his blush and I had to laugh.

"There was not a lot of damage caused to the Digital World, thankfully, that hadn't already been dealt by the Death Knights," Centaurumon commented.

"Restoration attempts have begun already," Leomon added.

"From what I gather," Benjamin said. "Digitamamon's restaurant—the one you were so adamant be saved—has started building anew as well. They'll be open for business in just two weeks."

"Excellent," I said with a grin. Marrow had managed to get it torn down, but thankfully, Digitamamon bounced back in order to rebuild so quickly. I was getting sick of my own dismal cooking skills. I learned from my mother mostly, so I didn't know too many decent recipes.

"The factory is up and running again," Andromon informed us. "Though it isn't dismantling its products properly quite yet."

"The insect digimon are helping with the rebuilding process, and now that they are not at war with one another, it's proving to be quite a useful asset," MetalifeKuwagamon offered.

"I am working with Benjamin's men, Ilya and Jackie to locate and ascertain the safety of many powerful objects and pieces of information within the Temple walls," D'Arcmon told us. "So far, nothing appears to be missing."

"Good thinking," Koushiro said. "It wouldn't do for us to allow something like that to slip past our notice. Fanglongmon did it once before, and the Shadow King as well. I don't like the idea that something else could do it as well."

"I do not think there will be any more battles for you to fight," D'Arcmon said sounding confused.

"Just the same, I'd like to be on the safe side," Koushiro said seriously. "Just because something is not prophesized, doesn't mean it won't happen. Not _everything_ can be foretold in a prophecy, surely."

"Most everything is," Benjamin said with a shrug. "Everything major in any case."

"How interesting," Koushiro muttered, rolling the information around in his head.

"Devimon has already made his first attempt at conquering the world while it heals after this latest attack," Ogremon announced.

"Really?" Benjamin asked sounding shocked. "It seems soon, even for him."

"I thought everything was prophesized?" I asked.

"Just _major_ events," Benjamin laughed. "Devimon attacks so regularly, and fails so spectacularly every time, that it isn't worth a prophecy."

"He did go down rather quickly," Ogremon confirmed. "Your team of Knights attacked him in an instant, he's in our dungeons right now for "questioning". I think the team of newly formed Knights just enjoy flaunting their victory."

"I'll talk with them," Agumon and Gabumon offered simultaneously, before laughing. The Knights deserved to celebrate, and maybe this would get it into Devimon's head that he just was not meant for ruling the Digital World. Though I didn't want him to succeed in any way, I couldn't help but wonder why he didn't first set his sights smaller and slowly build himself to power as Myotismon had done.

"Should we work on picking Marrow's replacement, Taichi?" Gabumon suggested.

"Right," I said, heaving a sigh. "We won't worry about Erif, as he never participated anyway, and was only present because Marrow demanded he be here. Marrow actually filled a position, so I guess we'll have to fill it, though I must say we work quite well without it."

"Taichi," Koushiro warned, and I sighed again. I really wasn't looking forward to easing another member into the council. D'Arcmon's transition wasn't _too_ bad, but it still felt weird to have her there.

"I had another thought, yesterday," I said by way of distraction.

"That's dangerous," Agumon joked with a snicker. I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't help but smile at the joke.

"We ought to develop a legitimate research facility to help detect and circumvent future problems," I told the council. "Daisuke informed me that there is a secret room in the basement of this very building, and from what he told me, I feel it would be quite suitable for such a group."

"Research?" Koushiro said, perking up immediately, ceasing his typing of the minutes of the meeting.

"I was actually hoping you might spearhead the venture," I told him. "You'll need to put together a team, but I'm sure you've got plans already."

"Professor Haruhiko Takenouchi would be an excellent start point," Koushiro said sheepishly. "And Jou's brother, Shuu Kido. He studied under Professor Takenouchi for years, and I've had many brilliant conversations with the both of them. I don't know who else would be suitable. Perhaps Tatum, though I feel she might have other desires for her future. I would like at least one of Gennai's people to be present as well. Tentomon would love to participate I'm sure…"

He continued to murmur to himself, brainstorming all of the possibilities. Benjamin, Andromon and Centarumon leaned over to make suggestions, and even Tinkermon offered a few of Neverland's digimon's names. Babamon looked a little put out that Koushiro hadn't immediately thought to invite her into the fold, as she _was _one of the "oldest and wisest digimon around these days" and had been around from the very beginning of the Digital World.

"I think…" Gabumon said slowly. "We really should do something about the keys that the digidestined have in their possessions. They aren't going to be needed any more, and even if they are, we could just get them out of wherever we'd stored them."

"We use Sora's and my keys all the time," Koushiro objected, having just caught the conversation.

"No you don't," Agumon said. "You just leave the doors open."

Koushiro looked affronted this time, and didn't appear to have put much stock in Agumon's intelligence. I felt a burst of pride for my partner as Koushiro spluttered like a fish. "Iori uses his a lot as well. He calls the Summer Queen his aunt after all."

"That's true," I allowed.

"He could just leave the door open too," Agumon guessed.

"Or he could just borrow it whenever it was really needed. The Queens can travel between worlds without them though, so it shouldn't matter too terribly much. If she was really desperate to see him, she could just come to him, rather than the other way around," Gabumon suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Benjamin agreed. MetalifeKuwagamon and Ogremon nodded in agreement.

"I don't like the thought that the keys could be taken away from you digidestined at a moment's notice," Leomon said. "It is best if they were locked away here, with the digimentals."

"Or down in the secret lab," Babamon said still bitter about not being included.

"There," I said. "Problem solved. Now, if anyone has anything else they'd like to—"

D'Arcmon cleared her throat and gave me a knowing look. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"I don't think so," I lied.

"Marrow's replacement," she said patiently.

"Fine," I grumbled. "Does anyone have any suggestions for his replacement?"

"Are there any characteristics that must be met?" Divermon wanted to know. "Should we find a specific type of digimon?"

"Not evil," I instructed. "Further than that, I don't really care. We thought Marrow was one of Gennai's men when he was hired, so we could always go that route again, but the new guy would look so much like Benjamin that we might have a tough time keeping them separate…"

There was a faint noise from outside the chamber. It was almost as if someone had dropped a pen, leaving it to hit the ground and roll down the hallway.

"Sora," I said suddenly. "Sora could do it. She wants to, and it would balance out the male to female ratio in here."

"Digimon have no gender," MetalifeKuwagamon insisted. I looked to Ogremon and Leomon, both clearly male, as their bare chests seemed to tell me. I turned my gaze to Tinkermon and D'Arcmon, who were both definitely female.

"Right," I said sarcastically. He didn't notice.

"I'll go fetch her," Babamon said. "Maybe _she_ will get an invitation."

Babamon hopped down from her chair and slowly made her way to the doorway. When she pulled it open, Sora came tumbling in, looking both anxious and embarrassed.

"I suppose you've heard then?" Babamon asked.

"I heard," Sora said. She didn't look nearly as pleased by this news as I thought she would've been. She'd only been begging to be let in on the council since it was formed. Why would she be having second thoughts now?

"Great," I said with forced cheerfulness. "So you'll do it?"

"I…" she hesitated. "I'll think about it. It's a big decision, Taichi."

"I guess that works," I said. But I wasn't even trying to be cheerful this time. I had noticed she wasn't very happy. It was obvious enough that Agumon—who spent next to no time with her on average—was able to tell. I just hadn't realized that it was bad enough that when she was offered something she'd wanted forever, that she would hesitate so long. I was left with so much doubt that my mind was trying to sift through digimon and humans alike that could replace Marrow, since I was fairly certain Sora didn't really want to. Maybe it was something she'd gotten over and just asked to join out of habit. Drat. I was really hoping that would be over and dealt with.

"Any further questions, suggestions or concerns?" I asked. The council seemed to be content, as they shook their heads and continued chattering to one another. I took another look over at Sora, who was now seated with Koushiro, commenting on his new—or old—computer with a forced smile.

"I guess we're free then," Agumon said. "That didn't take too long."

"Not nearly as long as I thought," I said, though I knew the issue of Marrow's replacement was far from dealt with, and so wasn't looking forward to the next meeting already.

"Let's go see the Knights," Agumon suggested. "I want to see how well they're treating Devimon. He's evil, but they shouldn't be doing anything terrible to him."

"You're right," I agreed. "Afterwards maybe we could try and get into that room Daisuke mentioned?"

"Sounds fun," Agumon said. "Then we'll go back to Rei. I hope she made supper. You're not a very interesting cook."

"I play it safe," I defended myself.

"You're boring," Agumon corrected, laughing.

"I'll get you for that," I growled playfully.

"You're still "it"," he reminded me gleefully as he ran out the door toward the staircase that would lead us down to the room the Knights had deemed to be the dungeon. I laughed and chased after him, determined to win the game.

_**Ken Ichijouji:**_

It was far more awkward than I expected. I shouldn't have trusted Miyako's reassurances. _"It won't be awkward at all_," she said. Well, she was wrong. And I couldn't even understand why it was happening. Miyako and I ought to be spending time in the sheer bliss that we fell into after realizing that we wanted to start a family. But we weren't. We were sitting in my parents' living room waiting for the ticking time bomb to explode. I was at least. Miyako didn't seem to notice the tension in the air.

Coronamon was playing with Hawkmon and Monmon, trying to teach them the rules to Monopoly, and Hawkmon was too polite to tell him he already knew them. Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were chasing little Masa around the room, and he was squealing with delight. Wormmon and Bearmon were watching them from their place on the couch where they were relaxing. Momoe was trying to convince Emiko that she really _did_ want to eat her peas, while Jou talked with my father about his plans for his digital medical facility. Chiziru, Mantarou and my mother were all standing near the kitchen table talking animatedly with my wife.

The only people present that seemed to notice the awkwardness in the air were my in-laws. Mrs Inoue was growing more and more exasperated watching Masa be chased around by what she deemed as monsters. Mr Inoue was slowly getting ready to snap. I could see that he was disappointed with his children and the choices that they had made. He was especially annoyed that we were all there together in the first place. I understood him completely. I didn't want to be there anymore than he did. It was one thing to spend time with one of our families at a time, it was another entirely to try and force them to co-exist.

I watched Mr Inoue slowly rise to his feet, and suddenly all the noise in my childhood home vanished. Even the clocks seemed to hush up.

"Don't," Miyako whispered. Her soft voice carried throughout the entire room.

"Don't what?" Mr Inoue asked testily.

"Don't ruin this happy occasion," Miyako told him.

"Is that what we're calling this?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Momoe said firmly, looking away from her protesting daughter. There were more peas on the floor than there were that had made it to Emiko's mouth.

"My children are out of control!" Mr Inoue shouted.

"That's your problem Dad," Mantarou snapped. "You expect us to be within your control, yet you raised us to stand on our own and make decisions that best benefit us. You're a hypocrite."

"I am not," Mr Inoue growled defensively.

"You think I don't know that I should have waited?" Chiziru said. "I do know that. But I look at Masa and I see that he's the best thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life. I can't imagine my life without him. You love him too, don't you?"

"Yes," Mrs Inoue said quickly, interrupting whatever her husband might've wanted to say.

"Then you can't think he's a mistake. Just look at him. He's my special surprise," Chiziru said. "And nothing you or Mom ever say will make me change my mind about him."

"I wouldn't ask you to," Mrs Inoue told her.

"But you asked me the very same thing," Momoe said sounding a little put out. "You wanted me to put my daughter up for _adoption_." She whispered the word so that Emiko wouldn't hear it, not that she was paying any attention. She had discovered a new game, and was pelting Gomamon with as many peas as she possibly could. Gomamon, in retaliation had simply started to catch them in his mouth, causing her to giggle unrestrainedly.

"You were too young," Mrs Inoue said.

"Not much younger than I was," Chiziru said. "And she at least had a guy willing to stick around to help her. She married the guy Mom. She was far better prepared than I was."

"She was off gallivanting around the world," Mr Inoue growled.

"But I came home. I made a home," Momoe said. "With Jou and my baby girl. Bearmon and Gomamon are a part of our family now. I know you don't like them Mom, but they aren't going anywhere. You'll just have to get used to them."

"I can't," Mrs Inoue said sadly, staring the digimon with fear.

"You'll _have_ to," Miyako snapped. "Because Hawkmon and Wormmon aren't going anywhere either. And they come first. Them and any children Ken and I might have in the future"—I got a little distracted by the mention of possible children—"you have to understand that. Hawkmon is so interwoven into my life that I can't tell where I end and he begins. We are _that_ in sync. You don't understand, because you haven't found your digimon partner yet."

"And I hope I never do," Mrs Inoue said fiercely. "I could never have one of them in my home."

"Newsflash Mom," Mantarou said, rolling his eyes. "Hawkmon practically lived with us for years. Miyako thought she was so clever with hiding him, but I knew he was there. There are only so many times I could believe her when she said it was a toy. Toys talk, but they only have a few, limited phrases. Hawkmon kept changing his up. I knew he wasn't stuffed."

Mr and Mrs Inoue seemed positively outraged at this development. I had to snicker though, at Miyako's face. Clearly she _had_ thought she was very clever when she was younger.

"And don't think I don't know you complain about me too, just because you don't do it to my face," Mantarou continued. "You rant about how Miyako was too young to marry, how Momoe did everything backwards, and how Chiziru put herself in a horrible position for her future. You frown on all of their relationships, yet you complain because I don't bring girls home for you to meet. Of course I don't! Do you even listen to yourselves? I dated a girl for _three years_, and I really thought hard about bringing her home. But in the end I couldn't bring her into your line of fire. She dumped me, because she thought I was ashamed of her, but really, I just wanted to save her from you."

"Mantarou," Mrs Inoue gasped scandalized.

I just tried to sink out of existence. This was what I had expected. When mixing things that ought not be mixed, explosions of this magnitude were guaranteed.

"Now now," Mom called over the noise. "You don't want to scare the children."

But no one seemed to hear her.

"You should've brought her home," Mr Inoue said firmly. "I would've accepted her. You couldn't have disappointed me."

"Not as much as the girls did, huh?" Mantarou said angrily.

"You wouldn't have brought home a nobody or a wannabe doctor with no ways to supporting my daughters. She wouldn't have left you pregnant and abandoned you," Mr Inoue told him.

"But I'm a nobody, and I didn't have a way to support her. You're so proud of me that you'll look past my faults, but her father would've seen in me what you see in Ken and Jou. No matter how great these guys are, you only see their faults," Mantarou said.

"No man will ever be good enough for my daughters!" Mr Inoue shouted. Emiko turned to him with wide eyes and Masa stopped running, causing Pumkinmon and Gotsumon to crash into him, knocking him over. They hurriedly pulled him to his feet.

"I agree with you," I found myself saying. "No one is good enough for Miyako, least of all me. I've done some pretty rotten things in my past, but I over came every one with her help. She seems to think I'm worth it, though I don't see why."

"You _are_ worth it, Ken," Miyako said, sending a happy smile my way. "You're everything I've ever wanted, and I'm less than pleased to say that it's _me_ that isn't good enough. Not you. You've come so far since I met you. And you keep amazing me every day."

"And don't you say you're not good enough for me, Jou Kido," Momoe warned. Jou closed his mouth sheepishly. "I'm the flighty one. I'm the one that was scared and wanted to run away. You are the strongest man I've ever met, and the most romantic too, proposing to me like that in the heat of the battle."

"I couldn't die without knowing you were at my side," Jou said embarrassed.

"And we fought side by side through our vows," Momoe reminisced. I clearly missed something, though I was sure Miyako would fill me in if I asked. She seemed to be bubbling over with excitement at the reminder.

"I know that Masa's father wasn't good enough for me. He proved it when he left," Chiziru said, shrugging her shoulders. "But there's no point dwelling in the past when we've all got bright futures ahead of us."

"Wiser words were never spoken," Dad praised her. She positively beamed. She'd probably never heard such words of encouragement before.

"Give them a chance to prove themselves," Mantarou ordered his parents. "And in doing so, maybe you'll prove yourselves to be the loving parents we thought we knew when we were younger."

"Just Ken and Jou?" Mrs Inoue asked, sounding quite hopeful.

"And Hawkmon and Wormmon," Miyako said sharply. "And you can't forget Bearmon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, Monmon or Gomamon either."

"We're a family," Momoe said. "And it's about damn time we start acting like it."

"Damn time, damn, damn!" Emiko cheered.

"Momoe," Jou groaned.

"Don't say that sweetie," Momoe said quickly. "You'll get in trouble like mommy."

Emiko just giggled. It didn't sound to me like she was going to forget the word any time soon.

"What do you say Mom and Dad? Are you willing to give it a try?" Mantarou asked.

"I—I," Mrs Inoue stammered. "I will."

"If I must," Mr Inoue said, though his voice didn't have the same ferocity as it had before.

"That's wonderful!" Mom cheered. "I believe this would be the perfect time then, for me to bring out the cake I made to celebrate young Mr and Mrs Kido's recent nuptials."

"I'd love to stay for cake, really I would," I said, glancing at the clock. "But Michael's going to start wondering where I am soon. He made me swear I'd meet up with him today."

"Go ahead dear," Mom told me with a smile. "Michael's only in Japan for a short while. Go spend time with your friend. I'll keep a slice of cake for you."

"Do you need me to come with you?" Miyako asked.

"No," I said shaking my head. "You're family's just had a breakthrough. I don't think you should leave while you're ahead."

"You're such a goof," she said, walking over and kissing me swiftly, but purposefully on the lips. She was testing her father, and I didn't exactly approve, but her method of choice was enough for me to overlook it. That and the look on his face when he saw what she planned on doing. It was the brightest shade of red I'd ever seen as he struggled to maintain his anger. "I'll see you later."

"Bring my cake," I told her, kissing her cheek quickly, before excusing myself—and Wormmon—from the party. It wasn't until I made it out of the apartment building and felt the gentle breeze on my face that I was able to relax.

"I'm glad to have left," Wormmon said, sounding like he hated to have to admit it.

"Me too," I agreed. "I love Miyako and Mom and Dad, but I could've done without all the drama."

"It sounds as though you'll be having a few heart to hearts with your in-laws in the future," Wormmon noted.

"You had to point that out, didn't you," I said with a long, drawn out sigh.

"It's not as if I'm getting off free either though," Wormmon said. "Miyako just _had_ to force them to accept us digimon."

"You can just hit them with your Sticky Net if they start to annoy you," I said with a laugh.

"If I want them to hate me forever, sure," Wormmon said dryly.

We talked more on our way to the park that Michael had picked out. It was a bright and sunny day. It almost embodied the happy, hopeful outlook I had for the future. There hadn't been a single cloudy day since the final fight. I didn't expect the good weather to last forever—it would be foolish to even think that—but it sure was going to be nice while it lasted. The upbeat feeling I got from the sun really went a long way in helping me ignore all of the wary, frightened faces of the passersby as they caught sight of Wormmon scuttling alongside me.

"Ken!" Michael called happily, waving from a picnic table. It was next to a large tree, on the opposite side of the park from Jou and Iori's—and I suppose it was also Yggdrasil's—and was completely cast in the tree's shadow.

"Michael," I said nodding to him. "Betamon."

"I'm so glad you could come," Michael said. "I wasn't sure you were going to, since you said you had that family thing."

"I made it here _because_ of that family thing," I said with a laugh. "I swear, your invitation saved me today. I didn't want to be there at all."

"Cool," Michael said. "I just wasn't sure you know? We've never actually hung out together for the sake of…well…hanging out together. Have we?"

"I guess not," I said, trying to think back on it. "We always had something important to do."

"Ranting about your wife, ranting about how Betamon wasn't acting like Betamon," Michael elaborated, wincing only briefly because Betamon sent him a look. Michael sighed and rolled his eyes at his partner. "And of course there were the crests."

"Five crests," I said with a chuckle. "I don't know why Meiyomon trusted us with them."

"We got the job done though," Michael pointed out.

"No you didn't," Betamon said.

"What do you mean?" Michael challenged.

"Mari, Hideto, Kiyoko and Neo," Betamon said. "That's only four."

"He's right," Wormmon said. "It isn't over then. Is it?"

"I guess not," I said with a sigh, slumping onto a seat at the picnic table. As if to assure me Wormmon was right, the sun disappeared behind a large cloud. "They swore we were done. I really believed them."

"It's not so bad though, is it?" Michael said. "There's only the one great evil left, and we don't have to beat him. Whatever there is left for us to do, I think it'll be something relatively small, like finding the remaining crest bearer. Nothing too major, yet really important all the same."

"God I hope so," I said.

"Hope faster," Betamon commented. "Meiyomon's here."

"What?" we asked, turning to see that it was true. Meiyomon was skipping along the path ahead of Iori and Natsuni. The pair were holding hands, and eating ice cream cones. Meiyomon's cone was lying on the path, melting into a stream of brown liquid. I could feel the tension coming off of Michael as Mieyomon caught sight of us. He looked back at Iori and then pointed at us. Iori saw us and nodded, sealing our fate.

I may have squeezed my eyes shut waiting for the moment of impact when he got close.

"I _trust_ you," Mieyomon said laughing. "Get it? Because trust is all that's left. I'm so funny. Aren't I?"

"Not really…" I muttered, opening my eyes, deciding it was safe enough. I nearly closed them again. Meiyomon was glaring at me.

"The fate of the worlds currently rests in your hands," Meiyomon said firmly. "Without trust, we won't be saved. He can't do what the others need to. He's a digidestined, not one of them. Not truly. He needs his crest in order to follow in their path, to save the world. You literally have the world in the palm of your hand."

"It's uh…in my pocket," I said awkwardly.

"Then keep it there. Keep it with you always. I won't be here to make sure you can give it to him in time. The _when_ is still unclear, but you simply must find him. Promise me," Meiyomon said.

"We've already promised," Michael said, and I nodded.

"Where will you be?" Wormmon asked concerned, having focused on a very different part of his speech from Michael and me.

"Where are you getting your information," Betamon asked. "That's what I'd like to know. From what Michael tells me, you didn't know anything about the future bearers of the crests, just that you needed them found."

"Yeah," Michael said. "What gives?"

"I've been spending a lot of time with Iori's _aunt_. She knows lots of stuff," Meiyomon said. "And she knows that I have somewhere else to be now. I'll still visit all of the time, on a count of Iori being my big brother, but she says that it would be best if I was to move to the Land of Dreams with her. And I really like it there. So I think I'm going to go. Iori knows already. He was mad at first, but Summer talked to him and he cooled down. He's gonna miss me anyway. But she says it's very important that I go with her, just like it's very important that you find the owner of trust before he needs it. I guess I'll leave you to it though. Don't let me down."

"We won't," Michael and I swore at once.

Meiyomon skipped off towards Iori and Natsuni who waved at us. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the brown crest. The little triangle with the circle in it and a leaf shape out of either side stared up at me. It was so small and yet the world depended on it. We weren't done yet. Not really. We just weren't going to be the heroes anymore. We'd have to trust this new kid, whoever he was. Wherever he was. _Whenever _he was.

"So…the picnic?" Betamon suggested.

I put the crest back in my pocket and nodded. I'd have to keep my eyes and ears open. But I had a feeling it would be quite awhile before I'd ever find him.

_**Hideto Fujimoto:**_

I wasn't hiding. Not really. I was just avoiding the awkwardness that would result in the pair of us spending any amount of time alone together. I didn't have the answer that he wanted. I didn't have _any_ answer. I needed time to think. Admittedly, crashing a girls' night wasn't the best idea for me to come to any conclusions, but _he_ wasn't going to be there, and if I stayed home _he_ and I would've been alone together. I wasn't ready for that at all.

We were pretty much alone together now though. In the house in any case. He was locked up in his room, avoiding me just as much as I was him. Mari was in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables and putting some sort of fancy topping on crackers like they do at television dinner parties. I hadn't realized that was a real thing that regular people do…apparently it was. I didn't see why she was putting so much effort into it. It was just Neo and Miyako, not the queen or something.

Miyako had been spending more and more time at our place. She was determined to be there for Mari, desperate to help 'heal her aching soul'—her words, not mine. As long as Mari would put an effort into anything, I supposed it was good.

"Stop being a lazy bum and get the door!" Mari yelled at me.

I hadn't even realized that anyone had knocked on it. I sighed and pulled myself to my feet, slowly making my way to the door. Or I had been. Mari's screeching made me pick up my speed. I was nearly running to the door when she chucked a carrot at me.

"I've got it, sheesh," I said, ripping the door open so I could glare at whoever was behind it.

"Hello to you too," Neo said sarcastically.

"Such a warm welcome," Miyako added.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, looking at the third person standing outside my home.

"Visiting?" Yamato suggested awkwardly. "I've never been here. I thought I should check it out. I thought _someone_ should check it out at least. Have you had many visitors?"

"Miyako," I said. "And Neo."

"I brought Michael once," Neo added.

"So no," Yamato concluded. "You'd think you were hiding a body or something. What's with the cold shoulder?"

"Hideto's the president of your hate club, remember?" Neo said with a smirk.

"Oh…right…" Yamato said. Apparently the hate club wasn't as influential as I'd hoped it would be. "You hate my music."

"Your muse," I muttered under my breath, correcting his assumption.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Come in, before Mari starts flinging more vegetables."

"I would _not_ do that!" Mari gasped walking out of the kitchen.

"My shoulder would say otherwise," I pointed out.

"Whatever," Mari hissed. "Give Yamato the grand tour. Miyako, will you help me?"

"Sure will," Miyako said, following Mari into the kitchen.

"So…a tour?" Yamato said.

"I guess," I sighed. I led him to the door of the kitchen and let him peek inside it before walking off to the adjoining living room. I pointed vaguely in the direction of the dining room area, but didn't bring him to see it. I pointed at closets, offered him the use of our bathroom—he didn't accept—and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"What's up there?" he asked.

"Kiyoko's room and another bathroom," I said quickly. I heard shuffling at the top of the stairs and a door opening. My eyes widened, and I grabbed Yamato's arm, dragging him quickly into the last room of our house, slamming the door closed behind him.

"What the hell?" he demanded. Neo opened the door and slipped in, rolling his eyes at me.

"It was Tapirmon, moron," Neo said with a snort. "He's playing with _your_ digimon."

"I knew that," I lied horribly.

"Where are we now?" Yamato asked.

"My room," I supplied. He looked at the room, taking in the two beds—one decorated in light blue, the other black—and the two desks, and the piles upon piles of clothing on the floors. The walls were painted grey, and one half had a lot of drawings taped to the walls. That was the half with the blue clad bed. My side—the black side—wall's were bare.

"He shares with Mari," Neo pointed out.

"Why?" Yamato asked slowly.

"Because Sigma was scary," I said simply.

"Riiiight," Yamato said with a nervous laugh. "With how clean the rest of the house is, you'd think you'd put a little effort into keeping your room clean."

"Kiyoko's the neat freak. Or, Sigma was, I guess. Doesn't matter. There's nowhere for the clothes to go, so they just stay on the floor. No big deal," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"And the closet?" he asked.

"Is busy doing another job," I said quickly. "It stays closed."

"Oh no," Neo said with a smirk. "I think I need to see it again."

"Later," I said. "After he leaves."

"I'd like to see," Yamato protested. "I want to know what makes you tick."

"Have a look then," Neo offered. The bastard. It wasn't _his_ closet. It wasn't _his_ secret collection.

"No!" I shouted, trying to get to the closet door before Yamato did. I didn't make it. I tripped over a pile of jeans and landed face first into a pile of tee shirts.

"Wow. I don't—are there even words—it's kind of frightening," Yamato said stumbling over his sentences. He had the door of the closet open, and was met with a rather large collection of Teenage Wolves memorabilia. There was a large poster at the back of the closet, and two smaller ones on the inside of the doors. We had shelves put into the closet, and while Mari had a basket or two of CDs in there, most of them were mine. The Teenage Wolves CDs were, of course, on proud display with my various ticket stubs and tee shirts from the concerts I'd gone to. Which was every single concert in the Odaiba area. I still hadn't done any real travelling on Earth. There were magazine clippings of interviews with the band, and a picture of Sora I'd had glued to a dart board that I frequently chucked darts at—aiming for her face of course. Now that she'd died once, I didn't think I could actually throw darts at that anymore, but it was never _her_ I had a problem with. It was the fact that she was at the root of every single one of Yamato's songs. Couldn't he get some new material?

"Hideto here isn't just the president of your hate club," Neo said with a chuckle. "He's the president of your fan club too. He's an equal opportunist."

"I am _not_ the president of your fan club," I snapped, embarrassed. And I wasn't. I was, however, a member. I wasn't going to admit to that though.

"I thought you hated my music?" Yamato said, still sounding scared of the collection. I had to admit it seemed a tad stalkerish, as if I worshiped him or something. I just liked his sound a whole lot. It was the only music Mari and I could agree on listening to.

"I want you write something new," I said. "You're sound is getting stale. You need to throw something new into the mix. Hence the hate club petitions you've gotten."

"I suppose I can write a song about friendship, rather than love?" he offered.

"That would be appreciated."

"I think I hear Miyako calling from the kitchen," Yamato said quickly, backing his way out of the room and racing down the hall even though Miyako did _not_ call for him at all.

"That was freaking hilarious," Neo said, collapsing onto Mari's bed.

"That was rude, is what it was," I corrected, slumping down to the floor and resting in the pile of seldom used sweatshirts.

"I needed him gone, and that was the most amusing way to do it," Neo said with a shrug.

"Why'd you need him gone?"

"We need to talk, Hideto."

"About what?"

"Kiyoko."

His voice seemed to ring throughout the room. I threw my head back and buried it under a truly horrendous Christmas sweater Rei bought me last year.

"I don't wanna."

I sounded like a petulant child. Neo wasn't going to let me though. He ripped the sweater off of my face before I'd even realized he'd gotten up, and he dragged me onto my bed, forcing me to look at him.

"He's fragile enough as it is. He's like your self-confidence. He's putting up a good front, but he'll shatter if you avoid him much longer. He's strong enough to handle whatever you tell him. He's just not strong enough to be without you," Neo told me.

"That doesn't make sense," I told him, rolling my eyes.

"You're the rock that's holding him together. You've always been his rock. You took that away when you decided he was the plague and started avoiding him. Mari has tried to fix this, even in her fragile state, but neither of you will let her. You're both too stubborn. She's called in the big guns now: me. I don't care if you want to talk to him. You're _going_ to talk to him. And the two of you will feel better because of it. Understand?"

"What am I supposed to say to him Neo!" I demanded angrily. "That I can't handle it? That I've never _been_ able to handle it. That I act like an ass because I _am_ one? What does he want from me?"

"He's not asking for much. Not anything really. Did he demand that you feel the same way? No. He just told you how he felt. Be a man. Face that truth."

"He can't love me," I said firmly. "He thinks he does, but he doesn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not worth it, Neo," I pointed out.

"Maybe you're not," Neo said—though he didn't look like he believed it. "But _he_ seems to think you are. And that's what it boils down to, isn't it? How you are to him."

"That's not the point, Neo," I snapped. "I just don't want him getting hurt. I can't lose his friendship. It's important."

"I know," Neo said impatiently. "And you know him _way_ better than you knew any of those other people that showed interest in you. With all of them, you just found someone to deflect their attention onto. You haven't done that with Kiyoko."

"No one's good enough for him. He's been through too much, and no one would understand except us, and damn it. None of us are good enough either. I'd say Mari or Hikari, but he's not so into girls, and I've already delegated them off to Willis and Takeru—who was my second choice by the way. I can't find the perfect fit!" I said, nearly shouting now.

"Look in the mirror Hideto," Neo growled. He grabbed my chin and forced my head to turn so I could see into the mirror on Mari's side of the room. "See that guy right there? The one with self-confident issues the size of Asia; _he_ is the one that Kiyoko wants. Kiyoko sees something in you that no one else, least of all yourself, sees. He found something to love. Maybe he can help you find that same thing, did you ever think of that?"

"I've never made it to a second date, Neo," I reminded him. "I don't do relationships. I'll hurt him."

"I doubt that," Neo said, finally letting go of my face. "You go out of your way to dote on the kid, you'd hardly let yourself hurt him."

"Oh God, he _is_ a kid too," I moaned, calculating there to be a six year age difference. I was a creep. He was just a kid, and I was a grown man. Was it still cradle robbing?

"I'm eighteen."

I whirled my head around and saw Kiyoko standing in the doorway, his hand slapped over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that aloud. He didn't want me to know he was there. Not until Neo announced it probably.

"I shouldn't have said that," Kiyoko mumbled.

"This is going to be really fun," Neo said with a wicked grin. "But we'll have fun with that later, eh Kiyoko? You two have some serious talking to do."

"But—"

"Now, Hideto," Neo ordered. He pushed me down onto the bed, and made a slow retreat, giving me the eye the whole way. If I didn't talk to Kiyoko right now—and there was no way to avoid it really—I was going to have to answer to him. Not Neo my best friend, but Neo, the guy who thought dismantling the Digital World was a good idea. Yeah. I wasn't looking forward to that. I heard the soft clicking of the door as he pulled it shut behind him.

"Kiyoko," I said. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything then," he instructed, waiting nervously at the end of my bed. "Just listen."

He picked at the bottom of his shirt and kept looking between me and the door. I thought about offering him a seat, but I didn't. He didn't look like he'd take it.

"You don't have to love me. Obviously, I'd like it if you did, but you don't _have_ to. It's okay. So long as you accept that I'll love you anyway," he said.

"That's the problem!" I shouted. "I don't get it. Why would you love _me_?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"When have I ever done anything that made me deserving?"

"You were there for me. You don't treat me much different now that Sigma's gone. You feared him, but you didn't let that stop you from trying to bring the real me to the surface. Sigma hated you for that. I always responded. Always. You helped me so much. And you're fun to be around, when you're not moping. I like your sense of humour, and the way you go out of your way to make people happy, though I don't like that you do it at your own expense. You deserve to be happy too," he said. He looked down at his sock feet. "I might not be able to make you happy, but I want to try. No matter what way you'll let me."

"I'm not worth that much trouble," I protested weakly.

"You're worth every trouble," he said fiercely. "If either of us was undeserving, it would be _me_. I let one of the great evils use me to help destroy everything I now care about. You were just helping a friend. I aided and abetted the death of countless digimon and a dog and Mari's guinea pig. He hurt Miyako and I led him to her. You've done nothing to be ashamed of."

"You didn't know," I countered. "You were young and impressionable, and you let your guard down for a second. Just a second and he took control. I've been in control the entire time. I was in control when I did nothing to save Rei. I was in control when I joined the Alias III."

"I liked it. I liked the feeling of strength that Sigma gave me. It wasn't until he started to threaten you and Koushiro that I started questioning his judgement. I didn't like the actual killing of any of those creatures mind you, but the feeling he got after killing someone was intoxicating. I wanted him to feel that way all the time. That's worse than helping a friend or an accident," he growled.

"Are we really fighting about who's the worst good guy?" I said with a laugh.

"Maybe," he said. "And it's me."

"You're a part of Team Mom and the Digidestined. I think you're just a do-gooder in disguise," I told him. He grabbed my hand, and only then did I realize he'd made his way from the end of the bed to right next to me during our argument.

"Thank you," he said simply, squeezing my fingers once.

"For what?"

"Believing in me," he said, sending a smile. "It's because of you and Yoshie that _I_ can believe in myself. I'm going back to school. I'm going to get a legitimate education, and then I'm going into architecture…or interior design. I like both."

"I think I'm going into counseling," I offered. His brows furrowed.

"Kurayami agreed to work with me," he said. "I'm sure she'd talk to you too."

"No," I said quickly. "I don't need counseling—well, I probably do actually—I want to study it. I want to help people."

"You're already so good at that," he murmured. His eyes widened, and his face flushed. I had to smile. He hadn't meant to say that. "I mean, you just help a lot of people with their relationship problems—"

"I get it," I said. Then I made a quick decision that I knew I could end up regretting. "Go upstairs and get changed."

"Do I look _that bad_?" he muttered, embarrassed.

"We're going to watch a movie," I told him, ignoring his accidental spouting. He probably didn't really want me to answer it anyway. "Dress nice though. We could get dinner too."

"We watch movies all the time, Hideto," he said confused.

"Well, it's never been a date before, has it?" I asked. His eyes widened again and flew to meet my own. "Unless…you don't…want to…?"

"I do," he said, nearly shouting. His face flushed red again and I had to laugh. He was good for my ego. Definitely good. "What made you change your mind?"

"I never made up my mind," I said. "And it might not last very long…"

"You've never gone on a second date with anyone, I know," he said quickly.

"And you're okay with that?" I questioned.

"Honestly? I'd love more than that. I would _really_ love more than that. But if that's all you're able to give me, then that's fine. That's all I'd need. But you can't block me out again. I can't handle that," he said.

"I won't," I promised. And I really wanted things to go well on this date. I wanted to be able to get to that second date for once, and I really liked having him around. "Are you going to get ready?"

"Yes," he said quickly, flashing me a grin and squeezing my hand once more before dropping it and racing to the door. I heard him run up those steps as if the world was going to end. He was so excited. I couldn't mess this up. I looked down to my black shirt and black jeans. I really ought to change too…

The door burst open and Agumon and Gabumon piled in, grinning at me with big toothy smiles.

"We heard the news!" Agumon exclaimed.

"Kiyoko pretty much screamed at us to get out. Said he had to get ready for a date," Gabumon announced.

"I've got to get ready too," I said sheepishly.

"We'll help," Agumon swore. "You're going to need it."

"Let's get you into something acceptable, shall we?" Gabumon asked.

"What's wrong with this?" I asked.

"You always wear that. Do you want him to think you've put no effort into this?" Gabumon demanded.

"No…"

"Then get up and get ready," Agumon ordered.

I did as he instructed, sifting through my piles of clothing, looking for something different to change into. "Do I even own anything that isn't black!" I shouted in frustration after finding absolutely nothing different to wear. Black was always in. I looked pretty good in it too, so that was a bonus. I never needed anything else. Where was Neo when I needed him? He at least only wore white. That was something new, something different…

"This isn't black!" Agumon called triumphantly, chucking Rei's green Christmas sweater at me.

"I'm not wearing _that_ on a date," I hissed. "This has to work!"

"We'll keep looking," Gabumon said, saluting me.

"Worst comes to worst, you could just wear a button-up shirt. That's fancy right?" Agumon suggested.

"I guess," I sighed. "Let's just keep looking though."

"Yes sir, boss man," the two chorused with laughter as they started chucking my black clothing at one another as if it were a snowball fight. I couldn't help laughing at them and picked up the green sweater to join in the fight. I needed to relax anyway.

_**Hikari Yagami:**_

Takeru and I had been just about to start our first official date when it was interrupted by a text message from his mother telling him that it was crucial that he get to his father's apartment at that moment. Thinking something was wrong with him, the two of us were there as quick as we could, finding that not only was he perfectly fine, but he seemed to be having some kind of party.

Yamato, Iori, Meiyomon, Ms Hida, Ms Takaishi and Mr Ishida were all in the apartment when we found our way through the front door.

Something was up, but I couldn't exactly figure what it was. Either way, it didn't matter, it had cancelled the awkwardness of our first date, and thus, our second date could come and it would be perfect, without all the adorable awkward commentary that entailed every first date.

I couldn't say I was one hundred percent happy about that, since Takeru was truly adorable when he was fumbling and awkward, but I didn't overly mind either. I knew I'd have more chance to see him in every mood imaginable.

I honestly felt like slapping myself in the back of the head every twenty seconds or so, but restrained myself. Most of the time anyway. How could I possibly have ever lived so long without realizing what I had? He was right there, always. Right now. I couldn't even take my eyes off of him as his own flicked around the room with confusion. I could honestly say that I had never felt any feeling as strong as the one I'd always felt for him. Always having him right beside me as a best friend...

Hideto was right. Taichi was right, Sora was right... everyone was right. I was confused and stupid... but now everything was clear and bright and wonderful and basically I was a head over heels teenage girl who just fell in love with her best friend. I was living the happy ending of the romantic comedy based on my life.

Then again, all the strife I'd gone through wasn't comedic, nor was it romantic. So what genre of movie was my life? As I watched Takeru sit on the couch in between Iori and his brother, his eyes flicked to me and he flashed me a smile, and I knew that whatever genre of movie my life was, it was going to be a pretty good one.

"So I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you here today," Ms Takaishi said casually, her arms crossed as she darted her eyes between the others in the room.

"You could say that, yeah." Iori said with a very heavy hint of awkward in his voice as he stared at his mother who was sitting on a stool next to Mr Ishida.

Yamato was sitting, his arms crossed against his chest as he tapped his fingers against his arm. I had a feeling he knew what was going on a lot better than anyone else did.

"Is this... you trying to get to know our friends?" Takeru tried, though I could see in his eyes he had no faith in that idea, he was just trying to get them all to talk after they'd fallen into an uncomfortable silence.

Mr Ishida looked to me and furrowed his brow, his face flushing slightly, embarrassed. Whatever he had to say he didn't want me around for it. "What is... uhm... Miss Yagami doing here?" He asked, turning to Takeru.

"Well you summoned me so urgently," Takeru said with a near monotonous tone, "I didn't have time to walk her home."

"Well, maybe I could drive her home first?" Mr Ishida suggested, jumping to his feet, but Ms Takaishi and Ms Hida grabbed each of his arms, dragging him back to his seat in between the two of them.

"I-I could just wait in the hallway?" I stuttered, realizing how nervous I was. I knew something wrong was about to happen, I just couldn't figure out what it would be.

"No," Takeru objected. He turned his head toward me and rose his eyebrows comically as he smiled to me, "Just go... find something to eat? Or whatever, just make yourself at home."

"It's not really your home..." Iori said quietly.

"Yeah well," Takeru shrugged, "You all interrupted my date, so this is the least I can do."

"Date?" Takeru's parents asked at the same time as Yamato.

"Oh." Takeru said soundlessly. "I forgot to tell you? I... might be dating Hikari." I threw my arms out and smiled at them. "Surprise..." Takeru said awkwardly. Ah. There it was. So the first date really _did_ always have awkwardness involved.

Takeru's parents turned to me and grinned, before looking back to their son, "Wow, I—congratulations..." Mr Ishida said slowly.

"Why aren't you happy?" Takeru asked slowly.

"I am!" He insisted, "Just—look, we have to talk."

"Hold up!" Yamato objected, holding his hands into the air. "I haven't had my say in this Takeru relationship business." He adjusted himself so he was staring directly toward Takeru. "I'm happy for you." He said simply before turning to me, "Both of you."

I nodded awkwardly and smiled at him as kindly as I could. I didn't know exactly what had gone on between the two of us, but whatever it was, it was over. Just part of my confusion I supposed.

"What am I doing here?" Iori blurted out suddenly as Takeru thanked his brother. Iori's mother turned to Mr Ishida and the two looked away quickly, their faces turning red. "Nope." Iori said, jumping to his feet, catching the clues better than I was, probably because he knew his mother a lot more than I obviously did. He looked to me and twisted his face, adding more awkward to the pot stewing in the room. "Need help with... the kitchen?" Iori offered.

"Sit down, sweetheart." Ms Hida sighed. Iori rolled his eyes and fell into his place on the couch.

"I guess I'll just go?" I offered, walking backward into the kitchen. I waved to the others before I slipped inside.

"Why weren't you shocked?" Takeru asking Iori that question was the last thing I heard of their conversation.

I knew why of course.

"_Iori, sit down," I had told him as he slowly lowered himself into the desk seat in my room at my parent's house. They'd removed the computer so there was nothing to do while I hid away in my room trying to pretend I actually _had_ grown up and wasn't still living with them. Instead I'd have to actually communicate with them, which I loved doing, it just made me feel like I'd failed. I was standing, pacing my room, and wasn't sure how to break the news to him._

"_Hikari, whatever it is, just say it." Iori sighed, "It's my movie night with Natusni you see."_

"_Ah!" I exclaimed, "Natsuni, yes. Perfect. You know how you were in a relationship with her and you didn't tell me and we sort of drifted apart?"_

"_I suppose, yes." Iori nodded._

"_Even though we were so close, and you were like my brother, and you jumped in front of a blade for me?" I added, "Which makes no sense, because there's no reason for us to fall apart as friends, but that was my fault and we kept things from each other, and I just need to say something."_

"_Okay, then do it." Iori shrugged._

"_Wait, do you not want to be my friend then?" I asked._

"_What?" Iori gasped, shaking his head, "What the heck are you talking about? Of course I want that. I want to be your friend, Hikari. You mean a lot to me. I wouldn't sacrifice myself for just anyone."_

"_Well then why _did_ we stop talking?" I asked._

"_Because you moved to New York and stopped talking to me." Iori said bluntly as if he was intentionally trying to jab the words into me so I could see what I'd done wrong. And really, I had done something wrong._

"_Well we..." My voice faded, "Iori, I'm so sorry." I said, my voice choked. "I'm going to fix all of our problems though."_

"_How is that?" Iori asked._

"_I'm not quite sure yet," I offered, "But I'm going to start by earning your forgiveness. And to do that I need to show that I trust you, and that you can trust me. So I have to tell you something that no one else knows... almost no one."_

"_Okay..." He said, the corners of his lips twitching slightly._

"_Takeru and I kissed." I said before biting my lip and falling into a sitting position on my bed. I looked to Iori to gauge his reaction but he didn't have any emotion sketched upon his face. _

"_What about Yamato?" Iori asked._

"_What about him?" I asked._

"_Well I thought you... or Willis or something." He tried._

"_No, Takeru." I said._

"_Well I figured it would happen eventually, but I didn't think you two would be able to turn it around so fast," _

"_You're lying." I said slowly, as his face broke out into a huge grin. "What did you do?"_

"_I didn't do anything." Iori said, throwing his hands up, "I'm happy for you. Really." There was no doubt in my mind that Iori had done something to get this to happen, but he'd never admit to it. He would never be the one to do something so he'd easily be able to lie his way out of it... even if his sense of honour made it very clear that he wasn't allowed to lie. But either way. I'd let it slide, just this once. I had to find a way to make Iori and I be friends again._

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Yamato barked with dry laughter in the next room.

"You're kidding, right?" Iori was saying.

I backed away from the door, realizing that eavesdropping was more of a Sora thing to do. I looked around the room nervously and quickly and found a loaf of bread. I could make a sandwich! I grabbed the bread and began unwrapping it when I heard something.

I froze and listened, but it seemed to have gone away, and all that was left was the sound of Takeru and the others talking over each other. I continued making my bread, but it fell from my hands as I spun around. There was most definitely sound coming from a different room. I crept as quietly as I could through the hallways, looking over my shoulder to be sure no one was there to watch me creep through their house.

I grabbed the first door and pushed it open slowly. Inside was a large, messy bed surrounded by a cluttered floor, but the only living being inside was Wizardmon and he was meditating silently on Mr Ishida's bed.

I backed out of the room and closed the door quietly. I knew that nothing could go overly wrong, since we were done all of our hard work for saving the worlds, and yet I was still scared. There was unmistakably the sound of crying coming from the room at the end of the hallway.

I took a deep breath and decided to do it fast. Just like a band-aid. And then I was running down the hallway and throwing the door open, stepping into the bathroom. I bit back a squeak of fear as I stared to the small boy with black hair curled up in the bathtub.

I knew who he was instantly even though I'd not seen him in his younger state yet. It was Yukai, Kurayami's brother, the boy who had been following the two of us around. He was dead. A ghost trapped on the planet earth because he was lost from life, taken at an inopportune time, drowned by his mother in the...

Bathtub.

And there he was, sitting there, crying.

"Yukai," I said, his name escaping my lips as I stood nervously. He looked to be quickly and his eyes widened, the area around them puffy and red, tears streaming down his face.

"Hikari!" He said. He unfurled his legs and spun so his body faced me. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly.

"Where am I?" He asked.

"Well you're—"

"Can you help me?" He asked. I nodded and fell to my knees next to him. He smiled at me but suddenly winced and backed away.

"I'm sorry." I said, throwing my hands into the air and backing away from him. "Did I scare you."

"I just..." He looked away, curling up into a ball again. "That's where my mom was when... she did it." I nodded, unsure of exactly what to say. "Hikari, dead people go to Heaven right?" He asked quietly.

"Well, yes." I told him.

"Or Hell." He said bluntly, his voice dropping dramatically. It made me realize how much this child had grown even when life hadn't given the opportunity to do so. He was wise I knew, from earlier, he was just lost.

"Not you." I told him, shaking my head. "Only those who have done wrong go there. And even then it's all wishy washy on this end. No one knows how this all works, but Yukai, no matter how you look at it, you've done nothing wrong. You won't go there."

"I'm not worried about me." He said quietly. "What about... Mommy?"

I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat as my stomach dropped. How was I supposed to do this? "Well, Yukai, I'm not sure what you want to hear, and so I'm just going to tell you the truth. Your mother did bad things here on Earth—and she may have even gone to... The Dark Ocean, but Norn, Kurayami's friend, she purified all the spirits. Your mother will be there, waiting for you." He looked to me, his eyes wide with fear. How had I gotten so bad at these talks? No. I knew I could turn this around.

I scooted closer to the bathtub until I was sitting right next to it, looking down to Yukai who was staring at me through a gap in his arms as he curled into his ball. "Do you remember what your mother was like before she did that to you?"

"Yes." He said quickly, perking up a bit, a smile spreading across his face. "She was really nice... and calm, and smart and pretty. She... was like you a bit."

I smiled at him and threw my hand toward him for him to take. He did so the best he could without any physical form, but I felt cold air where he was holding me. A shiver shot down my spine as I looked away. "Well... that's who your mother is now." I told him, "She only became that mean person because something else was infecting her, and turning her into the very opposite of who she was. But Norn fixed it all. And Kurayami too. Kurayami defeated the evil thing that was keeping her from being... your mother."

"So she's... she's my Mommy again?" He asked quietly. "She's like you?"

"I think so." I told him with a smile. "I know one way to find out."

"What if she isn't?" He asked.

"You don't have to worry about tha—"

"But say she isn't?" He asked loudly, releasing my hand and putting both of his hands on the side of the bathtub, turning on me. "You said that thing that was changing her was the reason she did that to me, but Dad said she was taking it from Kura. Kura wasn't even born yet."

"No, listen." I told him, "I _know_ your mother was keeping the darkness away from her daughter, I just don't know why or how since you're right. She wasn't born yet. But honestly, I know it. I just do. And you can too. Your mother was taking precautions, and the darkness was always looming over your family, and I'm so sorry for what it did to you. So... sorry—but Kura has figured it all out. She's shone just the right amount of light on the darkness. She's made everything better for the future... and one day she'll be back with you... and you can all be a family again. But until then—"

"Kurayami may have found the light," Yukai said, "But she didn't turn it on. That was you. You did that. And I found you... I found the light... and I think it's... time to cross over."

"Are you okay?" I asked. "Are you okay to do that? You're ready to see your mom?"

"Well..." Yukai said, "I saw on TV a couple years ago that spirits stay earthbound to be sure something is completed. And for me... it was to be sure that everything fixed itself with my family. And it did... and if you're right, then my Mommy is waiting for me, and I shouldn't keep her waiting any longer. She's got some explaining to do." He giggled and I couldn't help but laugh with him. "Thank you Hikari. You've been a really big help."

"Are you going to say bye to Kura?" I asked as he threw his arms around my neck.

"No." He said quietly into my ear. "She hates goodbyes... but maybe you could tell her that I'm okay?"

"I'll be sure to do so." I told him.

"Goodbye Hikari."

And then he was gone. I wiped my cheek to be sure there were no stray tears as I bit my lip, staring into the empty bathtub. I fanned my face for a moment before shaking my head and standing up. No need to be sad. This was a happy occasion. Yukai was in a better place. A happy place. It was all better now. Everything was better... and everything that wasn't, was sure to end up that way. It had to.

Before I knew it I was walking down the hallway with Wizardmon, back toward the kitchen.

"So if you could just give this to Gatomon?" He asked, handing me a strange relic like wooden object painted with many shades of red and purple. "And remind her about tomorrow?"

"I'd be happy to," I smiled at him, taking the relic, "This is very cool, where did you get it?"

"Fr—" He was cut off though by Takeru poking his head into the kitchen where we'd just entered.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

"Uh—" I looked to Wizardmon who nodded.

"I'll just tell you tomorrow if you'd like," He said.

"I'd love that," I smiled to him, patting his shoulder. "See you tomorrow Wizardmon,"

I waved to him, and then to Iori and Takeru's parents before stepping through the open doorway that Takeru had opened for me. In the hallway of the apartment building Yamato and Iori were standing with one another quietly, both of them leaning against the wall with their arms crossed.

"Did you have a good visit?" I asked.

"Not really." Yamato said bluntly, turning to lead the way down the hallway.

"Why, what happened?" I asked.

"Well," Takeru said, "it wasn't as bad as these two are making it out to be..."

"It's really messed up." Yamato scowled.

"It's really not," Takeru argued.

"Yes it is," Yamato said, "Don't listen to him Hikari."

"Yes listen to me." Takeru objected.

"Will someone please just tell me what happened?" I asked, "I'll make my own decision. I'm not helpless you know. I can make my own decisions."

Takeru took my hand and squeezed it. "You've come such a long way from the little girl who refused to let her emotions out, and stand up for herself."

"I love you too." I told him as he leaned down and kissed my cheek.

"That's not what he said though," Iori said, confused.

"But it's what I meant." He said with a wink toward me.

"But seriously." I said, my expression falling. "What happened?"

"You first," Takeru said, "How was your time with Wizardmon?"

"Oh actually I helped Kurayami's dead brother find his way to Heaven." I said simply. Takeru grinned to me again. "What?" I asked, but he just shook his head and looked away, causing me to smile uncontrollably as well, "_What_?"

"It's just..." Takeru breathed a short laugh, "You never cease to amaze me."

"You two are such a gross couple." Yamato said, rolling his eyes.

"But you love us!" Takeru joked, poking his brother's shoulder, "You're just jealous because we're so perfect together."

"Am not." Yamato argued. "Or... Maybe I am—Dad's dating Iori's mother."

It took me a few seconds for the sudden change of conversation the register, and even longer for me to realize what he'd said, "Wait, what?" I asked finally, "Since when?"

"A month ago." Takeru supplied.

"Who would withhold such information for a full month?" I asked flatly. "That's kind of rude."

"Hey Hikari," Yamato said, spinning around and pointing to me, his eyebrows raised a sly smile spread across his face, "When did you break up with Willis again?"

"Fair enough," I shrugged.

"Well I don't think it's so bad." Takeru said, shrugging his shoulders, "For a long time I wanted Mom and Dad to be together because I thought they were perfect for each other but I soon realized that wasn't true. I don't mind that they aren't together anymore, and I want them to both be happy and since Dad is happy with Ms—sorry, Fumiko—she asked me to call her that," He said hastily out of the corner of his mouth, "then I'm happy with that too. I just wish Mom would be happy too."

"I see where you're coming from," Yamato said, shrugging his shoulders, spinning back around and pressing the elevator button. "And I'm happy they broke up. I am, they were awful together and they did awful things. But what I don't like is how they just threw the Ms Hida thing on us. Like, did he even regret it? How long were _they_ together? Did he cheat on Mom? Like... I don't know. Whatever, as long as it ends fine I'm cool with it."

We were all piled into the elevator then as everyone turned to Iori whose arms were still crossed as he waited silently.

"What about you?" Takeru asked, "You haven't said much, what do you think about this?"

Iori looked to Takeru and then to Yamato and sighed, "Well I'm not really used to family." He said simply, "I love Meiyomon... and I love Mom... but I don't know if I'm ready to open up to more people yet."

"Oh yes you are." I said, my hands behind my back as I bounced on the spot, waiting for the elevator to finish its trip. "You let Armadillomon in, and me once upon a time. Miyako, and Ken—Natsuni," I nudged him with my elbow and he looked to the floor quickly, his face turning red. "You couldn't have DNA digivolved with Takeru if you hadn't let him in. You've let so many people into your life silly. You love all of us—you're just too scared to admit it."

"I..." he decided against saying anything, and changed the subject quickly, "I just want Mom to be happy. She loves your Dad, I can tell. She used to look at _my_ dad that way. I remembered the expression when I saw it in there. I'm moving out soon and I can't leave her alone—and sure she's got Meiyomon and Kotemon, but I think she's happy to have someone there for her. And since your dad was also looking for that—someone who wasn't so independent like your mom—they'll be perfect. So I'm... well I'm happy for them."

Takeru clapped Iori on the back and grinned, "Well, I guess that makes us brothers."

"We're not brothers." Yamato and Iori said sharply.

"Hey!" I shouted suddenly as the elevator chimed and stopped on the bottom floor. Everyone looked to me as we left the elevator and started walking toward the front door, "Iori, you're moving out?"

"Soon?" he said nervously, "why?"

"Natsuni mentioned moving out too, and then we thought we could move in together." I said, "At Rei's party."

"Ugh." Takeru and Yamato groaned—the typical reaction to Rei's party being mentioned.

"Oh?" Iori asked, as Yamato held the door open for us. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you're coming too!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together and jumping out onto the sidewalk in the cool night air. "It'll be so much fun! And we can be friends again."

"I'll have to think about that." Iori said, turning and walking off immediately.

"Uh... okay." I nodded. "Bye?"

"Bye brother!" Takeru shouted, waving animatedly as Yamato elbowed him sharply.

I watched Iori walk for a bit, not sure what I said that had caused such a fuss, but suddenly he stopped and spun around, "Actually..." Iori said slowly, "I'd really like that." I was running toward him to hug him a second later, unable to hide my excitement.

"This is going to be the best!" I cheered, "We're going to be the best roomies ever! And I have the first decoration for our wall—that sword Taichi had for no good reason—well we _have_ a good reason! It'll decorate our wall and symbolize our friendship and we'll be—"

"Can we talk about it later?" Iori laughed, pushing away from me, "I have to get home... Armadillomon and Kotemon are home alone. The only bonus to this is that Meiyomon's not there so I know the place is still in one piece."

"I'll email you." I decided, ruffling his hair, "Oh what fun we'll have!" Iori rolled his eyes before waving briefly and heading off toward his house.

Takeru reached out his hand for me to take, so I did and the three of us remaining set off down the street the other way.

"Are you okay?" I asked Takeru quietly when Yamato had made enough space between us.

"Okay?" He asked, "Of course I am." He nodded, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well your parents—"

"—now have the same chance at happiness that you and I have." He finished for me, "I'm more than okay," He said with a giant grin, "I'm ecstatic."

"Then so am I," I said.

It wasn't long before Yamato had waved a quick farewell and asked me to say 'hello' to Taichi, and then was gone into his own apartment where he lived only with Gabumon. And then only twenty minutes after that we arrived at my own house, climbing a large set of stairs.

"Sorry about today," Takeru said slowly, "It wasn't the best first date ever."

"No," I agreed, "But no one else can say they had the same first date."

"That's true." He smiled, "Thinking positive. I like that."

"Learned from the best." I joked.

"Well, I suppose this is goodnight." Takeru said with a brief nod.

"I don't really want you to go yet." I said.

"Well we'll have every day for the rest of forever." He blurted before realizing what it was that he'd said, his eyes popping. I couldn't help but laugh. It was our first date and he'd just pretty much asked me to marry him, I didn't want to answer him yet, I wanted a very romantic proposal, but there was no way I'd ever want to leave... then again, it _was _the first date. Only time could tell...

I looked down as I thought about the best way to get Mimi's old key and take a look into the future, but before I could find a good one Takeru had cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him back until we were both pulling away from one another.

"Well... see you tomorrow?" Takeru said, turning to leave.

I decided I didn't need to use the key—I had this moment right now. And that was enough for then. Before I knew it I was grabbing Takeru's hand and pulling him back. "Come inside?" I asked. "It's dinner time... we could... introduce you to my parents?"

"We've actually met several times," Takeru joked. "I'd like that." He smiled. I turned and led him into the house where the first thing I spotted was Mom bustling down the hallway toward the dining room table, a large pot of soup in her arms. "Ooh..." Takeru winced, "Your mom cooked?"

"Hey now," I laughed.

"I'm kidding!"

"Hikari?" Mom called, "you home?"

I took Takeru's hand and led him down the hallway, my heart beating fast. What would Mom and Dad say about this? Were they ready to hear it? Was I ready to tell them? Would they pull the whole stereotypic parental move and be strict about it?

As I rounded the corner all those worries vanished instantly, because I was more worried about what the other person would think. Taichi was sitting at the table with Rei, across from my parents. One one side of the table Kamemon and Gatomon sat and on the other there was an empty chair.

"I'm home," I confirmed.

"Hey sweetheart," Mom chirped, "I've made loads of dinner. I assumed Taichi would bring Agumon and Rei's friends, but they stayed behind and Dorumon cancelled last minute because of a sudden meeting with his Knights, so eat up."

"Hey Takeru..." Taichi said, his eyes narrowed in on him.

Mom turned her head and smiled, "Oh I didn't even see you there!" Mom laughed, "I'll get you another chair!" She was standing a moment later and was bustling off to find a place for Takeru to sit.

"What's Takeru up to?" Dad asked, scooping some soup into his bowl.

"I'm dating your daughter!" Takeru blurted suddenly.

"Well played." I muttered, and then we were both laughing, easing the nerves a little until I remembered that I was scared about everyone's responses.

"About flipping time." Dad laughed.

"What's about time?" Mom asked, sliding a stool into the room for Takeru to sit on.

"Your daughter's found herself a new boyfriend." Dad said, raising one eyebrow toward Takeru and I.

"Oh, had that not already happened?" Mom asked, "Huh, years late Hikari. You're years late."

"Partially my fault." Takeru said raising his hand awkwardly, but I grabbed it and pulled it back down.

"This is the most adorable thing." Rei declared, "Simply wonderful! I can't even... you can just... _see_ the happiness radiating from the two of you, and—"

"Takeru," Taichi said, pushing his chair from the table, scraping it against the ground, "Can I have a word?"

"Uh huh." Takeru squeaked, nodding his head and following Taichi, who looked rather upset, from the room. I turned to Gatomon and motioned for her to follow me the second they'd closed the door to Taichi and Daisuke's old bedroom. She nodded and ran with me, both of us sliding to a stop by the door.

"What are they saying?" I asked as Gatomon put her ear up to the door.

"Taichi's saying that he's your brother... he's very protective and he cares about you." Gatomon filled me in with a whispered tone. "He wants you to be safe, and when Willis and you started dating he asked Willis to keep you safe... but he..."

"He what?" I asked sharply, my heart beating faster, as much as Taichi's opinions usually contradicted mine I still cared about what he thought, especially since he'd been right about me and my relationships before. "Gatomon!" I hissed.

"Before I tell you," Gatomon said, pulling away from the door, "I want to tell you how happy _I_ am about this. I've not seen you this happy since... well, about thirteen years ago. And even then you were holding so much back, Hikari... I missed seeing your smile. You don't do it enough. I'm happy that you're happy because that makes me happy."

"Oh," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out Wizardmon's gift and handing it to her, "From Wizardmon. I realize it's not the most opportune moment, but I just remembered it. Because I know Wizardmon makes _you_ happy, and... that makes _me_ happy." I smiled at her as she looked down to the gift.

"I love you Hikari, and I'm so happy that you changed me from the dark side." She said quietly, "I really do, love you."

"I love you too." I told her, hugging her tight.

"Takeru loves you too." Gatomon said, "By the way. And so does Taichi. He was telling Takeru how he had to tell Willis to keep you safe, but he doesn't have to tell Takeru. Because he knows he will. And he's happy for you two."

Honestly I was fairly sure this was the first time I'd gotten Taichi's approval for anything at all, and when the bedroom door opened I jumped to my feet and threw my arms around his neck. "Stupid Taichi." I whispered. "I love you."

"Love you... too?" Taichi said awkwardly.

_**Yamato Ishida:**_

"Can I just say how ridiculous of an idea this really is?" I said a little annoyed. Taichi had sent out a mass text message to us all about how we really needed to get together again. This was the last meeting we'd ever really have to have. It was important because we'd finally done it. After thirteen years of fighting, all nine worlds would be safe. Well, until the Great Evil of Earth showed up, but that wasn't our fight. We were done. Finally and forever. Sure it kind of made me sad to think about the fact that I'd never need to use Gabumon to help me fight, and I'd maybe never see ZeedGarurumon again, but at the same time, I was happy that he wouldn't be in danger—I was happy that my friends wouldn't be in danger, and I was happy that my family wouldn't be in danger. Everything was falling into place now, and everyone was finding true happiness.

Well, almost everyone.

"It's really not that ridiculous." Mimi said bluntly, "Do you have a better idea?"

"No." I admitted. Our meetings usually took place in Mimi's restaurant, but with that building having exploded we obviously couldn't go there, and so we settled on having the meeting in Taichi's meeting room in the council. It was big enough, and nearly enough chairs for everyone, but it was also not very legal. I was sure Taichi could come up with a clever excuse as to why we were all using an official room as a hangout spot, but since he wasn't even there yet, I was a little nervous.

I'd come early to try and spend some extra time with Sora, but unfortunately she hadn't come with Koushiro and Mimi like I'd expected she would. She had told me that she loved me when we were fighting Arkadimon, and hadn't really talked to me since. It was a little more than annoying, but I didn't want to step too far over the line. I needed to let her come to me, or whoever else she needed to go to, but only when she was ready.

"Exactly," Koushiro said, "Besides, it _is_ a room designed for meetings. Meetings of far more importance than this, but meetings nonetheless." Koushiro hadn't even looked up from his computer that I was fairly sure had broken like three years ago when he spoke. He was too invested in whatever it was that he was writing. He had a book propped open in front of him with drawings and notes done by someone, who I assumed was probably Tatum.

Tentomon, Gabumon and Palmon had voted to stay outside the temple to play, which was probably for the better because we were already down three chairs. I was sitting in Gabumon's place, and Koushiro had taken his own seat just next to me, around the corner of the table. Mimi was giving us both our space and sat virtually as far away as possible in Benjamin's spot. She's been fairly adamant about wanting to know whose bottom usually occupied her chair.

"What's the point of this anyway?" I asked slowly. Mimi and Koushiro looked up to each other, they clearly knew, but something told me that it wasn't something either wanted to talk about too much. "Alright," I decided not to further that topic, "How about the weather?"

"It's nice." Mimi said, "The sunshine is always nice after that rain that lasted the whole battle."

"Yes, I agree." I said awkwardly. I wasn't sure why it was so awkward. I'd known each of them for all thirteen years of our trials, and we'd been together through a lot of separate battles. Such as the most recent one—the battle of Mimi's Restaurant. Or the time when Koushiro and I had tag-teamed and fought against Yuukimon and Yuujoumon—when he'd fainted and first got Tentomon to mega. We weren't strangers, but there was just nothing to talk about. I supposed that we always had talked mostly about the battles...

Come to think of it... that was my relationship with everyone. Besides Taichi, Takeru, Hikari and Sora. Well, Miyako did produce my music for me, that was always nice, but aside from that we didn't really talk... Maybe we weren't really friends. Maybe now that the battles were over...

Thankfully the door swung open and Taichi strode into the room carrying a stack of three chairs. I jumped to my feet immediately to help him, but Mimi was closer and had taken one of them, setting it to the left of her own chair. Taichi walked down the other side of the table and set his two chairs and random intervals.

"You don't need to write minutes for this one," Taichi reminded Koushiro, patting his head.

"I'm just getting my computer up to date," Koushiro said quickly, looking away from his computer to defend himself.

"I'm kidding," Taichi said, throwing his hands into the air, "Relax." Koushiro nodded and returned to his computer. Something about all of this was starting to worry me. Koushiro was on edge. What did that mean? He was never bothered by anything. He was like a brick wall of intelligence and sarcastic comments.

Taichi sat down next to me and looked to Agumon's empty seat.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He stayed outside." Taichi said with a shrug of his shoulders, "He's playing or something, I dunno." Taichi didn't even look to me, and slowly he looked up at the door when he heard it click open. Miyako was leading Ken through the door, dragging him by his hand, both of their faces very void of emotion. Did they know what this was about too?

Miyako sat in the chair Taichi had added next to Koushiro and Ken took a seat, rightfully, in MetalifeKuwagamon's chair right next to her. Miyako leaned over to look at Koushiro's work and he looked up at her.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong," Miyako said, "but I'm fairly certain this is your broken computer. And there's no need to correct me Mr President-of-the-computer-club because I _know_ this is the exact computer you ranted and raved about when I first met you." Koushiro looked up to her and grinned—at least there was some glimmer of happiness, "How'd you do it?" Koushiro simply pointed his finger to Mimi who shrugged her shoulders and batted her eyes innocently.

"Have you added Gaiomon yet?" Miyako asked, still leaning over his shoulder, "He's amazing."

I zoned the two of them out because I knew that they were about to get really nerdy. "Hey Ken!" I said loudly. "What's up?"

"Not much," Ken shrugged.

"That's boring." Taichi said flatly before looking slowly to Ken. "Ken have I ever spoken to you?"

"Uh..." Ken seemed to be having trouble remembering a time if ever there was one.

"I'm sorry for that." Taichi said quietly, "I... should have."

We all looked to the door as it opened again, "It's alright," Ken said as Daisuke, Hikari and Kurayami walked into the room together. "A conversation takes two people. It's as much my fault as it is yours."

"What's Taichi's fault this time?" Hikari asked, pulling out D'arcmon and Babamon's chairs so she and Kurayami could sit as Daisuke ran for Agumon's chair to be at the head of the table muttering to himself 'I'm the leader after all,' as he did so.

"Nothing," Ken said flatly, staring down to his hands in his lap.

Before anyone could say anything else, Jou and Iori were walking into the room, both of them laughing which was a pretty good thing to see. I was still confused why everyone was being so solemn. Jou sat in Divermon's chair as Iori took the one Taichi had added to sit next to him.

"And it sounds stupid," Iori said, not paying attention to anyone around him, "But I really think I deserved a happy ever after."

"And you got it." Jou winked, elbowing Iori playfully.

"I hope so." He said before letting his face turn bright red at the sight of everyone in the room. I didn't pay him any mind because I knew he'd only get more embarrassed, so instead I rested my head in my hands and waited for the door to open again. I just wanted everyone to get here so we could deal with whatever it was that was bothering everyone.

Willis was next with my brother. And it was a really odd sight, but they didn't sit together so it made me think that maybe they hadn't come together, and only casually met up by accident. Takeru sat in Ogremon's place around the corner of the table from Hikari and Willis sat in Centarumon's place across from Jou. Hideto, Mari and Kiyoko came next, Mari sitting between Mimi and Willis in the last of Taichi's added seats, as Kiyoko sat on Willis' other side in Leomon's chair. Hideto however sat fairly far away from Kiyoko, sitting between Ken and Iori, and I wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to, or because there was literally no more room at that end of the table. I guess I'd never know. Michael burst through the door dramatically as he always did and sat next to Kurayami in Tinkermon's place and then Neo was walking through quietly, Dracomon in his arms.

"Most of us left our partners outside to play," Michael noted, "I saw them all out there playing hide and seek."

"Can't have been hiding very well then, if you saw them all," Willis said and we all laughed, but he was alone in that. No one even cracked a smile.

"Neo said he couldn't go in alone." Dracomon said from Neo's arms as he headed to one of two empty seats—Erif's place. "He didn't want to go to a place he thought might not welcome him. I think he secretly just wanted to spend more time with me because I know he loves me."

"Hush." Neo hissed quietly.

"It's okay to show some form of appreciation to your friends every now and then," I told him seriously, "And we all are. Your friends I mean. You came a long way Neo. We're proud of you. Well I am anyway."

"As am I." Jou nodded.

"Me too." Miyako and Iori said together.

"See, Neo?" Dracomon said, looking up from Neo's lap with his big eyes. "I told you they'd like you as much as I did!"

"You did, didn't you?" Neo said quietly, hugging his partner. "Sorry I doubted you."

Everyone slowly and awkwardly looked away from their moment, and the room was encased in total silence for all of two seconds before the door was creaking open and the final member of the group was stepping into the room.

"Hey," She said, waving her hand awkwardly. "Sorry I'm late." Sora was wearing a simple summer dress and a big sun hat with large, round sunglasses.

"Going on a trip?" Taichi asked with a grin.

"I can't figure out fashion anymore." Sora groaned, "I couldn't find anything appropriate to wear to the council room."

"Well you might want to get a grip on that before you come to work here," Taichi joked, "As Marrow's replacement you really should dress more like him."

"I can totally see Marrow pulling off that dress." Michael joked.

"Hold up everyone!" Mimi said loudly, "Sora, dear Sora... did I hear Taichi correctly? You got a job here at the Temple? In a boring meeting room?"

"Hey now," Taichi argued.

"The walls are beige, Taichi." Mimi said flatly.

"Why would you work here?" Daisuke asked.

"I-I..." Sora stuttered, shaking her head. "I needed a new dream and I found it." Daisuke and Mimi looked to each other, their eyebrows raised, but said nothing more.

"So what's this meeting about?" I asked finally.

Everyone turned to Taichi and I saw the corners of his mouth twitch into what I knew was supposed to be a grin. The same smile that flashed across his face every time something triumphant happened, but it was overshadowed by a wall of sadness.

"We won." He said flatly, throwing his hands into the air. Michael whooped excitedly and a few people cracked a smile, but Taichi leaned lazily back in his char and Koushiro shut his laptop. Apparently things were getting serious.

"This was our last battle." Taichi said, "The Digital World has found peace, everything is back where it belongs, our families are safe. Everything is done. You all heard the prophecies. You all know how the story goes. The cycle of the crests is closed."

"Not quite," Michael said suddenly.

"We've still got trust." Ken agreed.

"Yes, well..." Taichi's voice faded and Koushiro took over.

"The prophecy says that the Great Evil of Earth is to be defeated by Trust and a team of his own." Koushiro said simply, looking to Ken and then Michael, "We aren't that team. Our crests have had their run. We found them, we lost them, we fought for them, mastered them, and shared them with our friends." He flicked his eyes toward Sora who tried to smile at him, but she was just sad. That's all I could see on her face, and that was even without being able to see her eyes. She was sad, and there was nothing I could do to stop that. "And then they defeated the Greatest Evil of all." Koushiro finished.

"Why aren't we celebrating then?" Hikari asked. Michael and I both nodded but most of the others seemed to see why that was. Was there something I wasn't catching here?

"Because," Taichi said, "Thirteen years ago, seven of us created a team with our seven partners. We went to Camp, and started an adventure. Soon that adventure was joined by you Hikari, and then three more, and slowly it just turned into a snowball, rolling down a hill. Until finally, it rolled to a stop."

"What are you saying?" Hikari asked, and I could tell by the look on her face that she was slowly coming to the same realization that I was.

"It means that our adventure is over." Taichi said flatly.

"No." Hikari growled flatly. Again, I could tell she felt the same twisted feeling in her stomach that I felt. Takeru took her hand gently and calmed her—there was more than definitely something going on between the two of them that I didn't know about yet.

"Yes." Taichi said flatly. "I think Mimi's got something she wanted to read, or something."

"Why is everyone acting like this is the end?" Michael asked quietly as Mimi stood up and pulled out a piece of paper.

"I-I-I..." She was stuttering, her eyes running down the paper, "I was just a stupid little girl when I met all of you—I thought aliens existed, and I still think I'm probably right actually. But what I don't think any of you know is that—" She shook her head. "I'm not doing this without the digimon."

"Why not?" Takeru asked.

"Just—someone go get them." Mimi declared.

Jou, Michael and Koushiro all jumped to their feet and headed straight for the door, reminding me of the old days when they were fighting over her affections. I guess she still found a way to squeeze into a tight space in each of their hearts.

We all waited as Mimi read over her paper until the others had come back, all of the digimon pouring into the room, each of them rushing to their partner's sides. I pulled Gabumon into my lap and watched as Palmon jumped up onto Mimi's chair and hugged her from behind and whispered something to her that I couldn't hear.

"Right," Mimi said clearing her throat and brushing her hair behind her ears. "What none of you realize is how much you mean to me."And then she was crying. Just like that. "I might not tell you all the time, but each one of you means so much to me—and each of you taught me something. No matter how small it was, I'll always cherish it. Agumon—y-you taught me that if someone eats too much they'll get really cranky!" Agumon laughed sheepishly, unsure whether to take it as a compliment or not. "A-and Ken, you taught me that the darkest people have the most room for kindness in their hearts. E-each one of y-y-you will always be with me! And I... I can't—and just... I've grown so much and it's... i-it is because of each of you... and I-I-I—" She ripped up her paper and threw it behind her. "I just love you all so much."

My mouth was dry as I stared at Mimi, unable to even blink. My stomach was still twisted up, now more than ever, and my head was spinning like mad. The first time I'd ever seen Mimi she and her friends were giggling and looking to me, gossiping most likely, and now she was one of my closest friends. Funny how life can change on a moment's notice with no rhyme or reason, no warning. It just changes. And for some reason, it was changing again, but I couldn't let it happen.

Palmon hugged Mimi and pulled her into her seat. "We all love you too." Patamon chimed in from his place on top of Takeru's head.

As I looked around to the others I saw that nearly all of their eyes were watering, and the others were either flat out balling or forcing themselves to not do so.

"Why is everyone crying?" I asked flatly, slamming my fists into the table, surprising even myself. "What the hell is going on? Someone just tell me."

"Everything has changed." Jou said calmly. "We're no longer needed as a team. Each of us has realized that we've had too much on our plate, consciously or subconsciously. I have two jobs, working on finding a replacement, I'm moving and half of my house is in the works to be built, I have a daughter to raise, a partner to spend time with, and a wife. We're done saving the world, Yamato, but now it's time to move on."

"I'm not moving on." Hikari said strongly through her tears, shaking her head and crossing her arms.

"Alright," Jou said, "I didn't mean it that way. I just mean we're... And we... I just—"

"He means we aren't going to be a team anymore." Daisuke said flatly, "It means that there are no more battles to be won. It means that we won't need to meet up every week to talk about our lives. And it means we no longer need a leader." I watched as he slowly reached up to the top of his head and grabbed his goggles, pulling them from their place, and tossing them into the center of the table.

"You'll always be a leader to me!" Veemon declared, hugging Daisuke tight.

"We'll still keep in touch guys," Takeru offered. "It's not like any of us are just going to disappear from this world."

"Iori might," Patamon said, joking about how Iori sometimes vanished to the Land of Dreams.

"Actually," Taichi said, standing up, "That's another thing we need to talk about."

"The council voted that the Digidestined keep the keys to the other worlds here." Gabumon explained.

"That way, if anything goes wrong we'll still have them safe." Agumon finished.

"That's ridiculous." Biyomon said, "What could go wrong?"

"Well," Koushiro said, "When Sora..." he was unable to say the word he was looking for, "had her accident she had her key with her."

"Which means that Arkadimon had the key." Tentomon said, "Which could have been really bad had we not saved Sora."

Miyako was the first to place her key on the table, slamming it down, her palm open. "I don't really need it anyway."

"I need mine though!" Iori argued.

"You left the door open though," Armadillomon reminded him from the floor where I couldn't see him. "Iori, the door won't ever close." Iori grumbled his disagreement and placed the key on the table. Mimi followed suit, and then Jou, and Kurayami.

"What about Norn?" Daisuke asked, holding his key up in front of him.

"She can travel through any world," Taichi reminded him. "She's the Queen of everything is she not?" Daisuke sighed his agreement and placed his key on the table too. Sora and Koushiro looked to each other and nodded placing their keys down too.

"Willis?" Michael prompted.

"Shhh!" Terriermon hissed as Lopmon kicked Michael from the table where she sat.

"Willis, yours is probably the most important one to keep away from people." Iori said quietly, "It's too tempting. We all want to go meet someone up there, but it's not right. Everything happens for a reason. You should know that Mr Destiny."

Willis looked around the table and nodded slowly. He looked to Lopmon a final time and then set the key down on the table, sliding it away from it. Lopmon leapt into his arms and hugged him.

"Hikari," Taichi was reasoning with his sister who sat on the opposite end of the table. "Just let it go."

"I can't!" Hikari argued, "This key is the only thing I have left to remind me that we were a team. That I was part of it, and important."

"Well you have me," Gatomon reminded her. "And all of your friends. You've got your digivice... And that's the best reminder really. Do you remember the big ordeal upon getting that silly device."

"Miyotismon almost destroyed all of Odaiba!" Gomamon reminded her in case she forgot.

"He was looking for _you_ Hikari." Palmon added, "It was you that he wanted, and then you came around and saved the day. You and Gatomon. That's the best symbol for your time here in our group. The thing that saved us all, the thing that brought you along in the first place."

Hikari looked from Gomamon, to Palmon and then to Gatomon and bit her quivering lip, slowly pulling her key from her pocket and placing it on the table.

"Alright." Taichi said flatly. "I guess that's—"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Mimi practically growled. "I'm not ready."

"None of us are," Taichi said, "But it's like a band-aid. Just get it over with."

"Can we talk about our favourite moments first?" Sora suggested quietly. "I want our last moments as a group to be special."

Before Taichi objected, which he looked ready to do, Mari spoke up. "I enjoyed fighting with Mimi." She said flatly, "It was pretty funny." Slowly a grin spread across her face. Mimi laughed through her tears and pointed excitedly to Mari. "I also... Lalamon's funeral." Everyone understood.

"Call it cheesy or whatever you want," Jou said with a shrug, "But our battles with Apocalymon both times, and Yggdrasil where we beat him with the crests... that felt like... really something."

"I can top your cheese with some cheese of my own," Taichi grinned. "The moment it started snowing. That was my favourite part."

"I think I can speak for the rest of the original seven digimon here," Gabumon said, "when I say that the moment you all came to us was the best. The moment we knew we didn't have to wait for happiness anymore."

"And when I found out that I was Hikari's digimon." Gatomon said with a smile to her partner, "Oh—and when I caught that fish. I'm so much better than all of you."

"You're purr-fect," Labramon joked.

"Sheesh," Gatomon said, "Cat puns coming from a dog? That's ruff." Labramon and Gatomon burst into laughter as everyone else finally began to smile. Eventually we were all talking about our favourite times, everyone had multiple turns. I was pretty sure we'd covered everything really.

Until, of course.

"My knock-knock jokes!" Daisuke declared with a boisterous laugh. "Knock-knock?"

No one was playing along, until it came from the most unlikely source. "Who's there?" Neo asked.

"No!" Mimi laughed, elbowing him, "It's not worth it!"

"Draco," Daisuke said excitedly.

"Draco who?"

"Draco some water! You look parched!" Daisuke said through fits of laughter.

"That was terrible!" Neo laughed.

"I liked it!" Dracomon declared excitedly.

After a few hours of talking, when all the tears had faded the conversation began to wind down.

"Jou, you and I are still going to meet under the tree every week, right?" Iori asked. Jou nodded and smiled to him, "Miyako... you'll babysit my children when I have them right? I couldn't ask anyone else. You're the best babysitter I've ever known."

"I'd be honoured." Miyako blushed.

"And Sora," Takeru said, "You're still my sister, right?"

"Always." Sora nodded. She turned to Hikari, "You too, alright?"

Hikari nodded, biting her lip before blurting out, "None of you are ever getting away from me."

"That sounds menacing," Kurayami joked.

"No," Hikari laughed, "I just mean that you'll all be my friends. Forever. Like Taichi and Yamato, you don't live together anymore. But you'll still be best friends forever, right?"

"Of course," I nodded, looking to Taichi with a grin. He held up his hand so I gave him a high five.

"And just because we don't see each other all the time anymore doesn't mean we won't be friends." Hikari declared.

"She's right." Willis said, "I mean, I know I don't know you all very well, but I still wouldn't be who I was today without you."

"I couldn't have said that better myself," Hideto said.

"And so," Hikari said with a smile, "I'll always remember that time Daisuke got to come to the Digital World, or the time Neo deleted said world—or the many times Ken failed to do so. I'll never forget the Dark Ocean and how Takeru came to save me. I'll never forget any of you." The room chorused similar statements and then Hikari looked shocked to Taichi, "We're still going to meet up on August first every year, aren't we?"

"Of course we are!" Mimi and Jou declared together.

"Are we still invited?" Miyako asked, linking arms with Ken.

"Of course you are." Sora said, "So is everyone in this room. Once a year we'll come back together and be a group."

"So it's not really over." Kiyoko said with a grin.

"Nope!" Mimi smiled to him.

"It'll never be truly over." Daisuke said. "We've had too much time together for it to really end. But as far as adventures of life and death go, I just want you all to know I'm happy that it was with all of you. No one else could have been a better choice."

"Gennai chose wisely," Mimi smiled.

"Well," Taichi said, looking around to everyone who was holding their breath, waiting for what was coming. I took one last look around, memories flashing through the front of my brain. This was it. Our last meeting together. Our last act as a group of heroes. We were done. And my stomach dropped as Taichi finally opened his mouth. "That's a wrap."

_**Mimi Tachikawa:**_

"Mom," I said. "It's time for you to go home. So get your butt on a plane and get gone."

"Isn't that a little bit harsh?" Koushiro asked me. He was sitting on the bed watching me as I practiced in the mirror.

"I don't know. It's how I'm starting to feel," I moaned.

"Try again," he suggested.

"Mom, it's not that I don't love spending time with you, it's just that I don't love spending _so_ _much_ time with you?"

"I don't think that was much better to be honest," Koushiro commented. "Why not shift the focus off of your annoyance and put it onto your father's desperation of having his wife back?"

"What, I'm just supposed to walk up to her and say, 'Hey, you're a terrible wife, go back to Dad already. He misses you.'? How is that any better than any of the other options?" I asked with sass. I shouldn't be taking out my anger on him, but I just could not figure this out! My mother was on my last straw, and I didn't know what to do about it. I mean really, how many months can you be away from your job before you don't have it anymore? She'd already spent a couple months stuck in the Digital World before she decided she'd better just stick to me like freaking glue. Yes, I really, truly appreciated her presence when I was breaking down about Sora. And yes, I was happy she was here when we were fighting against Yggdrasil's drones. But that didn't mean she was allowed to invite herself to live with me. It was fine having Sora imposing on Koushiro's and my couple time. She was his best friend and one of mine too! And she could bring a boy over and it would be a double date. It was cute when she was here. It was _not_ cute, however, when my mother interrupts date night to ask whether or not I want her to iron my underwear. Who even does that, let alone irons someone _else's_ undergarments, even if she was my mother.

"Don't be mean to her. Just focus on saying it as politely as possible," he suggested.

"I love you mom. Really I do. It's just that I'm not the only one that does. Remember Dad? Well, he calls about you all the time. He really misses seeing you. And so does your boss. You remember him, the one who depended on you to run the stage at a theatre—a _Broadway_ theatre—and signs your paychecks? You should probably go and spend some time with him too, since you'll need to beg him to let you get your job back," I tried.

"You were doing so well too, until the unemployment jab," Koushiro sighed.

"I don't know what to do!" I shouted. "How can you tell your Mother that she should go home?"

"You could try asking just like that."

I whirled around to see my mom standing in the doorway, looking at me with a very unimpressed look on her face. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she started tapping her foot.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Mom. I love you, you know I do. I just don't understand why you're _still_ here in Odaiba when you love being in New York so much," I told her exasperatedly.

"There's something I need to do," she said simply. "Something I need to figure out. I'll let you know when I do. Don't worry. I'm anxious to get back myself."

"Do you think it will be soon?" Koushiro asked bluntly. I elbowed him quickly, but Mom just laughed.

"I hope it's not too much longer," she said. "But it could be, so I'm not making any promises. That's not what I came for anyway. I found some drawings buried at the bottom of one of the desk drawers? I figured their Sora's, but they seemed so out of place. Are they a secret that I shouldn't have stumbled on, or can I just file them away with the rest of her work?"

"I suppose you should just file them away," Koushiro commented. "She hasn't mentioned a secret project."

Realization struck me though, and I couldn't let Mom do that. "No. Give them to me. There's something I have to make right."

Mom didn't ask too many questions, so I didn't have to give her any answers. I wasn't proud of what I did. I was actually very ashamed of it. But I didn't have to be ashamed forever. I could still make it up to Sora. I just needed to assemble a little team to do it.

Daisuke showed up on his own accord, demanding that I give him a project he could do to make Sora happy. It was very fortunate for me, almost too coincidental, but I was happy for the help regardless. He kept talking about some New Year's resolution.

Katsue however, took a bit of convincing. Daisuke had no problems saying whatever was on his mind, and I could verbally attack someone with my honest opinions, but when it came to it, Katsue had it down to an art form. She was the perfect choice for me to make. Unfortunately, she wasn't too keen on helping Sora, since it was Sora that Yamato was in love with when Katsue broke up with him. And I could understand her point of view. It made me all the more thankful however, when—after promising her three weeks of free meals whenever my restaurant got back up and running—she finally agreed to help me.

"Why are we here again?" Katsue drawled, looking at the large-yet-unassuming building in front of us.

"We're helping Sora, silly," Palmon told her.

"Yeah, but this is pretty far out of Odaiba. I don't see what Sora has to do with this place," she grumbled.

"It's a school," Daisuke pointed out.

"And?" Katsue wanted to know.

"And Sora would've made it in if it wasn't for me," I admitted. "Now I want to make that right. She can't just take the job that Taichi offered her when she doesn't want it. I can tell she doesn't. She needs _this_."

"Do you know for certain that she would've made it in, because I'd hate to think that I drove us all this way for nothing," Katsue commented.

"Let's go," Veemon suggested, leading us into the building. He and Palmon were wearing sweaters to help hide their digimon status a bit. We didn't to spook the administrations officer.

It took us twenty six minutes to hunt down the administration's office. It wouldn't have taken so long, except we let Veemon have the map, and he had been holding it upside down the entire time. Not our best moment by far. And then we didn't even stop to plan our course of attack, so when Daisuke literally kicked the door open and rolled into the room like a spy, and Katsue stalked in after him clutching her pen and pad of paper like a proper journalist I just walked in with my fists clenched tightly around the folder of drawings with a very determined look on my face.

The poor guy behind the desk looked scared skinny. It was made even worse when Veemon decided that his hood was itchy and revealed that he wasn't just some kid, he was a blue dinosaur, and Palmon used her poison ivy to close the door behind us.

"C-can I h-help y-you?" the man asked.

"Yes," Daisuke, Katsue and I said at once.

"You've made a horrible decision and you have to right it at once," Daisuke said dramatically.

"Due to some digging I've found that there is at least one potential student that truly does deserve a second glance," Katsue announced.

"I made a mistake, and I need you to blame me for it instead of taking it out on my friend," I told him.

All were fine statements—except perhaps Daisuke's—but not a single one of the made sense as we spouted them off at the exact same time.

"C-can you r-rep-peat that?" the man asked.

"Do you remember the application of one Sora Takenouchi?" Katsue demanded.

"We get many ap-plications daily, miss. I don't remember ev-veryone's names," he said.

"Look it up then, we don't have all day, man," Daisuke said, collapsing into a big, comfy looking armchair. The man jumped to his feet immediately and rushed over to his filing cabinet. He fumbled about pulling out a couple of files only to put them back again. Finally, he located Sora's.

"Let's see," he said, opening the folder. "Oh my. Yes. There was a good reason we didn't accept her. The designs she sent were not up to standard. Any standard."

"They aren't _that_ bad," I snapped. I leaned over his shoulder and winced at the sight of them. Okay. Maybe they _were_ that bad.

"So you see, we cannot allow her into the program," he said.

"And if I were to tell you that those designs did not belong to Sora Takenouchi, but in fact are the scribbling of one Mimi Tachikawa instead?" Katsue asked, jotting things down on her pad of paper.

"I'd ask to see some of Miss Takenouchi's own work in order to even begin to consider it. But the deadlines have already passed. There's simply no time," the man told us.

"Yes, I'll be sure to include that in my documentary, thank you," Katsue said, nodding to him before heading to the door. Daisuke and I gaped at her. Veemon didn't know what to think and Palmon looked ready to Poison Ivy her if she didn't stay in the room.

"What documentary?" the man asked.

"Oh, just a little diddy I've been working on," Katsue said with a lightheartedness that seemed far too real. "It's just about the global phenomenon that went down recently, involving millions of robots invading Earth."

"What could that possibly have to do with this school?" the man demanded.

"I've got nothing against the school personally," Katsue said. "It's just that this is the dream school of one of the major players in the world's safety. Did you know that Miss Takenouchi nearly died for her efforts in restoring peace to not only this world but all of the parallel ones as well. It would be bad press of course for me to have to reveal that you couldn't give her the benefit of the doubt, even though she couldn't possibly have tried sooner—with the world at stake and all."

"I suppose I could ask around about it," the man said quickly.

"I'd like something a little more concrete than that, but if that's all you've got," Katsue said.

"Think about it man," Daisuke snapped. "Sora saved the world. Sora therefore saved your whole establishment. The least you could do is get her a spot. You'd be _lucky_ to have her here. She deserves this so much, you have no idea. But, as she'd probably get mad at us for making you put her on the roster due to her status as a world-saver, I don't think we should really be pressuring you into it."

"So Miss Takenouchi here didn't put you up to it?" he asked, looking to me.

"Oh? No! I'm not Sora. I'm Mimi. Mimi Tachikawa. I'm the one that ruined her application. I feel really bad about it too. So I brought her real drawings to show you. I should have done it earlier, I know, but I was busy saving the world too," I said handing the folder over.

"I will look over these," the man promised. "But I really must ask that you leave my office now, before I have to call security."

"Like we couldn't handle _security_," Veemon scoffed. Daisuke hit him over the back of the head, and laughed nervously, edging his way to the door.

"I can't promise anything," the man told us. "But I will look into it. I swear."

"Better than nothing," Katsue grumbled.

"Thank you," I said. "It means so much to me, and I know it would mean even more to her."

Palmon opened the door for us to leave, and the others all stalked off ahead of us. But I wasn't in quite as big of a hurry to leave.

"It's hard to believe that Sora could come here next year," I commented. "I'm so used to having her at home. I don't even want to think of her leaving."

"But this is her dream, right?" Palmon said. "So I know you'll step aside and let her do it. You stood in her way before, but you're fixing things this time around. She'll really appreciate it Mimi."

"I know," I said. "It just seems like so much. We're all getting older, getting jobs and making lives for ourselves. Joe, Miyako and Ken are already married. Sora's been engaged. Joe's got a baby. It's scary."

"Scarier than facing Arkadimon?" Palmon asked wryly.

"Yes," I said honestly. "I knew what to do then. Well, I mostly left it up to you to decide, but it was straight forward. We had two options: beat him, or die. It wasn't that big of a decision. But without saving the Digital World to fall back on, my life is an open canvas and I think I've already proven just how horrible of an artist I am."

"But Sora's not," Palmon said. "And she'll be there to help you. And so will Koushiro and Jou. All of our friends really. The future is scary just like Arkadimon was, but you'll have me to back you up the whole way, just like in all of our past fights. I won't let you fall Mimi."

"I don't know what I'd do without you, Palmon," I said.

"Not a whole heck of a lot, that's for sure," Palmon said laughing.

"I'm glad you'll be there," I whispered.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'm going to be the flower digimon at your wedding, and I'm going to be there when your first child is born. I'm going to be there when you reopen your restaurant, and if I knew how, I'd be working alongside you the whole time."

"I'll teach you then," I said grinning. "I'll teach you to cook. We'll be a team. The first digimon and human cooking duo."

"I like the sounds of that," Palmon said.

"Hurry up!" Daisuke called from the doorway at the end of the hall. "Katsue's threatening to leave without you, and I think she's crazy enough to do it."

I rushed out to the car, prepared for another long drive, this time with thoughts of Palmon's words to keep me occupied. She was right of course. She almost always was. It was a gift of hers. Katsue threatened to toss Daisuke out the window twice when he started singing about ninety-nine bottles of beer on a wall, but otherwise the ride was blissfully silent.

When I finally arrived home, I opened the door and found myself staring at a dark room. There was a faint flickering of light, however, coming from the dining room, so I tossed my purse on the counter and made my way towards it. I caught sight of a beautifully arranged table, with a three candle candelabra in the middle of the table on a deep red table runner that went perfectly with the crisp, white tablecloth. There were two place settings, each with a white plate sitting on top of a gold charger plate that matched the candelabra perfectly. There were far more pieces of silverware than I would ever actually use, but it looked so well put together all on the table. A large casserole dish was on the table, with steam fogging up its lid, and several smaller dishes of vegetables were spread about sporadically.

Koushiro was seated at one of the seats and looked up to me when I walked into the room. He smiled at me and I couldn't believe his thoughtfulness in making such a romantic dinner for me to come home to.

Palmon snuck off into the darkness, presumably to hunt down Tentomon and Biyomon to tell them of our day's adventure.

"Thank you," I told him, leaning in to give him a kiss.

"I suppose I should thank you too," Koushiro said. "Though I've no idea what you'd need to thank me for."

"For dinner, silly," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I just got here," he said.

"So did I," I pointed out.

"I figured you just stepped out to get something from the store," he said embarrassed.

"If _I_ didn't make it, and _you_ didn't make it, who did?" I questioned.

"It wasn't Sora," Koushiro commented. "She's out with Hikari right now, helping her pick out future date attire."

A folded piece of paper caught my attention. It was leaning, suspiciously, against the candelabra. I picked it up and read it by candlelight.

_Mimi,_

_I love you. And I've found the way to show what I truly needed to say, since I could never find the words that could do my meaning justice. I know you love this boy, and after spending a few months watching you, I can safely say that he has my approval. He cares deeply for you, nearly as deeply as your father and I, if not even more so. Seeing you deal with the crisis of Yggdrasil together and watching the pair of you struggle to move past Sora's death—no matter how short lived it thankfully was—in order to continue fighting in her name. You two will be good together. One simply doesn't live through such things together without it leaving a lasting impression, after all._

_You are my daughter, through and through, and I know that my acceptance will mean little to you in the grand scheme of things. My parents never did quite accept Keisuke as my husband, still haven't to be honest. But I married him anyway. I should never have tried to force you into being who I wanted. My parents did the same to me and it didn't work for them. And you are more free spirited than even I was as a young woman trying to make my way in the world. I know you think I am pleased by the destruction of your restaurant on some level, but I am not. I was proud of you for achieving your dreams at such a young age, even if I never showed it. I know though, that you will find it in you to start anew, and reach for bigger and better goals to re-fulfill your dreams._

_You are destined for great things my daughter, even if your days as a world-saving digidestined are over. I can only hope that you remember little old me when you reach the top._

_Now enjoy this meal I prepared for you and your beau. I put a lot of effort into it, and I don't want it to be cold. By the time you read this, I'll be on my way to the airport. I've overstayed my welcome, and though you will no doubt miss me, I need you to be strong and have fun anyway._

_I love you,_

_Mom._

That was the most touching thing Mom had ever done for me in my life. It figures she'd do it through a note so that I couldn't sob happily into her shoulder. She always _was_ particular about her clothing. She was wrong about one thing though. I didn't think she was happy about the loss of my restaurant. I knew she couldn't be. She kept trying to feed me chocolate chip cookies. That was her go to comfort food when she was upset about something. She was just as upset about it as I was. More even, since I'd been too relieved to be alive to really let it sink in.

"Are you okay?" Koushiro asked, putting his hand on my back. It wasn't until then that I realized I was crying. He sounded so unsure that I had to laugh.

"I'm fine," I said. "Better than fine. I'm great even."

"Who's it from?" he wanted to know.

"Mom," I said. "She's on her way back to New York as we speak."

"We shouldn't let her hard work go to waste," he commented. I was quick to agree and slipped into my seat. I put a little bit of everything on my plate and laughed as Koushiro plopped mostly casserole on his own, forgoing most of the vegetables.

"Cheers," I said, raising a bite of casserole into the air and putting it into my mouth. I nearly gagged the second it touched my tongue. Koushiro seemed to be trying to tough it out, chewing his own bite though his face was starting to turn green. I couldn't do it though. I spit it out immediately.

"Oh thank God," he said, after forcing himself to swallow. He guzzled back the water in his glass. "I was hoping you found it as atrocious as I did."

"If _you_ can't eat it, then you know it's bad," I teased. "I feel so bad. She worked hard on this."

"When she calls—and you know she will—we'll tell her it was delicious. As it stands, I'm thinking about ordering something in," Koushiro said, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the horrible food. I laughed.

"Why don't we have some pizza? It'll still be romantic if we keep the candles going," I offered.

"Sounds perfect," he said, sending me a smile, before hunting down the phone. I raced after him, worried about just what he'd order on that pizza.

_**Sora Takenouchi:**_

I was really starting to internally thank Mimi for ruining my applications to school. If it wasn't for her I'd never be where I was right then. Pulling a few odds and ends out of the black and white cardboard box and decorating the council room. It was just a little flair, but the room itself was more boring than I'd expected it to be. If I was going to be working here for the rest of my life voting on issues I barely understood, then I was going to have to allow my eyes to at least be satisfied.

Everything was really falling into place now though. Yamato's music was really becoming something big, Katsue got her big break, Taichi found love with Rei and Takeru and Hikari both broke out of their terrible relationships with Catherine and Willis respectively. Mimi's mom moved back to New York finally and Mimi and Koushiro couldn't be happier—Kiyoko agreed to help Jou on the Digital World extension to his house, and unless my internal relationship radar was wrong, which it never was, something big was about to go down between Kiyoko and Hideto. Mari and Willis were definitely seeing each other in secret. I'd spotted them wearing abnormally large sunglasses sneaking into a fancy restaurant. He was a good friend, helping her over her loss—and speaking of Mari's friends, Miyako's torturing was finally over, and she was living happily with Ken—Iori's relationship was finally in the open, and Kurayami was smiling a lot more than usual, and it was all thanks to Daisuke—the perfect gentleman. I wasn't sure about Michael to be totally honest, but was he ever not happy? Probably not. So really, everything was perfect. Everyone was happy.

Everyone.

Including me. I now had this desk job here in the Digital World where I could help two of my very best friends decide the future of the Digital World. I had a feeling Tinkermon and I would get along great since she'd already cornered me and asked me what my stance was on skin care, and when I told her it was important she claimed I was her new best friend... but the rest of the council wasn't nearly as welcoming. Whether it was because I was a woman, and the rest of the female-ish Digimon, since apparently someone, sometime made the ludicrous suggestion that they didn't have genders, who happened to be on the council were crazy... or perhaps they were wary because I was replacing both Marrow and Erif, the two leaders of the Death Knights, the creatures who messed with all of the Digital World's time and all that jazz.

Whatever it was I knew I'd have a lot of baking to do if I planned on winning their hearts over. That was of course, if Leomon planned on relinquishing the oven to me. He was quite the gifted chef really.

Life was finally slowing down and coming back to normal. Everyone had gotten over my death as much as they seemed to be able to, which was simply wonderful since I didn't remember it at all anyway, and they're constant hugs and tales of woe were, as awful as it sounded, starting to annoy me.

But the thing that really boosted all of this over the top was Neo. Neo was happy, and accepted. Though I was sure he still had a little ways to go before he fully gained everyone's trust and loyalty, he was on his way. And I had to admit I _did_ understand where everyone was coming from. I vaguely remembered a few death threats, a deleted Digital World and a few punches thrown his direction from... myself—but really, he seemed happy, which made me happy. If only he could find his calling.

He'd be way better at this job than I was. But thankfully he didn't have it. I did. And I was super duper pleased about it too. Uh huh...

I dropped the cardboard box after pulling out the final item, a candle that smelled like brown sugar. It would sweeten up the place. I set it down in the center of the table and then backed up to admire my handiwork.

It looked much more exciting—homey almost.

And then the door opened. I turned, excited to show whoever it was my work. It was Taichi, followed by Centarumon, D'arcmon and Babamon.

"Oh dear!" Babamon exclaimed. "What did you _do_?"

"Sora," Centarumon said, "This isn't like your parents' bedroom. You cannot just redecorate it at your own free will. This is our workplace."

"It's really unprofessional." D'arcmon agreed.

"Oh what do you know?" I said, a little snippy, I'd have to admit, but I'd just put a lot of effort into this, and they were tearing down all the confidence I'd built up in the past hour. "You're like the oldest digimon ever. You're cranky and boring."

"I resent that!" Babamon shouted, but I could hear Tinkermon laughing from the hallway.

"Taichi, tell them that they're wrong." I said boldly.

"I..." He stared at me, his eyes wide before dropping them to the ground, "I can't. Sora, they're right. The place looks awesome, but it's a little... well it looks like Mimi's old bedroom—and we're supposed to be on a professional level here. I'm going to have to ask you to take it down."

"Fine then Mr Bossy-pants." I grumbled. "I'll just make it more professional then. How about cream and eggshell?"

"Sora—" Taichi objected nervously.

"Fine! Grey." I decided. "I'll just make everything grey. What better way to wake up in the morning than thinking, 'hey. At least I get to work in a room with a design based off of the Dark Ocean.'"

"Sora," Taichi sighed, "Just leave it how it was. It was fine that way."

"But it's boring." I objected.

"But it's a meeting room." Taichi said flatly, "It's supposed to be boring..." He looked to me and saw that I was hurt. Because I was. A lot. I'd just wanted to make my life a little less awful, and then it was being shut down again. I didn't blame Taichi really, I should have asked for permission... but I knew he would have said no. He had hardly ever let me into the room before, and I'd just done all but added a hot tub. Though I figured he'd be all for that idea... "Sorry." He added to me before turning to the others. "Look, I'll handle it later, okay? I'm not having a good day." He stormed toward the door and then froze, "Sora?"

"Yeah?" I asked, hopeful.

"Just... make sure you take it down, okay?" and then he was gone. The three digimon stood awkwardly before following him out of the room.

I was biting my lip, forcing back tears for the next half hour as I tore down all the decorations I'd just put up, and dropping them back into the box I'd brought in. I just wanted something to go right. Just _one_ thing.

I was following Taichi's footsteps to the door in a dramatic storm out when it popped open instead revealing MetalifeKuwagamon standing on the other side. "Oh." He said, "You're leaving?"

"I am." I nodded. "I'm just not in the mood right now."

"Well you have a visitor." He said quickly, stepping aside and revealing a very familiar blonde boy.

"Yamato?" I asked as MetalifeKuwagamon nervously flitted out of the way and down the hallway. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for you Sora." Yamato said, stepping into the room. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Not if you have anything bad to say about me." I said.

"Just that your self confidence is in the basement." Yamato said.

"Oh, is that where it is?" I asked, "Thanks I'll just go get it now that you've found it for me."

"Sora," Yamato said, closing the council room door. "You're using sarcasm as a default. You only do that when you're upset. Now stop being upset and listen to me for once."

"I'd prefer you kept the door open." I said, setting the box on the table and moving past Yamato to pull them open again.

"So you're scared of me now?" He asked, but I didn't answer. "Sora... have you ever contemplated suicide?"

"Wow." Was all I could say. I turned to him, shocked and then shook my head, "No, I don't think I have."

"Good." He said with a quick, "The point of that was that I have. I've contemplated killing myself just once. And then I realized that I didn't need to kill myself if someone else could do it for me. And so I started fighting harder than I'd ever fought. And then I realized that I needed to be fighting for you, and not fighting to end up with you."

"Oh." I said, realizing when he was talking about now. He was referring to my not-really-a-death-but-kind-of. "Well I'm glad you didn't kill yourself."

"Because you love me." He said, a grin spreading across his face.

"Uh, no." I said, turning quickly to hide my flushing face as I picked up the box again. "Because you're a very close personal friend of mine. Okay? I care about you and want you alive the same amount I want everyone else alive." And then I was pushing past him and into the hallway, marching toward the gate to Earth where I could maybe lose Yamato.

"Alright, I'll give you that." Yamato chirped, "You're a good friend. And I'm pretty loving. Look at that, we've got each others crests figured out, maybe we'll fuse now."

"What are you trying to say, Yamato?" I asked, spinning on my heel and stopping him in his tracks.

"A few days ago... when we were fighting Arkadimon," Yamato said quietly, "I... may have heard you mention that you loved me."

"That was one of the many things that slipped out of my mouth that night." I said, turning away again.

"Are you denying it?" He asked.

"That I said it? No."

"Are you denying what the words meant?" He pressed.

_No._

The simple word was echoing in my head. Of course I couldn't honestly take back what I'd said. I did love Yamato. Pretty sure of it anyway. But I'd also loved him before. And Neo a couple times and Taichi on and off, and maybe even Kiyoshi. It was too soon to say. I couldn't rush into anything. That's what I'd have to tell him.

"Look," He said before I got the chance. "Sora, I love you too. And I want you to know that I will wait for you. Forever."

"He wrote a song about it." It was Gabumon, popping out of the kitchen and skipping down the hallway toward us. Yamato tried to hush his digimon up, but he failed. "Really, he did." Gabumon nodded. "It's called 'I'll Wait For You' and I think it's his best one yet. But he promised Hideto he wouldn't write anymore songs about you for his album so he had to make sure it was good, right Yamato?"

"Kind of in the middle of something..." Yamato muttered from the corner of his mouth.

"Right." Gabumon nodded. "I'm not even here." But he was.

"I'm happy you'll wait for me." I said without thinking, "I'm happy you love me that much, but maybe you shouldn't. Maybe I'm not worth it. Maybe you should go back to Katsue."

"Do you want that?" He asked. "Honestly?" I didn't answer. I couldn't answer. There was nothing I could say to further my point that wouldn't be a lie. "Alright. Well I'll see you later then."

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Train station." He asked. "Meeting a really good friend there."

"Who?" I asked, but it was his turn to avoid answering. He turned and left the hallway the opposite direction I was headed with Gabumon skipping alongside him. I turned and headed straight out the door to Earth, popping directly into Mimi's house.

"Sora!" I was greeted instantly by Biyomon who flew toward me and fluttered around my head. "How did it go? They didn't like it did they?"

"No." I said, setting the box down behind the couch as Mimi and Koushiro jumped to their feet anxiously, turning to me. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Sora, get your coat." Mimi said.

"Why?" I asked, "I just want to have a nap."

"You can have a nap later." Mimi insisted. "I promise. You'll have lots of time. But first you need to put on your coat and follow me." Koushiro was already standing by the door and slipping his shoes on, tossing my coat to me. I put it on and allowed Palmon and Tentomon to burst through the door and lead the way to where Koushiro's mother's van was waiting for us. They let me take the passenger's seat as Koushiro decided to drive leaving Mimi to sit in the back with the three digimon.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To a restaurant." Mimi informed me. "We're celebrating."

"Celebrating, what exactly?" I asked.

"Your happiness!" Mimi cheered. "You got that new job or whatever."

"You don't even know what we're celebrating do you?" I asked.

"Yes." Mimi argued. "You got that wonderful... job with Koushiro or something. That one you totally fit in with. The boring desk job where your creative ideas will be shut down and all that."

"Wow, thanks Mimi." I said coldly. "I really feel like celebrating now."

"Are we going to your restaurant, Mimi?" Tentomon asked, trying to change the subject. That launched Mimi directly into a long speech about how her restaurant was to be rebuilt with the money she got from insurance—plus with the extra money she'd be able to make it bigger and even hire more staff. I was happy for her.

But I _was_ growing rather suspicious, and that suspicion increased the further we got out of town, but Koushiro knew all sorts of hole in the wall places, and I figured we'd just be going to another one of those. Until we finally pulled into a parking lot, under a big sign that told me we weren't at a restaurant at all. We were at a train station.

Koushiro got out of the car and rushed to open my door for me. Everyone was acting super weird lately, and I was really starting to freak out. What did I miss? What happened? Biyomon was by my side a second later and then Mimi was slamming the trunk of the van, walking toward me, pulling her favourite pink suitcase on wheels.

"Where are you going?" I asked her.

"Me?" Mimi asked, "No, not me. You."

"What?" I gasped. Were they kicking me out of the house? Did I do something wrong? I could help pay for the mortgage and everything now that I had a job again—did they not want to see me anymore? Was I annoying them as Mimi's mother had?

"I'll explain on the way." Mimi said, taking my hand. "Come on Sora."

Tentomon, Palmon and Koushiro followed Biyomon Mimi and I as Mimi pulled me along through the empty parking lot. "As you know," Mimi said, "I sort of screwed with your application for that school."

"I do know that, yes." I nodded.

"Well I went and had a little chat with the Dean of your fancy-pancy school." Mimi informed me.

"You did _what_?" I asked.

"I helped!" Palmon exclaimed.

"Guys!" I shouted, "I told you. It was destiny that chose my path for me."

"No," Mimi said flatly. "It was me. And I knew I could do it again because I'd already done it. I'd screwed your life over, and then literally brought you back to life, and then, knowing there was something I could do... I couldn't watch you rot in that stupid job you're pretending to be happy with. You're not that kind of girl Sora."

"We received an email a couple days ago telling us about your approval to the school for the second semester, but that wasn't enough," Koushiro explained, "And we may have... accidentally worked it so you got early admissions."

"H-how?" I gasped.

"Well we sent him a box of your clothes," Mimi explained, "Letters of recommendations from a few of your clients, your sketches... and lastly we got you an athletic scholarship. Turns out he's a fan of tennis." Mimi winked at me as we rounded a corner.

"You can't just get athletic scholarships like that though," I said.

"You can when you're pretending to be Katsue and threatening to change the story of the world so the Dean of your school was really the mastermind all along." Koushiro said, his face flushing.

"Why would you do all of this though...?" I asked quietly.

"Because we're your friends." Koushiro said.

"And because I owed it to you." Mimi said, "I will forever be in your dept. You stuck with me through all my crazy. This was the _least_ I could do. You really deserve this. You deserve to be happy. Your year kind of sucked. I mean you died like—"

"I thought we agreed to stop talking about that." I interjected.

"Right," Mimi nodded, "Well the point is. You deserve to be happy. And we're not the only ones who think so."

"What do you mean?" I asked as Mimi stopped walking and pointed down a path lined with a wooden fence to where everyone was waiting for me in front of the bare train tracks.

And by everyone, I meant everyone.

"Sora," Mimi said. "Everything about you... it's beautiful. Magical even." She was already tearing up, "Sora, if you weren't my friend I don't know what I would do. I just love you—and—Oh I can't handle this... I knew I should have gone to cheerleading camp—Oh Sora!" She was hugging me suddenly, sobbing into my shoulder as I wrapped my arms slowly around her. "I'll miss you."

"I'm not disappearing..." I said quietly.

"No, but you won't be around much." Mimi said. "I know you. You need your break. And this is it. This is where you'll get to reinvent yourself as Sora Takenouchi, the most beautiful and loving person I know. You'll come back. But you and I both know that this is goodbye."

And then I was crying, because I knew it was true. Just for a while. But it was a goodbye nonetheless.

"This is just great." Koushiro said sarcastically, and when I turned to him I saw that he was wiping a tear from his cheek, and I couldn't help but laugh at him through my tears, hugging him. Then I was hugging Palmon and Tentomon, so consumed with the feeling of goodbye.

I was turning to the others next, rushing toward them. The closest person to me was Kurayami and I was hugging her quickly.

"Wow!" Kurayami gasped, "So many emotions."

"I never even got to know you!" I sobbed, "But when I come back I'm doing that. Mark it on your calendar Kura. I promise you, I will get to know you the next time I see you. How about a coffee date?"

"I'd love that." Kurayami laughed as I moved to Kiyoko who was holding hands with Hideto.

I couldn't take my eyes off of their intertwined fingers and Kiyoko realized that. He tried to escape Hideto's hold but Hideto didn't let him. I threw my arms around Kiyoko. "Thank you for saving my life like... forever ago."

"You already thanked me for that." Kiyoko pointed out.

"Yes, well it was very much appreciated." I laughed. "You're Koushiro's cousin, which really means you're my cousin too if you think about it."

"So that's how that works," Hideto said sarcastically.

"Don't start with me!" I laughed, pointing a finger to Hideto. "Kiyoko, just... remember me!"

"Oh I will." Kiyoko promised.

"You too." I said to Hideto. "Maybe we can catch another Teenage Wolves concert together."

"Another?" Kiyoko asked, his eyebrows raised.

"So I know Sora more than I'd like to admit." Hideto said, hiding his face as I turned to Mari and Willis. I didn't even know what to say to them, but catching sight of Takeru right behind them sent me into a frenzy of tears and all I could do was cry as I hugged them both. I released them and found myself clinging to Rei next in my attempt to find someone who could comfort me. Rei whispered something in my ear but I couldn't make it out.

"Miyako!" I said turning to her, embarrassed at how many eyes were trained in on me as I cried like a baby. I threw my arms around Miyako who was crying loudly too. I figured that was the best place to blend in. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you." Miyako said surprisingly calmly which caused us both to laugh. When she finally pulled out of the hug she brandished two train tickets. "I know Mimi said that it's your time to be alone, but I bought one for me too. To come see you."

"I'd be honoured to see your face Miyako."

"Oh. Crest pun!" Miyako's tears were rushing down her face again, "Too many feels. I just can't. Anyway... this is only a one time ticket, so I'll have to drive every other day. It takes exactly two hundred and seventy four minutes, and that's if there's no wind."

"I'll miss you Miyako!" I cried out, reaching for Ken who was standing next to her. "Come here!" I hugged them a moment more before my emotions were getting the better of me. "Ken! Say something funny!"

"Uh." He froze, then backed away, arching his back and laughing loudly into the air, "Mwahahaha! It's no use! As long as I have the black digivice, there's no way they can digivolve!"

Suddenly I wasn't crying anymore. Miyako and I still had our arms around each other, but every eye in the area was trained in on Ken, and the only sound to be heard was Mimi's snuffling behind me.

"Sorry." Ken muttered, "I was put on the spot."

"Black digivices?" Hideto asked. "Sounds familiar."

"It does..." Mari and Kiyoko nodded in agreement as the three of them attempted to remember why a black digivice was ringing bells for them.

With my emotions in check now, I turned to Iori and slammed my hands on either side of his face. "I know you're grown up and all, but you're still so cute."

"Thanks." He said, pushing my hands away. "I mean—oh forget it." He grumbled. "Sora you'll come back, right?" He asked. "You did promise."

"I will." I nodded.

"Good, and uh..." He looked panicked, so he turned to Miyako, "Miyako, weren't you coming over? You told me you were going to fix my computer." Iori walked away from me to avoid any more awkward conversation, but I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

"I'm sorry for exploiting your secret relationship with the single girl in the world your mother wouldn't accept for my own personal gain so I could feel accomplished and get over all of my own stupid feelings. It was selfish."

Iori just stared at me for a moment before nodding. "I forgive you." The next person in my reach was Tatum so I pulled her into a hug.

"You!" I said firmly, "You... you've helped us so much Tatum. You deserve a crest. You've done a lot more than anyone else who doesn't have a crest." I turned to Michael, "Isn't there another crest? Give it to her."

"It's not mine." Tatum laughed.

"Then I'll make one for you. You can have... helpfulness. Because you're so helpful." I said pathetically.

"Isn't this a school for the creative minded...?" Michael asked.

"I'm emotional right now, okay?" I said hugging him. "How did your list go?"

"Did I ever tell you about my list?" He asked, confused.

"Uh... no." I decided. "I just know things."

"It went swimmingly." He shrugged off my random knowledge.

"I'm glad." I said, ruffling up his hair, as I was tackled into a hug from Daisuke. "Oh, hey there!"

"I didn't want to be last," He admitted, hugging me tightly and lifting me from the ground. "You're like a little ball of energy I never had a conversation with."

"I'm sure we've talked and stuff." I said, though now that I thought about it...

"Well aren't you going to thank me for helping get you into that school?" He asked.

"You helped?" I asked, "Mimi didn't mention that..."

"Of course she didn't." Daisuke said, as we both turned to look at Mimi who waved nervously. "Well I did."

"Thank you." I said, throwing my arms around his middle. "Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome." He nodded with a grin.

"My turn!" I looked down to my feet to see Meiyomon, bouncing up and down excitedly. I felt bad but I hadn't even noticed him there at all. He was holding out a strange metal contraption that looked like some cross between a model of a molecule, a planet and a cupcake. "For you!"

"Oh great!" I smiled at him, "My own personal something-or-other."

"I hope you'll remember me as your very favourite digimon disguised as Iori's little brother." Meiyomon told me.

"I promise I will." I nodded, patting his head, and standing up to greet Momoe, Jou and Emiko.

"Bye!" Emiko blurted which caused me to actually laugh.

"I hope you have fun on your new adventure Sora," Momoe offered. I nodded and thanked her, but then turned to Jou.

"Well I can safely say that I'll miss you." Jou said, showing me his hand for me to shake. I smacked it out of the way and leaned over Meiyomon's head to hug him.

"This will be the longest we've been apart since I was seven!" I said, shocked, "I'm not sure I can handle that."

"We'll get through it." Jou nodded, "An email a day keeps the doctor away."

"I don't want to keep you away though." I said softly.

Jou didn't reply for a moment but finally, after a quiet sniffle he said, "Man, I was worried I'd catch a Summer cold, but this is even worse."

I wanted to reply to him but all I could do was squeak. I spotted a couple over his shoulder. A new one. How could I not have seen this one coming? It must have been when I was dead! Curse you Arkadimon!

I nearly pushed Jou out of the way and scampered toward Takeru and Hikari excitedly, fanning my face with my hand as girly as I could. "When did this happen?"

They both looked down to their hands and blushed, pulling their hands apart. "Well... a while ago." Takeru admitted. "We were going to tell you. But we just didn't want to... do... it for some reason."

"We're dating!" Hikari exclaimed. "Surprise!" I was hugging them a moment later.

"This is so lucky." I said, astonished.

"I wouldn't call that luck." Hikari pointed out.

"I'm so happy." I decided.

"I'm with you." Takeru agreed. "Speaking of being with you though... how long is this course? Three years? Four years?"

"Uh, three years, and then a year abroad." I told him quietly.

"Okay. Four years." Takeru nodded. "Just four years. Then we'll be together. Together Again, just like old times."

"Four years." Hikari agreed. "I'm not waiting any longer."

"Sora..." I turned to see Dad and I threw my arms around him instantly. "Oh Daddy!"

"I'm so proud of you Sora... really I am." He said quietly.

"Where's Mom?" I asked suddenly, looking around.

"Perhaps she's off picking flowers?" Koushiro suggested, "Or on a nature hike?" And then there was a yell, and we all turned to see my mother rushing toward me. "Okay, so maybe she's not picking flowers."

"Sora!" Mom screamed, "I'm so sorry I'm late!"

"Mom it's okay!" I shouted as she weaved her way through the crowd and finally slammed into a group hug with me and dad.

"Did you already give her the 'we're proud of her' speech?" Mom asked in a whisper.

"Yup." Dad responded.

"Oh you jerk," Mom sighed, "Sora, I'm proud of you too. Like your Dad said already because he's impatient. I'm so sorry I'm late, I was just dealing with Mushroomon and explain to him how to run the shop. It was exhausting. But I'm here now to see you off. To see you start your future. I'll be calling every day."

"Oh please don't." I said before I could stop myself, thankfully Mom and Dad just laughed and kissed my forehead.

And then the ground was shaking. The train was coming.

"Is that an earthquake?" Daisuke asked.

"No you twit," Hideto scoffed, "it's the train."

I turned to Neo who stepped forward and hugged me, and whispered into my ear, "You don't have to say anything." I nodded and gripped him tighter for just a moment before releasing him and turning to find Yamato waiting for me.

"Just remember what I said Sora." He said quietly. "I'll be waiting." I turned from him and blushed, looking for the final person to say goodbye to. Taichi. He was distracted though by a little boy pulling on his pant leg as the train was slowing to a stop near us.

"You're the heroes, aren't you?" the little boy asked.

"No autographs, please." Yamato threw in there.

"I want to be just like you. I want a digimon too." The boy continued.

"You're pretty brave for a little guy," Taichi noted, ruffling the kid's hair. "You will have a digimon one day. If you just believe in destiny for a bit it'll come to you. Destiny is a powerful thing."

"Preach." Willis added with a wink.

"I'll be waiting." The kid said, "but... how will I find it?"

Taichi continued talking to the kid as Takeru and Daisuke caught my attention, picking up my luggage and carrying it onto the train.

"That one's heavy." Daisuke noted. "I carried it from the car." Takeru nodded and picked it up with ease. "Hey! No fair!" Daisuke interjected.

"Oh." Takeru said, "Hahaha! I get it! You're jealous of me!"

"Am not!" Daisuke argued, lunging forward and grabbing the suitcase from Takeru, "What did I tell you? Light as a feather, you really need to work out a little more."

"Sora?"

And then I was facing Taichi. My oldest friend, and one of my very best. There was so much chemistry and drama between the two of us, and honestly I couldn't even understand how we'd managed to get past it all, but I was glad we did.

"Well. Bye" Was all he said.

And then everyone was pushing me away, forcing me onto the train, but I wasn't done. I wasn't ready to say goodbye. I slipped between Ken and Kurayami and practically knocked Mom over on my way back to Taichi where I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him and he was hugging me back, kissing my forehead.

"I love you, Sora." He said quietly. "Just remember that."

I looked up to him and smiled, "Stupid Taichi."

And with that I was pulled from my place in his arms and dragged toward the train. I was trying desperately to catch a last glimpse of everyone's faces but they were all moving so fast and then there were other people pushing everyone around trying to get to their own places, and then I had been literally thrown directly into someone.

"Oh ma'am," The man said with a laugh, "I'm going to need your ticket."

"Sorry," I said, shooting a glare over my shoulder to whoever had pushed me, but I couldn't see anyone I knew anymore. I held up the ticket and the man punched a hole in it. I'd never been on a train but I didn't expect this to be so old fashioned.

"I'm tired, let's go sit down." Biyomon said. I instinctively picked her up and laughed nervously.

"It's just a talking toy," I told the man, "It encourages lazy kids."

"It's okay," The man said tilting his head down and looking up at me, "No need to lie. Didn't anyone ever teach you to tell the truth." I couldn't answer. All I could think about was Neo. "Digimon ride for free." The man said, patting my shoulder and sending me on my way.

"That was so nice of him." Biyomon giggled, "How kind."

"I think the world is actually coming around for digimon." I noted, searching the compartments on the rustic styled train, looking for where Takeru and Daisuke had put my luggage.

I finally found it in an otherwise empty compartment. I wanted to go through it all to make sure they'd gotten everything, but that could wait. That _would_ wait, because I was already pulling open the window and scanning the crowd who was already waiting on the other side. They were all still there.

"One last thing," I said, and instantly everyone's faces lit up, hoping it would be them I was about to address. "Neo," I said, and everyone turned to his shocked face. "There's an opening in the council meeting rooms. You'd be a perfect replacement for Marrow. Great minds think alike."

"Are you passing your job offer onto me?" He asked.

"I might be?" I said, "You'll have to talk to Mr Yagami though."

"Sora, before you go..." Jou said, walking toward me, Emiko in his arms. He lifted her a bit higher and she held out her sticky hands, which held an envelope.

"Happy Birthday!" Emiko clapped.

"No sweetie—oh fine." Jou shook his head, pulling Emiko back into his arms.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just read it." Takeru said quickly.

I nodded and ripped the envelope open, pulling out a card. Everyone had written things all over it.

"_Go for it. We all know you can do it.—Jou"_

"_I expect some discounts in the future when you're famous—Daisuke"_

"_You're the only person who has managed to make their digivice glow with knowledge besides myself. That makes you an equal. And it also makes you my best friend. So make sure you don't forget me Sora. Love from Koushiro"_

"_Everybody watches you go by, but they can't see the sparks in your eyes. Set the world on fire, Sora—Taichi"_

"_You come back. You still have to marry one of our brothers—Takeru and Hikari (P.S. Please make it Yamato! See you soon, Sis—Love Takeru)_

But the one that stuck out the most was Yamato's.

"_You'll figure it out."_

He was talking about my crest and nothing else. I bit my lip and turned to the window just as the loud horn sounded and I knew the train would be moving soon. I threw my head out the window, "Thank you. All of you. And I promise I'll be back."

"You'd better," Mimi said sharply.

"We need you Sora," Miyako added, "I think that was evident in the battle."

"Was it? I can't quite remember," I joked. A few of them laughed, but apparently I'd sparked some bad memories with Mimi and Miyako who burst into tears.

"You came back to us even when you died." Taichi said boldly, "That's how I know you'll be back. You can't get away. None of us can. Once a Digidestined, _always_ a Digidestined."

And that was when the train started moving. I didn't know what to say so I just kept waving to them as they shouted their goodbyes. Mimi, Taichi and Takeru actually ran with the train a while, Mimi lasting the longest of course. I was convinced for a moment she'd run all the way there because when she wanted to that girl could do anything.

But eventually they were gone and I was slowly leaning back into the compartment and sitting next to Biyomon.

"Do you think you'll forget anything?" Biyomon asked.

"I couldn't ever forget anything." I said flatly. "Since the moment I met you my life has been a blur of excitement and drama and unforgettable adventures."

"Mine too!" Biyomon laughed, "Before I met you I was waiting." She was suddenly very serious, "For a very long time."

"I already apologized," I said defensively.

"I'm just joking!" Biyomon exclaimed, throwing her wings around my waist and hugging me, resting her head on me and closing her eyes. "I love you Sora."

"I love you too Biyomon." I said, patting her head.

"Tell me a story?" Biyomon asked.

"Uhm, sure." I said with a nod. "What kind?"

"Tell me... a good one."

"Wow you're really leaving this up to me, huh?" I said, rolling my eyes. But then I had an idea. "Alright, I've got one. Make yourself comfortable. This is a long story Biyomon." She adjusted herself so her head was laying on my lap. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Alright," I nodded, "So, thirteen years ago, seven kids went to this Summer Camp. Each of them thought it was a different kind of camp you see, because the camp was run down and was pulling at all sorts of loose ends to try and make money. And then this girl found a little boy who was looking for his brother, and she decided to help him since her friend was being a jerk—but then it started to snow..."

**Next Time:** It's the epilogue from 02, just our perspective of it. It's coming soon!


End file.
